Yes, We Will Be Able to Accommodate You for the Spring, Rediscovering the Sabbath Program

Formation Consultation Services 16 Linden Street • Whitinsville • MA 01588 phone: 508-234-6540 fax: 508-234-0956 web page address: www.fcs-bilotta.com email address: [email protected]

As you continue arranging your plans to join us, I want to bring you up-to-date concerning travel, arrival, our residence, meals, etc. It is important for you to review the following information so that you understand the working of the residence, etc.

Travel & Arrival If you are flying, we recommend flying into T.F. Greene, Providence International Airport. You can also fly into Boston’s Logan International Airport if you choose. T.F. Greene airport is an easier airport with less hassle. Participants traveling directly from Europe usually find flying in and out of Boston less expensive.

We ask that you arrive between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, since our innkeeper does not live at the residence. If you need to arrive after 8:00 PM we ask that you arrange for a hotel near the airport and arrive at the residence later the following morning.

If you are arriving at T.F. Greene Providence International Airport, you will simply take a taxi from the airport to our facility. The cost would be about $40 US dollars, excluding a gratuity.

If you are arriving at Boston’s Logan International Airport you can take a bus from the airport to downtown Providence. (For up-to-date information concerning the bus schedule from Boston’s Logan Airport to Providence, Rhode Island, contact the Peter Pan Bonanza bus company at www.bonanzabus.com or 1-888-751-8800.) Once at the bus station in downtown Providence, you can easily take a taxi to our facility in Providence which is only a few miles away. If you are staying overnight in the Boston area, you can take the bus or train from downtown Boston to Providence and then a taxi to our facility. It is a little more than an hour’s travel from Boston, south to Providence.

If you are driving by car, directions from various approaches are on pages 8 and 9 of this memo.

** Once you have made your travel arrangements, please e-mail to us your travel arrival schedule, (date, airline, flight #, arrival time) so that we can track and anticipate your arrival. If we do not know when you are arriving, Laurie Rainville, our innkeeper, might not be there to greet you and settle you into the house.

** If on the day of arrival you are delayed for any reason, please telephone Laurie on her cell phone 1-508-380-2544 to provide her with your anticipated arrival details. Laurie does not live at the facility and this would be very helpful update information. The FCS office number is 1-508-234-6540.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 1 Directions for your taxi driver who would be approaching the residence in Providence from TF Greene Airport, or coming from the bus or train station in downtown Providence:

From the airport proceed 95 North to Providence. Take Exit 21 off of 95 to Broadway. Off the exit ramp take a left at the traffic lights onto Broadway.

Proceed up Broadway about 0.9 miles and take a right onto Almy. (There is a traffic light at the intersection of Broadway and Almy.)

Lythgoe House, 106 Almy Street, Providence, RI 02909 is the second house on the left on the corner of Almy & Grove. The house is a three-story Queen Anne style greenish in color with brick-red color trim.

Your taxi driver may take an alternative route if he or she knows the area.

Residential Facility in Providence The address and mailing address for the residence is: Lythgoe House 106 Almy Street Providence, RI 02909, USA Telephone: 1-401-861-0506

Please only use the Providence address for your personal mail while you are staying with us. All payments and official correspondence between you and FCS should be sent to our administrative office at: FORMATION CONSULTATION SERVICES 16 Linden Street Whitinsville, MA, 01588-2209 USA To reach the office, to communicate with Vincent or George Bilotta telephone or email: Telephone: 1-508-234-6540. E-Mail: [email protected]

A Home Away from Home: Lythgoe House Lythgoe House is your home away from home. It will often be a small international community. Sometimes you may be the only person living in the house or there may be just you and another guest. Even though the residence is located within the city, the house itself is peaceful, aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. If you are the only resident or even when there is only one other guest, it maybe a welcomed contemplative experience of quiet stillness to nurture the body, heart and spirit. In solitude and without distraction, we are able to disengage from the busyness of ordinary everyday life. This type of retreating from the world facilitates the movement to sink deeper into our being for self-exploration.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 2 Our residential facility is a large 15-room refurbished Queen Anne style house in Providence, Rhode Island. It will be your home – beautiful and soothing in colors and textures, comfortable and relaxing, gracious and welcoming.

The first floor hosts a large entryway, living room, a fireplace sitting room, dining room, butler’s pantry, kitchen, kitchen eating area and a half-bathroom. Attached to the main house on the first floor are two bedrooms with a shared common private sitting room and shared bathroom.

There is a large foyer, hall and grand staircase leading up to the second floor. On the second floor are four bedrooms. One bedroom has a private bathroom. The other three bedrooms share two bathrooms. There is also a small alcove paneled with windows that functions as a small sunroom space. It looks down onto the backyard gardens.

On the third floor are two meeting spaces, another bathroom, and our library which also functions as a second television room in the evening. The library contains books, DVDs, video tapes, CDs and audio tapes for your use. The library is an excellent resource center that contains helpful and valuable materials on likely subjects and issues that you will be discussing with your primary facilitator.

The basement contains another office space, a small computer room with a computer for e- mailing and web researching, and the laundry. There is a large city-size back yard with cultivated gardens. The house has central heating and central air conditioning. The house is maintained at a specific temperature. If you need your private space a little warmer or a little cooler we may be able to assist you with an additional heater or fan, or shutting the cooling vent in your room with the air conditioning.

Providence, Rhode Island, is the second largest city in the New England area. It thus offers the amenities that accompany a small thriving city. It is about 1-hour’s ride south of Boston and about 3-hour’s ride east of New York City. Providence is easily accessed via air, train, bus or car. The location of our house is in an older section of the city within walking distance of one of the showcase neighborhoods with restaurants, coffee shops, delis, bakeries, etc. It is only a half block from a major bus route that will transport you to the downtown section. Providence. Rhode Island is located on the coast with many beautiful beaches along the Rhode Island coast. It is close to Cape Cod Massachusetts and its numerous parks and beaches.

The basic guideline within the house is simply to ask that you to be clean, pick-up after yourself and respect others living with you. We ask our guests to keep the bathrooms tidy. If you warm up food, we expect you to cleanup after yourself. Following the evening meal everyone is asked to clear the dining table placing the dishes in the dishwasher and placing the desired leftovers in the refrigerator. It takes about five to ten minutes. As a small community each person is asked to perform a couple simple tasks, like locking the doors and shutting off the lights at night, etc. The innkeeper does not live on the premises and is only present as required and needed. The house is a nonsmoking environment.

Guest Bedrooms Each guest at Lythgoe House has a private bedroom with bed, chest of drawers, desk, lounge chair, etc. The room furnishings are first class, comfortable and peaceful. Each guest is

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 3 responsible for cleaning and maintaining his/her own bedroom throughout their stay with us. Within the bedrooms and throughout the house we do not permit open flames like candles of any type, the burning of incense or oils, nor any small electrical element meant to heat a cup of water, coffee, etc. Candles are permitted during liturgical celebrations. Candles are sometimes used during the evening meals at the dining table.

There is a vacuum cleaner and standard cleaning supplies for your use. Other areas of the house are maintained professionally.

There is a laundry in the basement with standard laundering supplies, along with an iron and ironing board for your use. Guests are responsible for laundering their own bed linen and towels during their stay. Upon arrival your bedroom will be clean with fresh linens already on your bed, etc. Upon departure, we will take care of cleaning your room, etc.

Meals and Snacks As previously mentioned, Lythgoe House is a small community residence which at any given time may have from one to a maximum of six guests. Laurie, our innkeeper, tries to accommodate everyone’s food requirements and desires as much as possible. Being a small community whose numbers can fluctuate quickly, and who come from various areas of the world, we have developed through experience a flexible approach to meals and snacks.

Breakfast and lunch is always pick-up. There are standard breakfast foods available e.g. coffee and breads, teas and juices, fruit, cereals and for the more adventurous bacon and eggs, etc. Our guests enjoy the flexibility of having lunch whenever their schedule and mood coincide. Again, Laurie will talk with you upon your arrival to discuss your food preferences.

If there are sufficient residents in the house, Tuesday through Saturday there is prepared and family style evening meal. When we cater our evening meals, they are catered by a small neighborhood restaurant, Nick’s on Broadway. However, there needs to be at least three guests in the house in order for the restaurant to cater the evening meal.

When there are insufficient residents to make it worthwhile for our caterer, i.e. at least three guests, Laurie provides a variety of options for the evening meal, e.g., self-catering, community cooking, take-out, dining out at a local restaurant.

If meals are being catered, on Saturdays, the caterer prepares an evening meal that requires a volunteer or two to simply place the prepared meal into the oven to either cook or reheat according to the instructions. Since it is a small community and depending upon who will be home for the Sunday and Monday evening meal, it will be an opportunity for the cook in you to try your hand in the kitchen, do some barbecuing outside on the gas grill, order-out, go to a restaurant, or pick-up if that is the way the community decides to handle the Sunday and Monday evening meals.

Throughout the day as in any home there are refreshments, tea, coffee, soda, juices, fruit, cookies, crackers, leftover desserts, etc. If you have a hunger attack during the day or night, you might heat-up a can of soup, a prepared frozen pizza, light frozen entrée, or select from leftovers in the refrigerator, etc. We try to be somewhat health conscious in the foods purchased for the house. We do not supply alcoholic beverages, but sometimes we will serve wine at a meal for a special occasion.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 4 As many of our participants have become increasingly conscious of health, diet and personal health restriction, upon your arrival Laurie will discuss with you your dietary needs. We do our best to accommodate all requests. If you require a special diet, this can usually be accommodated. It would be most helpful if you could inform us in advance if you require a special diet for your stay with us. We are not a diet center. We serve wholesome, delicious and balanced foods and meals for a small group of guests. Some requests are simple. Other requests are more complicated due to allergies. I myself cannot eat fish since I would have a severe allergic reaction. We will do our best to accommodate your needs within reason. Depending upon the request there may be an additional fee.

E-Mail and Internet Access In the basement there is a small computer room with a computer and printer. We have a high speed internet cable connection. You would be able to access your email through this computer. Most participants bring a laptop computer with them. We highly recommend that you bring a laptop computer with you, not only for emailing but also for your work. However, it is not absolutely necessary for you to have a laptop. It is for your personal convenience. We have installed wireless capability throughout the house. You will be able to access the internet through your laptop computer from your bedroom or from any area within the house and even in the backyard and front porch if you wish.

You need to make sure that your laptop has wireless connectivity in order to utilize the wireless capacity in our residence. If it does not, you might want to consider having the laptop outfitted with this capability. Most new laptops of the past couple of years have this capacity as standard equipment.

If you do not have wireless connectivity, and you want to drag for example your email directly into your computer, you can accomplish this by bringing your laptop to the computer room. You would simply plug your laptop directly into the wireless cable modem via an Ethernet cable which would connect your computer directly into the high speed internet cable service at the residence. There is an Ethernet cable available for this purpose already connected to the wireless modem in the computer room.

Telephone Over the years, more and more participants are bringing their cell phones with them. Consequently, we have disconnected the individual telephone lines in each bedroom, as we also installed the wireless internet capacity within the house. Few people use dialup connectivity for their laptops and Internet access anymore. If you have a cell phone we highly recommend that you bring it with you for your convenience.

If you need the occasional use of a telephone there is a portable phone on the first floor which you can bring to your room for privacy. The phone has voice mail capacity for messages if someone needs to reach you and you do not have a cell phone.

In an emergency, if someone needs to contact you, they should not only leave a voice mail message on the residence phone, 401-861-0506, but they should also call our office telephone at 508-234-6540.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 5 Athletic Facility For those who want to join a first class athletic facility, there is a local health club that offers our clients a discount during their stay with us. The cost is about $100 per month. You would pay the facility directly. It is a lovely well equipped and maintained facility that includes a swimming pool.

Dress, What to Wear Dress is casual. However, you might want to bring something special if you plan to go to the theatre, symphony, etc. Anticipate March to be a bit cool as winter ends, and April through May to be spring-like with the end of May and beginning of June to be more like summer. Fall begins to cool in mid-September with the winter chill starting in December. The heart of winter is in January through mid-February. Again, the residence has central heat and central air conditioning. So the temperature within the house tends to be pleasing year round.

Health Insurance On occasion a participant has had a healthcare situation requiring medical attention. Prior to coming to Providence, we recommend that you check with your health insurance provider to make arrangements for additional and comprehensive health insurance coverage while you are with us in the US. Some non-US policies cover only a fraction of actual costs incurred. You need to be specific in requesting adequate coverage. If you have a health situation, and have not arranged for sufficient health coverage, you may be surprised with an expensive bill from the hospital, emergency room and/or doctor. Medical attention, especially in the emergency room of a hospital is expensive in the US.

If you do become ill, please inform your primary facilitator and Laurie, the innkeeper, and the main office immediately, so that we can assist you.

Visa If you are a non-U.S. citizen, once you are officially registered for a specific program with us, we will mail to you a visa support letter for your visa application with the U.S. Embassy. We encourage attention to the visa process since the U.S. Embassy in some countries can be rather slow in processing applications. Also, if you anticipate that you might possibly extend your stay in the US with us or touring about, we recommend that you request a 1 year visa.

Program From time to time we make adjustments to our programming. We reserve the right to make changes to the program at anytime. If you would like to add extra individual hours to your program, this can usually be accommodated, again at an additional fee.

Your Guests Sometimes a guest of yours would like to stay at our facility. First check with Laurie, our Innkeeper to arrange for space. A standard room and board fee will be added to your account.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 6 Sometimes a Provincial, Bishop or Superior would like to visit or consult with you and us. You should inform such a person that he/she should first go through you to make arrangements prior to contacting us.

We look forward to meeting you and working along with you.

If I can be of further assistance in anyway whatsoever please contact me.

George ______George J. Bilotta, Ph.D. Formation Consultation Services Web: www.fcs-bilotta.com E-Mail: [email protected] Tel: 508-234-6540

Driving Directions Follow on the next page.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 7 Driving Directions to Providence Facility Lythgoe House, 106 Almy Street Providence, Rhode Island, 02909 Residence: 401-861-0506 Laurie Rainville Cell: 508-380-2544 FCS Office Voice Mail: 508-234-6540

If you are driving below are directions to Lythgoe house from various directions. We need to know approximately what time you might be arriving, so that Laurie Rainville, will be available to greet you and settle you into the house. Please send us this information. We ask that you plan to arrive between 10 AM and 4 PM. On the day of your arrival if something happens and you are delayed it would be most helpful for you to call Laurie on her cell phone to update her with your arrival details. ______

Approaching Providence coming North on Route 95 Travel North on 95 North to Providence. As you travel through downtown Providence Take Exit 21 off of 95 to Broadway. Off the exit ramp take a left at the traffic lights onto Broadway.

106 Almy Street is the second house on the left on the corner of Almy & Grove. The house is a three-story Queen Anne style greenish in color with brick-red color trim.

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Approaching Providence from Worcester Travel South on Route 146. Once in Providence Route 146 will eventually merge into Route 95 South as you proceed through downtown Providence. Take Exit 21, Atwells Avenue. Proceed through the first set of traffic lights. At the next set of traffic lights take a right onto Broadway. Proceed up Broadway about 0.7 miles and take a right onto Almy. (There is a traffic light at the intersection of Broadway and Almy.)

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Approaching Providence from TF Greene Providence Airport From the airport proceed 95 North to Providence. Take Exit 21 off of 95 to Broadway.

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 8 Off the exit ramp take a left at the traffic lights onto Broadway.

106 Almy Street is the second house on the left on the corner of Almy & Grove. The house is a three-story Queen Anne style greenish in color with brick-red color trim. ______

Approaching Providence coming South from Boston on Route 95 travel South on Route 95 to Providence. As you travel through downtown Providence Take Exit 21, Atwells Avenue. Proceed through the first set of traffic lights. At the next set of traffic lights take a right onto Broadway.

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Approaching Providence off of the Massachusetts Turnpike, Route 90 Off of the Mass Pike take the exit for Route 146 South, (I think it is the Millbury exit. It is the exit after the Auburn Exit)

Travel South on Route 146. Once in Providence Route 146 will eventually merge into Route 95 South as you proceed through downtown Providence. Take Exit 21, Atwells Avenue. Proceed through the first set of traffic lights. At the next set of traffic lights take a right onto Broadway. Proceed up Broadway about 0.7 miles and take a right onto Almy. (There is a traffic light at the intersection of Broadway and Almy.)

106 Almy Street is the second house on the left on the corner of Almy & Grove. The house is a three-story Queen Anne style greenish in color with brick-red color trim. ______

Formation Consultation Services . Participant Information . September 2007 . page 9