Making Space to Listen: An Invitation to Ignatian Retreat

One of the questions I often get asked about Ignatian retreats is a very practical one: Why should I go? LMU faculty and staff are thoughtful, committed people; precisely because of that, they are very busy. A retreat - especially one that is mostly silent - can sound like a luxury, or like something meant only for people who are especially religious or unusually serene.

In fact, the opposite is true. This weekend is precisely for people who are busy, smart, and human - and who sense that something important can be lost when life is lived entirely at speed.

The Feb. 6-8, 2026, retreat, "Introduction to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius," offers LMU faculty and staff a gentle, guided entry into Ignatian prayer and contemplation. The Spiritual Exercises are rooted in Christian scripture, yet they have also frequently been experienced by people of many convictions and faith backgrounds. What matters on this retreat is not being familiar with Ignatian spirituality, but the desire to slow down, listen, and notice what is already stirring beneath the surface of daily life.

That kind of space is increasingly rare and increasingly necessary. Our culture and our workplaces value productivity, responsiveness, and visible achievement. These are not bad things in themselves, of course. Technology captures and fragments our attention. Without space for reflection, our sense of purpose can gradually hollow out. We move from task to task, often efficiently and competently. Yet it is all too easy to lose touch with why work or relationships matter and how they are shaping us.

This retreat offers us a different rhythm. Over the course of the weekend, participants are invited into two days of silence. Some people find that prospect intimidating. Rather, I think of it as a way of being hospitable to our interior life. Far from being disorienting, removing ourselves from distractions allows deeper patterns of thought and feeling to show themselves; questions surface without immediately demanding answers. For some people, it is the first time in a long while that they have been given permission simply to attend to their own experience, without fixing, performing, or explaining it.

Prayer, in our Ignatian tradition, is deeply practical. It is not about withdrawing from the world, but about learning how to engage it more freely and truthfully. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged people to pay attention to their desires, resistances, joys, and anxieties, and to trust that God is to be found there. In Ignatian language, this attentiveness is sometimes described as "finding God in all things." With those words, Ignatius did not mean a vague affirmation of whatever we happen to experience. Rather, he was referring to the careful practice of seeking God's will in the concrete circumstances of our lives. This retreat is meant to support looking for meaning direction beyond ourselves by seeking God. Gentle structure and a simple framework of guidance support the prayer. Participants are also offered optional one-on-one spiritual conversations, which can help them shape their time according to their own hopes and questions. There are no group sessions, and therefore no pressure to speak and no expectation that everyone's experience will look the same.

The setting is just as important as the structure. Held at the Mary and Joseph Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, the weekend retreat offers both physical and interior spaciousness. We encourage everyone to disconnect for 48 hours from all other activities - no cellphones, no conversations. Silence, nature, and unhurried time work together: slowly, gently, undramatically.

This kind of retreat is not separate from LMU's mission: it expresses an essential part of what it means to be a Jesuit and Marymount university. When a university values reflection, it signals that the interior life matters: that clarity, freedom, and discernment are not accidental, but can be and must be cultivated. At LMU, we strive to educate the whole person and to foster lives of meaning and purpose. Faith and justice are not peripheral to that vision; they are fundamental to who we are.

In a community committed to rigorous inquiry, ethical engagement, and the formation of persons for others, making time to listen deeply is not a retreat from our mission. It is one of the ways we strive to live it out more fully.

The Center for Ignatian Spirituality exists to support precisely that kind of integration, providing access to the practical insights and wisdom of Ignatian spirituality, so that faculty and staff can draw on them in their professional and personal lives. The retreat is one of the most direct and humane ways we help people experience not only that the mission is real and matters, but also that they matter in the mission.

LMU is a richly diverse community. Retreatants are invited to bring their whole selves - their questions, doubts, convictions, and differences - into the experience of retreat, silence, prayer, and reflection. Again and again, participants say that what they value most is not a sudden solution to life's problems, but a gentle and renewed sense of orientation. The noise quiets down enough for what truly matters to be heard more clearly. People return to campus with exactly the same responsibilities as before, and with greater freedom and steadiness in carrying them out.

Faculty and staff who are new to Ignatian spirituality, and those who are unsure whether a retreat is "for them," are especially invited to consider applying for this retreat or a future one. Thanks to the generosity of the LMU Jesuit Community, which endowed the Center for Ignatian Spirituality, this retreat is fully subsidized. Space is intentionally limited to preserve the quality of the experience.

In an intellectual community that is committed to forming minds and hearts for and with others, making time to reflect and listen deeply is not an indulgence. It is an essential part of the work.