Campus Ministry understands that Lent is a time of reflection and is hosting a four-part Lenten retreat series for this reason.

According to Creighton’s website, this retreat is held each Sunday of the Lenten season from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Campus Ministry in lower Swanson Hall. There will be a new speaker at every session of the retreat as well as interactive activities that guide participants in a reflection of their own lives as well as the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

“Students that decide to take part in this retreat reflect on struggles in their life and try to find God in these hard times,” campus ministry intern and Arts & Sciences junior John Brennan said. “They will have the chance to reflect on their own spiritual awakening and on their lives as students by activities and discussion in small groups.”

“The goal of the event is to link St. Ignatius’ life with our own,” Brennan said.

St. Ignatius went through many struggles and always seemed to find God even in the most terrible of times. Each speaker talks about an aspect of St. Ignatius’ life in which he had to find God.

Brennan said that in the first session, students learned about St. Ignatius’ battle wound and his spiritual awakening. After the speaker talks, attendees had the chance to reflect on moments of transition and crisis in which they found God and had spiritually awakening moments of their own.

According to the Creighton homepage, another part of the retreat will teach students about Ignatius’s life-altering insight. At this session, students are expected to reflect on encountering God in aspects of their lives as students.

Students participating in this event will also learn about Ignatius’ pilgrimage to Montserrat and what he had to surrender to make this spiritual journey. Students will then be asked to apply their new knowledge to their lives and consider what they must surrender in order to make their own pilgrimage.

The last part of the retreat teaches the participants about a time when Ignatius hit a wall in his journey and what he did to get over that wall. Attendees will have the opportunity to meditate on a moment when they too hit a wall and God helped them to overcome it.

In this retreat, students must see that Ignatius was able to find God in everything, and, if they look hard enough, they too can find God in all things as well.