Where do we come from and where are we going? These questions are DECISIVE for understanding what it means to be human and how to orient our lives and our actions toward authentic fulfillment. Join Christopher West and Mike Mangione as they creatively weave together dynamic presentations with live music, movie clips, YouTube videos, and sacred art for an evening of beauty and reflection on the meaning of life, love, and human destiny. You will come away with a faith-filled vision of hope that will instill in you the sheer wonder and joy of being alive…

Where do we come from and where are we going? These questions are DECISIVE for understanding what it means to be human and how to orient our lives and our actions toward authentic fulfillment. Join Christopher West and Mike Mangione as they creatively weave together dynamic presentations with live music, movie clips, YouTube videos, and sacred art for an evening of beauty and reflection on the meaning of life, love, and human destiny. You will come away with a faith-filled vision of hope that will instill in you the sheer wonder and joy of being alive…

Theology of the Body I: Head & Heart Immersion Course (Online)

April 12 – 23, 2021

Taught by Christopher West

Christopher West, Th.D.

Christopher West, Th.D., serves as President and Senior Lecturer for the Theology of the Body Institute near Philadelphia. His global lecturing, best-selling books and multiple audio and video programs have made him one of the world’s most recognized teachers of St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. His work has been featured in The New York Times, on ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, and countless Catholic and Evangelical media outlets.

Registration will open in March 2021.

“Glorious things are said of you, O city of God” (Ps 87:3).

“One thing I ask, this alone I seek,” says the psalmist, “to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and contemplate his temple” (Ps 27:4).

These Scriptures, and countless others, are fulfilled in the flesh and blood of Mary, which became God’s city, God’s dwelling place. But for far too many Catholics, Mary remains an abstraction, a blue plaster statue, a disincarnate hyper-pious “ideal” far removed from the realities of daily life and the visceral desires of the human heart. Who is Mary, really? “Who is this who comes forth like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, pure as the blazing sun, fearsome as celestial visions?” (Song of Songs 6:10).

Through the lens of St. John Paul II’s TOB and with the help of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the insights of countless saints and mystics throughout the ages, this course seeks to answer that question in such a way as to show what the most influential woman in all of human history means to us here and now, today, in our own personal lives, with all our questions, struggles, and longings. It will demonstrate how all the Marian doctrines of the Church and the call of true devotion to the Mother of God have one and only one goal: to lead us to deeper union with the Word who was made flesh in her womb.

Instructor:

Christopher West, ThD, serves as President and Senior Lecturer for the Theology of the Body Institute near Philadelphia. His global lecturing, best-selling books and multiple audio and video programs have made him one of the world’s most recognized teachers of St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. His work has been featured in The New York Times, on ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, and countless Catholic and Evangelical media outlets.

June 20-25, 2021

Black Rock Retreat Center

Quarryville, PA

​​​​​​​Taught by Christopher West

July 11-16, 2021
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​​​​​​​Black Rock Retreat Center

​​​​​​​Quarryville, PA

​​​​​​​Taught by Rev. Joe Koopman

Registration opens April 2021

Instructor:

Rev. Joe Koopman, M.Div, M.A., S.T.D., graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1996, after which he entered St. Mary Seminary in Cleveland, Ohio. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Cleveland in 2001, and served as a newly ordained priest at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Parma. From 2005 to 2009, Fr. Koopman attended the Accademia Alfonsiana in Rome, Italy, where he received a license and doctorate in theology. Since 2009, he has been a professor of moral theology at St. Mary Seminary, along with serving as an advisor in moral theology and ethics for the Diocese of Cleveland and the Ohio Catholic Conference of Bishops.

Where do we come from and where are we going? These questions are DECISIVE for understanding what it means to be human and how to orient our lives and our actions toward authentic fulfillment. Join Christopher West and Mike Mangione as they creatively weave together dynamic presentations with live music, movie clips, YouTube videos, and sacred art for an evening of beauty and reflection on the meaning of life, love, and human destiny. You will come away with a faith-filled vision of hope that will instill in you the sheer wonder and joy of being alive…

October 3-8, 2021

Black Rock Retreat Center

Quarryville, PA

​​​​​​​Taught by Bill Donaghy

Registration opens June 2021

Course Description:

This course introduces students to the key themes of the 129 Wednesday audience addresses that comprise John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Particular attention will be paid to the imago Dei, fall and redemption, Christian ethics and ethos, freedom and person, gender and vocation. Students will be encouraged to journey from “head to heart” in applying the theological concepts they learn to their own lives and relationships.

Instructor:

Bill Donaghy is an instructor, international speaker, and curriculum specialist for the Theology of the Body Institute Certification Program. Bill worked for nearly a decade teaching theology at Malvern Preparatory School as well as Immaculata University, while giving talks, retreats, and conferences for the Theology of the Body Institute. He has worked in the fields of mission and evangelization since 1999 and has given talks and retreats to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and the lay faithful throughout the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico, Chile, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. He and his wife, Rebecca, live just outside of Philadelphia, PA with their four children.