Look at God looking at you with love.
A Quiet Day is a silence and solitude retreat — a full day facilitated, practiced in community, designed to help you get away and be with God in silence.
Groups of 5–8 · Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside CA · $185 / person
To be with the one who is rest.
Not a workshop. Not a conference. Just sacred, unhurried space to be present on the private 56-acre grounds of Mission San Luis Rey, from 9AM to 4PM. Silence gently reveals what productivity often keeps hidden.
What could be more healing — for those who hold others all day long — than to be led to a place that reminds them they are known, and deeply loved?
You don't go alone. That's intentional. There's something that happens when you see someone you know and love choose to stop — choose to walk the grounds, sit in the chapel, eat lunch in silence — that gives your own body permission to do the same. Mirror neurons. We form one another even when we aren't speaking. For pastors especially, the community is also protective. You are known here, but not on. The anonymity of the shared silence makes the emotional safety real.
Quiet Days are explicitly Christian — rooted in the ancient contemplative inheritance of the church. Sarah holds these days as a safe container for retreatants across denominations to discover the Great Tradition they already share — and to encounter the One who is its source, Christ.
The belief at the center of every Quiet Day is simple: you need time with the person of Jesus to know what true rest is. You do not need to come from any particular church background. You need only the willingness to be quiet and receive Love.
Silence is embodied consent — offering yourself as a living sacrifice, back to God as you are, not as you wish you were, but as you are.
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."Matthew 11:28
These practices begin with the body — which means they begin where everyone already is. Quiet Days exist to help people build the rhythm of silence and solitude into their lives — one day at a time, gently, with a guide and a community to hold the space.
Quiet Days are for anyone who feels the pull toward stillness — and knows a few people who feel it too. You don't have to organize anything. You just have to show up and bring your people.
This is an invite-only experience — designed to grow organically and relationally. If you're receiving this link, you're a trusted Gatherer who has expressed interest in coming to a retreat.
Most of the leaders who come are carrying a question they haven't said out loud: Am I the only one navigating this? And underneath that, a harder one: Where am I allowed to need help?
If your work is to hold others — pastors, counselors, therapists, nonprofit leaders — you know what it costs to be present for people all day long. The interior life erodes quietly under the weight of constant giving.
Come as a person preparing to be loved, not as a leader preparing content. Gathering with others who are also setting down their roles for the day — not your congregants, not the people who need something from you — frees the nervous system in a way that makes genuine rest possible.
I Want to Go →Maybe you've sensed that your community needs to be led somewhere quieter — but you haven't had a guide to take you there. A Quiet Day is exactly that: an embodied, structured entry point into the ancient practice of silence and solitude.
Silence is both exposing and rejuvenating. It will find your edges. It will also begin to soften them. Those two things happen on the same day, sometimes in the same hour.
No prior experience required. These practices begin with the body, which means they begin where everyone already is. You will have a Sacred Magazine Retreat Guide in your hands from the moment you arrive. You won't be left to figure it out alone.
I Want to Go →Come learn the safety needed to grow silence and solitude.
"Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation."
St. John of the Cross
"I personally had brought a bag full of prayer books, journals, and 15 different pens. I didn't touch them. I didn't need them. The guide was sufficient."
— Retreatant
"The organization and guidance of it all helped me to actually follow through and get away. I find if it is on me alone to plan it and prepare for it, I am less likely to do it."
— Retreatant
"This embodied exercise forced an emptying of my swampy mind, my proclivity towards hurry and efficiency — and instead invited me to literally move at the pace of the Spirit."
— Retreatant, on the labyrinth walk
"The prayer labyrinth allowed me to slow down enough to fully receive God's love and grace for me."
— Retreatant
"Silence is a form of nakedness."
— A Retreatant
Sarah found the contemplative and mystical heritage of Christendom when her evangelical faith wore thin. Weekly practice with former Trappist monk and psychologist Dr. James Finley tethered her to Christ through a season of disillusionment and deconstruction. Sarah guides individuals and groups into practices that awaken presence, restore the body, and invite God's nearness.
Sarah has built multiple ventures cross pollinating photography, brand strategy, design, and spiritual formation — coaching founders and creative entrepreneurs and developing programs that align inner clarity with outward expression. Through attention to the liturgical seasons, rhythms of rest, and embodied invitations, she teaches how to slow, notice, and reclaim what it means to become holy.
If you're reading this, Sarah sent it because you once said a Quiet Day sounded like something you needed. All you do is become the Gatherer: pick a date, check that 5–8 people can make it, and let Sarah know when you're confirmed. She sends everyone a registration link, mails each retreatant a welcome letter three weeks before the retreat, and holds the entire day.
Choose a date. Reach out to 4–7 others — a text, a conversation, a forward of this page. Once 5–8 including yourself can make it, let Sarah know. That's the whole role of the Gatherer.
She'll send you a custom registration link to share with your group. Once everyone is registered, she mails a welcome letter to each retreatant — a physical letter arriving three weeks before the retreat.
Arrive at 9AM as a retreatant — the same as everyone you invited. The Sacred Magazine Retreat Guide is waiting. The day holds everyone.
The day asks very little and offers a great deal. Knowing that all you must do is show up removes most of the barriers.
We begin together — a brief orientation, intentions for the day, and a facilitated walk of the Mission's labyrinth. The bilateral rhythm of walking quiets the mind before the heart can follow.
The 56-acre grounds are yours. Follow your Sacred Magazine Retreat Guide, walk, rest, pray, or sit in the St. Clare Chapel.
A nourishing midday meal provided for every retreatant, eaten alone and in silence. A small, surprising gift — to be fed without having to perform or converse.
The afternoon deepens what the morning opened. Return to the gardens, the chapel, the labyrinth, or your room. The guide holds the rhythm — you follow at whatever pace your soul needs.
We gather to close the day together — sharing what arose, what was heard, what was released. A gentle threshold back into the world, held by the community. The closing circle is where the day ends.
Sarah offers optional 45-minute listening prayer slots throughout the day at no additional charge. First-come, first-served the morning of retreat.
All dates are available to book. Reach out to Sarah to hold your date.
Summer dates are going quickly.
Reach Out Today →Sarah will confirm your date within 48 hours of your inquiry.
Groups of 5–8 including the Gatherer. No deposit required to express interest.
Once confirmed, each retreatant receives a welcome letter in the mail three weeks before the retreat.
You are the reason this day exists for everyone in your group. As the Gatherer — the one who said yes first and created the opening for everyone else — your rate is $150 — a small honoring of something that isn't small at all.
Sarah offers optional 45-minute listening prayer slots throughout the day at no additional charge. First-come, first-served the morning of retreat. A space to be witnessed, to pray, and to process what arises in the silence.
Silence and solitude retreats are the safest container to explore two things: being loved, and following your curiosity. That's it. You'll receive more in the welcome letter, and your Sacred Magazine Retreat Guide will have prompts to work through throughout the day. But napping in your room is considered a sport while on retreat. Trust your body to lead you into what you need.
Not at all. A Quiet Day is designed as a gentle first step. The Sacred Magazine Retreat Guide holds the structure of your day so you're never left wondering what to do. Sarah opens the day with orientation and is present throughout. You bring nothing except the willingness to show up.
Yes — Quiet Days are rooted in the person of Jesus and the ancient contemplative inheritance of the whole church. Sarah holds the space as a safe container for retreatants across denominations. You don't need to come from any particular background, but the day is openly, warmly Christian.
The practices are physical, not just intellectual. Walking the labyrinth. Sitting in silence. Letting the body settle before the mind can follow. Sarah believes the body is not incidental to spiritual practice — it's central to it.
A meal is provided for every retreatant at noon. Vegetarian meals are available upon request with advance notice. The Mission kitchen is not an allergy-certified kitchen and is unable to accommodate vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, or allergy-specific requests. Retreatants with dietary restrictions or allergies are warmly encouraged to bring their own food to supplement the provided meal.
It's a 1970s Franciscan retreat center. The carpet is probably original, the coffee is drip, and the rooms are clean, simple, and deeply unsexy. That's the invitation — a place that isn't trying to impress you stops competing for your attention, and suddenly there's nothing between you and the one who is rest.
No. After the opening circle and labyrinth walk, the day is yours alone. You'll have your own room, your own pace, and your own path through the grounds. The group reconvenes at closing circle. In between, the silence is yours.
A beautifully designed, printed companion that integrates scripture, breath prayer, somatic grounding, Visio Divina, and reflective questions. Something worth holding, meant to be written and drawn in. One retreatant brought a bag full of prayer books and journals and didn't open a single one. The guide was sufficient.
Between 5 and 8 retreatants — including yourself. That means you only need to find 4 to 7 others. If you're not sure you can get there, reach out anyway — Sarah can talk through what makes sense.
As soon as you feel the pull. Dates are limited by Mission availability and move quickly. When you reach out, your preferred date is held while you confirm your group. No deposit required to start the conversation.
Sarah responds within 48 hours to confirm your date and share next steps. Once your group is locked in, Sarah handles all registration and coordination — and mails a welcome letter to each retreatant three weeks before the retreat.
Yes — two places. Every retreatant has access to a private guest room on the Mission grounds, yours for the full day. A bed to nap in, a quiet space to write, pray, or simply be. The O'Keefe Lounge is also centrally located on the grounds, open 24 hours, with complimentary coffee and tea, and a refrigerator and microwave for personal food items.
After seven hours, you may not feel a dramatic transformation. But you may notice something quieter and more lasting: an embodied awareness of your belovedness.
Reach out and Sarah Shreves will respond within 48 hours to confirm your date and share next steps.
I Want to Go — Reach Out to Sarah Shreves