What a night Company of Grace 2026 was.

Last Thursday, April 23, the ISP community gathered at Ignite Glass Studios in Chicago’s West Loop, at watch parties in Houston, Atlanta, and San Diego, and on the livestream from living rooms across the country for Company of Grace: Kindle the Fire — our annual celebration of the work, the people who carry it, and the community that makes it possible. Here’s some of what we won’t be forgetting any time soon.

Home is More Than a Place

At the heart of the evening was a fireside conversation we’d been looking forward to for months: Fr. Tim McCabe, SJ, president and CEO of the Pope Francis Center in Detroit; Christine Haley, Illinois’ first chief homelessness officer; and ISP Ambassadors of Hope Reggie Morrow (ISP Chicago) and Lisa Wilson (ISP Detroit), gathered around a single question: what does it mean for someone to find their way home?

Fr. Tim opened by naming what the night was about: the idea that home is more than a place. Many organizations do the hard, necessary work of helping people find housing, he said. ISP comes alongside that work and focuses on something less visible: spiritual care.

The work happens in small retreats and ongoing reflection circles, drawn from a 500-year Ignatian tradition and the language of 12-step recovery. It builds the inner home that makes recovery hold. The alumni carry it forward.

A short film said it more directly.

Christine spoke first. Her work in policy began as a Jesuit volunteer in Chile, and she’s drawn on Ignatian retreats herself: silent retreats during Holy Week, a divorce-recovery retreat at Manresa House. She came to the fireside as someone who knows both sides: the systems, and the spiritual ground beneath them. The retreats that have grounded her through her own life are the same kind of practice at the heart of ISP’s work with people in recovery from homelessness and addiction.

Homelessness, she said, is an economic and racial justice issue. People with substance use disorders or trauma don’t necessarily become homeless. People without the financial safety net to withstand a crisis do. And the safety net is increasingly under threat. Federal funding shifts could push thousands of Illinoisans currently in housing toward losing their apartments. Shelter programs are being closed not for lack of money but for lack of community welcome.

Fr. Tim picked up the thread. What makes ISP powerful, he said, is what continues after the retreats: a community that grows and leads together. Then he turned to the Ambassadors.

Reggie was first. He talked about a decade on the streets, five trips to the penitentiary, the shame and guilt that pushed him into hiding from his own family. Then his first ISP retreat in 2022, six months into recovery, invited from a room at the Salvation Army. He didn’t expect much, but something shifted. Since God was helping him, he said, he needed to help somebody else. That’s how he came to understand the work:

“It’s not nothing that was given to me. It’s something I’m giving of myself.”

Lisa shared the story of the cracked pot — a clay vessel whose own broken side, the part it was ashamed of, watered the flowers along the path. The story was part of her first retreat and changed how she saw her own years of addiction:

“We may have fallen, but we can get back up. And with our imperfections, we can water some flowers.”

Fr. Tim closed with a phrase drawn from Mother Teresa. We have homelessness, he said, because we’ve forgotten that we belong to one another. The way back is through relationship: through sharing our imperfections and remembering we’re all on the same journey, heading to the same place.

“We’re here on this earth to walk each other home.”

Heads up: the video came out blurry. Our apologies! But the audio is clear. Best experienced as a listen, a podcast-style or radio experience.

The 2026 Company of Grace Award: Ignatius House

Each year, ISP recognizes a community that has carried this work forward in lasting ways. This year, we honored Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center in Atlanta, an oasis of 20 acres in the middle of the city, where ISP retreats have been woven into the rhythm of community life for 15 years.

What 15 years looks like, in practice: alumni who reclaim jobs, reconcile with family, and rebuild whole lives. A program called Kitchen Cura (where cura means care of the whole person) grew out of those retreats and now offers internships to alumni stepping back into the working world. The spaces themselves carry the welcome: a private room with a private bath that some participants have never had before, a small bouquet of flowers on each bed.

The Room and the Watch Parties

Photos from the night: the fireside, the candlelight close, the wall of paper flames carrying the names of people held in the light, and the watch parties gathered around screens in Houston, Atlanta, and San Diego, party packs in hand.

Thank you

Thanks to the generosity of this community Thursday night, we met the $25,000 donor match we announced — which means together we raised $50,000 to support retreats and reflection circles, more spiritual companionship for people rebuilding their lives across the country.

Thank you for being part of it!