Faculty Spend MLK Holiday In Contemplation
On Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 16 and 17, faculty and staff attended a silent retreat in Manresa House of Retreats in Convent, La. The annual faculty retreat is on a rotating schedule, alternating between a talking retreat held at Solomon Episcopal Retreat Center and a silent retreat at Manresa.
Fr. Aaron Pidel, S.J., who served as a teacher and campus minister at Jesuit during his regency from 2005-2008, was the director of the retreat. Fr. Pidel is currently completing his Ph.D. studies in theology at the University of Notre Dame and took time before the semester began to spend time with his former colleagues. Drawing from The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Fr. Pidel presented on the theme of the teacher as a force for personal influence in the lives of his or her students.
Each day officially beganĀ at 9:00 a.m. and ended around 3:00 p.m. after Holy Mass in the Sacred Heart Chapel on the grounds. Over 40 attendees stayed overnight, enjoying the silence and peace of the grounds.
The Jesuit faculty retreat is part of an overarching program of faculty formation, which includes the mentor program and the three year faculty formation program for new teachers. The goal of faculty formation is to bring teachers into contact with the pedagogy and spirituality of the Society of Jesus.