Spritual Exercises Retreat
A comment from Jeff made me think about a question - what is a 30 day Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Retreat like? I've read about them but never taken one, so I don't really know. Given the expense, time spent, and my personal shyness, I doubt I'll ever know. But for those, like me, who would like to learn what they can vicariously, here are some links that might give us a peek, though through a glass darkly :-) ...
- St. Beuno's Spirituality Center in Wales
Here's an article at the Tablet by Austen Ivereigh -The retreat that changed my life - which tells of his taking of the Spiritual Exercises while a Jesuit novice. A bit of it ...
“Afterwards you’ll be different, you know”, a friend who had done it warned me before my 30-day retreat on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. I believed him: who doubts the Jesuits’ centuries-old secret weapon, their portable desert peopled with angels and demons? .... (big snip) .... I was deeply grateful for an essential lesson that could not have been learned any other way: that my energies, for so long directed at self-preservation and achievement, could not win me God, or, which is the same, love. I had learned that, indeed, all is God’s gift, and over time even my heart would begin to grasp that too. It’s true: I was no longer the same.
Here's a book I've read, a kind of diary/journal of someone taking the Exercises - Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius - by by Paul Mariani - which describes his experience of the Exercises at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, MA.
Here's an interview from SJWeb with Father Joseph Tetlow SJ, on the Spiritual Exercises - link
- Aerial view of St. Beuno's
- St. Beuno's Spirituality Center in Wales
Here's an article at the Tablet by Austen Ivereigh -The retreat that changed my life - which tells of his taking of the Spiritual Exercises while a Jesuit novice. A bit of it ...
“Afterwards you’ll be different, you know”, a friend who had done it warned me before my 30-day retreat on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. I believed him: who doubts the Jesuits’ centuries-old secret weapon, their portable desert peopled with angels and demons? .... (big snip) .... I was deeply grateful for an essential lesson that could not have been learned any other way: that my energies, for so long directed at self-preservation and achievement, could not win me God, or, which is the same, love. I had learned that, indeed, all is God’s gift, and over time even my heart would begin to grasp that too. It’s true: I was no longer the same.
Here's a book I've read, a kind of diary/journal of someone taking the Exercises - Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius - by by Paul Mariani - which describes his experience of the Exercises at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, MA.
Here's an interview from SJWeb with Father Joseph Tetlow SJ, on the Spiritual Exercises - link
- Aerial view of St. Beuno's
posted by crystal | 3:15 PM
11 Comments:
If you don't do that retreat, I wonder if there's anything maybe less expensive/structured available?
I may have mentioned that once I spent a long weekend at St. Joseph's Abbey, and it turned out to be a really important experience for me. You could call the monastery and arrange ahead to go on a retreat, and you'd meet whoever else happened to go that weekend - it was just several people.
Very quiet and non-intimidating - some reading, Fr. Basil teaching the centering prayer, a beautiful service at 3 a.m., eating with the monks in silence. And they made fantastic bread!
Crystal,
Good post. It's nice to see someone who has an appreciation for the Jeusits. My brother-in-law is a Jesuit Scholastic. He teaches at Holy Cross College.
Darius,
St. Joseph's in Spenser, MA? Me too, a couple of years ago. Great weekend. It was a gift from my wife, when she thought I was getting a little too stressed out. It was just what I needed.
Darius - no, you never mentioned that ... it sounds very peaceful.
Jeff - I do like Ignatian spirituality best, of those I've learned of.
There are a number of retreat centres, including 'my own' Loyola Hall in England, offering the Spiritual Exercises in Stages. In fact we have the first stage starting on Wednesday. The idea is to divide the retreat up into three 10-day blocks to be 'made' in three consecutive years.
We are hoping it will be a way of making the full Exercises of St Ignatius available more widely.
Here's a list of Jesuit retreat centers: http://www.jesuit.org/sections/default.asp?SECTION_ID=192&SUBSECTION_ID=244
That's a long URL - you could just go to www.jesuit.org and search for 'retreat centers'.
I attend an abbreviated weekend version of the exercises each year. It's a great time, a time I always look forward to.
Rob, thanks for the info about the Exercises. How do you split four weeks into three parts? Sounds interesting :-)
Steve, thanks for the link!
weelllll... Ignatius does that strange math for us in bringing up the traditional division of prayer into three kinds -- purgative, illuminative, and unitive. The first 'week' of the Exercises he calls purgative, meaning a kind of clearing of the decks or, rapidly shifting metaphors, a digging of the foundations. The second 'week' is illuminative -- the grace we pray for is to know Christ and be transformed by the knowing. The third and fourth 'weeks' are both described as 'unitive' in their prayer style. They are about sharing with Christ in compassion and in joy.
It's also conveniently true that in a 30-day retreat those three blocks usdually take around 10 days each.
Rob,
I see. It makes sense that way. The Exercises are pretty flexible ... if I remember correctly, Ignatius thought they could be modified to fit a person's particular needs? Thanks for the information.
Jeff - A couple years ago... For me, it was around 25 years ago, but something tells me it's the kind of place that happily doesn't change much...
Crystal - Yes, that was a major event for me - learning the centering prayer from Fr. Basil Pennington is what started me on meditation. He was the perfect picture of an Abbot: a huge man, very upright posture, full gray beard, but with a still basically youthful-looking face. I was 24 or 25 and percieved him as "old," but found I had trouble keeping up with him picking walnuts in their walnut grove!
Thanks for your last comment, tried to clarify a possible miscommunication or two...
Darius, I can see how that visit to the Abbey could be inspiring.
Ye, I saw I misunderstood some of what you said - no worries :-)
Good post.Perfect for the spiritual sou searching Im looking for....tried to see it in spiritual retreats
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