Intro to Contemplative Prayer: Ignatian Meditation and The Daily Examen

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

 This line from a poem by the Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins captures a central theme of Ignatian spirituality: its insistence that God is at work everywhere — in work, relationships, culture, the arts, the intellectual life, in creation itself. As Ignatius put it, all the things in the world are presented to us “so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.”

Ignatian spirituality places great emphasis on discerning God’s presence in the everyday activities of ordinary life. It sees God as an active God, always at work, inviting us to an ever-deeper walk.

The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect the presence of the Divine. The Examen is an ancient practice that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.

Ignatian meditation is a method of Scripture meditation in which you use your imagination and physical senses to enter into the events of Jesus’ life and listen to God. It is based on Ignatius of Loyola’s style of prayer in The Spiritual Exercises. Ignatius was convinced that God can speak to us as surely through our imagination as through our thoughts and memories. Ignatius guides us to read a Gospel story with our senses in order to see, hear, and touch—even to taste and smell if we can—what’s happening in the text. This method of imagining yourself in a Gospel passage is a helpful contrast to Bible study.

Although the meditations are each based on an episode from the Christian gospels, no religious knowledge or background is required.

You will be introduced to these two practices and how to do them. You will have time to experience each practice with a guide and then on your own. You will have a chance to talk with a trained listener/spiritual director about what you noticed and what came up for you during the experience.

Participants will be assigned a private Quiet Pod to experience a personal time of stillness and silence.

Contemplative Prayer Mini-Retreats are typically offered on Fridays from 9-11 am. We can also make an appointment for a different day and time to meet your needs. You may choose another time or see all the Contemplative Prayer practices available.

COST:

$35