Quiet Ground is an independent guide to retreats and contemplative practice, published in English on the former domain of the Cenacle Retreat House of Houston. The site explains what retreats are and how they work, introduces the practices that fill them, maps the retreat landscape of Houston and Texas, and keeps the documented history of the retreat house that occupied this domain for decades.

What the site covers

Four sections carry the material. The retreats section compares the formats, from silent weekends to personal retreats, and walks through what a stay actually includes. The spiritual practices section introduces contemplative prayer, spiritual direction and labyrinth walking. The Texas section covers retreat centers and public labyrinths in Houston and across the state. The history section documents the Cenacle Retreat House, the Cenacle tradition behind it and the 2020 transition to Emmaus Spirituality Center.

What the site is not

Quiet Ground sells nothing, takes no bookings and represents no organization. It is not the official website of the Cenacle Sisters, of the former Cenacle Retreat House or of Emmaus Spirituality Center, and it does not accept reservations or forward enquiries to any of them. Readers looking for the continuing retreat ministry of the Houston Cenacle tradition will find it at Emmaus Spirituality Center on Memorial Drive, which this site links to but does not speak for.

Editorial practice

Articles are written in the third person, cite their sources at the foot of each page, and confine the history to what published sources support: principally the reporting of the Texas Catholic Herald, the congregation's announcements and the public record of the institutions involved. Corrections and documents are welcome through the contact page; where a reader supplies better evidence, the pages are revised.

Quiet Ground is an editorial publication. Its name is a description of its subject, not a claim on any trademark.