3 Day Silent Meditation Retreat in Alberta · December 17–20, 2026

Three full days (three nights) spent in noble silence with a guided programme of Vipassana meditation, hatha yoga, pranayama, walking meditation and sound practices. You arrive Thursday evening and leave Sunday at noon. It is a residential retreat: you sleep, eat and practise at the retreat centre, and phones stay off the whole time.

Yes. Most people at our 3-day retreats have never done a silent retreat before, and many have never meditated regularly. Every practice is taught from the beginning and guided out loud. If you can sit on a chair and breathe, you can do this retreat.

Mount St. Francis Retreat Centre, a Franciscan retreat house just outside Cochrane, Alberta, about 30 minutes west of Calgary and 3.5 hours from Edmonton. Most people drive or come with a friend; there is free parking on site. We also run an optional free transfer from Calgary, Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Edmonton on Thursday afternoon and back on Sunday, but seats are limited, so please request one only if you have no other way to get there. Seats are confirmed by email, first come, first served; if you are flying in, send us your flight details and we will try to match the pick-up to your arrival.

$749 CAD per person, all-inclusive, if you book by October 31; from November 1 the retreat is $849. Booking fees are already included, so nothing is added at checkout. The price includes three nights in a private single room, three vegetarian meals a day with tea and snacks, the complete programme of practices including one private sound healing session, and post-retreat notes. The free transfer is optional and has limited seats. You pay a $449 deposit to book and the balance ($300 or $400) at the centre on arrival.

Your room is private and has its own washbasin. Toilets and showers are shared and are just down the corridor, a few steps from your door. Bedding and towels are provided; slippers and a robe or comfortable layer for the walk down the hall are worth packing.

Yes, and it is easier than it sounds. Noble silence starts Thursday evening after orientation and ends Sunday morning before the sharing circle. You can always write a note or speak privately with a teacher if something needs attention. Most participants say the silence is what they miss most when they get home.

Phones, laptops and watches with notifications are switched off for the whole retreat. Before we begin you receive the organisers' number to leave with family, so you can be reached in an emergency without carrying a device.

Yes. The yoga at a silent retreat is slow and gentle by design: its job is to make sitting comfortable, not to challenge you. Every posture has an easier version, chairs are available for meditation and you are always free to rest.

Every full day follows the same rhythm: an early-morning block of prostrations, sitting, pranayama and yoga before breakfast; a morning of walking meditation, personal time and a longer sitting; an afternoon of yoga, breathwork, sound healing and meditation; and an evening of the group sound bath, Om chanting and rest. Roughly five hours of sitting a day, never more than an hour at a time. The timed schedule is emailed two weeks before the retreat.

Three vegetarian meals a day, plus tea, seasonal fruit and healthy snacks between sessions. Meals are eaten in silence. A gluten-free option is available for all three days if you mention it when you book, and the kitchen can work around other allergies if we know in advance.

Comfortable clothes you can sit and stretch in, warm layers and boots for walking meditation in the snow, a yoga mat and a meditation cushion if you have them, a water bottle, slippers, toiletries and a journal. Bedding and towels are provided.

It happens, and it is a normal part of the process. Silence brings up what is usually covered by noise. Both teachers are available for a private conversation at any point during the three days, and the group is small enough that no one goes unnoticed.

No. Mount St. Francis is a Franciscan retreat house that hosts groups of every tradition, and Vipassana itself is a technique of attention rather than a belief system. People of every background join. This is our own guided three day retreat led by Artem and Valerii, combining Vipassana with yoga, pranayama and sound; it is shorter and more gently paced than the 10-day Goenka course.

The one-day retreat is a single day in the city with no overnight stay: a first taste. The 3 day silent retreat is residential, three nights in a monastery with phones off, and it is where the technique actually settles. Our 10-day Vipassana course runs online from home. Most people do them in that order, and the three day retreat is the one we recommend if you can only do one.

For most people it is the ideal first retreat: long enough for the mind to settle and for the technique to become clear, short enough to fit around work and family. Many participants come back every season; others use it as the foundation for our online 10-day Vipassana course or a longer retreat.

Cancel or move to a future retreat up to 30 days before the start, that is until November 17, and your deposit is refunded minus the Eventbrite processing fee, or transferred to another retreat within 12 months, subject to availability. Inside 30 days the deposit is non-refundable and non-transferable, because your room and meals have already been paid to the monastery. You may pass your place to someone else with our approval. If we cancel, you are refunded in full.