Cor ad Cor Small Group Retreat

What is Cor ad Cor?

The Cor ad Cor Spirituality Year is a weekly small group gathering of all men or all women to learn more about the spiritual life, to grow in relationship and conversation with the Lord, and to share faith and the work of the Lord with others.

The title, “Cor ad Cor,” is a shortened version of “Cor ad Cor Loquitur,” a Latin phrase meaning “Heart speaks to Heart,” which comes from a letter written by St. Francis de Sales to one of his spiritual directees. Later, St. John Henry Newman took it as his episcopal motto. The Cor ad Cor Spirituality Year is so named because this retreat is ultimately about listening to the Lord who is speaking from his heart to ours. We receive from him all that he wants to give, and we speak to him from our heart.

Essentially, Cor ad Cor is a retreat, which begins with the Oremus program from Ascension Press (8 weeks), and then moves into the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola according to the 19^th annotation (additional 22 weeks). Small groups of about six people meet weekly with a trained leader for these 30 weeks. In the Oremus program, Fr. Mark Toups teaches some of the basics of prayer and the spiritual life and gives direction for prayer and journaling. Small groups gather each week to learn and to talk about the life of prayer and what the Lord is doing in them. As Cor ad Cor continues with the Spiritual Exercises according to the 19^th annotation, group members follow the direction for daily prayer given by St. Ignatius and come to the group to continue to discuss the spiritual life and to learn more about the Rules of Discernment of St. Ignatius.