ABOUT US

Who are we, what do we do, and why do we do it?

We are Jesuits and Friends — We are Jesuits and friends who share a common Ignatian spirituality, so called after St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Ignatius had profound, mystical experiences of God when he was in the town of Manresa near Barcelona in Spain and in the years that followed. His experience taught him that God speaks to each of us in a unique way, that we who have received should give, and that our experience can be useful to others. We share those beliefs.

Jesuit Staff — Associates — Support Staff — Board of Directors

Helping Souls — The spirituality inherent in his experiences, a way of looking at God, the world and ourselves, has, in fact, helped and inspired countless people and undertakings over the last four and a half centuries. We want to pass that experience and spirituality on to those who might benefit from them to find their own unique way to God. We want, as Ignatius would say, to “help souls.” That work has been going on at Manresa since 1926.

(Photo: Kathy Daniels)

A Life of Ignatius — The Original Manresa & Other Names — A History of Manresa — Our Mission

Through the Spiritual Exercises — Ignatius made notes about his experiences, and those notes grew eventually into The Spiritual Exercises, a book that epitomized his spirituality and ours. The Exercises are a guide to what one might pray about and how one might pray during time set apart for quiet and prayer — what we call a retreat. Sometimes the best way to move ahead is to retreat. We guide people through retreats in a variety of ways:

• In individually directed retreats
• In weekend or midweek conference retreats of three or four days
• At home over a period of about nine months (The Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life)
• In retreats adapted for special groups or topics

Different Kinds of Retreat

And Other Offerings — And that same spirituality is passed on here in other ways through:

Other Offerings