The Ignatian Directed Retreat will be privileged time for you to deepen your relationship with God. You will be assigned a trained spiritual director with whom you will meet briefly each day to discern the movements of God in your life as revealed through your prayer.
The “direction” of directed retreats is that of discovering and exploring your own journey in faith and life and what path better helps you go in the direction you seek and Jesus invites. Embedded in the tradition of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, your retreat is made with a retreat director who supports, listens, and has made the journey before. For those who are able, daily walks with Ignatian teachings will also be available. Aside from these daily conversations and the time you set aside for your own personal prayer, your retreat time is unstructured. Mass will be available throughout the week.
This is a silent retreat. Check-in begins at 4pm, and the retreat will begin with an orientation session at 5pm. The retreat will end after lunch on Saturday.
Please indicate your preference for a spiritual director in the “Special Needs” part of the online registration form.
Nancy Bickel has served as a hospice nurse and as a nurse in psychiatry. She has a master’s in Pastoral Care and Spirituality, has studied Ignatian Spirituality, and is a certified spiritual director. She has been serving as a spiritual director since 2004. Nancy is a member of the Secular Carmelite Order and is a wife, mother to three daughters, and grandmother to three teenagers. She enjoys living on a small farm in Maryland.
Fr. Patrick Bergquist, M.Div. spent nearly 20 years as a missionary along the Yukon River in Northern Alaska, but now explores a wilderness far less chartered — that of the human spirit and soul. A diocesan priest of Fairbanks, he holds a Master of Divinity degree from St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore and Certificates in Spiritual Direction from the Heychia School in Tucson, Arizona and the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University in Chicago, where he specialized in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Additionally, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literary Arts from the University of Alaska Anchorage. He’s a poet, a spiritual memoirist, and the author of The Long Dark Winter’s Night: Reflections of a Priest in a Time of Pain and Privilege, as well as various articles in publications such as Spiritual Life and American Magazine.
Dee Papania, D.Min. began her career in professional ministry over 23 years ago and continues to serve at St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Church in Woodstock, Maryland. Previously filling roles as Pastoral Associate, Director of Faith Formation, Director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality, and coordinator for the parish’s Retreat Directors Team, in September 2018 she was appointed Parish Life Director by Archbishop Lori. Her academic accomplishments include a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies, master’s degrees in Theology and Church Management, and a Doctor of Ministry degree. She is a trained Spiritual Director in the tradition of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. She has completed formation through the Jesuit/Lay Collaborative (now called the Office of Ignatian Spirituality) and has taught in the Archdiocesan Equip for Ministry Program.
(Paul Gallagher, D.Min. will also serve as a spiritual director, but his directee schedule is full.)