How Does a Person "Awaken" to Reality? Ignatian Spirituality and Loyola on the Potomac

Photo Credit: C. Matthew Hawkins

I spent five days last week on retreat, with 11 other Seminarians from St. Mary's, at Loyola on the Potomac near the Chesapeake Bay, a Jesuit retreat center.

The idea of a religious retreat is to prayerfully withdraw from all of the noise, busyness and obsessions of everyday life and to be silent and attentive to the voice of God.

The part of the Potomac that we were located on was a huge expanse of water. I could faintly make out the Virginian landscape on the other side, in a distance. We were on the Maryland side of the river.

Among the experiences that made this retreat one of renewal was the opportunity for Lectio Divina far from shore, alone in a canoe on the Potomac, and praying the Holy Rosary on the 235 acres of woods surrounding the retreat center.

Of course there were recurring questions during the retreat such as these: Where does God want me to be right now? What does God want me to do? What signs do I see of how God is moving in my life?

I have developed a fondness for Ignatian spirituality, for the examen prayer and for St. Ignatius of Loyola (a.k.a. “St. Iggy”) during this trip.

As the retreat began we thought that we were withdrawing from “the real world” into a world of reflection. By the end of the retreat it was clear that we had withdrawn from a world that is all-too-often characterized by madness and delusion and entered into a moment of reality, stillness and clarity, which will fortify us for the journey ahead.