The center in Grand Coteau, La., which serves religious and lay people, men and women and people of all faiths, offers directed retreats ranging from three to 30 days, and also hosts special weekend retreats featuring nationally known speakers. At nearby Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House, also in Grand Coteau, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding in October, retreats are led by Jesuit priests as well as by trained lay ministers, which initially generated some pushback from retreatants. Jan Tate, a spiritual director and retreat director, was the first lay woman to lead a retreat at the Oaks in 1999. “Initially, the (female) retreatants were apprehensive,” Tate said. “They expected to see a Jesuit priest. But that I was a lay woman, not even a nun, was difficult for them.” But by the end, she’d earned their unanimous acceptance as a lay woman directing retreats. Jesuit Ken Buddendorff, her mentor, later asked Tate to direct a men’s retreat, and she tackled the topic of sexuality with them. Afterward, one retreatant approached her and said that in all of his 52 years of retreats, no one had ever addressed men’s conflicted feelings about their sexuality. He told her he wept afterwards and could not wait to get home and discuss it with his wife. Fr. Jerry Neyrey, retreat director at Our Lady of the Oaks, said that “every weekend, we see the wisdom of the program Ken Buddendorff developed to train lay directors. “They have become mature speakers and even the crustiest of Cajuns tolerates a female director now.” Brooke A. Iglesias, Editor of The Southern Jesuit, contributed to this report from New Orleans.
M O R E we b ON THE
Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House Sedalia, Colorado
Retreat finder at www.jesuitsmissouri.org/retreats
Fr. Peter Callery (opposite page) leads retreatants at Manresa House of Retreats, Convent, La. Fr. Steve Yavorsky (below) trains prayer companions through the Ignatian Spirituality Center of Kansas City.
“To use one of Ignatius’ favorite words, ‘adapt,’ we try to adapt to as many different circumstances and needs that come our way.” Tim Murphy, director, Manresa House of Retreats
Jesuit Spirituality Center Grand Coteau, Louisiana
White House Retreat St. Louis
Winter-Spring 2013
|
Jesuit
15