This weekend should give everyone a really good sense of who the Jesuits are and what they do. There’s such a lot richness in our history, in the life of St. Ignatius, and in what we are currently doing here in Britain and all over the world, and we’re convinced if more people knew about it, they’d want to share in the mission, some, we hope as Jesuits — we really need more vocations — and some as lay colleagues in our works.
Fr. Matthew Power SJ, who will be running the weekend.
The weekend will begin on the evening of Friday 5th November, with supper at 6.45pm, for those who can arrive in time, and the opening meeting will be at 8pm. The weekend closes with a 3pm Mass on Sunday.
During the weekend we will:
Look at the Life of St. Ignatius
Consider aspects of Jesuit Spirituality and the Jesuit ‘way of proceeding’ that arise out of the life of St. Ignatius
Experience two ways of prayer typical of Jesuit Spirituality
Look at the particular contribution the Jesuits make in the mission of the Church
This event would be particularly suited to someone who is at the early stages of thinking about whether or not they have a vocation to the Jesuits, but is also open to others.
If participants wish to make a donation to the costs of the weekend, it would be gratefully received.
For further information, please email Fr. Matthew Power SJ: matthew.power@jesuits.net
The long-awaited BBC2 series The Big Silence will be broadcast on BBC2 on the three Fridays of October 22nd and 29th, and November 5th at 7pm.
The Big Silence is a series about five men and women challenged by Christopher Jamison, OSB to build silence into their daily lives, first with a glimpse of monastic silence at Worth Abbey, and then with an Ignatian silent, directed retreat. Their journeys though not smooth proved fruitful.
As a companion to the series, the Growing into Silence web site and booklet provide more help in finding silence in a busy schedule with practical resources and exercises and articles by the four retreat guides who took part in the TV series: Ruth Holgate of Loyola Hall, Tom McGuinness of the Ignatian Spirituality Centre, Glasgow, Brendan Callaghan of Campion Hall, Oxford, and Renate Dullman of St Beunos in Wales.
“The result is a journey that takes them from the depths of sadness through anger and frustration to the heights of contemplative bliss,” writes Paul Nicholson in the introduction to the booklet. “All of them were profoundly changed by the experience. This booklet offers you the chance to follow up their experience in your own life. You can find out about the spiritual exercises that they undertook and consider following them yourself.”
One of the kinds of event offered by Loyola Hall is the preached retreat, a series of talks and presentations on a theme with ample space for personal silence and prayer. One such retreat has just finished and another is still under way.
Fintan Creaven, SJ has just completed a 6-day preached retreat, ‘Journeying into God’. The title drew 22 people who together looked at different aspects of journeying: The Journey of God (the Processions of the Trinity); the journey of Creation (from the Big Bang to now); the Journey of Ignatius; the Journey of Jesus; The Voyage of Prayer; and Peregrinatio (the journeyings on the sea of the ancient Celts). We even looked at journeying on the Wrong Road (moving away from God). Original materials and audio-visuals combined with some lovely weather to make a relaxing and enjoyable event.
Meanwhile Gerry O’Mahony, SJ is currently giving a preached retreat from Monday – Friday to thirteen Columban Missionary priests. Between them they have worked in the Philippines, Brazil, Chile, the United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Belgium. Now they are home from the missions, yet still working in parishes in England, Ireland and Scotland.
This past weekend saw the first of our ongoing series of study weekends with Philip Endean, SJ. A group of 20 active Ignatian practitioners (including many of the Loyola Hall team) gathered to work on the subject of how sin and forgiveness are handled in the text and giving of the Spiritual Exercises.
Philip’s lively and provocative style ensured discussion was engaged and energetic. He approached the topic in three sessions dealing with good and bad aspects of guilt and conscience, the varieties of ways we describe and recognise stories of conversion, and the shape an Ignatian theology of sin might take.
Each session began with a brief orientation from Philip to set up and guide individual reading, space to read and reflect on the (very varied!) texts, discussion of the material in small groups, followed by a plenary where Philip answered some questions and posed more.
Philip presented theology (and historical studies) as a tool to widen horizons rather than narrow them. The response was enthusiastic — even from some participants who were initially a little daunted at the thought of having to think hard for the weekend. A final session looked at some of the ways the weekend might shape our practice as spiritual directors and retreat givers — and surfaced a long list of possible subjects for future study weekends.
The next weekend in the series is 24 – 26, September, 2010. Each weekend is free-standing so if you are involved in Ignatian spirituality and would like to reflect more deeply on its underpinnings do consider coming along.
Fr. Gerald O’Mahony’s take on 
The title drew 22 people who together looked at different aspects of journeying: The Journey of God (the Processions of the Trinity); the journey of Creation (from the Big Bang to now); the Journey of Ignatius; the Journey of Jesus; The Voyage of Prayer; and Peregrinatio (the journeyings on the sea of the ancient Celts). We even looked at journeying on the Wrong Road (moving away from God). Original materials and audio-visuals combined with some lovely weather to make a relaxing and enjoyable event.
Philip’s lively and provocative style ensured discussion was engaged and energetic. He approached the topic in three sessions dealing with good and bad aspects of guilt and conscience, the varieties of ways we describe and recognise stories of conversion, and the shape an Ignatian theology of sin might take.