Retreat in Daily Life offers spiritual exercises for everyone

Saint Ignatius Loyola was a highly influential priest and theologian within the Catholic Church. As a co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), he also wrote the Spiritual Exercises, a series of exercises for Jesuit priests to be performed over the course of a month, four weeks, on a retreat. Not everyone can do the month-long retreat, however, and Saint Ignatius created similar prayer series, Retreat in Daily Life, and the archdiocese is inviting parishioners to participate for a better prayer life, and closer relationship with God.

“In the 1500s, Saint Ignatius was not only giving his exercises to the Jesuits, but also lay people, so he was very flexible with how to draw people into the spiritual exercises,” said Nancy Vargas, a Retreat in Daily Life spiritual director. “The goal is to provide a profound daily and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.”

The Sisters of Benedict of Red Plains Monastery brought the practice to Oklahoma in the 1980s, but instead of simply encouraging Catholic parishioners to participate, they opened the door for Christians in many denominations to increase a prayer life.

“When the exercises were brought to Oklahoma with a group of Benedictine Sisters, they involved everyone,” said Sherry Alexander, who also serves as a spiritual director for Retreat in Daily Life. “Now, we have spiritual directors throughout the archdiocese; there are lots of other churches – Nazarene, Presbyterian, Methodist. There are lots of people using the spiritual exercises.”

The Jesuits perform a 30-day program, but not everyone has the opportunity, which is where Retreat in Daily Life comes in.

“One thing Saint Ignatius realized early is what about those who can’t walk away for 30 days?” Alexander said.

For those who have active daily lives, there are options to help them through the exercises, though it will take an hour a day over many months to complete the exercises, in what is referred to as Annotation 19. Annotation 18 was written for the Jesuits.

“There are three different programs people can go through in the exercises. You could do a month-long retreat with a spiritual director and have five to six hours of prayer a day,” Vargas said. “You’re in a silent retreat; you can’t talk to anybody, you don’t have outside influence.”

Not everybody has the ability to take a 30-day retreat, so there are other options.

“For most people, 30 days of silence is hard to do, and it is hard to get away,” Vargas said. 

There are two other options for those who can’t get away, and those are doing it individually, as well as part of a group, and in both cases, they meet with a spiritual director for guidance in the process.

The program follows the Liturgical calendar, starting in October.

“You usually start first of October, and move through mid-May,” Vargas said. “It is nice to have the Liturgical year keep up with the contemplations.”

There is also a group option for Retreat in Daily Life.

“Your second commitment is we meet in a group setting once a week so everyone in your group is going through the same prayer journey,” Vargas said. “We share how God has been speaking to you in your prayer life.”

Whether a personal journey, or those shared in a group setting, they still meet with a spiritual director as a part of the process.

“There is so much that comes up in your spiritual journey that you must have your own spiritual director you can meet with every other week,” Vargas said. 

The goal of the program is to improve one’s prayer life and find a deeper intimacy in a relationship with God.

“The hardest thing is for people to look at their daily life and see what they can put in prayer,” Vargas said. “We’re too busy, too rushed to say, ‘God’s right here.’ A good, solid prayer life is simply a friendship with God.”

To learn more about the retreat and how to apply, contact Nancy Vargas at (405) 760-4640; Sherry Alexander at (405) 315-7559 or para Español Jessica Carbajal at (580) 254-1472. Applications and interviews are conducted July 1 through Aug. 31.

Everett Brazil, III is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.