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Discerning Your Decisions in the Ignatian Tradition

A 4-Day Ignatian, Silent Retreat for Adults

March 3 - 6, 2022

Groups Attending: Individuals, St. Mary (Des Plaines)

This retreat is currently at capacity or registration is closed. Please call the office at 847.381.1261 with questions.

Summary

Drawing on insights from their writings and teaching, Fr. Michael and Fr. Bernie will present an "Ignatian tool kit" for discernment and decision making, leading a series of prayer exercises designed to help us listen to God.

Description

This retreat starts Thursday night with check in between 4:00  pm and 6:00 pm, and ends Sunday with lunch and includes presentations, daily Mass, 9 hot meals, the opportunity for one-on-one spiritual direction with a trained spiritual director, and many other opportunities to explore our 80 acres and almost 60k square feet of  interior space.  All activities are optional, but we do ask everyone to respect the quiet of the retreat house for everyone to have the opportunity to read, sleep and reflect in the quiet. 

Bellarmine has two libraries, a resource center, two chapels, and many other common areas.  Outdoor spaces include a various walking trails, various prayer gardens, a gazebo, stations of the cross, as well as a few patios and outdoor chairs and benches.   

You can learn more about what to expect by visiting this page.

Retreat Experience Gallery

Retreat Leaders

Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ

Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ is a retreat director and spiritual director at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington.  He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Doctor of Ministry from St Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL. He is the founder of Charis, a national Jesuit retreat ministry for young adults in their 20s and 30s, and has trained spiritual directors at Loyola University-Chicago.  

A prolific writer and speaker, Fr. Michael has published books, CDs, and DVDs on prayer, discernment, and the sacraments with Franciscan Media, Paulist Press, Liturgical Training Publications, Loyola Press, and Heart to Heart. He is seen regularly on Shalom World Catholic Television and is heard regularly on Sacred Heart radio in Cincinnati and WSFI Catholic Radio in greater Chicagoland. 

His latest co-authored book is What’s Your Decision?  An Ignatian Approach to Decision Making and is published by Loyola Press.  

Fr. Michael’s weekly video homilies can be seen online at www.HtoH.US.

Listen to a talk by Fr. Michael.

Fr. Bernie Owens, SJ

Fr. Bernie Owens is a member of the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).  He recently returned from Nairobi, Kenya in East Africa where for five years he guided many people making retreats according to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola and taught part-time in the Jesuit seminary in Nairobi.  

Most recently he has written and had published a paperback entitled More Than You Could Ever Imagine: On Our Becoming Divine.  It tells the story of our Passover into God, how God transforms us into another Christ, freed from our self-centeredness to relate selflessly and with God’s love to others, to the world, to God, and to our own self.  It gives the broad outlines or sketch of the journey that Christians and in general all peoples make home to God, as well as what are some of the amazing chapters in our life story as we realize our ultimate destiny in Christ.  Fr. Bernie is soon to finish a second book, Realizing Our Deepest Desires: Experiencing God As Never Before.  It tells of how God evokes, stage by stage, the deepest and most pure desires of our soul, the best parts of ourself, so that we can become the best of friends with Him and a Beloved Disciple of Jesus.

In August of 2019 Fr. Bernie began a new ministry at St. John’s Jesuit High School and Academy in Toledo.  It is a school for 725 boys, ages 12-18.  He has been asked to create various programs for the parents of the students and for the members of St. John’s Board of Trustees and their spouses.  Lastly, he is helping out with weekend masses at St Martin de Porres, the African-American inner city parish of Toledo.