CHICAGO
June 9-11, 2025
LOCATION: BELLARMINE JESUIT RETREAT HOUSE GUIDES: JONATHAN MERRITT, FR MICHAEL SPAROUGH SJ, NINA BARNES, Julian Davis Reed, AARON NIEQUIST, becky ykema
We are not where we were; we are not yet where we will be. We are on our way.
Join us in Chicago as we seek to find Christ on the way. Or better said: to be found by Christ on the way. We'll explore three gospel stories where Jesus met someone on the road and asked them a question that honored the exact place they stood, while inviting them further. Through these ancient texts and evergreen spiritual practices, we’ll make space for the Spirit of Christ to help us take the next right step into Love.
You don’t have to stumble this path alone.
Retreat Schedule
MONDAY
1:00pm Registration
2:00pm Gathering & Invitation 6:00pm Dinner Together 7:00pm Jesus and Bartimaeus 8:00pm Contemplative Compline
TUESDAY
8:00am Breakfast 9:00am Opening Liturgy 9:30am Jesus and the Good Samaritan 12:00pm Lunch 1:00pm Solitude 4:30pm Eucharist Service 6:00pm Dinner Together 7:00pm Practice of Delight 8:30pm Communal Campfire
WEDNESDAY
8:00am Breakfast 9:00am Opening Liturgy
10:00am Circle Conversations 12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Sending Session
2:00pm Retreat Ends
Gathering & Invitation / Personal Retreat / Tangible Next Steps
On Monday, we will arrive from all over the country and begin a shared journey. We’ll meet each other, worship together, orient ourselves to the retreat, and begin to exhale and slow down. Our retreat guides will help us explore “Christ on the Way” through poetry, teaching, reflection, and embodiment. We’ll end with Night Prayer and the opportunity for a great night of sleep.
Wednesday morning, Fr Michael Sparough, SJ, and the team will lead a 3-hour, guided personal retreat. Through spiritual practices, simple liturgies, and embodied prayer, we will be led into holy space in which God can do what only God can do. This will propel us into an afternoon of solitude on the Bellarmine Retreat House grounds, and then back together for an ecumenical, practice-based Eucharist service. After dinner, we will dive into the practice of delight and celebration.
Finally, Wednesday morning will focus on heading back into our actual home communities. How can we translate the practices and rhythms of the retreat into our real lives and churches? What are tools and resources that can support this good work? How can we become menders of the church cracked open? We’ll end the whole retreat with a time of prayer and sending.
Or said more simply: the three movements of the retreat are (1) Opening to the rhythms of Grace, (2) Swimming deep in the rhythms of Grace, and (3) Learning tools to invite others into the rhythms of Grace.
Registration is now open
Registration Fee: $599 ($399 registration fee + $200 for 2-night stay)
Register by April 11, 2025, and receive $50 OFF. Use the code EARLYBIRD.
“Anticipatory Hope suggests that someday, somehow, things will get better. But it’s fragile as an eggshell.
Participatory hope is rooted in the present. It sees the broken things and says, ‘Here is where we begin.’”
