Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House is located on 80 acres of gently rolling meadows and wooded countryside just 40 miles northwest of Chicago. Bellarmine offers Ignatian, silent retreats for men and women adapted from the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. A wide variety of other retreat experiences are held at Bellarmine, including Kairos retreats for teens, 12-step retreats for those in recovery, as well as personal and directed retreats. Jesuit and lay colleagues collaborate in planning retreats and spirituality programs. In addition, Bellarmine extends its hospitality to parochial schools, churches, and other partners in ministry and recovery programs that share in our vision and core values.
Bellarmine falls within Vicariate 1 of the Archdiocese of Chicago. While we are not a parish, we seek to serve the faithful of the Archdiocese and provide additional faith formation for parishioners in Barrington and the surrounding area. Visit Vicariate 1's website for more information about other events in our part of the Archdiocese.
The Grace of Silence
Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House maintains an atmosphere of silence so that you can hear God’s voice speaking the words your soul longs to hear. These days are God’s gift to you, a graced time for you to spend with the Lord.
If you are not accustomed to being silent on a retreat, we guarantee that you will find it restful, refreshing, and very easy to do!
While silence in your retreat at Bellarmine involves not talking to each other, it is more than that. It means quieting yourself on the outside and the inside so that you can be totally present to God.
Silence helps us let go of the preoccupations of the past and the anxieties about the future so that we can discover our deepest desires. It is in these deepest desires that God speaks to our souls and opens up new possibilities for our lives.