In Colorado.

This post comes to you from Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House in Sedalia, Colorado, about an hour south of Denver. I’m here for the Arrupe Experience, a period of intensely focused spiritual preparation for priesthood which Jesuit scholastics throughout the world are expected to complete before ordination, typically after the first or second year of theological studies. The Arrupe Experience includes an eight-day silent retreat (which will start in a couple of days) as well as some days of reading, reflection, and conversation focused on priestly identity and its place in the life of the Society of Jesus.

More informally, the Arrupe Experience also provides an opportunity to renew relationships with Jesuit contemporaries whom one has come into contact with at earlier points in formation but may not have seen for a while; the group I’m with now includes some of my novitiate classmates as well as some of my confreres from philosophy studies at Fordham. There are about forty of us here in Sedalia, hailing from four continents and representing all three of the Jesuit theological centers in North America (Berkeley, Boston, and Toronto). This blog will remain silent for the next couple of weeks, with an update of some sort hopefully coming after the Arrupe Experience is over. In the meantime, prayers for all of us would be much appreciated. AMDG.