Three-day Ignatian retreat with FOCUS open to all
WAVERLY (SNR) - Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly will offer an individually directed Holy Week silent retreat March 22-24 with FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.
The retreat is open to men or women, students or adults.
Retreat masters will include Father Paul Hoesing, Father Jay Buhman, Father Benjamin Holdren, and others.
The three-day Ignatian retreat will be based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. It will provide an opportunity to individually reflect on the events of salvation history, and how they apply to each individual’s own life.
As a directed silent retreat, retreatants will meet individually with their retreat director, who will assign them scripture passages and topics to meditate on throughout the day. Spiritual directors and prayer partners include Father Buhman, Father Holdren, Father Hoesing, Father Gary Coulter, Matt Simmons, and Jim Jansen.
Retreatants will be expected to maintain total silence and spend four prayer periods a day in meditation. Retreatants should also bring a Bible and a notebook, as journaling during the retreat is essential.
FOCUS is a national outreach that “meets college students where they are” and invites them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and the Catholic faith. Begun in 1998, this evangelization of college students exploded across the country, with nearly 500 missionaries now serving on 113 college campuses. FOCUS missionaries are typically recent college graduates who devote two or more years of their post-collegiate lives to reach out to peers on campus.
The cost for the March 22-24 retreat is $180 and open to all. Any students and those involved with FOCUS receive a $40 discount.
Although the retreat starts Tuesday morning, retreatants are encouraged to arrive Monday night to enter the prayer and silence. The retreat concludes on Thursday at 1 p.m.
Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House offers a peaceful atmosphere of prayer and recollection, situated on a spacious acreage near Waverly. The facility includes 50 single rooms, each with a private bath. Each retreat includes opportunities for silence, prayer, Adoration and the sacraments.
Other upcoming retreats include a March 24-26 Triduum retreat for young women with the Marian Sisters; an April 1-3 Divine Mercy retreat for men and women with Father Christopher Kubat; an April 8-10 “Life in the Spirit” retreat for women.
To register online or see the full schedule of retreats, visit www.goodcounselretreat.com, e-mail goodcounsel@cdolinc.net or call 402-786-2705.