Faculty, staff, students and alumni will celebrate the season of Lent together with a Lenten retreat.

From Feb. 25 to March 21, faithful followers will engage in daily prayer, meet with a spiritual director once a week and have the option to meet with fellow participants.

The month-long event is called A Retreat in Daily Life. It is aimed to meet people whether they have just begun to practice praying or have done so for a long time.

After being provided with texts and reflective questions, participants can choose to pray or answer their questions at their own time, according to Laura Alexander, associate chaplain for retreats at Loyola.

The theme for this year is Praying with the Psalms.

Alexander believes that this theme is appropriate and will help to connect with participants.

“The focus is on the Psalms because they are so open to wherever people are and are based in human emotion,” Alexander said.

Michael Barrera, financial aid counselor and previous retreat participant, felt comfortable and supported during his experience.

“I thought it was nice to have a community of people that were interested in trying to gain some type of spiritual insight from the Lenten season in a personal way without having to be required to share more than what you felt like sharing,” Barrera said.

Joe Paporcki, national consultant for faith formation at Loyola Press in Chicago, spoke of how Lent can help us eliminate clutter from our lives.

“A Lenten retreat is a great tool for eliminating distractions and focusing on what’s most important. Instead of saying, ‘That’s what we’re supposed to do,’ a retreat forces an individual to keep that on the front burner, to literally be trying every day to rid of distractions, to focus on our relationship with the Lord,” Paporcki said.

Alaina Meynard can be reached at [email protected]