I have walked with the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises for a few years now. I journeyed the 18th Annotation and the 19th Annotation. Ignatius has allowed my already intimate walk with Jesus to become even more intimate and personal. 

I have found

• A very healing journey

• Help in embracing the ‘what is not’ in life

• An increase in surrender

• A bigger sense of embrace; for myself, from God, for all things and seasons

• A growing awareness and appreciation of God’s loving gaze on me

• Scripture coming alive in the most personal ways

• Ways for discernment, and allowing time in discernment                                                                                                          

If any of these spike something in you, you might be interested in walking the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises yourself.

The Spiritual Exercises will offer you daily retreat in the comfort of your home; you will spend time in prayer, contemplation, Examen, and Discernment every day as you are given prompts and Scriptures to sit with. Your imagination will be tapped into as well. Weekly Spiritual Direction will help you discern the movement of God in your daily events.

I can promise you, it is a powerful and life-altering journey, and with it comes a big commitment component; this is an intense retreat. You will spend about an hour in retreat daily, and you engage in weekly Spiritual Direction; a weekly check-in with yourself, and your eyes opened in new ways to notice how God is embracing you in hard circumstances as well as in the mundane of life. This is a journey that can take anywhere from nine months to a year, it depends on your personal walk and pace.

Often starting the Exercises takes planning and training. One will not go from not being used to being in prayer daily to spending an hour in retreat every day.

The best time to start the 9 (or so) month journey is in September. Though adjustments can be made, one can start at any time. Together we will go through a discernment process to see if this is the right fit and timing for you and if I am the right person to guide you through the exercises..

If you are interested in hearing more, or you would like to have an exploratory chat about this, feel free to contact me.

(I received my training in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises through Jesuit Institute South Africa, in collaboration with Martin Institute Westmont College and Conversatio Divina.)