How the retreat came about.

This parish community was served by Jesuits from the California Province of the Society of Jesus for many years. A little over two years ago, when the Society no longer served the parish, many people continued to desire to nournish their Ignatian identity. We were invited to help with this Ignatian retreat this year. We decided to offer it on the theme of "The Spirituality of Pope Francis."

Two retreat formats.

There is both an mp3 audio format and a video format available. Some may want to download the audio and listen to it on an mp3 player, on a smartphone, or to burn it onto a CD to listen to in the car. See instructions below for downloading the audios.

The video of the talk is also available. Each evening's talk is about an hour.

Instructions for Downloading the Retreat.

To download a presentation, place your cursor over the name of the presentation and hold down the RIGHT mouse button. Select "Save Link As ..." and chose where to save the file on your computer, or to save it directly to a media player or card attached to your computer.

Burning CD's

To burn these downloaded files to a CD, place a new CD/R disk in your CD drive. A pop up window should open, giving you your options. Your CD burner software should be one of the options that pops up. Choose "Burn a CD" option with that software. You usually have two options, depending upon what you intend to do with the CD and what kind of device you will use to listen to it. If they are copied as "DATA" they will remain as mp3 files and will play on any CD player that plays mp3 files (and in most newer car CD players). All the files will easily fit on one CD. This is also the best option to use to send the files to someone else or if you intend to use this CD to copy the files to another computer or device. If the files are copied as "MUSIC" they will be converted into higher quality CD media files, which will play on any CD player (and older model car CDs). Only two files will fit on each CD in this format.

In preparing the three nights of the retreat, it became clear to us how much of Pope Francis' message is shaped by the Gospel and the movements of the Spiritual Exercise of St. Ignatius.

His message has been as challenging as it is consoling. The media has covered only a portion of Pope Francis' message.

From the time we first saw Pope Francis on the balcony, asking us to pray for him, we knew he would be very special. In this retreat, we examine his words and how they help us grow in our relationship with Jesus. Each evening's presentation ends with time for invidual prayer - you can pause the recording to pray during that time. Then there are helps for praying with each theme the next day.

We share these three presentations to assist us all in hearing his message and in letting his message - the message of the Gospel - become a retreat for us all. May we all grow in a sense of our God's loving mercy for us, in his call to us, and in our mission today to serve those on the margins.

Invited to Believe in God's Love for Us:
- Audio of the First Night - | - Video of the First Night -

Open to Being Drawn Outside of and Beyond Ourselves, for Others:
- Audio of the Second Night - | - Video of the Second Night -

Invited to Follow Jesus in Our Mission Today:
- Audio of the Third Night - | - Video of the Third Night -

Read what Pope Francis has said
recently at NEWS.VA

See an Archive of Pope Francis' messages.