21 The Spiritual Exercises – A Great Retreat for College Students

2021-07-29

This week our Miles Christi religious community in Michigan will be doing its week-long annual retreat in an atmosphere of silence. We do it according to the Spiritual Exercises written by St. Ignatius of Loyola. My good friend Matthew, who graduated from UCLA and is now in his third year as a FOCUS missionary, discusses with me his experience in doing the Spiritual Exercises right out of college, and he says why every college student who wants to grow spiritually should do them! St....

This week our Miles Christi religious community in Michigan will be doing its week-long annual retreat in an atmosphere of silence. We do it according to the Spiritual Exercises written by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

My good friend Matthew, who graduated from UCLA and is now in his third year as a FOCUS missionary, discusses with me his experience in doing the Spiritual Exercises right out of college, and he says why every college student who wants to grow spiritually should do them!

St. Ignatius lived from 1491 to 1556, and is the Founder of the Society of Jesus. His feast day is July 31. In Miles Christi, we consider him our “master of the spiritual life”, which means that we use his writings and principles as inspiration for our spirituality.

The book of the Spiritual Exercises is a guide to do a retreat. The retreat can be from a three-day-weekend long, to thirty days. The book has spiritual notes and recommendations, methods of prayer, ways to examine one’s conscience, outlines to meditate on the mysteries of the life of Christ, and above all, A STRUCTURE for a RETREAT divided in four periods of time (which St. Ignatius calls “weeks”), with suggested meditations for each day.

The Spiritual Exercises will help you deepen the knowledge of the purpose of your life, help you eradicate sin from your life, get to know Jesus better, and by knowing Him, love Him and follow Him!

Here are some of the documents we speak about in our conversation:

- Encyclical “MENS NOSTRA” of Pope Pius XI, endorsing the Spiritual Exercises and encouraging people to practice them. https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19291220_mens-nostra.html

- The book of the Spiritual Exercises, translated by Fr. Puhl: CLICK here

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- Fr. Patrick Wainwright is a priest of Miles Christi, a Catholic Religious Order.

- Miles Christi Religious Order website: https://www.mileschristi.org

- This Podcast’s Website: https://31Twww.forcollegecatholics.org31T

- To learn about the Spiritual Exercises (silent weekend retreat), visit: https://www.mileschristi.org/spiritual-exercises/

- Intro music from pond5.com

- Recorded at our Family Center in South Lyon, Michigan.

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