Creighton University

Course Content | More About the Spiritual Exercises | Application Information

What: The full Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola in the 30-day retreat format is offered in light of IPF’s charism to serve and to strengthen the identity of the diocesan priest.

 

The experience of making the Spiritual Exercises, by entering into the prayer and spiritual direction of a retreat, can be life transforming. Some former retreatants have described the experience as “expanding the mind and heart” and “making God’s love personal, every day.”

 

Why: One enters into the retreat to experience the mission of Jesus’ living Spirit in a whole new depth of loving encounter. It can also be a profound means for discerning what God is choosing to reveal about the Father’s will for the retreatant.

 

When: The dates are June 24 until July 30, 2008. These include 3 preparation days and 2 and a half days for follow up seminars. Deadline for application is March 1st.

 

Where: Creighton University provides a hospitable urban setting. The advantages of a campus parish church, a first class fitness center and swimming pool, private air conditioned rooms, library, nearby parks, and the city art museum enhance the overall goal of finding God’s presence loving us in the middle of everyday life.

 

Who: IPF sponsors this retreat for diocesan seminarians, diocesan priests and bishops. Preparation days, retreat conferences and follow up seminar conversations focus upon illuminating the unique identity of diocesan priesthood. An affective integration of sexuality within the gift of celibacy as a generative gift from God is also emphasized. Retreat directors include Fr. George Aschenbrenner, S.J., Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V., Sr. Theresa Galvan, C.N.D., Fr. Larry Gillick, S.J., Fr. John Horn, S.J., Fr. John Murphy, S.J., Mrs. Adrienne Novotny, Dr. Ron Novotny, Fr. Ernest Sherstone, O.M.V., Fr. Mark Toups, Fr. Bob Uzzilio, and IPF staff.

 

Prerequisites include having made two week-long silent directed retreats, or IPF’s summer program of intensive spiritual formation. Exceptions to these prerequisites can be discussed if there seems to be equivalent spiritual preparation through life experience. A telephone interview and the completion of an application form are also required.

 

Cost: Due to the generosity of benefactors, IPF is pleased to offer a low rate of $2,050.00. This price includes room, board, linens, a fitness center pass and stipends for both spiritual direction and seminar teaching. All materials are also included. Space is limited.

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During the retreat, participants experience in their hearts God’s invitations to be loved, reconciled, and called to live in companionship with Jesus’ living Spirit. This entails some type of sharing in Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection while making the Spiritual Exercises. The paschal mystery is tasted through the image of God, alive in the retreatant’s heart, being placed in dialogue with the experience of the Holy Spirit’s consoling activity in this mystery. It is a mystery to be lived out in day-to-day faith following the conclusion of the retreat.

 

The Spiritual Exercises are a type of map, a map for the human heart to follow in prayerful meditation and contemplation. To follow these exercises and their engagement of the heart brings one into intimate contact with the living Spirit of Jesus, Lord of all consolation. If the book called the Spiritual Exercises is bought and read, the experience is dry, like reading a telephone directory. To actually experience the Spiritual Exercises one must follow them with a spiritual director who provides guidelines for entrance into an interpersonal dynamic in the inner heart, a dynamic that is evident in the inner direction and powers of human desiring. In the 30-day format the retreatant usually prays four to five hours daily and sees the spiritual director an hour each day. Eucharistic liturgy is also celebrated on a daily basis.

 

As a fifteenth-century Spanish soldier, Ignatius Loyola experienced, amid his own desires for fame and glory, Jesus’ Spirit indwelling and at work in his heart. During a period of convalescence after being wounded in battle, Ignatius’ deep desires were honestly and generously allowed to be engaged in prayer with the Scriptural Word of God, and he experienced a personal connectedness that transformed the inner direction of his desires. Awe and wonder were engendered as well as the desire to experience more of Jesus’ love in day-to-day companionship. Ignatius experienced, amid his desires, the surprise of being pursued by a God who actively loves him. Ignatius discovered in the dynamics of human desires the abiding miracle of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who desires and yearns for us to have an ever deeper relationship with Jesus. From this experience of discovery, Ignatius wrote his map for the human heart’s interior journey into God’s Heart, the Spiritual Exercises.

 

Information & Application:

For more information, or an application, please contact:

Rev. Richard J. Gabuzda, Executive Director

The Institute for Priestly Formation

2500 California Plaza

Omaha, Nebraska 68178-0300

Telephone: 402-546-6384

                   1-800-637-4279

Fax: 402-280-3529

E-mail: ipf@creighton.edu

 

Course Content | More About the Spiritual Exercises | Application Information