After 18 years of teaching science at Mayfield Junior School in Pasadena, Calif. and at the Cornelia Connelly School in Anaheim, Calif., Sr. Lucy Malarkey began her ministry of spiritual direction when the rector of Theological College in Washington, D.C., asked her to fill a vacancy on the formation faculty.

For the next 10 years, Sr. Lucy lived at the seminary and worked with seminarians from all over the country, as well as from several other countries. For five of these years, she also taught a course in spiritual direction for the master’s program at Loyola College in Columbia, Md.  

The Invitation
In 1981, Bob Fabing, S.J. asked Sr. Lucy to be a spiritual director on the 36-day summer program at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, Calif. This request came to Sr. Lucy as she was finishing her master’s degree in applied spirituality from the University of San Francisco. She was living in Washington, D.C. at the time and working as a counselor at the Catholic University of America. The summer of 1982 was the first time Sr. Lucy was a spiritual director at Los Altos – where she has returned all but one summer since then. “I keep returning,” explains Sr. Lucy, “as I find this ministry so enriching, humbling, and rewarding; I am always learning…I am no longer as concerned about being prepared as I was that first summer. God is always in charge and knows what each person needs and how to bring this to fruition.”

During the 36-day retreat at the Jesuit Retreat Center, the spiritual directors have their own dining room where they can relax and talk. They meet as a team each evening to review the dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises. During the day, each spiritual director normally meets with four retreatants for an hour or so. In silence and in the beautiful natural setting, they find God in surprising ways. Along with their interior struggles, they bring delightful accounts of taking walks, discovering all kinds of birds–even climbing trees.

The program is extended to 36 days so as to give an initial period of orientation and a concluding one of re-entry. The early days are spent in prayer and reflection with a few talks and daily Eucharist. This not only allows travelers to overcome jet lag and get rested, but also enables them to become acquainted and so pray for one another more earnestly during retreat. There is time after the retreat for retreatants to unwind, talk with one another, savor their experiences and, with their spiritual directors, plan how to incorporate this important experience into their daily lives.

During the year, Sr. Lucy sees a number of people for spiritual direction, some doing the 19th Annotation of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises over a nine-month period. “It is a humbling experience to find a person yearning for God and open to the process, especially as time goes on,” says Sr. Lucy of this very special ministry.

WMSG