FACILITIES

SETTING: Nestled in the lovely wooded 50-acre campus of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the Portiuncula provides a peaceful environment for prayer. Open, grassy knolls, wooded hiking trails and a small creek invite our guests to enter the solitude for study, prayer, and rest. As the spirit is renewed, so also is the body as natural surroundings let guests walk, hike, jog, or bicycle down tree-lined paths.

CONFERENCE SPACES: The Portiuncula Center for Prayer has comfortable, air-conditioned meeting rooms ideal for groups as small as 2 or as large as 75. A spacious auditorium, seating over 400, is available in a nearby building. The staff can provide support elements, including AV. equipment, necessary for a good meeting.

OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS: Our Center has 27 clean, simple bedrooms to comfortably accommodate up to 55 overnight guests. Each room has individually controlled air-conditioning. Several of these rooms have private bath facilities; other rooms with single and double occupancy share modern, centrally located bath facilities on each of the two floors for sleeping. A special feature is our elevator service which connects all floors.

PRAYER ROOMS: A small meditation chapel adjacent to a larger, more flexible, worship space provides for a variety of prayer opportunities. Guests are also welcome to join the Motherhouse community in their spacious chapel across the walkway.

DINING AREA: Our warm, attractive dining room comfortably seats 60. Home-cooked, cafeteria-style meals focusing on light, heart-healthy menus are featured. Special diets can be accommodated with advance notice.

LABYRINTH: The Labyrinth is an archetype, a divine imprint, found in all religious traditions in various forms around the world. By walking our replica of the Chartres Labyrinth, laid in the floor of Chartres Cathedral around 1220, you are rediscovering a long-forgotten mystical tradition that is insisting to be reborn. Walking the labyrinth is an ancient spiritual act and a physical meditation that is being rediscovered during our time.

THE HERMITAGES: Designed in the tradition of Franciscan simplicity, these hermitages are special, self-contained, single dwelling places of solitude. • SAN DAMIANO Dedicated in 1988, this small single room wooden structure sits nestled in a stand of evergreen trees. It's rustic simplicity includes toilet, shower, and small "counter top" kitchen. • GRECCIO & LAFORESTA Dedicated in 1988, these two hermitages stand near each other, yet apart enough for solitude and peace. Both face into the woods and include a bay-windowed front room, small kitchen and dining nook, and bedroom with full bath. Two more hermitages RIVO TORTO and SANTA CHIARA were added and blessed on August 6, 2005.

HERITAGE CHAPEL: Rooted deeply in history, the Sister's original 1870 chapel stands on holy ground behind the Motherhouse. It stands on a hill overlooking Francis' fountain and rose garden. Inside the tin walls, the old wooden benches echo prayers with the communion of the saints.

ACCESS: The Portiuncula is located near Frankfort, Illinois, two miles south of the intersection of Route 45 and I-80, one quarter mile east on St. Francis Road. It is situated less than an hour southwest of downtown Chicago and the airports of O'Hare and Midway.