Every year we spend 4 days together in retreat as a community. In addition to a life of daily prayer and monthly meetings, the Annual Retreat is an anchor for our spiritual lives.

The structure and disciplines of our retreat are based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who is a patron for Youth Apostles, our brother community. Priests and other members of Youth Apostles are a significant support in offering Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, spiritual direction, and leading talks or meditations.

Our retreat, however, is also significantly informed by our patron saints, particularly St. Jane Frances de Chantal. As part of the Salesian spiritual tradition she is confident in God’s desire to work through all aspects of our lives, exhorts the Church to holiness through an interior and unreserved offering to Him, and encourages a heart to heart intimacy with God culminating in charity. The riches of her spirituality, along with our other patrons saints, help us drink deeply of God’s grace as we follow the path of the Spiritual Exercises in a feminine and complimentary way.

In addition to Mass, Reconciliation, and Liturgy of the Hours, the talks or meditations are followed by significant periods of silent prayer. Silence is broken at dinner time and in the evenings we break into sharing groups.

Our Annual Retreat is open to all women college-aged and older.

Our 2026 Retreat will take place Thursday, February 5 through Sunday, February 8. This year we will be on retreat at Priest Field Retreat Center in Kearneysville, West Virginia.

Guests who are interested in attending are asked to email womenyouthapostles@gmail.com, and we will send you the guest application once it opens. Given the retreat’s grounding in our charism and mission, as well as logistical constraints, priority in accepting guests will go to women who have an openness to committing to participate in the life of our community and/or have a deep love for serving young people in youth or campus ministry.