From time to time I hear of people looking for a spiritual getaway, a place to pray and re-center. A place that is familiar to many in Jesuit circles, especially on the west coast, is El Retiro San Iñigo, the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, just outside San Jose, CA.

It’s a beautiful, quiet site that offers retreats for men and women of all ages and backgrounds. It offers weekend retreats, 8-day retreats, and even the 30-day Spiritual Exercises. The El Retiro website notes:

Weekend retreats usually begin with a reception Friday evening, followed by dinner and a first presentation on the theme of the retreat.  If it is a silent retreat, silence begins after the presentation as we walk to Rossi Chapel for Mass.  The remainder of the weekend has additional presentations and Masses, opportunities for individual conferences, Reconciliation, perhaps a healing service — and very notably, the occasion to relax, rest, pray, and step away for a while from all the distractions of life.  The retreat concludes with lunch on Sunday.
 
The history of our faith is filled with examples of those who retreated in order to hear more clearly the call of God — Moses, Jesus, Teresa of Ávila, Ignatius, Dorothy Day, to name but a few.
 
You will be guided by trained and experienced directors who offer the wisdom of their own spiritual journey and as well as their experience conducting retreats here and elsewhere.

See here for a list of upcoming retreats. 

Matt Emerson's essays have appeared in a number of publications, including America, Commonweal, and the Wall Street Journal. The Catholic Press Association named his September 2012 essay "Help Their Unbelief," published in America, as the "best essay" in the category of national general interest magazine for 2012. He is the author of the book Why Faith? A Journey of Discovery (Paulist Press 2016).Articles:Fruitful Searching (Jan. 5-12, 2015)Preambles for Faith (May 13, 2013)Help Their Unbelief (Sept. 10, 2012)Posts at The Ignatian Educator