Grand Coteau Retreats: New Name, Bigger Home for an Ongoing Mission

The Jesuit retreat and spiritual centers in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, have come together to create a new, high-capacity retreat facility named Grand Coteau Retreats: A Jesuit Mission Since 1837. The new retreat center will make use of the buildings housing both Our Lady of the Oaks and St. Charles College. Their goal, as it has been since 1837, is to bring people closer to Jesus Christ, using the spiritual gifts of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

St. Charles College had previously been home to both the Novitiate of St. Stanislaus Kostka and the St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion, an infirmary for senior members of the province. The novitiate relocated to Denver earlier this month, and senior men are now living at St. Ignatius Hall, a new community in St. Louis with approximately 70 Jesuits. These two changes created space in the building to accommodate additional retreatants.

Since their arrival in Grand Coteau, Jesuits have served primarily in pastoral and spiritual companionship roles. They have offered the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in its various forms to thousands of Jesuits, diocesan priests, vowed religious and lay people over this time. This new chapter is a response to God’s invitation to accompany people in ever new and deeper ways. 

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius will be offered through preached and directed retreats. The additional space allows the retreat house to welcome new and larger groups from dioceses, parishes, schools and others from the local Catholic community and beyond.
Father J. Patrick Hough, SJ, was assigned the task of evaluating the retreat centers and setting a new course for their service to the Catholic community. He will serve as the director of the new retreat center.

The decision to bring the two retreat centers together as one was made with the unanimous support of the two governing boards and with the blessing of Father Thomas P. Greene SJ, provincial of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province. The two campuses will retain their longstanding names while operating as one entity under the spiritual patronage of St. Charles Borromeo and Our Lady of the Oaks. 

The announcement of the new retreat center comes on the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, the patroness saint of the Acadians.

We invite you to visit the new website for more information gcretreats.org.