The Story

THE BRIDGES FOUNDATION OF ST. LOUIS

In the sixteenth century, a Spanish layman named Íñigo López de Loyola set his thoughts on paper in a series of notes regarding the discernment of God’s will and the determination to carry out God’s will. Íñigo, who would come to be known as Ignatius of Loyola, would later found a religious order known as the Society of Jesus (often referred to as “the Jesuits”) and attain sainthood. He said that “…as strolling, walking and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of disordered tendencies and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a spiritual exercise.” In his notes he described a series of spiritual exercises and designed a thirty-day retreat which features instructions for one to pass along these exercises to another. His notes were later published under the title of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Ignatius began his work with a series of twenty sets of ideas that are known as the Annotations. Knowing that some people would not have time in their busy lives to devote a full thirty days to the study of the Spiritual Exercises, in the Nineteenth Annotation of the Exercises he described a set of daily exercises involving prayer that could be carried out by a busy person over a longer period of time, working one-on-one under the guidance of a director. This came to be known as the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat, or the Retreat in Everyday Life. It is still in use widely throughout the world today, nearly five hundred years later.

The goal of the Bridges Foundation is to promote the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, by offering instruction in the Spiritual Exercises via the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat to all who are ready to receive them and have the desire to participate, and by offering other programs related to this goal. These other programs include instruction in how to serve as a prayer companion who guides others one-on-one through the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat, as well as different lectures, discussion groups, mentoring sessions, and other activities, all of them centered on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The Bridges Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri has existed as a Missouri non-profit corporation since 2001. For more than a decade prior to that a series of events involving a group promoting the Bridges Program in St. Louis led to the formation of the Bridges Foundation, which continues offering instruction in the Spiritual Exercises today. How this group was formed and how it evolved over the years makes for an interesting narrative. The story of the Bridges Program has two strong roots, one in St. Louis with Marie Schimelfening and Tom Swift, S.J. , and the other from Canada with Jim and Joan Felling.

Christian Life Communities are comprised of worldwide groups of primarily lay people who meet in small local groups of about six to ten, and who have a common way of life based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Members of these groups strive for justice for the suffering and the oppressed, and they desire to respond more fully to God’s loving desires for them.

Such groups, often referred to as CLC, have existed in the St. Louis area as well as in other places for many years. The Bridges Program began at the National Christian Life Community Center in 1983 and continued for five years ending in 1987. The co-founders and directors of the program were Tom Swift, S.J. and Marie A. Schimelfening. During those years the design of the program had its roots in the World Christian Life Community (CLC) Course II done in Manila, Philippines in 1976 prior to the World Assembly. Marie was part of the experience of the dimensions offered in the Bridges Program. Every Wednesday from September through May, participants would gather at the National CLC Center in St. Louis on Westminster Place to meet with their directors and listen to tapes on the Spiritual Exercises. The directors at that time were a number of Jesuits, some religious women plus Marie Schimelfening. During the five year period of presenting Bridges over fifty people participated in the program. The participants were involved in a Faith Experience Weekend, Market Place Ministries Program, and a Day of Solitude, as well as small group faith sharing and a number of other activities.

In 1979 and prior to the start of the Bridges Program in St. Louis, Reme J. DeRoo, Bishop of Victoria, British Columbia, invited Jim and Joan Felling to make an 8-day directed Ignatian retreat. Native St. Louisans, the Fellings were living in Victoria at the time. A short time later the two made a forty-day Institute which included a thirty-day directed retreat at the Guelph Centre of Spirituality in Guelph, Ontario, Canada (now known as the Ignatius Jesuit Centre of Guelph). Following the completion of the forty-day Institute they were asked by the Bishop to coordinate the Prayer Companions Program on Vancouver Island. This was in 1981.

In the context of Bridges, Prayer Companions are those who have made the Spiritual Exercises in either a thirty-day or Nineteenth Annotation Retreat, and who have received rigorous instruction from qualified trainers in the methods of instructing others in the Spiritual Exercises. Jim and Joan took additional training in Guelph and Jesuits were brought to Vancouver Island to train the Prayer Companions. Weekend retreats were started in parishes and the Spiritual Exercises, specifically in the Nineteenth Annotation format, were offered relying on members of religious orders as well as experienced lay people to serve as directors.

The Fellings returned to St. Louis in 1988 after 17 years of living in Canada. John English, S.J. came to St. Louis from Guelph and introduced the Fellings to Marie Schimelfening and Bob Johnston, S.J. Jim and Joan were then approached to restart the Bridges Program. After a period of discernment, they agreed to do this. There were three conditions: 1) it was to be a lay program in collaboration with the Jesuits, 2) imitating their experience in the Diocese of Victoria in Canada, it would be open to all in the Archdiocese and ecumenically to all who were discerned to be suited to embark on the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat experience, and 3) as in Canada, one of the major goals would be to train lay Prayer Companions, who would in turn pass the Exercises on to others via the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat.

A meeting was held with Father Bob Doyle, S.J. , Marie Schimelfening, Bob Johnston, S.J. , Mary Mondello, Sister Mary Ann Wachtel, Sister Carol Weber, Jean Horton and Pat Carter, and by the fall of 1989 everything was in place and the re-formatted Bridges Program was launched in the St. Louis area. In 1989 there were 17 retreatants and 9 directors. Bridges sessions were held at Fusz Memorial at St. Louis University as well as at the Cenacle Retreat House on Spoede Road.

In the 1990’s the growing organization sought to attract new retreatants to experience the wonders of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, primarily by offering participation in the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat. In order for this to happen, ongoing efforts to train new Prayer Companions were designed and sustained, and as time went on more and more lay people became involved in the passing of the Exercises along to others. An advisory board was formed with Joseph Tetlow, S.J. as a member, and directors began to use his book Choosing Christ In The World.

A formal two-year program to train prayer companions was begun in 1992, with instruction provided by Tetlow, Marian Cowan, C.S.J. (co-author of the book Companions In Grace) and Mary Mondello. Sessions were started at the Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal. As some retreatants who had completed the Bridges Program expressed a desire to remain involved with the Spiritual Exercises after completing the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat, CLC groups were established to further enhance the experience. By the mid-90’s the Bridges Program had become quite popular. More and more people were enrolling and by this time more former retreatants had completed their training as Prayer Companions. Sites had been added at Cenacle Retreat House and St. Louis University. Mary Flick directed the SLU site which featured monthly meetings over the lunch hour that included all the retreatants at that site. As the programs concluded in the spring of 1996 there were 67 participants in Bridges, 34 directors, and 85 participants in Prayer Companions. Sr. Mary Funge, S.H. moved to St. Louis from Chicago and she began offering directed retreats in parishes using some of the graduates of Prayer Companions to direct. These were known as the Week of Prayer. A mentoring program was begun by Sr. Marian Cowan with the help of Jim Blumeyer, S.J. , Mary Mondello and Joan Felling. This was needed by new directors coming from Prayer Companions, as well as by directors joining the program, who were unfamiliar with Bridges. It helped to bring new directors along in the program. As time went on adjustments were made to the mentoring program and it helped to ensure that retreatants were receiving quality direction in the Spiritual Exercises, thereby sustaining the quality of the Bridges programs. Sr. Verona Schaefer and later Janet Nimer and Margaret Escofferey served as coordinators of Bridges Spiritual Directors. A site was added at Webster Groves Christian Church in 1995 as efforts to draw in new retreatants continued to meet with success. Hugh Harrington began publishing SI (St. Ignatius), a newsletter designed to provide information about all Bridges-related matters, including Prayer Companions, the Weeks of Prayer and Christian Life Communities. An additional site was opened at the Church of the Annunziata on Clayton Road in 1996. Paul Duckro directed the Prayer Companions program and Fr. Jim Blumeyer assumed the duties of Fr. Tetlow, who had left St. Louis to become the Director of the Secretariat for Ignatian Spirituality in Rome. Sr. Patricia Gillespie and Jean Smith served as coordinators of Prayer Guides. During the 1990’s Gail and Mike McDonough served as Bridges Coordinators, as well as Dot Carnoske, and Bill and Charlene Ricker were Prayer Companions Coordinators. By the end of the decade the Cenacle retreat site was closed as was the Lwanga site. From 1989 to 1999, 450 people made the Spiritual Exercises and approximately 250 people went through formal Prayer Companion training.

As the new century was beginning, Charlene Ricker was in place as Coordinator of the Bridges Program with Jean Smith as Coordinator of Prayer Guides with assistance at times from her husband Dermott. Steve Willman and Colleen Peters also made important contributions, especially with financial matters but in other areas as well, around this time and in the years that followed. The mentoring program continued to undergo revisions. In late 2001 the Bridges Program incorporated as a non-profit corporation in the state of Missouri. This necessitated some changes. The newly created Bridges Foundation now enjoyed tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) corporation, and as such was now able to apply for grants. It was to hold an annual meeting open to all and it was presided over by a newly created board of directors, with Bill Ricker as the first President and his wife Charlene as Executive Director, which became a paid position. The board studied the Spiritual Exercises In Everyday Life (SEEL) program, a Nineteenth Annotation Retreat offered by SEEL Puget Sound in the Seattle area. The Annunziata site was moved to St. John Bosco Church in Maryland Heights. Bridges restored the site at the St. Charles Lwanga Center in 2001, and some Prayer Companions there began to use John Veltri’s Orientations in lieu of Tetlow’s Choosing Christ In The World. Whereas most Bridges groups had been holding weekly meetings of the Prayer Companions and retreatants at their individual site, the Lwanga group met on a monthly basis. David Fleming, S.J., former Provincial of the Missouri Province and the author of Draw Me Into Your Friendship, took the place of Fr. Blumeyer on the Prayer Companions staff, as Fr. Blumeyer left to work on a Nineteenth Annotation program in Kansas City. Madeleine Lane, S.S.N.D. , John Foley, S.J. and Carl Starkloff, S.J. began to make significant contributions as well. Monthly meetings for Prayer Companions and others who were interested began to be conducted at St. Louis University. Speakers such as Fleming, Foley, and Lane as well as Jack Callahan, S.J. would lecture at these meetings on various aspects of the Spiritual Exercises. They served as a two-year training program for Prayer Companions and were quite popular. The Sisters of St. Joseph had been generous in making some of their facilities available as a meeting place for Bridges, and the closing dinner and liturgy for Nineteenth Annotation retreatants was moved to the St. Joseph Motherhouse on Minnesota Avenue. In the middle of the first decade of the new century, the Ignatian Spirituality Center was started by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province, with Jack Callahan, S.J. as the liaison between that group and the Bridges Foundation. Fr. Callahan proved to be very helpful as a lecturer and in other ways, particularly with his extensive knowledge of the life of St. Ignatius. The Bridges Foundation established a web site on the Internet for the first time, at www.bridgesfoundation.org. In 2004 the Bridges II program was begun at Webster Groves Christian Church, in response to requests from participants in Prayer Companions and as an enhancement to those who completed the Nineteenth Annotation Retreat and wanted to further their involvement with the Spiritual Exercises. Prayer Companions, under the very capable direction of Sr. Madeleine Lane, became a program specifically for training Prayer Companions to work with retreatants. Another site was added at the Notre Dame Motherhouse on Ripa Avenue, and the Bridges board began to hold its own retreat annually in August at the St. Joseph Motherhouse, to review recent accomplishments and to plan for the coming year. Pat Carter and Denny Coleman served terms as board President during the decade. Hard working volunteers on longstanding Bridges committees dealt with matters such as marketing, program creation and maintenance, and finance. In 2007 a development committee was established, and succeeded in being awarded grants from benefactors such as the Angela Merici Foundation and the Vatterott Foundation. Also that year, the site at Notre Dame was closed and a new one was begun at Assumption Parish in South County. Clarence Heller assumed direction of the Week of Prayer, which was renamed the Week and Month of Guided Prayer. Under his watchful eye the program was expanded, a web site was established, and the program was offered in churches far and wide around St. Louis and the surrounding area. It served to introduce many to new and different ways of praying, with a touch of the Spiritual Exercises and familiarity with the programs offered by Bridges. In 2008 Charlene Ricker announced that she was stepping down as Executive Director, and to the delight of many, Miriam Wesselmann, S.S.N.D. assumed that role the following year. Mr. Heller also began a Tasters program held for one evening twice each spring, which would give participants a brief summary of what Ignatius was saying in his Spiritual Exercises. This has been complemented with a program known as Praying The Ignatian Way, with input from Srs. Florence and Miriam Wesselmann and long time Bridges contributor John Shaughnessy. The St. John Bosco site was closed and a long held desire to expand into St. Charles County was realized when a site was opened at All Saints Parish in St. Peters in 2009. Clarence Heller also initiated the first Ignatian Community Retreat, a mid-summer program lasting two days sponsored by the Bridges Foundation, which features lectures and discussions on topics related to the Spiritual Exercises.

As 2010 arrived, the Bridges II program had been phased out and replaced by the Magis Program, and Tom Simon became President of Bridges. In Magis, sessions are held monthly over the course of eight months. An individual Magis session consists of a set of two different lectures on topics from the Spiritual Exercises by any of a variety of qualified speakers, addressed to the entire group of participants. After the lectures are completed, participants break into smaller groups which address different topics. Those desiring to possibly someday become Prayer Companions are enrolled in the Dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises Program, and some Prayer Companions attended the Peer Group Supervision sessions. These programs have been led by Bridges contributors such as Pat Carter, Marian Love, Dr. Hsin-hsin Huang and Sr. Marian Cowan. Bridges closed its Bridges retreat program at All Saints and moved it to St. Charles Borromeo in 2011, and opened its first site outside Missouri at the Good Shepherd Spirituality Center at St. Nicholas Parish in O’Fallon, Illinois in 2012-2013. The Bridges Foundation thus offers guidance in the Spiritual Exercises in four different counties: St. Clair County in Illinois, as well as St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County in Missouri.

Volunteers continued with the many tasks involved in running the Bridges Foundation. Established committees for Marketing, Program Creation & Maintenance, Finance, and Development continue with their work. The Ignatian Community Retreat was started by Bridges in 2009 and featured a summer weekend series of talks facilitated by number of distinguished speakers, including at times Ron Mercier, S.J. and noted authors such as Paul Coutinho and Louis Savary. A quarterly newsletter, distributed via email free to anyone who would like to receive it, was started and served to help facilitate communications. Others worked on changes to the Magis program, responding to interest expressed in establishing new sites, and developing a program to bring the Spiritual Exercises to the Spanish-speaking community. Miriam Wesselmann, SSND stepped down in 2013 after four years of outstanding work as the Executive Director of the Bridges Foundation, and Cheryl Rauschenbach was chosen as her successor. Miriam became the President of the Bridges Foundation in 2014.

Today the Bridges Retreat/Nineteenth Annotation Retreat (formerly known as Bridges I), Morning of Prayer programs, Magis, the Ignatian Community Retreat and various other programs continue to be available to those with an interest in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Through the dedication and hard work of many devoted volunteers, as well as monetary donations from supporters and foundations, the Bridges Foundation carries on, providing opportunities through its various programs for spiritual growth to those who seek it.