Retreat Guides

Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ is a retreat director and spiritual director at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington.  He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Doctor of Ministry from St Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL. He is the founder of Charis, a national Jesuit retreat ministry for young adults in their 20s and 30s, and has trained spiritual directors at Loyola University-Chicago.  

A prolific writer and speaker, Fr. Michael has published books, CDs, and DVDs on prayer, discernment, and the sacraments with Franciscan Media, Paulist Press, Liturgical Training Publications, Loyola Press, and Heart to Heart. He is seen regularly on Shalom World Catholic Television and is heard regularly on Sacred Heart radio in Cincinnati and WSFI Catholic Radio in greater Chicagoland. 

His latest co-authored book is What’s Your Decision?  An Ignatian Approach to Decision Making and is published by Loyola Press.  

Aaron Niequist is a liturgist, writer, and pastor. Aaron recently graduated from General Theological Seminary in NYC. After leading worship at Mars Hill Church (Grand Rapids, MI) and Willow Creek Church (Barrington, IL), he created A New Liturgy - a collection of modern liturgical worship recordings. He then curated a discipleship-focused, formational, ecumenical, practice-based community called “The Practice”. Aaron released a book called The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Keep Us From Drowning and continues to create resources to help others flesh it out.  But that’s just job stuff.  The best part of his life is his wife Shauna, and their sons Henry and William.

Sarah Bessey is the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed books Jesus Feminist (2013); Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith (2015); and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things (2019).

Her collaborative book, A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal (2021) was a New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, and Globe and Mail Bestseller. Sarah contributed to the book but also served as its editor. Her latest book, Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith will be released on 20 February 2024 along with a companion guided journal.

Sarah writes a weekly newsletter called Field Notes with exclusive essays, devotional series, conversations, and more.

Sarah and her husband Brian have been happily married for 22 years. Together, they are raising our four beloved children. They also have two cats named Amy and Rory.

Jonathan Merritt is one of America’s most popular writers on issues of faith and culture. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words are Vanishing - and How We Can Revive Them, named “Book of the Year” by the Englewood Review of Books.

Jonathan is an award-winning contributor for The Atlantic, a contributing editor for The Week, and a regular columnist for Religion News Service. He has published more than 3000 articles in respected outlets such as The New York Times, USA Today, Buzzfeed, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and Christianity Today.

Jonathan is also a sought-after speaker at colleges, conferences, and churches on topics relating to spirituality, politics, and current events.

Jonathan currently happily resides in New York City. He is an aspiring dog dad, a college football fan, and intolerable before coffee.

Drew Jackson is the pastor of Hope East Village, which exists to bear witness to the Kingdom of God Born in Williamstown, NJ, Drew studied Political Science at the University of Chicago, and went on to gain his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Drew is also the Co-Founder and President of Made for Pax, a non-profit organization that seeks to inspire and equip the next generation through slow, beautiful, Jesus-centered content created by people of color. Drew’s debut poetry collection, God Speaks Through Wombs, was published in September 2021, and his next collection is set to release in the fall of 2022. Drew is deeply committed to seeing the contemplative life, and the work of prophetic justice and peacemaking embodied in his own life and in the life of the church. He is blessed to share life with his wife Genay, and their twin daughters, Zora and Suhaila.

Lisha Epperson is a minister, movement specialist, and Christian meditation practitioner.

Since 2019, she has served as pastoral associate at St. Peter’s Chelsea in New York City and was recently ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church.

As part of her work, she teaches embodied practices (movement and faith-based meditation) to Christian communities. These therapeutic practices support overall wellness and help balance the demands of modern life. She offers movement workshops and quiet day retreats designed around these themes and shares resources and tools to encourage a lifelong practice of self-care and spiritual formation.

She is also the founder of the Creative Arts Project a summer arts immersion camp for children aged 6-12.