Introducing the "Busy Persons' Retreat: Creating Space for God in Everyday Life" in November, 2024.

The video above just begins to tell the story of how we will introduce 20 people to a deeper spiritual life with the help of 20 certified Spiritual Guides. Each of the Spiritual Guides is a fully Certified, Supervised and Confidential Spiritual Director, trained in the discernment practices of Ignatius of Loyola and nourished by the mendicant tradition of Saint Dominic. Participants will have 2 individual meetings, a week apart, with their Spiritual Director.

Will you help me and my hand-picked team of spiritual leaders make this innovative retreat for the people of West Michigan become a reality?

How do we put to use your donation?

The overall budget is $4,500. Most of this is for the stipends of the Spiritual Directors (who will each receive a professional fee of $200). The donations of the participants will cover about $2000 towards meeting this budget. I have personally donated $500 as seed money. Now I need your help in raising the remaining $2000. I am looking for someone to put up a matching grant of $1000. Then I am inviting donations of $250, $100, and $50.

More than anything, I want YOUR participation at whatever level you can. If we raise more than $2000 this year, the surplus will be seed money for next years Busy Person's Retreat. Thank you! Fr. Bill

Background Information for Fr. Bill Edens:

Last May I achieved certification as a Spiritual Director through the 2-year Ignatian Internship in the "Ministry of Listening" offered by Manresa Jesuit Retreat Center in Bloomfield Hills, MI (north of Detroit). I now collaborate with the Dominican Sisters of Marywood in Grand Rapids who have produced about 60 Spiritual Directors through their internship program.

I got excited about the possibilities of raising awareness of Spiritual Direction to those who have not heard of it. This retreat is a collaboration of the Paulist Catholic Information Center and the Dominican Sisters of Marywood to make Spiritual Direction available to a wider audience. With this retreat we aim to transform the spiritual lives of 20 participants, and through them to reach their families and circles of associates and friends through a ripple effect.

For many people there is a hunger to spend a week or a weekend in a spiritual place to relax and refocus their lives. However, many people are too busy with making ends meet, taking care of their families, preparing for their professions, keeping life organized to get away on a retreat. Thus, the Busy Persons' Retreat.

There will be group opening and closing sessions on November 3rd and 17th.

The participants (directees) will take time for prayer every day for directed prayer and reading, and meet once a week for two weeks with a Spiritual Director, either in person or by zoom. There will be a mid-course reflection session by Zoom on December 11th and a final session on December 17th (in person) and December 18th by Zoom.