Cénacle Spiritual Center (Versailles)
The Cénacle Spiritual Center is a verdant and peaceful spiritual retreat location, situated on the outskirts of Paris! The Ignatian sisters offer a variety of activities and programs to help you find renewal throughout the year.
Notre-Dame du Cénacle is a true haven of peace in the heart of Versailles, with its three-hectare park and shaded paths!
Retreats organized by the community
The Cénacle Spiritual Center in Versailles: a haven of peace a stone's throw from Paris
Since 1921, the property at 68 avenue de Paris in Versailles (78) has been occupied by the Ignatian apostolic sisters who established the Cénacle Spiritual Center, a renowned retreat location. Nearly 7,000 people come to find renewal and participate in spiritual retreats there each year!
In Versailles, the community also hosts the European novitiate, meaning this is the place where all women wishing to join the congregation of sisters are trained for two years. The novice sisters come from England, Ireland, Italy, and France... in short, it's an international community!
The Cénacle Spiritual Center in Versailles has an exceptional park of more than three hectares, with lawns, shaded paths, and a large pond. The park is a true ecosystem in the heart of the city that shelters numerous animals and plants (believe it or not, more than 200 trees from about thirty species!). Calm and restful, this park is a haven of peace, a privileged space for guests of the Cénacle Spiritual Center.
The Ignatian apostolic religious: specialists in spiritual retreats!
The Ignatian apostolic sisters live in community. They are animated by a great desire to help others discover the Word of God so that it becomes a source of life for each person.
The daily life of the Cénacle religious is built on three pillars:
- apostolic service (welcoming guests, attention to the poorest, spiritual guidance...)
- community life (the Sisters share their daily life and live fraternal life together)
- life of prayer (during communal liturgical offices and in personal prayer)
The community places itself in service of anyone seeking meaning in their life, who seeks God or who desires to grow in their human and spiritual life. It is in this perspective that the sisters lead the Cénacle Spiritual Center in Versailles and also commit themselves to other similar places. The Cénacle sisters are rooted in the spiritual tradition inherited from Saint Ignatius of Loyola and his famous Spiritual Exercises.
Modern and concerned with preserving the environment, the religious are fully engaged in an integral ecology approach. Since September 2020, the Cénacle Spiritual Center in Versailles has been collaborating with the Église Verte association to live ecology daily.
What to expect during your stay
Making a spiritual retreat in silence in Île-de-France
For a few hours or a few days, alone or in a group, in silence, the Cénacle is a privileged place for a spiritual retreat, to stop and take stock. At the Versailles spiritual center, the Ignatian apostolic religious offer you a space to welcome you, listen to you, accompany you, to meditate or pray.
Far from being reserved only for practicing Christians, spiritual guidance is offered to all, because we are all susceptible to asking ourselves the question of the meaning of our lives and our actions. The sisters offer in this perspective a benevolent, regular, and attentive listening, in the light of the Gospel, which can help to express oneself, to unify and unfold by making choices.
Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius
The specialty of the religious at the Cénacle in Versailles is the preaching of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. These exercises, tested by more than 500 years of practice, are of great spiritual depth and constitute a formidable tool for learning to make choices and discerning the direction one wishes to give to their life. Several formats of preached retreats are offered by the sisters:
- retreats with spiritual guidance;
- preached and accompanied retreats according to the Spiritual Exercises.
However, it is entirely possible to come to the Cénacle outside of a preached retreat, but simply to enjoy the calm of the place.
A restorative guest house at the Cénacle Spiritual Center
The sisters offer full board accommodation to all retreatants. The spiritual center's rooms are simple and comfortable, with bathroom and toilet included for the majority of them.
At the Cénacle, guests benefit from a common room with hot drinks and cookies. Generally speaking, the spiritual center is a place where silence reigns, both inside the buildings and outside.
You will find on site a community where it is good to live, a park that opens to contemplation, a space for renewal, a house to live a strong spiritual experience, a place to live better with oneself, with others, and with God. The three-hectare English-style park, a true jewel of greenery on the outskirts of Paris, with its large trees, its pond, and its shaded paths, makes this place a true haven of peace in the heart of the city.
Geography and activities
In the department of Yvelines (78), the Ignatian sisters' community in Versailles is extremely easy to access.
Just twenty minutes by train from the center of Paris, the Cénacle Spiritual Center is located very close to the Versailles-Chantiers train station and 800 meters from the Palace of Versailles.
Practical information
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