Sacred Story Retreat completes its fifth year

The Sacred story Retreat finished its fifth year with a retreat in South Fork at the Beaver Creek Youth Camp.

The Sacred Story Retreat is a 45 to 50 week retreat in daily life based on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Father Don Malin has been leading this retreat for five years after having made the Retreat himself privately at the behest of Bishop Berg and the Presbiteral Council.

The program, written by Fr. William Watson SJ, was presented to the Presbyteral Council and 10 to 20 Diocesan priests volunteered to make the retreat in daily life in order to evaluate its usefulness in the Diocese of Pueblo for the laity and for forming intentional disciples.

Fr. Don Malin has been giving Ignatian Exercises since 1996 under the direction of Fr. Robert Hagan, who was his spiritual director. Then he branched out on his own after being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pueblo.

Fr. Don decided to add some materials in to Fr Watson’s program to make the retreat more effective for lay persons without much catechetical formation beyond their First Communion and Confirmation classes.

This year there were 26 individuals from three different regions who made the full 50 weeks together. The three regional groups were centered in Pueblo, Monte Vista and Grand Junction. The groups would meet the same time every week on Tuesday night and Fr. Don would Zoom® in his Retreat talks for between a half hour and 40 minutes every meeting.

Once a month, there would be a regional group meeting with Fr. Don coming to meet in person with that regional group. Those visits would include time for confessions or spiritual direction, a meal, and a teaching or question-and-answer session.

At the end of the year, there is always offered a retreat held in South Fork at the Beaver Creek Youth Camp for five days. Although all were encouraged to come. Twenty-two of the participants made the trip. Some of them couldn’t stay for the full duration for various personal reasons.

If you have questions about the Sacred Story Retreat, you can contact Fr. Malin by email at frdonmalin@gmail.com.

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