What Are the Exercises

St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, developed his Spiritual Exercises so that people could retreat for 30 days of prayer and silence to grow in their relationship with God and learn to listen for the voice of the Spirit in their lives. Eventually he also adapted these Exercises for people who could not, for various reasons, go away for 30 days. This adaptation, called the 19th Annotation, is the basis of the SEEL retreat, and it invites people to go through the Exercises with the guidance of a spiritual director over a period of nine months, while continuing to live their daily lives.

Graces of the Retreat

Retreatants will be invited to:

1. Encounter the living God and God’s presence in creation, their personal life stories and current life circumstances;

2. Better discern their deepest desires to understand God’s call and presence in their lives and in the world; and

3. Become Contemplatives in Action; experiencing and grasping more deeply the Ignatian vision of Finding God in All Things.