RETREATS

For some years it has been a tremendous honor to lead small groups of faithful Catholics through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, most often in nine-week Retreats At Home.

 

Retreatants are asked to pray privately each day for 20 minutes to an hour with specific daily passages of scripture for nine weeks.

 

Some folks make the retreat completely on their own or with a friend, spouse, or spiritual companion. Some of these will meet with their spiritual directors along the way to discuss what is going on.

 

Others gather once each week with a group and a spiritual director to share the gifts of the week, ask questions, and pray together for all who are seeking to draw closer to Christ.

 

A WARNING

The Spiritual Exercises are best done for the first time in a directed retreat. So if you think you will be able to carve out eight days for a silent directed retreat at a Jesuit retreat house, you are encouraged to do that first. Visit "Jesuit Retreats." But don't use this warning as an excuse to never do the Exercises.

 

Perhaps you are ready for a retreat:

A Retreat With Mark and Peter
This pdf file can also be printed as a "booklet" and it may be copied free of charge for use by individuals, parishes, or faith sharing groups.
ARetreatWithMarkAndPeter.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [353.2 KB]

ATTRIBUTIONS:

The Retreat At Home has been evolving from an AT-HOME RETREAT by Sr. Teresa Galvin, from teachers in the Institute for Priestly Formation.

 

What is the Retreat At Home?

A Retreat At Home is designed for people who wish to do the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, but who are too busy to get away to a retreat center. The fullest experience of the Spiritual Exercises is on a 30-day silent directed retreat, usually done once or twice in one's lifetime.

 

A shorter Eight Day version is made annually by many priests, religious, and a growing number of lay faithful. a nine-week Retreat at Home is the rough equivalent of making an Eight Day silent retreat.

 

The Spiritual Exercises have been fruitful for Christians of all denominations, and for any seeker who wishes to have an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Lord, or simply to know more about his mission.

 

Who is St. Ignatius of Loyola?

In the year 1521 a cannon ball gave serious injury to the left leg of Captain Ignatius of Loyola in Spain. While he was recovering, Ignatius read the lives of Christ and the saints and thuse turned wholly to God. In training those who joined him, he compiled what is now known as the Spiritual Exercises. The members of the Society of Jesus were instrumental in the renewal of the Church, and have been one of the greatest foreign mission organizations that the world has known. Ignatius died in Rome on July 31, 1556 at the age of 65.