Creighton University has been offering online retreats now for 10 years
following the model of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The
movements and exercises of Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises are meant to
be completed either as a 30-day retreat away from ordinary life, or as
a 34-week retreat in the midst of everyday life.
Visit the Creighton University Online Retreat website
In the past year alone, the online retreat website has received more than 21 million hits from more than 130 countries worldwide. In addition to English, the online retreat is being offered also in Spanish, Russian and Japanese.
The Online Retreat site is composed of daily
reflections, guides and resources available not only for participation
in the Spiritual Exercises, but also for a visit to individual prayer
pages for those opting not to participate in the Spiritual Exercises.
In other words, some visitors to the site might do so simply to read
and pray about the Daily Reflection page. Others might move to the
Weekly Guide or Daily Prayer section and make use of those pages.
Others might want to begin the 34-week Spiritual Exercises, using the
pages and guides provided for that purpose, and they might also
incorporate the Daily Reflection page and Weekly Guide to Daily Prayer
into their journey through the Spiritual Exercises.
The Spiritual Exercises Online Retreat is
ideally intended to follow the liturgical calendar but anyone can begin
the retreat at Week One anytime of the year.
Visit the Creighton University Online Retreat website
The online retreat is meant to be in the
background of our lives during those 34 weeks. The retreat offers no
fancy jargon or difficult theology. The Spiritual Exercises are
intended to help one meet Jesus at a deeper level. Ignatius was trying
to get us to "fall in love with Jesus." The retreat offers the
opportunity to get into simple habits of prayer and reflection daily.
The online retreat could also be listened to
online, downloaded to be listened to offline, downloaded and burned to
a CD, or downloaded to be copied to a MP3 player.
Share your
faith
Individuals can opt to read the sharing page
which is a blog or a message board of entries from other participants
from around the world. These entries are not interactive, merely
postings. Reading a page of these is incredibly moving, not only
because it reveals the size and scope of reach of these retreats, but
also, because of the honesty of thought and universality of feeling
that one derives from the postings. The intimacy of spiritual sharing
is deep when done in writing. On any given week, there are hundreds of
postings, sometimes thousands! Individuals can opt to share their
reflections by writing on this sharing page.
Visit the Creighton University Online Retreat website
