On October 11, a virtual pilgrimage called “Journey with Ignatius: Finding God in All Things” went live on the newly developed and free “Journey with Ignatius” app–– hosted by Boston College’s Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, in collaboration with the Roche Center for Catholic Education and The Church in the 21st Century (C21) Center. The inspiration for a virtual Ignatian retreat through a mobile app has its roots in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When BC shut down in March, we were for, maybe a week, without Candlelight Mass. People had asked us if we would go online for that so we brought Candlelight Mass online and it brought all sorts of non-BC undergrads, recent alums, and other long-term alums,” said Fr. Casey Beaumier, SJ, director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies.
“There were a significant number of people who asked us if we would continue to broadcast that Mass. I said no because it’s a student initiative and we wouldn’t do that during the summer normally anyway, but we knew that we had touched a need for people,” Fr. Casey added.
The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies continued to address this need by hosting the virtual retreat “Manresa: Spiritual Exercises for our Times” from May 11-14, which had 900 people participate. A longer “12 Weeks in Manresa: Spiritual Exercises for our Times” virtual retreat was offered by the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies from June 7 to August 30 allowing 1,100 individuals to “go deeper into the Spiritual Exercises as a community” through daily prayer and Jesuit reading, presentations on the Spiritual Exercises, and small group faith sharing.
“The great thing was in the middle of that twelve-week retreat, we knew that there should be something next,” Fr. Casey said. “We started to have conversations in the middle of the summer with Karen Kiefer from C21 and Melodie Wyttenbach, who runs the Roche Center… We talked about this idea around what a virtual pilgrimage might look like. C21 has so many online resources so we said: ‘Could we bring C21 and Roche together with the Institute and promote all of the things that we do together and try to magnify the Catholic and Jesuit contributions that BC makes for those wider networks?’”
Connor Sullivan, CSOM ‘20, helped code the “Journey with Ignatius” app over the summer.
The app allows participants to focus on the life and teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola by engaging with four separate tabs. The “Journey” tab shows a weekly video that touches on a meaningful location in St. Ignatius’ life journey and excerpts from St. Ignatius’ biography and autobiography. The “Today” tab consists of four daily activities that involve a daily reading from a Jesuit source, a daily verse from Scripture to contemplate, a feature allowing the Apple Health app to track your weekly steps during mindful exercise, and an audio-guided Examen. The “Community” tab is a social page where participants can share reflections, quotes, and prayer intentions, and the “Discover” tab has links to programming and videos from the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, The C21 Center, and the Roche Center. The pilgrimage also allows participants to form small groups that meet regularly to discuss the faith and their retreat experiences.
“I really enjoy the way the ‘Mind’ and ‘Soul’ tabs work together combined with the ability to dive deeper into the “Discover” materials,” Peter Egan, BC Law ‘98 and retreat participant, said. “My wife has me printing out and bringing home some of the C21 magazines and my daughter loved the David Brooks’ ‘Moral Bucket List’ essay. I think that the app is a great gateway to so much thoughtful information. It is well-organized and lets the participant browse and read whenever convenient.”
The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies hopes to repeat this virtual pilgrimage later in 2021, and also wants to create another version of the retreat for Boston College’s Ever to Excel program, which is a week-long summer program allowing high school students to participate in Spiritual Exercises and group reflections.
The current virtual pilgrimage will conclude on New Year’s Day 2021, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
Featured image courtesy of The Church in 21st Century Center
Max Montana is a senior studying philosophy and theology. When not writing for The Torch, he enjoys reading more about the Catholic faith and philosophy, serving the unborn and mothers in need, and hanging out with friends. Max is honored to hail from the state with many gators and the bishop of the moon: Florida.
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