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The Mysterious Presence of Christ in the Poor | An Intellectual Retreat


  • Dominican House of Studies 487 Michigan Avenue Northeast Washington, DC, 20017 United States (map)

Dominican House of Studies | Washington, D.C.

This retreat is open exclusively for students attending university or college in New York state.

Step away from the daily rush of life to pray, study, and contemplate the Christ’s presence in the poor. Featured speakers are Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P. (Dominican House of Studies) and Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P. (Dominican House of Studies).

At this retreat, you will attend a series of talks within the context of the traditional elements of a retreat, including daily mass, Eucharistic adoration, and chanting the Liturgy of the Hours with Dominican friars and your fellow retreatants. 

Thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, meals and housing will be provided free for accepted applicants. Travel scholarships are available. Please contact Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P. (jmsolitario@dhs.edu) to inquire.

Schedule:

  • Begins with check-in at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12th

  • Concludes with check-out at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 14th

Speakers:

Fr. John Mark Solitario (Dominican Houe of Studies) is a coordinator for campus outreach at the Thomistic Institute. He met the nuns and friars of the Order of Preachers at the Dominican Monastery of the Mother of God in his hometown of West Springfield, MA. Their lives of Christian totality, marked by sacrifice, prayer, and preaching but above all, a supernatural goodness and joy, made a huge impact on him. After studying the liberal arts and philosophy at Christendom College and teaching high school theology as a member of Providence College’s PACT program, Father entered the Dominican novitiate in Cincinnati, OH, and went on for theological studies at the Dominican House of Studies. Following the solemn profession of religious vows, he was ordained a priest of Jesus Christ in 2019. Focusing on the Universal Call to Holiness in the theology of the Spanish Dominican Juan Arintero, Fr John Mark earned his licentiate in sacred theology in 2020. He is delighted to be working with students and professors as they seek to know better the truth about God and his creation through the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Fr. Andrew Hofer, O.P. (Dominican House of Studies) grew up as the youngest of ten children on a farm in Kansas, and studied history, philosophy, and classics at Benedictine College. He then went to St Andrews, Scotland for a Master of Letters in medieval history. He entered the Order of Preachers as a son of the Province of St. Joseph, and was ordained a priest in 2002. After finishing his S.T.L. and serving as an associate pastor for a brief time, he was sent to Kenya as a missionary for two years. He taught at the Tangaza College of The Catholic University of Eastern Africa and other institutions in Nairobi. He returned to the U.S. and completed a Ph.D. in theology at the University of Notre Dame, with the primary area of history of Christianity, specializing in patristic theology with additional studies in medieval theology, and the secondary area of systematic theology. His research appears in such journals as Vigiliae Christianae, Augustinianum, International Journal of Systematic Theology, New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Pro Ecclesia, The Thomist, Communio, and Angelicum and in books published by Catholic University of America Press and Ignatius Press. He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (Oxford Early Christian Studies), Oxford University Press, 2013, and the editor of Divinization: Becoming Icons of Christ through the Liturgy, Hillenbrand Books, 2015.

Applications to this retreat are due by Wednesday, April 3rd.

Sign up for our mailing list here if you’d like to be notified of future retreat opportunities.

Questions? Contact Fr. John Mark Solitario, O.P. at jmsolitario@dhs.edu.

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April 11

Purgatory: To Be Made Like God

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Next
April 12

The Motives of the Incarnation in Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Scotus