Prudently, he sought feedback from corporate leaders. The first person he contacted set him straight.

"The guy said to me, 'Father Max it's a moral desert out there. We need you.' " The assessment was bang on. Today, business is booming for the California-born Jesuit priest who now calls Calgary's St. Mary's Cathedral home.

Oliva's new venture, or more properly his new ministry, is called Spirituality at Work. It's an enterprise that includes weekend retreats, group discussion facilitation, workplace seminars on spirituality and ethics, and commuter retreats.

It's the latter concept that's most unique - and personally satisfying - for Oliva and his clients.

Mike Dempster, Business Edge
Father Max Oliva's new venture, like his old one, is looking up.

It works like this: During certain weeks of the year Oliva holds one-on-one retreats where businesspeople see him for one hour a day, Monday through Saturday.

Open to Christians of all denominations, neither Oliva nor his client often know exactly what the issues are when the retreat begins. Instead Oliva trusts the Holy Spirit to lead the way.

"I've had people who have had major experiences in this; conversion experiences, healing experiences, people going back to the church ... it's been remarkable."

And while Oliva confesses that he wondered if the commuter retreat would fly in Calgary, he's thrilled by its acceptance and the fact that most clients come through referrals.

Len Rodrigues is one of the converted, saying his retreat in 2002 ultimately led him to quit his architectural job in Calgary.

"To say the least, it was transformative," he recalls. A lapsed Catholic, Rodrigues was "unlapsed" after the six-day retreat, and more determined to address moral and ethical issues in the workplace and the world around him.

Simply put, the retreat gave him a better grasp of how he saw the world and through that, how he should behave.

Subsequently, Rodrigues helped Oliva start a morning discussion group of Calgary businesspeople who probed serious issues of the day.

"It led me to leave the circumstance (job) I was in," he says. "I found that the business firm I was part of didn't wash with the way I was looking at the world."

Rodrigues now works as the architect for the University of Alberta, a culture he enjoys. He credits Oliva's spiritual intuition and business savvy with his happiness.

"The retreat is a soul search and Father Max knows the context in which we have to do the (business) things we do. That brings an absolutely fundamentally connected way of looking at things that he helps walk you through."

Indeed, Oliva has an interesting mix of credentials. He grew up in California in an entrepreneurial environment and worked in marketing and sales before his calling to the Jesuits more than 40 years ago.

In addition to a master's degree in theology, he has earned an MBA in organization behaviour and industrial relations. An author, he has travelled the world in various ministries.

Oliva says it's a resumé that's prepared him to help businesspeople facing a challenging world. The issues are many, he says.

Some struggle with the grey area of ethics of the corporate workplace, while others have enjoyed great material success, but now ask, "Is that all there is?" Many struggle with work/life balance and some have fidelity issues. Meanwhile, others wrestle with expressing their own beliefs and faith at work.

To resolve or even unearth those issues, clients meet Oliva at St. Mary's. He also asks people to clear their social calendars in the evenings as much as possible, because between daytime sessions he asks that they pray a minimum of 30 minutes using different techniques he shows them.

During the visits, sitting in a quiet room in the church's rectory, Oliva and the client spend 50 minutes digging deeply into the person's life and their relationship with God.

Using scripture, meditation, prayer and visualization methods, they seek answers. Each day, the final 10 minutes are spent in total silence, using a technique called centering prayer to sharpen the person's focus.

Murray Wolfe, a Calgary chartered accountant with a medium-sized energy utility, has done a retreat the past two years. The change has been "incredible," he says, and his confidence and leadership skills have grown.

This May, Wolfe was published in CA magazine, the journal for chartered accountants. The article, based primarily on a Christian viewpoint, was on the importance of values and meaning in the corporate world.

It was an article Wolfe wanted to write for years, but thought that it might be risky career-wise.

"Two years ago I couldn't have done this ... I guess Father Max showed me that like (God's disciple) Peter, I should maybe have a little faith and to try and walk on water."

Since the article was published, and later when it was sent throughout his workplace, Wolfe has received nothing but positive feedback. He wonders why he waited so long.

In his commuter retreat earlier this year, Wolfe, a Catholic, found himself strongly connected to Peter. Wolfe read scripture, meditated and visualized himself in Peter's place, trying to understand and learn from his experiences.

For example, Wolfe visualized himself on the boat when Peter, seeing Jesus walking on the stormy water across the Lake of Galilee, confidently set out toward him.

"Peter had enough faith to step out of the boat and say I'm going to do this because I'm the leader, but half way through he started to lose faith and began to sink. I recognized how that relates in myself ... the need to have faith in yourself and that you are doing the right thing, and to have courage that way."

Oliva says Wolfe's struggles are typical of today's business climate, where integrity can be a difficult issue.

How do you stand up in a meeting of peers, or to the boss, and say something you know won't go over well, Oliva asks. Or, what if you have a family of five to support, but your manager tells you to get the job done by any means, measures with which you disagree?

"At some point, a person has to determine how much he's willing to compromise without losing self-respect. That can be a tough decision."

Spirituality provides an anchor of support, Oliva says. He had that in mind when he wrote his vision statement in 2002. In part, he said it was his experience that people who have found the key to personal and spiritual integration not only make better employees, but also have a more positive impact on society at large.

Is the business world a "moral desert"? Oliva says he's optimistic, buoyed in good measure by the success of the commuter retreats.

The numbers aren't huge, he concedes. But change is occurring - one retreat at a time.

(Mike Dempster can be reached at miked@businessedge.ca)