I cannot recommend it highly enough! I first came to Loyola Hall many years ago and although I went on my own and I am not an outgoing person, I never felt uncomfortable. I always felt welcomed and at home.

The Loyola Hall community have, through their excellent input in both the retreats and the quiet Loyola Days, helped me to experience God in a more intimate way. Introducing me to praying and contemplating the scriptures has enabled me to listen to what God is saying to me in the here and now.

I believe that my time spent at Loyola Hall has been invaluable in my faith journey and I always leave feeling renewed and looking forward to my next visit.

Loyola Days, one Sunday of each month, are open to anyone who wants to have some quiet time. There is no need to book in advance. They run from10am – 4pm. Spend a day of quiet with guidance in prayer and optional sharing on a theme, ending with a prayerful Eucharist.

This past weekend Philip Endean, SJ was with us again in our continuing project of providing a forum to think through the theological issues around spiritual direction and the Ignatian tradition. This time the topic was ‘Salvation’ and the reading and discussion was typically lively and stretching. We approached the theme through a series of questions: ‘What difference does Jesus’s death make?’ (reading Karl Rahner and Philip Endean); ‘Predestination-is it all automatic?’ (reading Endean and Aquinas); ‘Does God suffer?’ (reading Robert Jenson); and ‘Christ as scapegoat?’ (reading James Alison and Joseph Ratzinger). We argued enthusiastically, pondered deeply, and had some headaches and fun along the way.

Two weeks before we had our annual Loyola Hall Seminar, this time with another gifted Jesuit theologian, James Hanvey, SJ speaking on ‘ The Spiritual Exercises and Contemporary Ecclesiologies’. In three talks James took us on a roller-coaster ride, first opening up our contemporary experience of church and putting it in the context of various ecclesiologies — understandings of church. Then we plunged into the robust and slightly disturbing model of Church Ignatius explicitly espouses in the Spiritual Exercises, only to inspire us again with an exposition on what James called ‘the hidden church’ in the Exercises, evoking the current approach to church as communio that focuses on the web of relationships that make up the church.

The morning after Palm Sunday a band of 10 pilgrims set off from Loyola Hall to Duckington, the starting point of a four-day walk which was to bring us back to the house in time for Maundy Thursday services. As we tightened the laces of our boots and zipped up our jackets, none of us imagined just what laid in store.

Our constant companion was an 8-foot long heavy wooden cross which was a  challenge to those of us who feel we can do everything on our own. It didn’t take long before we learned to team up with those of similar height to even the weight. We figured out ways of synchronising our walking pace to carry it up hills. We got the hang of negotiating stiles, gates and ditches. Slowly, we became a community. And by the end of the walk, we felt like companions guarding the most precious symbol of our faith.

Carrying a cross for 47 miles through muddy fields, country lanes and suburban streets may seem a fitting start for Holy Week. For us, walking under that cross – which quickly became our cross – gave us much more than that. Its weight resting on our shoulders quietly, yet unequivocally, became a source of strength, calm and consolation. It moved us in ways that would be too profound for us to articulate for some time. It would seem that the act of carrying a simple cross put us in touch with some of the most tender parts of ourselves.

There is something unusual about approaching the solemnities of the Triduum through a physical experience. Most people, ourselves included, would try to pray or reflect more often, or to give something up for Lent, naturally focusing on our spirits’ readiness for the Church’s most important weekend of the year. Unlike most, we found ourselves feeling the nearness of the Passion in our bodies, in the tightness on our shoulders, the soreness of our legs, the blisters on our feet. Perhaps this year we were invited to reach the upper room by offering our spiritual selves and our prayerful minds, along with the tiredness and the pain of our bodies.

Each of us experienced this invitation in a different, often private and profound, way. But this invitation – maybe to delight in the creative joy of Easter – revealed itself in those around us too. It was present in the steadfast kindness of our companions, like when they noticed our moments of weariness under the cross and gently relieved us. It came alive in the chats that unfolded personal, heart-felt stories, which showed people’s deep yearning for God. It was extraordinarily evident in the overwhelming hospitality that we found in churches along the way: the hot meals, the refreshing showers in parishioners’ homes, the carpeted halls where we slept. And it restored us each time we found a smiling Loyola Hall team member at a rest stop, waiting for us with hot tea, sweets and a comforting “well-done”.

There were eight nationalities among ten pilgrims, and many more contrasts. Yet we effortlessly learned to trust and find goodness and joy in one another. As we entered through the gates of Loyola Hall on Maundy Thursday, our hearts were filled with a rare emotion. Perhaps it was the realisation that we had been walking with the Lord for four days and had, in a tiny way, helped him carry his cross, just as he helps us carry ours every moment of our lives. And so maybe we too were about to be part of the transformative miracle of the resurrection.

Vron Smith

We look forward to seeing you in the coming year.

Spiritual direction and retreat giving in the Ignatian tradition puts high value in reflection on experience — one’s own experience of God, of accompanying others and exploring the insights of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. This residential Internship is for people who have made the full Spiritual Exercises and completed training in Ignatian Spiritual Accompaniment and who now wish to gain deeper experience of giving retreats and spiritual direction. An Internship can vary in length from 4 months to 10 months.

An internship will be regarded as a training programme and will involve the following:

• Directing 2-, 4- and 8-day Individually-Guided Retreats.
• Receiving regular one-to-one supervision and participation in group supervision
• Participation in team formation — including fortnightly seminars, Teamdays etc
• Participation in relevant courses at Loyola Hall and St Beuno’s as available

For the duration of the Internship you will live and work as part of the team and community at Loyola Hall, including taking a share of the usual house duties undertaken by the team. You will be paid a basic salary during the Internship, which after deductions and board and lodging will offer about £450 a month.

Selection is by application form and interview. For further information on availability of Internships and for application forms please contact:

Director, Loyola Hall, Warrington Road, Rainhill, Merseyside, L35 6NZ

or ask via 0151 426 4137 or mail@loyolahall.co.uk

‘There are nine million bicycles in Beijing’ so the song goes. There are also over 22 million residents living in an area of 16,800 square kilometres, over 40% of whom are migrant workers from the countryside who are looking for work. Travelling around Beijing, apart from the crowds of people, what is most striking is how young the population is, the average age being around 33 years. It is estimated that around 1% of the population is Catholic, with a greater concentration around Beijing.

The situation of the Catholic Church in China is very complicated. There are the ‘underground’ and ‘patriotic’ Church, but to use those terms is not helpful. Rather, a church, seminary etc. may be unregistered or registered with the government. Previously, to be registered involved being part of the Catholic Patriotic Association who rejected ties with the Vatican. However, many who joined registered churches worked within the restrictions whilst still maintaining loyalty to the Vatican; others chose not to join the Catholic Patriotic Association and became what is known as the underground church. Today that division is much more blurred and there are many Catholics who go to celebrate the sacraments at registered churches who are not members of the Catholic Patriotic Association. Similarly, registered and unregistered seminarians can be found studying together at registered seminaries. For the Catholic Church in China there is an ongoing complex process of reconciliation that requires our prayer.

Eamonn O’Brien, a Columban missionary working with Cultural Exchange with China, contacted Ruth at Loyola Hall about the possibilities of training in Spiritual Accompaniment for Chinese Catholics, resulting in an invitation to Beijing.  Hosted by the Archdiocese of Beijing, Ruth and Vron, together with Paul Nicholson SJ, arrived into the City airport at the beginning of July. We were welcomed by Eamonn and driven to the Beijing Seminary at Houbajia, in the northern suburbs where we settled in to our air-conditioned rooms (fitted in time for the arrival of all those on the course)!

The first day we spent acclimatising by going to Mass in South Cathedral and visiting Tian’anmen Square, the South-facing Gate and Wangfujing St (the Westernised commercial shopping street) before returning in time to welcome the course participants who were arriving from all parts of China by plane and train. All the participants – lay, religious and clergy – were required to have completed a Master’s degree in an English-speaking country and to have some involvement in spiritual accompaniment and/or formation.
After opening introductions the participants undertook a 6 day individually guided retreat (IGR), partly to help us gain a greater understanding of their spirituality, religious language and customs, but also to help them prepare for the training course through experiencing Ignatian accompaniment and giving them time and space to be with God.

Then to the classroom and the sound of chalk screeching across the blackboard. Over the following three weeks, we led the participants through inputs, demonstrations and intensive observed practice, always keeping in mind and in discussion with them about how our model of accompaniment could be adapted to their particular culture. They, in turn, taught us Mandarin, to eat with chopsticks, how to use the washing machine and, most importantly, how great is the need and desire for further formation in spiritual accompaniment within the Catholic Church in China. Our hope is that this first course has laid a good foundation for further collaboration … watch this space!!

The retreat was given to eleven participants by two Loyola Hall team members, Edel McClean and Karen Eliasen. Edel and Karen offered a variety of perspectives, ranging from the exegetical and the anecdotal to the reflective and the hands-on, on women from both Testaments. Each day opened to a theme chosen to bring alive ways in which we as modern biblical readers can relate to the wonderful, even if often unnamed women, that generously pepper the Bible. Thus we looked at women …. and call … and wisdom … and justice … and love, and last but not least, women and food.

On all days, presentations with visual images and music inspired our engagement with women such as Eve and Mary, Deborah and Anna, the Shulamite and the woman who anointed Jesus, to name but a few. But on the last day, themed women and food, we baked bread under Edel’s lively supervision – literally, yes, and very enjoyably messily so!

Next year Edel and Karen will be doing another biblically-based preached retreat: look for “Joys and Sorrows, Praise and Lament” given here at Loyola Hall in July 2012.

With Lent under way you might already have given thought to what you will do to make the season fruitful — but if not here are two brief articles that might help you celebrate Lent.

• Nick Austin, SJ writes about The Virtue of Asceticism at Thinking  Faith

“So what have you decided to give up for Lent? We often we hear that the important thing is not to give something up, but to do something positive. But it’s strange, isn’t it, that the feeling still sticks that Lent is really about giving up stuff? Giving up chocolate, giving up alcohol, giving up desserts, giving up cigarettes, giving up TV, giving up meat on Fridays…. For better or worse, we tend to ask ourselves not ‘What am I going to do, in a positive way, for Lent?’ but ‘What am I going to give up?’ So why are we so fixated on fasting, abstaining, giving stuff up?”

• John F. Kavanaugh, SJ presents A Personalist Lent at America

“What would Lent mean in a culture with a powerful undertow toward depersonalization? Such a culture is our own: capitalist, consumerist, individualist. Without denying its mighty achievements in productivity, medicine, science, entertainment, comfort and the rest, it should be admitted that our culture also erodes personal life.”

The Holy Week and Easter Celebration at Loyola Hall this year will include a Cross Walk on Good Friday for any who wish to participate.

As one of the options on Good Friday you could be part of a group that carries a cross through the lanes and footpaths near Loyola Hall. This five hour walk will culminate in the celebration of the Good Friday liturgy with all the other retreatants back at Loyola Hall — a memorable way of entering into Jesus’ passion.

Our annual Holy Week Celebration is aimed primarily at those aged 18-35. More details can be found in our events listing.

“the good angel touches the soul gently, lightly, and sweetly, like a drop of water soaking into a sponge” St. Ignatius

It is just the latest way we are offering training in spiritual direction in the Ignatian tradition — each year we offer shorter residential courses in the skill and practice of spiritual accompaniment, regular days of ongoing formation for those already practising, plus weekends and longer courses in spiritual direction supervision. We also have a number of weekends reflecting on the theology and practice of spiritual accompaniment and the Spiritual Exercises.