Last week we descended into the Foundation Archives searching for clues to the origins of the Laity Lodge logo. We found what we were looking for in Box C18: Congress Of The Laity Files, February 17-20, 1978. The logo was designed specifically for this event, and apparently everyone liked it so much that it stuck [...]
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DAVID J.P. HOOKER 46: Deus Noster Refugium mixed media installation, 2013 In March of this year, David Hooker, an assistant professor of art at Wheaton College, spent several weeks at Laity Lodge as artist-in-residence. Here, in solitude and also in the company of other artists and retreat guests, David made very good use of our [...]
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The Letter of James with David Nienhuis. Music with Sandra McCracken and Derek Webb. Arts with David Hooker and Brett Foster. Readings by Sally Lloyd-Jones. 70 other friends along for the weekend. Topher Ayrhart captured it all with his camera. COMPLETE GALLERY
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Roger Feldman is a friend and artist from the Northwest who some of you may have met at Laity Lodge retreats over the years. We’re excited to host Roger for an extended stay in the Canyon during which he’ll be installing a permanent stone work structure in a field hidden away between the Lodge and [...]
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What is Lent? Growing up as a Protestant Christian, I experienced Lent as little more than a joke. “What are you giving up for Lent?” my friends would ask. Click here to download your copy. “Homework,” I’d say with a smirk, or “Obeying my parents.” Lent was one of those things that my Catholic friends [...]
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We had just finished lunch and found Andrew Peterson and Ben Shive, the musicians for the weekend. Would they mind taking part in a brief video experiment right now? We made some quick decisions about where to try this … next to the piano in the Great Hall? Outside? Settling on the library underneath the [...]
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. Every person who ventures out to Laity Lodge brings a story along. Maybe it’s the travails of the day’s travel. Maybe it’s the intensely felt need for retreat after weeks and months of demanding work. Maybe it’s a personal or a family situation that, though left behind for a couple of days, remains present [...]
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Fifty paintings by the Bulgarian-born Austin artist Tatiana Nikolova-Houston will be on display through the end of January 2013. Most of these images are quite small, but they are rich and power-packed. Tatiana is an artist who deeply respects the art of the past and has had unusual access to manuscripts and illuminations from Slavic [...]
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There is a literary thread that runs throughout the history of Laity Lodge: from the poetry and other quotes Mrs. Butt, Sr., posted all over the grounds, to the hundreds of visiting speakers who also happened to be authors, to special residencies and friendships with the likes of Frederick Buechner, Madeleine L’Engle, Henri Nouwen, and [...]
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Bruce Herman is an artist. That’s what he does. And it has been our privilege to have his massive paintings (Sacra Conversazione) in the Cody Center this fall. The paintings represent the largest installation we can remember hosting. Laity Lodge is built on the conviction that the work of the laity (and this includes painters) [...]
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“I would love to come down here and just create…take the spirit of creation from this place, this beautiful place, and take it back home with us.” ─Phil Keaggy Every gathering at Laity Lodge represents a complex collaboration: retreatants, musicians, speakers, artists, staff, friends … all come to be a part of the mix; a [...]
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Review by Jeffrey Overstreet Rock Music Rebellion: Replacing Anger With Joy Rebellion. It may be the single most distinctive characteristic of new music, generation after generation. From Chuck Berry to Michael Jackson, from the Rolling Stones to Nirvana, from Madonna to Lady Gaga, from Bob Dylan to Kanye West, each generation’s icons of pop, rock, [...]
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The Lodge is all set for the summer retreat season which begins tomorrow. Retreats are filling fast. Have you made your plans yet?
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I will never forget my advisor’s response in the spring of my junior year at Baylor when, as we went over my schedule for the semester, I mentioned that I wanted to take a seminar course with Dr. David Jeffrey. All he said was, “Of course you do. Best sign up quickly.” It was good [...]
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The Laity Lodge Lounge continues to take shape under the Great Hall-hopefully in time for summer retreats. Take a look at the progress below. What you can’t see yet is some great new furniture that has been selected, new stone countertops, and a really nice (and heavy…trust us) new rug that ties it all together. [...]
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“The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” Isaiah 50:4 I have followed Lauren Winner, the author, since her debut of Girl Meets God and am a fan, not only of her writing, but also her perspective, her outspokenness, and [...]
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I have deep love and respect for the original vision of Mrs. Butt Sr. to create at Laity Lodge, not a chapel in the woods, but rather the “nicest living room in the Hill Country.” Her discernment about the suggestive power of architecture and space set the stage for retreats defined by their warmth, safety, [...]
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September and October were the months of the annual Writer’s Retreat and the annual Artist Retreat. Both retreats were full and lively, with many returning retreatants renewing friendships from the year before. But don’t take our word for it. Have a look at what some of the people from the retreats are saying: The Artist [...]
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The renewal of society through the renewal of the Church; Church renewal through the renewal of the family; family renewal through renewed individuals.
