When Jesuit Father Bill Creed led his first retreat for homeless men in Chicago seven years ago, it opened his eyes and his heart.

A longtime spiritual director and retreat master, Father Creed had given hundreds of retreats: for priests and nuns, even bishops; for high school and college students; for single people and married people.

"I had been doing retreats my whole life," said Father Creed, who has now directed more than 50 retreats for the homeless. "I went to the chapel that Saturday night and asked God, 'Why is it that I'm being so deeply moved?' I had the sense of God saying, 'Trust me.'"

When Father Creed developed the idea of retreats for homeless people, not many of his peers had faith in the idea. He was coming off a sabbatical following a stint directing a retreat house in Indiana when his provincial called and asked him to find a way to bring Ignatian spirituality to the economically poor.

He had also been teaching Ed Shurna, now director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, how to be a spiritual director. As a spiritual director in training, Shurna was working with two homeless men. He asked the priest if he had ever considered working with the homeless population.

Father Creed decided to offer retreats based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius to people trying to get off the streets.

To figure out how to do it, he sent a query to contacts in the retreat and spiritual direction communities across the United States and around the world, asking if any of them had tried such a thing and what their experience had been.

None had tried, and many wrote back that it was pointless, Father Creed said.

"I got an e-mail from one fellow that was typical," he told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese. "It said we all know (psychologist Abraham) Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and spiritual needs are at the top of the plateau. Only when the homeless have all their other needs met will they be ready to address their spiritual needs.

"They need job training, habits to live life. What struck me is that these people didn't know the poor," he added. "The poor, who have nothing else --- where do they turn but to God?"

After leading the retreats for the past seven years in cities from Chicago to Boston to San Francisco to Cincinnati, Father Creed has gleaned insights into himself, and, he thinks, into members of mainstream society.

As the men share their life stories, he hears what they find comfort in --- and what they fear.

"Most of us are afraid of failure," he said. "But a lot of them are afraid of success. If I succeed, who might I turn out to be? If I get cleaned up and get things together, I'll have to grow up.

"Most Catholics, I think, are afraid of spiritual success. We're afraid we'd be a bit kooky if we were too spiritually successful. We don't want to be too holy."

He also hears men express low self-esteem, beyond not being good enough to succeed. Many do not feel they are "acceptable to God in their very being," Father Creed said.

In the beginning, the Ignatian Spirituality Project retreats were for women and men. But Father Creed soon learned that many homeless women had been battered or otherwise abused by the men in their lives. Now the retreats are for men only, with another organization holding at least two retreats a year in Chicago for homeless women.

The men --- no more than 12 at a time --- are referred by the directors of the transitional shelters where they live. They have to be working at getting off the street and overcoming any addiction. Nearly all are addicted to something, and nearly half have been diagnosed with mental illness.

But for several, making an Ignatian retreat has been one step on the road back to reintegrating with society, Father Creed said. The exercises allow them to find the ways God is active in their lives, and to find ways to welcome God.

"The most important thing is their willingness to make the journey. It's very inspiring to me," the priest said. "I get far more out of this than they do."