IMSD-696: Directed Retreat

IMSD696 – Directed Retreat

A directed retreat of at least 8 days or the Ignatian 19th Annotation, taken after at least 6 credits in the spiritual direction program.  The retreat must be cleared with the Director of the Spiritual Direction program before registering.  The student will be required to reflect on the retreat experience for credit in the course.

What are the requirements for the directed retreat?

The Spiritual Direction program requires an 8-day directed retreat (or the full Ignatian 19th Annotation). This serves several purposes. Firstly it helps to consolidate the spiritual formation that is provided throughout the curriculum and helps that to take root in the spiritual life of the individual student.  Secondly, it serves to deepen the student’s prayer life in a significant way. A spiritual director must have a deep and rich, personal relationship with Jesus and a well-formed spiritual life.  Thirdly, the retreat provides an experience of a model that the student, as a future spiritual director, may be able to offer to others, namely the guidance of daily spiritual direction for an intensive retreat experience.

To serve these purposes, the retreat must meet the following criteria to fulfill the Spiritual Direction program requirement: (1) it must take place in a retreat environment marked by silence and reflection, optimally with the opportunity for daily Mass.  It need not be strictly silent the entire time, but silence and conduciveness to prayer and reflection must be a defining characteristic of the environment; (2) there must be daily spiritual direction with an experienced spiritual director; (3) it must be 8 days meaning that it must consist of at least seven overnights and spiritual direction must occur at least on the six middle days of the retreat.

A typical format would be four prayer periods a day, each lasting one hour, in addition to Mass and other times of spiritual reading and reflection.  Typically the spiritual director assigns scriptures for each of the prayer periods and the spiritual direction meetings center around how God was speaking in those prayer periods.  There can be a standard progression of assigned scriptures following the Ignatian patterns derived from the 30-day retreat. None of this structure of prayer periods and scriptures is strictly necessary, however, as long as the spiritual director and the retreatant agree on how to proceed. 

Before registering for this retreat, the student must check with the Director of the IMF Spiritual Direction program to show that the format of the intended retreat meets these criteria.

There are many options for retreat centers and retreat directors and it is the responsibility of the student to arrange the retreat.  Some recommended options include St. Joseph Retreat Center in Milton, MA, Our Lady of Divine Providence Retreat center in Clearwater, FL, Broomtree Retreat and Conference Center in Broomtree, SD, The Joseph and Mary Retreat House in Mundelein, IL, and Mount Angel Abbey in Portland, OR, to name a few.