Weekend Overnight Retreat to Welcome the Winter Solstice (December 18-20)
With Susan Maule, Joyce McNally, Maryanne Williams and Bethany Weed
December 18 - 20, 2026
Embrace the transition from one season to the next with this retreat to welcome the Winter Solstice!
This weekend retreat includes time in hermitage for solitude and time in community with others who are contemplating the change in season. After you settle into your hermitage on Friday, gather for an orientation to the weekend followed by a relaxing sound bath in Our Lady of Angels Chapel. During the day on Saturday, meet with Bethany Weed, our spiritual director for the weekend, for an individual spiritual direction session. On Saturday evening, walk the labyrinth by candlelight and enjoy dinner in silence with fellow retreatants. Come back to Our Lady of Angels Convent first thing in the morning for refreshing hatha yoga and a brief check-in with Bethany to reflect on the insights that arose during your retreat and to mindfully hold your intentions for the season ahead.
Included in your $325 registration fee:
- Sound Bath
- Labyrinth Walk
- Yoga
- Spiritual Direction (one 50-minute session on Saturday and one 15-minute follow-up session on Sunday)
- Friday and Saturday dinner (all other meals on your own)
Leaders
Susan Maule has been a student, practitioner and teacher of the healing arts for over 25 years. Though she has studied shiatsu, Integrated Awareness, shamanism and various forms of hands on energy healing, her true focus is sound. Susan is a Certified Master Vibrational Sound Teacher and Practitioner of SomaEnergetics with David Hulse. She has studied with John Beaulieu of BioSonics, Joule L’Adara of Sounding Circles and the Sacred Science of Sound with Jeralyn Glass. Susan is also a practitioner of The Path to Heal which she combines within a sound session. Susan uses a variety of instruments in her…
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Joyce is a Veriditas certified labyrinth facilitator who guides individuals and groups in walking the labyrinth as a path to reflection, prayer, and inner peace. She also serves as a spiritual director, trained through Oasis Ministries, offering companionship to those seeking to deepen their inner life and discern where the sacred is moving in their everyday experience. Her work is grounded in decades as a Registered Nurse — including years as a Geriatric Case Manager, Hospice Nurse, and end-of-life doula — bringing a steady, compassionate presence to everyone she guides.
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Maryanne Williams has been a Yoga practitioner for over 50 years. She was the President of the Arden Yoga Group. Maryann has taught Yoga in the Wellness Programs of St. Francis Hospital, Wilmington, the Adult Programs for the New Castle County Parks and Recreation, and in Wellness programs offered through large corporations throughout northern Delaware. Her gentle spirit immediately helps to calm body, mind and spirit.
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Bethany Weed is a spiritual director, yoga instructor, former high school social sciences teacher, aspiring writer, outdoors enthusiast, pursuer of the Mystery. She grew up Presbyterian and is now a member of a United Methodist church. She has long been drawn to Ignatian spirituality, to finding God in all things and noticing what leads our hearts to expand in freedom. Her areas of focus within spiritual direction include: Ignatian spirituality/the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius, somatic spiritual direction/embodiment, nature-based spirituality, deconstructing faith, grief/loss, spirituality of 12 step programs, and social justice as contemplative practice.
Learn more about Bethany Weed