2024 Ignatian Silent Retreat

This silent retreat - at the Redemportist Renewal Center in Picture Rocks AZ - is an opportunity to “come away” with the Lord in order to engage in prayer and reflection. With our God, we move from the “usual” concerns of daily life to an “unusual” experience of life itself. What we already know is given to us afresh. We surrender in the quiet and the Lord answers in our heart. The Holy Spirit nourishes us with what we most truly desire and so satisfies our deepest longings.

Understanding again what we really desire and remembering the gifts of God in our lives, we are empowered by God to re-commit ourselves to all that is true and life-giving, and so to return to our “usual” lives refreshed and ready to begin again.

During this retreat we will do our remembering and refocusing through an experience of Saint Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises whose dynamic finds us constantly praying for graces, not of perfection but of growth, using Jesus as our model and our goal. In addition to the gift of silence which we will give each other – better enabling us to listen – the retreat will include presentations, daily Mass, and opportunities for celebrating the Sacraments of Reconciliation and of the Anointing of the Sick.
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Raised in St. Louis, Fr. Frank Reale, S.J. entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1971.  His Jesuit formation included graduate work in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, a teaching stint at Rockhurst High in Kansas City, and four years of theology studies in London, England. Ordained a priest in 1981, he spent much of the 1980s working in secondary education, followed by a 15-year stretch in Jesuit province administration, including six years as provincial of the Jesuits’ Missouri Province.  In 2004 Father Reale became Saint Louis University’s VP for Mission and Ministry; 4 years later, he moved to Spain where he became the chief administrator of SLU’s campus in Madrid.  From 2012 through 2019 he was assigned to New Orleans, first as pastor of the Jesuit downtown parish and then as the Assistant to the President at Jesuit High School. 

Since 2020, Father Reale has been primarily engaged in the ministry of Ignatian Spirituality, giving preached retreats and providing individual spiritual direction, while also providing sacramental support at two local St. Louis parishes. He also assists at the Jesuit Archives & Research Center, the repository for documents pertaining to the presence and ministry of Jesuits throughout the United States.
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For more information on this retreat and a registration form, please contact Ann S. Dickson at [email protected] or 520-234-2140, or 3128 Pebble Beach Dr., Sierra Vista, AZ 85650 or Deacon John Klein at [email protected].