Programs
Spiritual Direction Interest
Bernadette Rudolph, Maria DiBello, RSM, Mary Trainer, RSM and Margie Winters
Open Dates
Our spiritual directors offer gentle encouragement to open fully to God’s loving presence and to discern the action of the Spirit around and in you.
Individual Virtual Directed Retreat
Maria DiBello, RSM, Mary Trainer, RSM and Bernadette Rudolph
Open Dates
Online
Stay at home or bring your retreat experience to the beach, mountains or wherever you are!
Scholarship Request Form
Open Dates
Thank you for your interest in coming to Cranaleith. It is part of our mission to provide all persons, regardless of economic situation, access to spiritual renewal and contemplation. Please complete the request form and someone will get back to you shortly.
Solitude Day (self-catered)
Maria DiBello, RSM, Bernadette Rudolph, Mary Trainer, RSM and Margie Winters
Open Dates
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
Seeking a hermitage experience? This retreat allows you to be by yourself throughout your stay and do your own cooking. Let Cranaleith's warmth and beauty provide a renewing space for you!
Claiming Our Joy: Isaiah Prepares Us for Christmas - on demand
Bernadette Rudolph
Open Dates
Give yourself the opportunity to be filled with joy! This time of reflection will open up passages from the prophet Isaiah to connect his hopeful message to your life today.
The Enneagram: A Tool for Spiritual Growth - on demand
Nicholas Collura
Open Dates
In this first part of Cranaleith’s Enneagram series, learn about the nine personality structures in ways that are enlightening both to beginners and to those with knowledge of the Enneagram.
Volunteering at Cranaleith
Open Dates
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
Cranaleith offers many rewarding volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups. If you’d like to know more about volunteering at Cranaleith, please complete the interest form and a member of our volunteer team will contact you in the next few days.
Converting Vice to Virtue with the Help of the Ennegram - on demand
Nicholas Collura
Open Dates
In this second part of Cranaleith’s Enneagram series, learn spiritual practices to move you beyond the "stuck place" that keeps you from living fully.
Intimacy and Inspiration in the Psalms - on demand
Bernadette Rudolph
Open Dates
Soak in the psalmists’ vivid expressions and tease out how they can take your relationship with God deeper. Let the Psalms also serve as inspiration for your own prayers to God.
Spiritual Cataracts and New Horizons: The Holy Ideas of the Enneagram - on demand
Nicholas Collura
Open Dates
The wisdom of the Enneagram reveals how our ego’s particular pattern creates a specific “cataract” that clouds our vision of the divine nature. Learn about these cataracts and the process that moves us beyond them.
Individual Private Retreat (self-catered)
Flexible Dates
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
This retreat allows you to be by yourself throughout your stay and do your own cooking. Let Cranaleith's warmth and beauty provide a renewing space for you!
Individual Directed Retreat (self-catered)
Maria DiBello, RSM, Mary Trainer, RSM, Bernadette Rudolph and Margie Winters
Flexible Dates
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
For some, retreat time includes the joys of cooking for oneself! The beauty, rest and solitude of Cranaleith await you. Meet daily with a spiritual director during your stay.
Evenings of Contemplative Prayer (virtual)
Maria DiBello, RSM
September 14, 2026 - May 24, 2027
A simple time of quiet presence to the merciful heart of God within us and within our broken/blessed world.
The Power of Place: From Baggot Street to Cranaleith
Mary Reynolds, RSM and Mary Trainer, RSM
September 27, 2026
As we prepare to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opening of the House of Mercy on Baggot Street in 2027, we gather with Sr. Mary Reynolds, RSM, to remember the people, places, and dreams that have carried the story of Mercy across generations and across the ocean.
Restoring Sanctuary: A Mini Pilgrimage with Trees
Cathy Manderfield, RSM
October 4, 2026
Come walk among the trees at Cranaleith, or step outside into the majesty of creation right where you are. This hybrid, contemplative experience centers on trees, and what they might teach us about sanctuary, belonging, and our relationship to the living world.
Wise Enough to Play the Fool: 3-Part Series for Chaplains (online)
Jack Geracci and Bernadette Rudolph
October 6 - 20, 2026
Embrace the role of the Wise Fool in the life of the chaplain. Join this community of chaplains as we reclaim our status as professional humans and reconnect with our sense of being Beloved.
Wise Enough to Play the Fool: A Series for Chaplains, Session 1 (online)
Jack Geracci and Bernadette Rudolph
October 6, 2026
Join this community of chaplains as we reclaim our status as professional humans and reconnect with our sense of being Beloved. Session 1: Naming the experience of walking in a liminal space
Weekly Walks at Cranaleith
Jess Wszolek
October 6 - November 17, 2026
Come explore the Cranaleith grounds in the late afternoon light. Join us weekly to walk the property together, noticing what's blooming, what's fading and what's just beginning – and helping to care for the land as we go. We'll clean up invasive weeds, pick up litter, and check on the many gardens across our 10 […]
Knit, Crochet & Women's Wisdom: October 6 - December 15
Cathy Maguire RSM
October 6 - December 15, 2026
Cranaleith
Womens' Circles have been part of our culture and tradition since ancient times. A place for women to connect, share and celebrate. Join us as we knit and crochet projects each week, for various non-profit agencies. We have reflected on the words of Lisa Bogart (Knit, Purl, Pray), Joan Chittister (The Gift of Years), and currently on the words of Thich Nhat Hanh (Peace Is Every Step).
Wise Enough to Play the Fool: A Series for Chaplains, Session 2 (online)
Jack Geracci and Bernadette Rudolph
October 13, 2026
Join this community of chaplains as we reclaim our status as professional humans and reconnect with our sense of being Beloved. Session 2: Celebrating this liminal role through story-telling and wisdom-gathering
In Conversation with Mechthild of Magdeburg: Love, Longing, and the Divine (2-part series)
Colette Lafia
October 15 - 22, 2026
Online
Join Colette Lafia as she introduces us to Mechthild of Magdeburg within the world of the Beguines and helps us explore her passionate vision of relationship with God, marked by longing, intimacy, vulnerability, and love. Then, through poetry, contemplative reading, and spiritual journaling, we’ll listen for what her words might awaken within us today.
Conversations That Matter: Crossing the Aisle
Bernadette Rudolph and Ariel Warmflash
October 18, 2026
Listen as PA State Representatives Jared Solomon (D–Philadelphia) and Minority Leader Jesse Topper (R–Bedford) describe why they have chosen understanding over winning. Consider how you might do the same.
Wise Enough to Play the Fool: A Series for Chaplains, Session 3 (online)
Jack Geracci and Bernadette Rudolph
October 20, 2026
Join this community of chaplains as we reclaim our status as professional humans and reconnect with our sense of being Beloved. Session 3: Owning and leaning into the role to strengthen our practice and improve the care seeker’s experience
Overnight, Silent, Directed Retreat October 23-24, 2026
Margie Winters and John Buettler
October 23 - 24, 2026
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
What might happen if you took twenty-four hours to enter into the quiet and stillness with God? Allow yourself the opportunity for spiritual renewal.
Community Screening of "In Pursuit: Philadelphia & The Making of America" Episode 6
October 23, 2026
Across the city, Philadelphians are gathering to talk about where we came from - join that conversation in the Northeast! Join us at Cranaleith Spiritual Center for a community screening of In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America, the documentary series that tells the story of American democracy through the history of our city. […]
Tibetan Singing Bowls: For Healing, Balance, & Hope
Phyllis Strock and Audrey Garrett
October 26, 2026
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
Take some time out during this autumn season to renew, recenter and connect. Our time together will include listening and experiencing the sounds of the singing bowls, hands on experience, and sharing and connecting with each other and the Spirit.
What I Want You to Know: Film Screening & Conversation
Catie Foertsch
November 8, 2026
Join us for a screening of What I Want You to Know, an intimate and powerful documentary offering personal perspectives from veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through their stories, the film invites us to listen beyond headlines and statistics and to encounter the human realities of war, military service, return, and the lasting wounds that may not always be visible.
Biodiversity Through God's Eyes
Bernadette Rudolph
November 11, 2026
This evening of reflection will offer spiritual support for a turning from destruction to the protection and restoration of the vast biodiversity of our natural home. To power ecological justice, we will root ourselves in God through prayer, discussion, art and reflection on Laudato Sì and the writings of Elizabeth Johnson. We will mourn and we will also be uplifted, inspired as we see biodiversity through God’s eyes.
America at 250: Catholic Schools, Racial Justice & the Courage to Teach "All Are Created Equal" for Educators in Catholic K-12 Schools
November 14, 2026
St. Joseph's University
This symposium will bring together 150 Catholic elementary and secondary educators from across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for a day of prayer, learning, networking, and engagement with classroom-ready resources on racial healing. Participants who implement these materials will have access to ongoing mentoring from experienced educators.
From Loss to Light: Transforming All Our Griefs
Ellen Browning-Lafferty and Sharon Browning
November 15, 2026
Come explore your griefs as creating space for personal transformation and sacred activism. Our day together will include time for reflection, discussion, and several Family Constellations processes. In the shelter of each other, we will examine the deep roots of our fertile griefs, open ourselves to healing what is, and embrace the possible.
Unpacking Significant Spiritual Experiences in Your Work as a Chaplain
Jack Geracci and Bernadette Rudolph
November 21, 2026
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
Name and celebrate two meaningful spiritual experiences from your work as a chaplain: an experience of loss and an experience of receiving. Savor memories, share stories and harvest the wisdom in each experience through art, ritual and discussion.
The Grace of Unknowing: A Retreat for Women Veterans
Maria DiBello, RSM
November 21, 2026
Cranaleith Spiritual Center
On this day of quiet presence to our unanswered questions and anxieties, we will help one another to view them as sacred ground, and opportunities for deep hope. We will draw on the insights of the mystics and poets, as well as the truth we find in one another. The healing beauty of Cranaleith will hold us in this grace. The day will include time for silence, a guided meditation and simple response in art, and exploration into the moral injury we share with our world.
The Magnificat: Finding Strength, Joy and Courage in the Maternal Womb of God with Brother Mickey McGrath
Michael O'Neill McGrath, OSFS
December 9, 2026
Online
Mary lived in disturbing and oppressive times such as we face today. Her timeless words in the MAGNIFICAT, spoken to her cousin Elizabeth in the moments of the Visitation, still inspire us with hope, joy and the heartfelt determination to truly live our Christian faith - and conquer all fear and anxiety with love.
Brother Mickey will share his ART and STORIES to help us locate within ourselves the life-giving source of all hope: Jesus.