Gifts from Friends We Never Wanted

Monday, March 10, 2025

9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Cost: $60 (lunch included)

Unwelcome guests are not generally greeted with gratitude but occasionally they become unexpected friends bearing gifts we never would have asked for. This Lenten Day of Reflection will focus on a few of these surprising guests in our lives – disappointment, worry, failure – and the gifts they provide when they come visiting. Using a gospel figure as companion, we will engage these uninvited “friends” and learn something about ourselves and our God in the process.

Virginia Herbers is a retreat director, spiritual director and author who has spent most of her life as an educator, teaching students of every age from kindergarten to university in St. Louis, Connecticut, New York and Taiwan. She was born and raised in St. Louis, the youngest of 13 children, growing up in South City near Ted Drewes and Candy Cane Lane (for the locals)! After ministering several years in religious life, she now serves as the Director of Mission Formation at Saint Louis University, working with leadership, faculty and staff to integrate Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuit mission into their everyday work.