Members of the Loyola community will take a trip to Spain this summer to follow the path of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The cultural and spiritual journey will celebrate the life of St. Ignatius from June 15-25 and will give participants the opportunity to visit places that were important to the founder of the Jesuit community. Those involved will also have time for personal reflection, meditation and prayer by following his spiritual exercises.

The program began in  June 2013 and this is the second trip.

Ignatian pilgrimage began at Loyola as an opportunity offered mainly to members of the board and faculty, but it was later extended to other members of the Loyola community with connections to Ignatian spirituality.

The Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J., vice president for mission and ministry and director of the Jesuit Center, said the importance of following the path of St. Ignatius is to search for God and reflect about life and faith as he did through a pilgrimage.

“A community is also built for the journey but is a personal and a communal experience.  It allows us as a Loyola community to reflect on the life of Ignatius and link his own search for meaning and purpose to our own,” Dziak said.

The Rev. Robert Gerlich, S.J., associate professor of history, said the significance of this journey is to have a pilgrimage experience to reflect and understand where they come from and how they have evolved. He said he sees it as an important feature for Jesuit education and its purpose of society with Jesus.

“It is not just the physical path, but it is a spiritual path that we follow. So during this pilgrimage, every morning, we have time for reflection, a short presentation explaining to people how this fits into who Ignatius is and his vision of the church and his vision of God,” Gerlich said.

One of the most relevant experiences that Gerlich remembers from the first pilgrimage was the time of coming together as a group and reflecting on their reasons for embarking on  the trip.

“We had a very powerful sharing experience where the people share why they were on this trip. People were very honest and I thought it was a good spiritual experience,” Gerlich said.

Gerlich said the spiritual exercises are not what change people, but it is through the action of God’s grace. He said the exercises are an important way to understand and appreciate the role that God plays in people’s lives as he did with St Ignatius.

“The exercises were a series of considerations that Ignatius himself had experienced to grow spiritually,” Gerlich said.

According to the event brochure, this trip will also allow participants to enjoy the landscapes, architecture and cuisine of Spain. Gerlich said the most fascinating experience for him was going to Monserrat, a Benedictine monastery outside of Barcelona.

“It’s a magnificent physical place,” Gerlich said.