Two visiting yoga instructors will be leading a retreat this weekend for those seeking inner harmony and to explore their spirituality.

The retreat will take place today and tomorrow at the Integral Yoga Centre in Hamilton.

Father Anthony Randazzo and Madelana Ferrara-Mattheis will be the speakers/facilitators at the retreat. They are the co-authors of 'Beatitudes, Christ and the Practice of Yoga' have been practising yoga for over a decade.

Their aim will be to encourage deeper meditation and yoga practice for patrons.

Father Anthony, a Catholic priest, said he has been practising yoga for about 11 years.

After finding a Kripalo yoga class in a New Jersey health club, he moved from attending once a week to more frequently.

The instructor gave him an excellent grounding and through his experiences with her, he went on a yoga journey, he said.

"I then met Madelana in the Star Seed Yoga (also in New Jersey) and then I began to take more classes and become more comfortable with the practice.

"I then began to notice that it was impacting me and I was a more effective minister, with a better sense of the direction of ministry and pastoral care.

"I was deepening my faith and my prayer life. I began to see it as a complement to my spirituality. So for me it is not just a physical exercise, but it has a spiritual dimensions."

Mrs. Ferrara-Mattheis began practising yoga in 1993.

"I was going to graduate school to change my profession from being a CPA (accountant) to exercise physiologist," she said.

"I was working at a gym and a girlfriend was teaching yoga there. I started with her class and it immediately drew me in. Within a few months, she invited me to substitute for her, as I was so regular in the class that she said I could 'definitely do it'.

"Despite my nervousness, I did substitute and that was really the beginning. I eventually took over teaching that class when she left the gym."

Patrons attending the workshops can expect to enter a deep, quiet place within themselves, although, Mrs. Ferrara-Mattheis said: "Not necessarily in a pious kind of way.

"Through the movement and breathing of yoga practice, one has the opportunity to go within and find that quiet, peaceful space where the voice of God speaks directly to each one of us.

"The addition of some of the teachings of Jesus will provide the fodder for deeper contemplation. Yoga opens up our bodies and minds so we are more in touch with our feelings and thoughts; the teachings that go on during the practice offer a sort of trail guide to help us find out exactly what we feel and think about such topics that really drive our behaviours and actions."

In addition to this contemplative time, the instructors hope to bring people together in an interactive way, offering them a chance to find the voice of God through a more playful kind of energy.

Father Anthony said attendees will not be bored and he hopes that they will go away refreshed and more solid in their values.

"Yoga is a science," he said. "It is a science of the human body. It is the wonder of the human body, which is the wonder of God."

[box] The retreat will run tonight from 7-9.30 p.m., tomorrow from 2-7 p.m. and Sunday from 2-5 p.m. The cost for the retreat is $205. For more information please contact the Integral Yoga Centre at 295-7525.