CHICAGO

April 13-15, 2026

LOCATION: BELLARMINE JESUIT RETREAT HOUSE GUIDES: Sara Billups, fr michael sparough, JULIAN DAVIS REID, NINA BARNES, Aaron Niequist

2026 IS A YEAR OF RE-ENCHANTMENT.

Deconstruction is important and can be soul-saving…but we can’t stay there.

We also can’t go back to pre-cynical magic;
We must be born again into post-cynical mystery.

The journey is often from the heart of a child…to a heart of stone…to a heart of flesh.

Finally letting go of what has already ended so that newness can grow.

May this be a year of courageous, joy-filled, tear-soaked, holy re-enchantment.

Learn more about the year of Re-enchantment

Retreat Schedule…

MONDAY

1:00pm Registration
2:00pm Gathering & Invitation 5:30pm Dinner Together 6:30pm Notes of Rest (Julian Davis Reid)

TUESDAY

8:00am Breakfast 9:00am Opening Liturgy 9:30am Guided Mini Retreat (Sara Billups and Fr Michael)
12:00pm Lunch 1:00pm Solitude 4:00pm Practicing Enchantment 5:30pm Dinner Together 6:30pm Practice of Delight 8:30pm Communal Campfire

WEDNESDAY

8:00am Breakfast 9:00am Opening Liturgy
10:00am Circle Conversations 12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Eucharist & Sending
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 (especially Nina) will help us get in touch with the longings we bring into the retreat, the exhaustion and disillusionment nipping at our heels, and the often inarticulate desire for re-enchantment. After dinner, Julian Davis Reid (and friends) will guide a robust Notes of Rest experience of reflection, scripture, and black music. By 8pm or so, the tired among us will be released to a gloriously early bedtime, and those with some energy left can stay up and hang.

Tuesday morning, Sara Billups and Fr Michael will guide a mini-retreat in the Chapel. Through the wisdom of her book and the brilliance of Ignatian spirituality, we’ll create holy space to name the anxiety in our bodies, communities, and world…and learn concrete practices to meet God in those anxious places. We are praying that Tuesday morning will be an experience of uncommon honesty and true freedom.

This will propel us into an afternoon of solitude on the Bellarmine Retreat House grounds, and then back together for a co-created session on Re-enchantment. After dinner, we will dance our way 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 love this broken and enchanted world in word and action? We’ll end the retreat with a Eucharist service that sends us back into the world.

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.