The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola are an experience of graced striving toward freedom and hope. The experience unfolds through prayer, encounter, and the guidance of one who has made the exercises. They are passed on person to person.  

St. Ignatius wrote in the first paragraph of the Spiritual Exercises: For just as taking a walk, journeying on foot, and running are bodily exercises, so we call Spiritual Exercises every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and, after their removal, of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life for the salvation of our soul. [Sp.Ex. 1]

Master Ignatius knew the exercise of our interior landscape, just like physical exercise, is more fruitful when a person who has experience helps and supports persons just entering. At the Ignatian Spirituality Institute our guides are embedded in Ignatian spirituality. Every ISI guide has personally made the complete Spiritual Exercises, been formed as guides of the Spiritual Exercises, and each continue with ongoing formation of their ministry to help others.  

Making the Exercises

In the Exercises in Everday Life, you will:

• pray daily with given materials. The commitment to daily prayer is 45 minutes to an hour daily.
• meet weekly with a spiritual guide to discuss and explore what is happening in your prayer.
• retreatant and guide decide their own meeting time and place, as well as beginning and ending of the retreat.

We recommended persons interested in making the complete Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life first make a silent preached or five-day directed retreat at a Jesuit Retreat House, or pray through the Finding Christ in the World or Toward Greater Freedom retreats offered by ISI. Priority for the Spiritual Exercises in Everday Life is given to persons who have previously made one of these retreats. 

Retreat Offering:

ISI suggests a retreat offering of $750 per retreatant, and payment options are available. However, the cost of the retreat must not be a controlling factor. ISI trusts that those who can offer more will do so in order to support others with more limited resources. 

How to get started:

Applications to make the Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life are required. Please complete and submit the form below. We will contact you within two weeks of your application for conversation to further explore where the Lord may be leading. 

All instructors, facilitators, and presenters at the Ignatian Spirituality Institute live Ignatian spirituality. We share what we have. Our courses are guided by lay persons who have long experience and training in Ignatian spirituality and spiritual direction in the Ignatian tradition, as well as Jesuit priests. 

Every course incorporates presentations followed by exercises to deepen participants understanding and experience. Participants are invited into conversation and discussion both small and large group, and can expect reading assignments between sessions.

At ISI, we encourage spiritual conversation. Spiritual conversation requires attentive listening to oneself, to others, and to the Holy Spirit. It is an experience of sharing life experiences that opens us to a see all things new in Christ. The fruit of this sharing is the strengthening of mutual trust and leads to a deeper knowledge of ourselves, of other people, and of the context in which we live out our lives and loves in the light of faith.

Further, spiritual conversation is a necessary preparation for discernment, individually and in common. It is imperative to every process for "seeking and finding" what God is doing and what God wants done.

Opportunities for spiritual conversation at ISI include the practice of spiritual companioning, gatherings of Companions of Grace, and in our courses and workshops.