On September 17, 2001, I drove into St. Ignatius Retreat House (Inisfada) in Manhasset for the first time. Once I did, I never really left. I regularly attended Mass, retreats, and other programs there. I did my training in retreat house ministry there and then, after completing my training as a spiritual director, became a member of the adjunct ministrial staff. Even after my move to Minneapolis in 2007, I have continued to go back to the retreat house to give retreats.
St. Ignatius Retreat House will close on June 1. I’ve known for close to a year that this was happening. But learning the other day that today begins the last directed retreat there makes the closing seem all the more imminant. Makes it much harder to put the June 1 closing date out of my mind.
“We could use prayer for this last retreat,” wrote one of the staff associates.
I will be this weekend praying for those involved in the last retreat. I will be praying in the weeks ahead for all who have be blessed by the retreat house these many years and who will be touched by its loss. And I will pray prayers of thanksgiving for the many blessings I have received in my years there.
This weekend, I will begin praying my good-byes.
Creo en Dios! 