Showing posts with label The Spiritual Exercises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Spiritual Exercises. Show all posts
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Spiritual Exercises Blog
This daily Spiritual Exercises blog seeks to present meditations in the spirit of Saint Ignatius Loyola. It is prepared by a group of Jesuits from across the United States interested in offering Ignatian Spirituality to those seeking Christ through Scripture and prayer
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
“EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF THE EXERCISES”
This phrase summarizes a new approach to living religiously that draws on Ignatian spirituality as a creative source of renewal and conversion. Nine Jesuits came to the Curia in Rome for a consultation in November 2003 to reflect on their considerable experience in communicating faith and consider what more we might do.
In recent years we began to speak of “giving the Exercises in everyday life.” Now we focus on the next step: everyday life in the spirit of the Exercises:
What do we suggest to or provide for people after the retreat is over? What can they do on a regular basis to lead an authentic religious life as they deal with their families and jobs and communities?
We are speaking about a way of understanding religion that is creative and tied into conversion; even those who have not made the Exercises can profit from the kind of faith that develops from them.
An important note: this question touches not just individuals but communities as well because what people do to express their religious quest involves rites and devotions, prayers and practices that form communities.
The sponsors of the meeting were Joe Tetlow, Secretary for Ignatian Spirituality, and Tom Rochford, Secretary for Communication. Tetlow: “To the early companions, defending the faith meant a comprehensive Catholic way of life. I hope that we will find in Ignatian spirituality a way of creating such a comprehensive Catholic way of life in our times.”
Rochford’s hope was that the Society of Jesus would eagerly turn to the communications specialists to play a key role in collaboration with other Jesuit experts if the Society as a body undertook a broader role in renewing religious practice in the church.
In recent years we began to speak of “giving the Exercises in everyday life.” Now we focus on the next step: everyday life in the spirit of the Exercises:
What do we suggest to or provide for people after the retreat is over? What can they do on a regular basis to lead an authentic religious life as they deal with their families and jobs and communities?
We are speaking about a way of understanding religion that is creative and tied into conversion; even those who have not made the Exercises can profit from the kind of faith that develops from them.
An important note: this question touches not just individuals but communities as well because what people do to express their religious quest involves rites and devotions, prayers and practices that form communities.
The sponsors of the meeting were Joe Tetlow, Secretary for Ignatian Spirituality, and Tom Rochford, Secretary for Communication. Tetlow: “To the early companions, defending the faith meant a comprehensive Catholic way of life. I hope that we will find in Ignatian spirituality a way of creating such a comprehensive Catholic way of life in our times.”
Rochford’s hope was that the Society of Jesus would eagerly turn to the communications specialists to play a key role in collaboration with other Jesuit experts if the Society as a body undertook a broader role in renewing religious practice in the church.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Spiritual Exercises a Ministry of Jesuits and Lay Colleagues
Hans van Leeuwen
Review of Ignatian Spirituality, Number 99
Precis: The author presented this to the Rome Consultation on “Exercises and Partners”. He took part in the rediscovery of Exercises in the Lowlands in the mid-seventies. His own experience grew from the preached retreat through use of the Bible to authentic directed Exercises. A seminar continues sharing, publishing, and guiding Exercises during a month in a new way. The influence of laity has transformed the practice of Exercises and also whom they reach. Christian Life Community offers more than ordinary opportunities. Partnership requires transforming effort of both lay and Jesuit, and questions remain. Now other groups are adapting ignatian spirituality and the dialogue has grown larger.
▪
I am asked to tell you how in the region where I am living and working we — jesuits and lay-people together — have developed the ministry of the Exercises. The region about which I am speaking is the Lowlands of Europe, that means The Netherlands and the Northern or Flemish part of Belgium.
First I will say something about what happened in that region in the last twenty-five years around the Exercises.
Then I will try to reflect on my own experience of the developments in this ministry and especially on the growing involvement of lay colleagues in it.
Thirdly I will propose to you some questions and some points that in my opinion request special attention.
History
The start of a new phase in our ministry of the Exercises, we find in the years 1974-1976. In 1974 we had our first experience with the individual guided retreat, the Exercises done without introductions or “points” but in a one-to-one situation; each member of a group doing it together had his or her own personal guide. If I remember correctly, this first experience was brought to The Netherlands by Fr Alex Lefrank, here present.
Review of Ignatian Spirituality, Number 99
Precis: The author presented this to the Rome Consultation on “Exercises and Partners”. He took part in the rediscovery of Exercises in the Lowlands in the mid-seventies. His own experience grew from the preached retreat through use of the Bible to authentic directed Exercises. A seminar continues sharing, publishing, and guiding Exercises during a month in a new way. The influence of laity has transformed the practice of Exercises and also whom they reach. Christian Life Community offers more than ordinary opportunities. Partnership requires transforming effort of both lay and Jesuit, and questions remain. Now other groups are adapting ignatian spirituality and the dialogue has grown larger.
▪
I am asked to tell you how in the region where I am living and working we — jesuits and lay-people together — have developed the ministry of the Exercises. The region about which I am speaking is the Lowlands of Europe, that means The Netherlands and the Northern or Flemish part of Belgium.
First I will say something about what happened in that region in the last twenty-five years around the Exercises.
Then I will try to reflect on my own experience of the developments in this ministry and especially on the growing involvement of lay colleagues in it.
Thirdly I will propose to you some questions and some points that in my opinion request special attention.
History
The start of a new phase in our ministry of the Exercises, we find in the years 1974-1976. In 1974 we had our first experience with the individual guided retreat, the Exercises done without introductions or “points” but in a one-to-one situation; each member of a group doing it together had his or her own personal guide. If I remember correctly, this first experience was brought to The Netherlands by Fr Alex Lefrank, here present.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
CONFIRMATION AND DEFINITIVE CHARACTER OF CHOICE
Christine Gizard
Spiritual Ministry
Diocese of Lille - France
▪ ▪ ▪
This title provokes several questions. Why speak about confirmation? What do we understand by: “confirmation of the choice”? How to recognize it in the life of young people? Can we say that a choice is definitive? Or from what moment can we say it? Our elucidation of the title will be based on these questions.
What is at stake here in the confirmation of the choice
Ignatius, once the election is made, invites the retreatant to offer it to the Lord:
Why does Ignatius attach such importance to the confirmation of the choice? Michel de Certeau, in an article in Christus, clarifies what is at stake in the confirmation after the election 1.
Spiritual Ministry
Diocese of Lille - France
▪ ▪ ▪
This title provokes several questions. Why speak about confirmation? What do we understand by: “confirmation of the choice”? How to recognize it in the life of young people? Can we say that a choice is definitive? Or from what moment can we say it? Our elucidation of the title will be based on these questions.
What is at stake here in the confirmation of the choice
Ignatius, once the election is made, invites the retreatant to offer it to the Lord:
“After such a choice or decision, the one who has made it must turn with great diligence to prayer in the presence of God our Lord, and offer to Him this choice that the Divine Majesty may deign to accept and confirm it if it is for His greater service and praise.” (SpEx 183)
Why does Ignatius attach such importance to the confirmation of the choice? Michel de Certeau, in an article in Christus, clarifies what is at stake in the confirmation after the election 1.
"Everything has been done, since the election has been made. But everything remains to be done, since nothing has been executed. The decision taken today has bearing on the morrow; it anticipates a future that as yet does not exist. After the prayer which developed into the election and after the consent given to the interior call, one must now cross the threshold of silence and confront the daily circumstances of one’s life to fulfill the commitment. Once the promised land has been marked out, one must now take possession of it. It is only then that the reality of the promise and the value of the decision will be apparent" .2
Michel de Certeau shows that a long road ahead begins in which the decision will come up against obstacles and doubts that will assail it; these are temptations. But the decision will reveal an affinity to the world through signs. The word understood in the heart becomes flesh in the concrete, and is written in deeds: these are the signs. We can be sure that God gives us the means to fulfill the promise. God will just as surely respond to our story and to the movements that God has inspired. "The present confirms the past," writes Marie-Luce Brun 3. The confirmation bears on the fulfillment and not on new desires or new lights.
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