By Gretchen Keiser

This is a jubilee year for Jesuits, worldwide and in the Atlanta archdiocese.

Ignatius House, the Jesuit-staffed retreat house on Riverside Drive, celebrated its 30th anniversary in January.

And the Jesuit order is in the middle of an anniversary year. Throughout the world Jesuits are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Ignatius, who formed the Society of Jesus and the 450th anniversary of the order.

Father George Wiltz, director of the Atlanta retreat house, says that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola are the core of the spiritual gift that any Jesuit center has to offer the public. This is especially applicable to the work of a retreat house.

Father Wiltz explained that retreats arose over the centuries in the Church precisely because so many ordinary people wanted to become acquainted with and to use the Spiritual Exercises. There were not enough Jesuits to teach people one-on-one. The retreat movement began as a way for the exercises to be taught by a Jesuit to a group.

In the Atlanta archdiocese, Ignatius House is one of only three Catholic settings where people can make a retreat. The others are the Cistercian monastery in Conyers and the Visitation monastery in Snellville.

Ignatius House in Atlanta began as a gift from a family named Schroder, whose son, Father John, is a Jesuit in Belize.

Mrs. Suzanne Schroder gave the Jesuits the family’s summer home overlooking the Chattahoochee River and about 15 acres of land.

Another familiar Jesuit name, Father M. V. Jarreau, the brother of Father Niel Jarreau, came to Atlanta and oversaw the building of the retreat house which opened January 12 thirty years ago.

Jesuits had been a presence in Georgia in the 1800s, but did not come to Atlanta until Ignatius House began.

In the 1980s Father Schroder came for several years, followed by Father Niel Jarreau. Building up the number of Jesuit-run retreats has been their concern throughout the last decade. From giving 12 group retreats a year, the staff has now built up to the capacity to attract and give 36 group retreats annually. Father Wiltz came as director in 1988.

In addition the Cursillo movement, other groups make use of the retreat house for their own programs.

The goals is to make Ignatius House a Jesuit retreat house, rather than a retreat house that serves as a home base for many groups and programs.

“We look at the Jesuit retreat as our charism,” Father Wiltz said. It is a time for mediation on one or more of the themes in the Spiritual Exercises, after talks presented by the person directing the retreat. Silence, quiet and reflection are characteristics. While retreats are made in a group, the experience is personal, between God and the retreatant.

When St. Ignatius wrote the exercises he was a layman, quite uneducated from a rugged, even macho background, Father Wiltz said. Yet the exercises are “a masterpiece of psychology and the spiritual life.”

To complete the full exercises takes 30 days of prayer following the direction outlined by Ignatius. “We make the full 30 days twice in our lives, Jesuits do, and it’s a phenomenal experience,” Father Wiltz observed.

Over the first week, the topic is God’s love, His gifts and our response to Him. The second week it is God’s love through Christ and Christ’s love for us as the World of God. The third week the theme is Christ’s Passion, what he did at the Last Supper and in the Eucharist. The fourth week is a meditation on the resurrected life.

“Talks are given to present the key ideas and to suggest areas to pray about. The idea of silence is not to distract, but to listen. It takes two or three days to get into it. You don’t realize until you slow down how tired you are. It takes awhile to slow down and get away from distractions,” Father Wiltz said.

The variety of retreats offered includes private, directed retreats where a person meets one-on-one with a director who uses the exercises to help the person come to an awareness of God and to listen, whatever particular season of life or problem may be present.

Other approaches are to come as part of a parish group. About 20 parishes have weekends at Ignatius House blocked out for retreats when their parishioners come as a group.

If a person wishes, he or she can join a retreat structured around states of life or particular needs. Retreats for those grieving, for 12-Step program members, for divorced and separated, for couples, for father-son and mother-daughter groups, for physicians and lawyers, for Jesuit alumni-ae, for single people, are also planned.

There are also general adult retreats regularly held and open to men, women and couples.

Many people go on retreats when they are facing a problem or crisis, or a major decision, but others come just to grow in their spiritual lives.

Ignatius House is also a place where special groups, from St. Joseph’s Hospital nurses, to Episcopal chaplains, to Eastern Rite bishops, come for a day or more of reflection, often during less busy middle-of-the-week days.

Traditionally retreats begin with Friday supper and end after lunch on Sunday.

A fee is not charged for retreats, but a free will offering is taken up. The guideline suggested is $100 for a two-day retreat, but some who are unable to pay come and others give more.

Father Wiltz also raises money, $40,000 last year, to subsidize the retreat house and make ends meet. The Jesuit order does not support Ignatius House. It must be self-supporting.

The retreats are frequently directed by two Jesuits on the staff of Ignatius House, Father Vincent Malatesta and Father Kirk Mansell. Formerly a diocesan priest in Paterson, N.J., Father Malatesta is a liturgical composer who most recently composed a Mass for the Ignatian year that will be used by Jesuits in the 1991 celebrations.

A teacher, he received his doctorate in theology in 1976 at the pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and entered the Jesuits in 1979 after 18 years as a diocesan priest. Father Mansell was ordained in 1984 and holds a master’s degree in counseling, in addition to his theological studies. He is bi-ritual for the Byzantine Rite and directed Jesuit retreats in Louisiana prior to coming to Ignatius House.

The kitchen at the Jesuit residence is also active these days, as Father Wiltz is an accomplished Cajun cook, whose skills have been auctioned to lucky bidders at school and parish fundraisers, and Father Mansell and Father Malatesta are skilled cooks and bakers, respectively.

It is possible to give someone a gift of a retreat by contacting Ignatius House, which will send a gift certificate to the person. You might consider giving yourself the gift also.