Charis is holding its first 10-day retreats in 2025!
Sign Up for an upcoming retreat at Charis Mandala Sanctuary!
These retreats will be taught by Charis teachers
Rory McEntee, Alejandra Warden, and Netanel Miles-Yépez
July 3 – 12
10-day Charis Retreat
Stages of the Path
All Practitioners Welcome
Join us for an enriching 10-day Charis Retreat, where we’ll explore the Stages of the Spiritual Path through diverse religious traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism, and the Sacred Feminine. Led by Rory McEntee, Netanel Miles-Yépez, and Alejandra Warden this interspiritual retreat invites you to deepen your practice and understanding of spiritual growth. Set amidst the serene Charis Mandala Sanctuary, the retreat includes meditation, contemplative practice, spiritual dialogue, and periods of silence. You’ll learn the two-step interspiritual Charis Meditation process, combining Centering Prayer and lectio divina, to deepen your spiritual practice and insights. Explore the stages of the spiritual path while integrating transformative wisdom into your everyday life. Whether you’re new to Charis Meditation or looking to deepen your practice, all are welcome to this unique opportunity for shared learning and spiritual awakening.
Join us for an advanced 10-day Charis Retreat, where our experienced Charis teachers, Rory McEntee, Netanel Miles-Yépez, and Alejandra Warden, will guide you through diverse contemplative traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, and Sufism. Together, we will explore how each tradition approaches the spiritual path—what sets them apart and where they intersect. Diving deeper into question like: “What can we learn from the similarities and differences between Christian and Buddhist perspectives? What does it mean to have insights from varying traditions on the path?And how can we use these insights to deepen our own transformative journey?” This retreat is designed for practitioners with at least a few years of daily meditation experience.
From March 19th – 23rd, we will gather to celebrate our Charis Circle Facilitator Graduation Retreat at the serene Charis Mandala Sanctuary in the heart of Des Moines, NM. After months of dedicated online training, our facilitators will reunite in person to honor their growth, transformation, and deep connection to each other. Our retreat will be filled with moments of reflection, gratitude, and joy. As we share our beautiful space, prepare nourishing meals, and engage in meaningful practices, we will continue to deepen our understanding of Charis Meditation and Charis Circles. The days will be woven with contemplative silence, sacred ceremony, and powerful Charis Meditation practice. Together, we will share our experiences as facilitators, supporting one another on this journey of service, growth, and spiritual discovery. This retreat is a celebration of all we have learned, the transformative work we’ve done, and the deep bonds we’ve created. It is a time to honor the heart of our shared spiritual journey and to prepare for the path that lies ahead, as we continue to grow together in this sacred work
Interested in becoming a Charis Circle Facilitator? Please reach out to us at
“The Snowmass Conferences, Interspiritual Dialogue,
and Thomas Keating’s Vision for the Future of Religion”
On April 2nd, Charis co-founder Dr. Rory McEntee will give a talk for Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace (EICSP). Rory will describe the “Snowmass Conferences,” for which he was the administrator, and discuss how the experience of interspiritual dialogue that happened there affected and informed Fr. Keating’s vision for the future of religion.
From its inaugural summer session in 1974, the Naropa Institute stressed experiential engagement over dispassionate observation, introducing students to the idea of the scholar-practitioner in all disciplines. Students of poetry would learn from active poets like Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, spiritual aspirants from spiritual teachers like Ram Dass and Jack Kornfield, dancers and musicians from Barbara Dilley and John Cage. (Read more of “The Yogi School: Bringing the World’s Wisdom to Naropa University”)
A Prayer for Pope Francis’ Healing
In 2024, Pope Francis declared a Year of Prayer, inviting people to focus on prayer to live in grace and experience the hope God (the Divine) brings to us all. Now, as he is suffering from a grave illness, we want to offer our prayers to his healing and health.
O Divine Mystery, we thank you for this experience of life. We ask that You share Your grace toward your servant, Pope Francis, at his time of need. May Your love and guidance give him the strength to recover and continue to bring others to Your light. Amen.
Charis Circles are small, interspiritual practice communities which may be established anywhere in the world by trained facilitators. Featuring a communal practice of Charis Meditation, Charis Circles provide a broadly accessible way to experience interspiritual community. Charis Circles are held either in-person or online, and serve to feed a deep hunger for spiritual community and practice.
Interested in experiencing or joining an ongoing Charis Circle?
Rory McEntee is the the President and Executive Director of Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality, which he co-founded with Netanel Miles-Yépez and Adam Bucko. Rory holds a Ph.D. in Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion from Drew University, has co-authored The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living, and authored the forthcoming The Sacred/Secular Binary: Challenging the Divide in University Culture and Democratic Societies.
In this episode, we look at the different ways in which people are ‘interspiritual’ today and how interspirituality is not separate from historical religious traditions. We also explore the ’spiritual-but-not-religious,’ an interspiritual path, the idea of ‘depth’ in spirituality, the sacred/secular binary, and meeting God in everything. We then look at interspiritual practice, the vertical and horizontal aspects of Charis Meditation, Charis Circles and the possibilities of interspiritual community, as well as the Charis Snowmass Dialogues, and the twelve Charis Community Vows.
We have been blessed to bear witness to a number of rainbows at Charis Mandala Sanctuary. Generally a symbol of hope and Divine promise, the rainbow holds many meaning across traditions and cultures. In Native American and ancient Norse traditions, rainbows are seen as a bridge for spirits and deities between the realms. In Judaeo-Christian traditions and the story of Noah and the flood, the rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with the earth. Similarly, in the Hindu tradition, it is a symbol of renewal and the power of the Divine to bring order after chaos. It is seen as an auspicious sign in Buddhist traditions, representing the potential for spiritual liberation and the realization of the true nature of mind and reality.
