Support El Retiro's Mission
Annual Appeal 2010
You are welcome to download the Annual
Appeal 2010 .pdf
View the Annual Appeal 2010 Project List
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Dear Friends of El Retiro,
The Church has been blessed, over nearly 500 years, by the grace of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Since 1925, the Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos has given these Exercises to countless believers led to us by God’s Spirit, Whose power, working through the Exercises, renews their hearts.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
For the Greater Glory of God
We have all seen that healthy desires can be overwhelmed by desires for what is less than satisfying. Opportunity for peace and solitude, for reflection and prayer, for companionship with Christ and encounter with the Spirit draw to this sacred site such women and men as ourselves, each desiring more complete freedom for more faithful discipleship.
The grace of the Exercises and the graced context of El Retiro have been transforming gifts for you and for me. We have come to know here a path to freedom, a healing movement away from less than helpful attachments, and an opening into availability for all that God desires to accomplish in us, for us, and through us.
Fr. Duc Vu, S.J. (first row, second from right), with his first group of
El Retiro
retreatants, mainly members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
This year we have welcomed nearly 6,300, including 2,000 high school students, for retreats silent and conversational, preached and individually-directed. Generous friends enabled us to host people for whom retreats are an unusual grace, including groups of homeless women, homeless men, Homeboys and Homegirls.
Our Pierre Favre Program, training new retreat directors, is energizing our shared ministry. The participants and graduates, women and men, both partner on our retreats and give the Exercises elsewhere, in Northern California and beyond, regularly offering the whole Exercises in everyday life.
Participants in a Santa Clara University Ignatian retreat this October
gather on the lawn of St. Robert’s Hall.
Plant improvements focus, as ever, on safety, building and systems integrity, and access. A new phone system, both able to grow with us and more economical, now makes our staff more available to serve you. (Many thanks to the very generous benefactor who made this critical upgrade possible!) We look forward to adding soon two rest rooms to the O’Mara Conference Room and one in St. Robert’s Hall, each handicap-accessible.
Our Advisory Board continues to envision and to provide impetus toward a renewed El Retiro, its facilities and programs serving even better our current retreatants and ready to serve well the needs of generations of retreatants yet to come.
During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, we received over $341,800 in gifts, through personal donations, foundation grants, and bequests. Our next annual report, in early 2011, will provide the details and will acknowledge our many generous benefactors.
We are grateful for your wonderful response to Annual Appeal
2009. We received nearly $106,000, with an average gift amount of
$343. Your donations included $102,350 to the general fund, the
remainder being specified for particular Retreat Center programs,
projects, and more.
We renew our request for your gifts to the General Fund. These allow our flexible response to El Retiro’s needs. Should you prefer to donate toward specific programs and projects you value, you will find options listed on our Project page. You might also donate online.
We remain grateful for the encouragement of your prayers and for all the ways you support El Retiro. We especially appreciate your choosing, in these challenging times, to invest again in our ministry of the Spiritual Exercises.
You and your intentions remain in our thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Tom Carroll, S.J.
Executive Director