Day And Evening Reflection Programs
Throughout the year Bellarmine hosts spiritual programs that are open to the public. Our spirituality programs are meant for individuals who are 18 years or older. See below for a listing of programs and how to register. If you have any questions, please contact programs@jesuitretreat.org.
Anamchara: The Soul Friend
A Day of Reflection for Women
Friday, May 9, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Rosanne Coury
True friendship is a powerful gift. We yearn for close companionship. From early childhood until our last days, we seek out people with whom we can share our lives. We depend on these deep relationships increasingly as we grow in experience, age, wisdom, and grace.
During this day of reflection, we explore the ancient tradition of the Anamchara, the Celtic “soul friend.” Together we will reflect on the purpose and meaning of the Anamchara, its ancient Celtic context, how it fits into the Christian worldview, and ways it can spiritually serve us as 21st century women.
Join us in reflecting how women can companion each other in spirituality and friendship.
Program Cost: $75.00 (includes Lunch)
This program begins on Friday, but there is still space available. To register, call the office at 847-381-1261.
Let the Earth Rejoice - Encountering Our Common Home
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, July 14, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Benjamin Rogers, SJ
Let the Earth Rejoice: A Day of Retreat Centered on Encountering Our Common Home invites participants into a contemplative space to experience the sacredness of creation and deepen their relationship with God through the natural world. Rooted in Ignatian spirituality and inspired by Laudato Si’, the day offers a rhythm of prayer, reflection, silence, and time in nature to foster spiritual attentiveness and ecological awareness. Through guided talks, silent contemplation, and Eucharistic celebration, retreatants will explore how creation reveals God and how they are called to live in right relationship with the Earth. This retreat is an opportunity to listen, be renewed, and go forth with a deepened sense of connection and commitment to care for our common home.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Sunday, July 27, 2025
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Come and enjoy a relaxing afternoon at Bellarmine, 1 pm - 4pm. During this unstructured time you can visit your favorite places on the grounds, take a guided tour, chat with a Jesuit, or experience our new prayer labyrinth. Bring family and friends, all ages welcome. Lemonade and cookies will be served.
Program Cost: This event is free, courtesy of Bellarmine. Free will donations accepted. Registrations are still necessary for an appropriate head count.
Saving the Best for Last: Aging and the Spiritual Life
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, October 6, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Rosanne Coury
At the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus changes water into wine. The wine he provides is superior to what had been served earlier in the celebration. Jesus saved the best for last.
As we grow older, we often lament the wine of our youth. Our health, stamina, appearance, memory and relationships morph over time. With those changes we may well feel loss and grief. So much of our world seems to shrink.
The spiritual life, however, keeps growing. In our later years we can discover opportunities for deep encounter with God. Our inner landscape reveals vistas unseen in our earlier years. Our inner eye recognizes patterns as we recollect, and our deepest heart awakens to new awareness of the Divine.
During this day of shared reflection, we will explore ways spirituality can be fostered at this time of life. Scripture, prayer, presentation, and silence will aid us on our journey. All you need to bring is an open heart and a curious spirit. The God who made you is anxious to show you the spiritual riches of the later years. See how the Lord continues to save the best for last.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Transforming Grief
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, November 3, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Paula Kowalkowski
This day of reflection will help retreatants transform their grief. More details will be posted in the near future.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
How the 12 Steps Heal
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, November 24, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Rev Carol Ann Munro, Elizabeth Neubauer & Fr. Roc O'Connor, SJ
12-Step spirituality has had a dramatic impact on spiritual practice over the past ninety years. We will explore how the 12-steps help us enrich our relationships with God. If you curious about the 12 steps, work or live with people in recovery, or experience attachments, compulsions, or addictions, you will find this time enlightening.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Morning of Prayer with the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Fr. Bill Creed, SJ
Here are a few words: A morning of Advent Prayer invites us to prepare to welcome Christ’s birth today in our world and in us. Pray with the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins and his hope-filled words: “the world is charged with the grandeur of God,” “the Holy Spirit over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings,” “I am all at once what Christ is…immortal diamond.”
The afternoon will allow retreatants to enjoy Bellarmine's grounds in silent reflection.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Christmas Tea: Fr. Michael’s Stories of the Birth of Jesus
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, December 15, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ, Terri Davis, Dev Kennedy & Paula Kowalkowski
An Advent favorite for many years now, Fr Michael and his talented friends Terri, Dev, and Paula reprise his imaginative retelling of the Christmas story. Back from popular demand, this day of prayer, songs, and stories is sure to touch your heart, tickle your funny bone, and deepen your appreciation of what this holy season is all about.
Program Cost: $100.00 (includes Lunch)
Couple's Evening of Reflection
An Evening of Reflection for Couples
Friday, February 6, 2026
4:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ
This evening will allow sacramentally married couples to renew their wedding vows before Valentine's Day. A short social, Mass, and a wonderful dinner will allow couples to enjoy an evening together and reflect on their marriage on our sacred grounds.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Dinner)
Where Two are Gathered: Nurturing Strengths, Faith Based Partnerships
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Saturday, February 7, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Molly Henry
Whether engaged, newly married or approaching a milestone anniversary, whether looking to develop a richer committed relationship, friendship or connection with a family member, our day together will help to strengthen this important partnership and increase gratitude and joy in both of your lives.
Through the principles and practices of Ignatian spirituality and strengths-based development, you will gain awareness of and appreciation for your God-given talents and those of your partner. You’ll also discover the value you each bring and what you need to thrive. Together, you will determine how to intentionally bring out the best in each other and make the most of your relationship.
Prior to the retreat, you will each complete a research-based online assessment to discover your greatest talents. The registration fee includes the cost of the assessments.
The deadline to register for this retreat is Friday, January 16, 2026. Participants will need to complete a CliftonStrengths Online Talent Assessment by January 22nd, so that they can discuss them with their partner during this day program. The cost of the online assessment is included in this program.
Please note, that this retreat will involve couples talking to each other and has more time discussion than a usual Bellarmine day program.
Program Cost: $100.00 (includes Lunch)
Ash Wednesday: Between Promise and Fulfillment
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Fr. Roc O'Connor, SJ
We await the birth of Christ Incarnate—the Word made flesh, the Light breaking into our darkness. In this sacred season of Advent, we are invited to listen deeply to the ancient songs and prophetic voices that echo with longing and hope. The scriptures stir our hearts, shaping the contours of our prayer with images of endings and beginnings.
Advent does not simply anticipate a birth—it announces a breaking open. The world as we know it, built on self-sufficiency, endless striving, and the illusion of earning love, begins to crumble. The voice in the wilderness calls us to let go, to make straight the path for something radically new: a God who comes not in power, but in vulnerability.
On this Ash Wednesday Day of Reflection, we will rest in the silence of sacred space and let the Word of God awaken us. Through Ignatian prayer and stillness, we will explore how the Advent scriptures prepare our hearts to receive Emmanuel, God-with-us, who comes as gift, not reward.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Lent as Pilgrimage: The Journey Toward God
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, March 9, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Rachel Forton & Paula Kowalkowski
The call to leave one’s familiar surroundings and go to sacred places has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years. St. Ignatius referred to himself as a pilgrim viewing life as a journey toward heaven. Come and see what pilgrimage is through the eyes of retreat leaders Nancy Hulsebosch and Paula Kowalkowski who have recently walked part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. There will be time to explore the beautiful grounds at Bellarmine and walk the labyrinth with instruction from retreat leader Rachel Forton.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Lenten Day of Prayer: Paying Attention
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, March 30, 2026
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Cameron Bellm
"Attention is the beginning of devotion." --Mary Oliver
"Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer." --Simone Weil
Many artists, poets, and mystics believed that attention was central to the spiritual life, to our experience of God and the world around us. We'll spend this day of reflection drinking deeply from the well of their wisdom, with time to enter into the fullness of God's loving gaze upon us and to practice turning our own loving gaze upon others and upon the wonders of creation. We'll be nourished, together, by the intertwined mysteries of prayer and attention.
We will close the day with the stations of the cross through Mary's eyes, giving us an opportunity to turn our attention and compassion upon all who are suffering and to enter into the Triduum with sensitive and open hearts.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
To Proclaim A Year of Favor from the Lord: A Day of Healing Prayer
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ & A Team of Healers
Come to this day to pray for yourself and for your loved ones. Fr. Michael will introduce us to variety of ways of praying for healing - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. For as many of the retreatants as time allows, there will be the opportunity for brief individual prayer with members of a prayer team The day includes a “Healing Mass” and a closing Healing Prayer Service with Eucharistic Adoration.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Graced Encounters with Christ
A Day of Reflection for Women
Friday, May 8, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Sharon Krone
Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” On this sacred day of reflection, we gather to rest in the assurance of His constant presence. Through Scripture, we will listen for the gentle whisper of His voice. In prayerful silence, we will open our hearts to the Spirit moving within. As we remember moments of grace in our lives, we will recognize the footprints of Christ walking beside us. And in faith-sharing with fellow pilgrims, we will glimpse the face of Jesus in one another.
Come away for a while and be renewed by the quiet beauty of the day—a time to encounter the living Christ who is already here, waiting to meet you in the stillness.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Couple's Evening of Reflection
An Evening of Reflection for Couples
Friday, February 6, 2026
4:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ
This evening will allow sacramentally married couples to renew their wedding vows before Valentine's Day. A short social, Mass, and a wonderful dinner will allow couples to enjoy an evening together and reflect on their marriage on our sacred grounds.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Dinner)
Anamchara: The Soul Friend
A Day of Reflection for Women
Friday, May 9, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Rosanne Coury
True friendship is a powerful gift. We yearn for close companionship. From early childhood until our last days, we seek out people with whom we can share our lives. We depend on these deep relationships increasingly as we grow in experience, age, wisdom, and grace.
During this day of reflection, we explore the ancient tradition of the Anamchara, the Celtic “soul friend.” Together we will reflect on the purpose and meaning of the Anamchara, its ancient Celtic context, how it fits into the Christian worldview, and ways it can spiritually serve us as 21st century women.
Join us in reflecting how women can companion each other in spirituality and friendship.
Program Cost: $75.00 (includes Lunch)
This program begins on Friday, but there is still space available. To register, call the office at 847-381-1261.
Let the Earth Rejoice - Encountering Our Common Home
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, July 14, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Benjamin Rogers, SJ
Let the Earth Rejoice: A Day of Retreat Centered on Encountering Our Common Home invites participants into a contemplative space to experience the sacredness of creation and deepen their relationship with God through the natural world. Rooted in Ignatian spirituality and inspired by Laudato Si’, the day offers a rhythm of prayer, reflection, silence, and time in nature to foster spiritual attentiveness and ecological awareness. Through guided talks, silent contemplation, and Eucharistic celebration, retreatants will explore how creation reveals God and how they are called to live in right relationship with the Earth. This retreat is an opportunity to listen, be renewed, and go forth with a deepened sense of connection and commitment to care for our common home.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Saving the Best for Last: Aging and the Spiritual Life
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, October 6, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Rosanne Coury
At the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus changes water into wine. The wine he provides is superior to what had been served earlier in the celebration. Jesus saved the best for last.
As we grow older, we often lament the wine of our youth. Our health, stamina, appearance, memory and relationships morph over time. With those changes we may well feel loss and grief. So much of our world seems to shrink.
The spiritual life, however, keeps growing. In our later years we can discover opportunities for deep encounter with God. Our inner landscape reveals vistas unseen in our earlier years. Our inner eye recognizes patterns as we recollect, and our deepest heart awakens to new awareness of the Divine.
During this day of shared reflection, we will explore ways spirituality can be fostered at this time of life. Scripture, prayer, presentation, and silence will aid us on our journey. All you need to bring is an open heart and a curious spirit. The God who made you is anxious to show you the spiritual riches of the later years. See how the Lord continues to save the best for last.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Transforming Grief
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, November 3, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Paula Kowalkowski
This day of reflection will help retreatants transform their grief. More details will be posted in the near future.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
How the 12 Steps Heal
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, November 24, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Rev Carol Ann Munro, Elizabeth Neubauer & Fr. Roc O'Connor, SJ
12-Step spirituality has had a dramatic impact on spiritual practice over the past ninety years. We will explore how the 12-steps help us enrich our relationships with God. If you curious about the 12 steps, work or live with people in recovery, or experience attachments, compulsions, or addictions, you will find this time enlightening.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Morning of Prayer with the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Fr. Bill Creed, SJ
Here are a few words: A morning of Advent Prayer invites us to prepare to welcome Christ’s birth today in our world and in us. Pray with the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins and his hope-filled words: “the world is charged with the grandeur of God,” “the Holy Spirit over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings,” “I am all at once what Christ is…immortal diamond.”
The afternoon will allow retreatants to enjoy Bellarmine's grounds in silent reflection.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Christmas Tea: Fr. Michael’s Stories of the Birth of Jesus
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, December 15, 2025
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ, Terri Davis, Dev Kennedy & Paula Kowalkowski
An Advent favorite for many years now, Fr Michael and his talented friends Terri, Dev, and Paula reprise his imaginative retelling of the Christmas story. Back from popular demand, this day of prayer, songs, and stories is sure to touch your heart, tickle your funny bone, and deepen your appreciation of what this holy season is all about.
Program Cost: $100.00 (includes Lunch)
Where Two are Gathered: Nurturing Strengths, Faith Based Partnerships
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Saturday, February 7, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Molly Henry
Whether engaged, newly married or approaching a milestone anniversary, whether looking to develop a richer committed relationship, friendship or connection with a family member, our day together will help to strengthen this important partnership and increase gratitude and joy in both of your lives.
Through the principles and practices of Ignatian spirituality and strengths-based development, you will gain awareness of and appreciation for your God-given talents and those of your partner. You’ll also discover the value you each bring and what you need to thrive. Together, you will determine how to intentionally bring out the best in each other and make the most of your relationship.
Prior to the retreat, you will each complete a research-based online assessment to discover your greatest talents. The registration fee includes the cost of the assessments.
The deadline to register for this retreat is Friday, January 16, 2026. Participants will need to complete a CliftonStrengths Online Talent Assessment by January 22nd, so that they can discuss them with their partner during this day program. The cost of the online assessment is included in this program.
Please note, that this retreat will involve couples talking to each other and has more time discussion than a usual Bellarmine day program.
Program Cost: $100.00 (includes Lunch)
Ash Wednesday: Between Promise and Fulfillment
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Fr. Roc O'Connor, SJ
We await the birth of Christ Incarnate—the Word made flesh, the Light breaking into our darkness. In this sacred season of Advent, we are invited to listen deeply to the ancient songs and prophetic voices that echo with longing and hope. The scriptures stir our hearts, shaping the contours of our prayer with images of endings and beginnings.
Advent does not simply anticipate a birth—it announces a breaking open. The world as we know it, built on self-sufficiency, endless striving, and the illusion of earning love, begins to crumble. The voice in the wilderness calls us to let go, to make straight the path for something radically new: a God who comes not in power, but in vulnerability.
On this Ash Wednesday Day of Reflection, we will rest in the silence of sacred space and let the Word of God awaken us. Through Ignatian prayer and stillness, we will explore how the Advent scriptures prepare our hearts to receive Emmanuel, God-with-us, who comes as gift, not reward.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Lent as Pilgrimage: The Journey Toward God
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, March 9, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Rachel Forton & Paula Kowalkowski
The call to leave one’s familiar surroundings and go to sacred places has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years. St. Ignatius referred to himself as a pilgrim viewing life as a journey toward heaven. Come and see what pilgrimage is through the eyes of retreat leaders Nancy Hulsebosch and Paula Kowalkowski who have recently walked part of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. There will be time to explore the beautiful grounds at Bellarmine and walk the labyrinth with instruction from retreat leader Rachel Forton.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Lenten Day of Prayer: Paying Attention
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Monday, March 30, 2026
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Cameron Bellm
"Attention is the beginning of devotion." --Mary Oliver
"Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer." --Simone Weil
Many artists, poets, and mystics believed that attention was central to the spiritual life, to our experience of God and the world around us. We'll spend this day of reflection drinking deeply from the well of their wisdom, with time to enter into the fullness of God's loving gaze upon us and to practice turning our own loving gaze upon others and upon the wonders of creation. We'll be nourished, together, by the intertwined mysteries of prayer and attention.
We will close the day with the stations of the cross through Mary's eyes, giving us an opportunity to turn our attention and compassion upon all who are suffering and to enter into the Triduum with sensitive and open hearts.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
To Proclaim A Year of Favor from the Lord: A Day of Healing Prayer
A Day of Reflection for Adults
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leaders:
Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ & A Team of Healers
Come to this day to pray for yourself and for your loved ones. Fr. Michael will introduce us to variety of ways of praying for healing - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. For as many of the retreatants as time allows, there will be the opportunity for brief individual prayer with members of a prayer team The day includes a “Healing Mass” and a closing Healing Prayer Service with Eucharistic Adoration.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)
Graced Encounters with Christ
A Day of Reflection for Women
Friday, May 8, 2026
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Retreat Leader:
Sharon Krone
Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” On this sacred day of reflection, we gather to rest in the assurance of His constant presence. Through Scripture, we will listen for the gentle whisper of His voice. In prayerful silence, we will open our hearts to the Spirit moving within. As we remember moments of grace in our lives, we will recognize the footprints of Christ walking beside us. And in faith-sharing with fellow pilgrims, we will glimpse the face of Jesus in one another.
Come away for a while and be renewed by the quiet beauty of the day—a time to encounter the living Christ who is already here, waiting to meet you in the stillness.
Program Cost: $80.00 (includes Lunch)