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Photos
By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer
ATLANTA-Renovations at Ignatius House, the Jesuit
Retreat Center overlooking the Chattahoochee River, were blessed in
December, helping to update the place where lay people can come to be
spiritually refreshed for their lives, work and ministries. A new glass-walled
dining room, with views of the wooded setting, a new kitchen, offices
and counseling areas were blessed by Archbishop John F. Donoghue at
a prayer service Dec. 17. New outdoor Stations of the Cross and a stained-glass
cross designed by Father Methodius Telnack, OCSO, overlooking the river,
enhance the prayer environment on the beautiful grounds. Jesuit priests,
assisted by a lay staff of administrators and retreat leaders, run Ignatius
House, which has served the archdiocese since 1958. "Certainly our hearts
are filled with gratitude for each one of you," Father Jack Vessels,
SJ, director, said to staff members and supporters gathered for the
evening blessing. "Your support is heartfelt and we feel that and we
know that." Archbishop Donoghue recalled Suzanne Spalding Schroder,
who donated the grounds and her family home to the Jesuits, to start
the retreat center. Her partnership with the Jesuits began a "work of
love and devotion 44 years ago," the archbishop said, that continues
to provide a setting for men and women to come away for awhile with
God and leave blessed and moving toward greater holiness. "God bless
all of you for what you have done to make this dream a reality," the
archbishop said of the improvements, which are the first major renovations
done since Ignatius House began. About $1.4 million was raised to accomplish
them. An additional $800,000 or so is still to be raised to build a
needed chapel. The Jesuit tradition is to offer silent weekend retreats,
based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, and also to have longer
five- to eight-day silent retreats for those desiring a deeper time
of reflection. In the retreats, open to men and women, a series of talks
given by the retreat director, or assistant directors, focus the reflection
time. Participants can receive individual spiritual direction and Mass
and the sacraments are offered. The proliferation of movements within
the church following the Second Vatican Council has led to a variety
of retreat weekends like Cursillo and Marriage Encounter, said Father
Vessels. Without taking anything away from those movements or retreat
experiences, he believes they are enhanced if people also have an annual
silent weekend retreat in the Ignatian tradition. Those active in movements
and in parish ministries, and busy with families and demanding jobs,
need time to be one-on-one with God and to experience the silence in
which the Holy Spirit can be heard, he said. "You need a good weekend
retreat, you with God, to fill yourself with those insights of the Holy
Spirit . . . Once you get your inspiration, you go to the group, you
go to the movement . . . The two go together." Ignatius House wants
to serve as the place where people, including leaders of parishes and
those in ministry, "get that inner spark, that inner inspiration to
keep them happy, with inner peace" as they serve the Lord, the director
said. The new dining room has an increased seating capacity for more
than 70 people, replacing a narrow, confined dining area, and will allow
more people to attend each retreat. The old dining room and old kitchen
area were redesigned into five offices and two counseling areas, which
frees up some areas that were turned back into bedrooms for retreatants.
The retreat house now has 50 individual bedrooms with bathrooms. About
20 are doubles and can be occupied by married couples, although people
are encouraged to take separate rooms, Father Vessels said, in order
to have the most space and privacy for retreats. A new second-story
deck at the retreat house also gives retreatants another outdoor place
to relax, pray and read. Buildings are being connected by covered walkways.
Architect Jimmy Smith from the Atlanta firm Perkins & Will has donated
much of his time for the renovations at the retreat center that he has
been coming to since he was a teenager. "It's a special place and it's
a labor of love for me," he said. The materials and the placement of
the buildings are carefully planned to sustain a very natural environment.
"The wood will age. It is meant to eventually, in a very natural way,
blend in with the setting. The building is a background to the setting."
A fund drive primarily succeeded on modest donations from many caring
people, said John O'Kane, vice president of Coxe, Curry & Associates,
who coordinated the pledge campaign. "This money was raised in faithful
handfuls," he said. "There were two or three very generous large gifts.
A lot were small." Despite more difficult economic times, which affected
the drive, they have brought in $1.4 million out of a $1.5 million goal,
said Bob Fitzgerald, assistant retreat house director, because some
people gave more than they pledged and others completed pledges early.
Next in the plans, when sufficient funds are raised, is building a chapel
where Mass can be celebrated for retreatants and where conferences can
be held. At the present time, retreat Masses are celebrated in a conference
room, while a small chapel within Ignatius House where the Blessed Sacrament
is reposed is available for meditation. "We still have got to raise
$700,000-$800,000 for the chapel," Father Vessels said. "We won't do
it until we have enough. The dining room is paid for, we haven't had
to borrow a cent, thanks to the campaign and thanks to John and Bob
and Debbie (Brumelow)." The dedicated lay staff, some of whom have worked
there for 13 years, "are really the heart and soul of this place," Father
Vessels said. He is building on the work of his predecessor, Father
Jim Babb, SJ, to reach the point where Ignatius House offers 50 retreats
a year, each filled with 50 retreatants. Right now, he said, about 30
weekends a year are given by the Jesuits and staff, and about 800 people
a year attend. In addition, Debbie Brumelow, the administrator, keeps
the retreat house booked on weekends that are not used for Ignatian
retreats. Engaged Encounter uses the facility about six to eight weekends
a year, he said. The Jesuits also offer a "retreat in daily life" where
a retreatant meets weekly with a spiritual director and commits to an
hour of prayer a day for an eight-month period. About 25 people have
made this retreat, Father Vessels said, and from this group some lay
people now give selected talks on retreat weekends, perhaps two or three
out of the 11 talks. In addition to the renovations, Ignatius House
approved the building of a cellular tower on its grounds, on the condition
that it be constructed according to their specifications, with a stained-glass
cross in front of the covered tower. Designed by Father Methodius from
the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, the cross high atop the
riverbanks reflects the sunlight. It is surrounded by a prayer wall
with 22 symbols from the Old and New Testament tracing salvation history.
"When the sun is behind it, it is really stunning," Father Vessels said.
"Retreatants spend a lot of time there."
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