Retreats and OCIA Meet a Rising Desire for Faith
More and more, students at Brophy are longing for depth in their faith and a relationship with God that feels both personal and real.
Teachers and Jesuits talk about it in passing moments that linger. A student stays after Mass to ask a question that’s been weighing on him. Another comes back from an immersion trip with a sense that something inside has shifted. A junior on retreat admits he wants to pray but doesn’t know how to start. These encounters have become familiar—signs that the hunger for faith and meaning among Brophy students is deepening, not fading.
Retreats have long been central to Brophy’s Jesuit mission, forming students across generations. What has changed is the breadth of experiences available. Over time, the retreat program has continued to evolve, growing into a comprehensive framework that meets students at each stage of their formation. Alongside these experiences, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) program has become a natural place for students to explore sacramental belonging and take steps into the life of the Church.
The retreat journey begins freshman year, when students are welcomed into the Brophy community and first introduced to service and reflection through an overnight experience on campus. Sophomores step into the Magis Retreat, where they explore identity, integrity and what it means to grow in faith. Juniors experience Kairos, a signature retreat centered on reflection, community and encountering God in others.
Senior year brings opportunities suited to a final season of discernment. Students participate in the Fourth Day Retreat connected to the Senior Ignatian Capstone course. Others choose the Silent Retreat rooted in prayer and the Spiritual Exercises, or opt for Exodus, a wilderness experience in the Superstition Mountains that invites seniors to slow down, hike, and reflect on what they may need to let go of and where God may be leading them. The Senior Retreat also bookends their four years, offering an on-campus space in the spring to reflect on their journey and look ahead to life beyond Brophy.
"They want Christ. They want the Church. They want to belong. My role is to walk with them as they make that decision in a thoughtful and personal way."
Participation across all retreats has grown gradually and steadily. Last year, students filled more than 1,300 retreat spots. Many attend more than one retreat as leaders or participants, creating a rhythm of reflection that shapes the life of the school. For Drew Rau, Assistant Principal for Ministry, this growth reflects a deeper pattern. “There is huge interest in going deeper,” he explains. “Our job is to respond with offerings that are real, sustainable, and rooted in our Ignatian mission.”
That same pattern has become visible in the OCIA program, Brophy’s pathway for students preparing for baptism, confirmation, or full communion in the Catholic Church. OCIA began in 2022 with a small group of students. Interest has increased each year in ways that feel steady and sincere. The message is usually simple: I am interested in exploring a deeper relationship with God in relationship with the Church.
Fr. Juan Pablo del Toro, S.J., who walks with students through OCIA, describes the process as accompaniment shaped by prayer and reflection. Theology courses already provide students with the foundations of Catholic belief, and OCIA offers space to pray with those foundations, talk through questions, and consider the call of faith with clarity. Students meet regularly, share scripture, go on retreat together, and prepare for the Easter sacraments at St. Francis Xavier Parish next door.
“It is a joy to accompany students who desire the faith,” Fr. del Toro says. “They want Christ. They want the Church. They want to belong. My role is to walk with them as they make that decision in a thoughtful and personal way.”
Senior Hayden Short knows this path well. As a freshman, he wasn’t sure how God fit into his life. Over time, through retreats, classes, and the presence of teachers who encouraged him, he sensed a calling emerge. OCIA gave him a way to follow that call intentionally. “I desired a purpose and a community of faithful brothers,” he reflects. “This experience afforded me just that.”
Stories like Hayden’s are becoming more common. Students increasingly see faith as something meaningful and lived, shaped by honest questions and deep relationships. Retreats help them recognize the stirrings of desire; OCIA gives them a path when that desire matures into commitment. Together, they reflect a core truth of Jesuit education—that God is already at work in the lives of young people, and a school’s responsibility is to help them listen, discern, and respond freely.
In a noisy cultural moment, this steady rise in spiritual appetite is one of the most hopeful trends on campus. Brophy’s role is simple: continue creating space for reflection, offer retreats that invite honesty and depth, and ensure that any student drawn toward the Church has a welcoming path to explore that call. The rest is unfolding quietly in the hearts of students who are choosing, day by day, to let faith shape the men they are becoming.
There is a retreat for every student, every year. Whether it’s the Freshman Retreat or Magis for sophomores, Kairos for juniors. There are discernment retreats that seniors can go on. They have spiritual experiences in their religious studies classes. Those are bits of programming that didn’t exist even a handful of years ago. We really try to meet students where they’re at, wherever that might be. It’s pretty refreshing and kind of novel that you have students who are saying, ‘Hey, what about this?’ or ‘Could we think outside the box?’ That doesn’t happen at every Catholic school or even every Jesuit school.