Spiritual Direction on a Retreat: An Interview with Deacon Gerald Nora

For those new to the experience of speaking to a spiritual director in the context of an Ignatian retreat, Deacon Gerald Nora shares about his ministry of spiritual direction at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, IL.

Denise Gorss for Loyola Press: How long have you been a spiritual director?

Deacon Jerry Nora: I have ministered as a spiritual director for nine years.

DG: What should retreatants expect when talking to a spiritual director on retreat?

DJN: When talking with a spiritual director, a retreatant should expect a listener who is interested in whatever aspects of the retreatant’s life that one is bringing into reflection and prayer. At Bellarmine, the spiritual director will be trained in the Ignatian tradition and will support the retreatant’s efforts to deepen or clarify the retreatant’s relationship with God. The Ignatian director will typically suggest passages from Scripture and other means and methods to assist the retreatant’s dialogue with God.

DG: Why talk to a spiritual director?

The conversation with the director is meant to help enhance the primary conversations during retreat, one’s dialogues with God.

DJN: With a spiritual director, one has the opportunity of talking with someone who wants to hear about one’s spiritual life and relationship with God. The spiritual director can affirm the retreatant’s experience, help the retreatant clarify issues in one’s spiritual life, and offer suggestions on how to better encounter God in prayer. The conversation with the director is meant to help enhance the primary conversations during retreat, one’s dialogues with God. The spiritual director conversation is important but secondary.

DG: What makes the experience of retreats at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House special?

DJN: Bellarmine retreats offer a full panoply of resources for promoting awareness and enjoyment of the sacred. First, Bellarmine is a hospitable place where silence, comfortable quarters, and good food allow one to decompress from the stressors and distractions of the busy world. The natural beauty of Bellarmine’s woods, meadows, gardens, and wildlife enable one to enjoy God’s first gifts to humanity. The company of fellow retreatants, religious, priests, and directors in a silent but prayerful place reinforces one’s sense of the transcendent. Then one’s individual prayer is supported with whatever devotional and liturgical resources one requires or desires. One has time for contemplation, whether in one’s room, the chapel, outside in nature, or in either of two libraries. Then one may listen to the preached retreat, talk with the spiritual director, enjoy Eucharistic Adoration, receive the sacraments, pray with Scripture, attend a healing service, or simply rest in bed. The choices seem numerous, but the Spirit leads people to what will best serve their time with God.

DG: What do you wish people knew about going on retreat?

DJN: People should know that retreats work. St. Ignatius recommends entering a retreat with a generous, hospitable heart that is open to the Holy Spirit and God’s will. If the retreatant asks God for the grace one wants and resolves to accept the grace God gives, things happen.

Interested in retreat opportunities at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House near Chicago? Browse the schedule of weekend retreats and days of reflection, including retreats with Loyola Press authors Vinita Hampton Wright and Becky Eldredge.