Our
Education Programs
The Mary Ward Centre offers a variety of retreats and workshops for high school students. Facilitated by Kathy Murtha, these programs focus on topics including world religions and interfaith dialogue, social justice ethics, and creation care. The Mary Ward Centre works with a variety of partners to offer programs that speak to contemporary needs.
Discovering Spiritual Treasures in the World’s Religions
The Golden Rule, which can be found in all the World Religions, provides us with a common and fertile meeting place where we can come together and work for justice, peace and sustainability. Once we have established some common ground, we can begin to explore the spiritual treasures of the World’s Religions that are meant to enrich us all.
This interactive retreat uncovers and celebrates some of the spiritual treasures of the World’s Religions. This program for high school students features religious symbols, input, meditation, music, stories, visual media, poetry and some gentle movement.
Called By Name
This retreat designed to help young people more fully appreciate their special place in the circle of life and God's Dream for them. Having reflected on the countless ways God has been present in their journey we will try to gain a glimpse of how God may be calling them to "Be the Best For the World." We will make use of the Parker Palmer discerning exercise which invites us to list all the things that bring us joy and then list all the hungers and needs of the world as we see it. Then we will try to see how the two things connect. In other words, we will try to discern how God may be calling us to match our deepest joy with the world's deepest hungers - our hero vocation.
This is an interactive retreat that makes use of media, reflection, scripture, prayer, meditation, games and input.
Special High Skills Major (SHSM) - Ethical Certification
The Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) is a specialized program that allows students to gain credits toward their Ontario Secondary School Diploma and focus their learning on a specific economic sector at the same time. In this workshop, students will use concrete examples and interactive activities to examine what is happening in our common home. They will use Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home and The United Nations' Agenda 2030: Sustainable Development Goals as a framework to consider what it means to be a global citizen. By realizing that there are alternative and hopeful ways to effect change, students will be renewed in their desire for justice.
