Weekend and Overnight Retreats
These Charis retreats draw between 25 and 60 people. Each retreat centers around listening and silent reflection followed by conversations in small groups. There are several different retreat designs, some of which begin with dinner on Friday or on Saturday afternoon and end with Sunday lunch.

• The Seeker’s Retreat: Taking Time to Look Inside
• Who Do You Say I Am?: Exploring Our Connection to Jesus
• Decisions! Decisions!...And the transitions that follows
• For the Least: Service, Justice & Catholic Social Teaching
• Called and Chosen: Renewing your Catholic Faith
• Spirit @Work Within: Exploring the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
• Sex in the City of God: Faith, Intimacy and Relationships

Each retreat is led by a team of four to six men and women in their 20s and 30s under the leadership of a Jesuit and a lay pastoral minister. Each team member speaks on an aspect of the weekend’s topic and where God has been in his or her own life. On retreat they will also lead conversations in small groups and lead morning or evening prayer.

Each retreat includes:

Talks given by peers

Theological overviews by priests and other pastoral ministers

Contemporary themes, music and media

Opportunities for liturgy, reconciliation & spiritual direction

Time for casual conversation with others during meals and breaks

Time for rest, prayer and private reflection

Connecting spiritually and socially with others in their 20s & 30s
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Silent, Individually-Directed Retreat: Come to the Quiet
“Try to keep your soul always in peace and quiet. It is…a grace to be able to enjoy the Lord in different times and different places".
– St. Ignatius of Loyola.
This retreat focuses on silencing the noises in your life and meeting daily with a spiritual director. The silence allows space and quiet for listening to your thoughts and prayers. The spiritual director gives you guidance in listening to where God’s spirit is moving. A Charis individually directed retreat is for those in their 20s and 30s, married and single, seeking to deepen their relationship with God and to taste what stillness has to offer. The retreat is a time for:

Experiencing new ways to pray

Spending much of the day in silence and contemplation—journaling, enjoying the scriptures, art, music, reading, walking the grounds, resting, and listening to one’s own thoughts

Meeting each day one-on-one with a spiritual director

Following the path of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Come to the Quiet is offered as a five-day retreat in Chicago each summer. Twice a year this retreat is also offered in an introductory weekend format.

With the week-long retreat, held annually in the summer, participants may come for any number of days—one, two, five, or the entire week. Many attend the weekend retreat held at the same retreat house on either the weekend before or after the silent retreat.

The weekend retreat format offers many of the same opportunities of the week-long in a fixed number of days.
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One-Day Retreats
The one-day retreats take a weekend retreat topic and adapt it to fit a single-day format. Elements of the weekend retreat that are incorporated into the one-day retreats include peer talk presentations, listening, silent reflection, conversations in small groups, time for casual conversation with others and liturgy or reconciliation.
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Days of Reflection
Days of Reflection are one-day explorations of a season or topic using scripture, prayer, preaching, silent reflection, conversation in small groups and storytelling with nationally or well known presenters. Usually held on a Saturday, Days of Reflection begin with morning coffee and refreshments, include lunch, and conclude with liturgy, reconciliation or prayer.

Lenten and Advent Days of Reflection are held seasonally and focus on preparing our hearts for the celebration to come by exploring the connection between our own lives and the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Other days of reflection held throughout the year might have a specific aspect of spirituality as the focus. These one-day retreats more easily fit into busy schedules of men and women in their 20s and 30s. Attendance is typically between 40 and 100 people.
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Speaker Series
Speaker series evenings gather men and women in their 20s and 30s motivated by meaningful topics and interesting speakers. Some evenings are headlined by an inspiring first hand account of an individual putting faith into action, while other evenings feature thoughtful, engaging presentations about relevant aspects of Ignatian Spirituality. Most evenings are followed by complimentary refreshments and time to talk one on one with the speaker and meet new people with similar interests.
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Service Projects
Annually, Charis Ministries leads a trip to a rural area to be of service to others in need. Whether to Oklahoma, northern Mississippi or another location in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, men and women in their 20s and 30s labor, repair and work as they pray and live simply. This time away from day-to-day life is a chance to serve with others, share faith and build community. Locally, Charis teams with other organizations, such as NW Young Adult Ministry to co-sponsor days of service in the greater Chicagoland area.
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Evening Vespers
This season Vespers prayer services are being held in Chicago's Northwest Suburbs at Church of the Holy Spirit, Schaumburg. These regularly scheduled evenings gather those in their 20s and 30s midweek for an hour of prayer. Charis offers those young adults who have training in ministry an opportunity to preach or preside at evening Vespers. Vespers is followed by time to socialize and connect with Charis friends new and old.
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Evening Mass
Regularly scheduled evening Mass centers around gathering midweek with others in their 20s and 30s to celebrate the Eucharist followed by socializing with others. Often we extend a special invitation to those from a recent retreat to attend a particular Charis Mass and catch up with fellow retreatants.
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Spiritual Direction
Spiritual direction focuses on your relationship with God through one-on-one conversations between the director and you. These conversations generally last an hour and are scheduled every three to four weeks. The director helps a person listen to and articulate God’s call in prayer and in life and to respond in love. Read more about Spiritual Direction.

Charis Ministries pairs young adults with an available director who could be a Jesuit scholastic (seminarian) or priest, nun or lay pastoral minister trained in the art of spiritual direction. Beginning spiritual direction involves completing a short series of questions about you, your background and your current prayer and faith life. Spiritual direction application
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Pilgrimage
On one-week and two-week domestic or international pilgrimage trips, groups travel, pray and follow in the footsteps of spiritual heroes who have gone before us. Past trips have included Mexico, Kentucky, Spain and the shrines of North American saints.
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Training & Workshops
Charis trainings and workshops feature small group leadership training and the discernment workshop. If you would like to take a leadership role in young adult ministry, small group facilitator training focuses on developing an awareness of and utilizing the interpersonal skills and techniques most critical to leading a small reflection group. Attend the discernment workshop to explore the psychological and spiritual aspects of the process of decision-making. Trainings and workshops are offered periodically throughout the year.
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