Listening to God as Ignatius: Eight Days of Spiritual Exercises
by Sindy Collazo
From August 24–31, 2026, eight retreatants from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York gathered at St. Raphaela Center in Haverford, Pennsylvania, for “Listening to God Like Ignatius,” an eight-day experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola offered by Ministerio Hispano Ignaciano.
The retreat provided participants with an opportunity to step away from the demands of daily life and enter more deeply into silence, prayer, discernment, and spiritual accompaniment.
An Eight-Day Journey with the Spiritual Exercises
The Spiritual Exercises invite retreatants into a personal encounter with God and help them become more attentive to how God is present and active in their lives. Through prayer and discernment, retreatants seek greater interior freedom to recognize and respond to God’s call.
Over the course of the eight days, participants journeyed through some of the central movements of the Spiritual Exercises: recognizing God’s creative and merciful love, contemplating the person of Jesus, listening to Christ’s call, accompanying him in his self-giving, and opening themselves to a renewed life of love and service.
Each day, retreatants received two invitations to personal prayer and met individually with a spiritual director. This daily accompaniment, an important part of the Ignatian retreat experience, offered participants an opportunity to reflect on their prayer and discern more attentively the movements of God within them.
The rhythm of the retreat also included the daily celebration of the Eucharist and opportunities to gather for spiritual conversation, where participants could freely share the fruits of their experience and listen to how God was at work in the journeys of others.
At the heart of the Spiritual Exercises is not a series of presentations or conferences, but an encounter between God and the person making the Exercises. Silence, prayer, spiritual direction, and the different invitations of the retreat all serve this encounter.
As the retreat came to a close, participants returned to their homes and communities carrying with them one of the enduring invitations of Ignatian spirituality: to seek and find God in all things and to allow what is discovered in prayer to shape a freer and more generous life of love and service.
With Gratitude
Ministerio Hispano Ignaciano is deeply grateful to the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for their hospitality at St. Raphaela Center and for helping make this retreat possible. We are especially grateful to Sr. Michelle Cimaroli, ACI, for her warm welcome, collaboration, and generous support throughout the retreat.
We also extend our gratitude to Fr. Rocco Danzi, SJ, for his generous dedication and availability throughout these eight days. His ministry as a spiritual director and confessor, together with his service in the daily celebration of the Eucharist, helped create a prayerful environment for discernment and encounter with God.
Above all, we give thanks to God for these eight retreatants who accepted the invitation to step away from their daily routines, enter into silence, and dedicate eight days to a profoundly Ignatian journey: learning to listen to God like Ignatius.
