These cold winter days provide a wonderful opportunity to recall our WVIS
theme for the year—RENEWAL. Yes, the ground in many places is frozen and the trees and shrubs apparently are dead; yet we know that spring is coming, new life will spring forth again, and the earth will once more be clothed in color and beauty.
Just as in nature, WVIS is also in a state of RENEWAL. Indeed, God continues to work through so many people to fulfill the divine promise spoken through Isaiah: “Behold, I am doing something new!” Organic growth continues, rooted in our grace-filled past, as the curriculum for our Initial Certification Training Program in Spiritual Direction and Retreats nears completion and we prepare to advertise for our 2026 cohort.
The WVIS faculty are also excited as we begin our revised Advanced Certification Training Program on the 19th Annotation Retreat in Everyday Life. The Everyday Sacred Spirituality program has been so successful that it will be repeated next year. Spiritual seekers have begun to find us on the website and book silent Ignatian directed retreats in the WVIS Hermitage. Perhaps most exciting for those of us who have spent time in the “sacred space” of the WVIS Retreat House, on April 25th we will host the first in-house program since before Covid: the “Praying with the Four Teresas” retreat day. You can register by going to www.wvis.org/registration
Alongside these “bigger” projects and programs are the ongoing day-to-day ministry of our trained spiritual directors and supervisors who continue to walk with their directees, volunteers and WVIS supporters who continue to help extend our mission into the future, and an emerging Strategic Plan through which our generous Board of Directors will help us expand our outreach. I see so much “new life” in all of this!
May RENEWAL — rootedness in the blessings of the past and the excitement of building something new together — continue to serve as a beacon to light our way throughout 2026!