The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, 19th Annotation Retreat in Daily Life, are to be offered at the Oratory.
The dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius is a process towards interior freedom: Freedom from whatever burdens and constrains the soul and prevents heroic identification with Jesus Christ in His Paschal Mystery. It is a movement from pragmatism to Divine Love.
St Ignatius developed the main lines of his Spiritual Exercises between 1522 and 1528, based on his deeply experienced sense of God and His individual call to each of us through Jesus Christ His Son. St. Ignatius finalised this small handbook and had it printed for the first time in 1548. Since then his Spiritual Exercises have helped countless people hear Christ’s call to them in a more personal and intimate way and live this out daily with increasing interior freedom, courage and dedication.
The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are normally meant to be experienced during an intense 30-day retreat; however St Ignatius knew that most lay people would find this very difficult if not impossible to manage. In his 19th Annotation to the Exercises he offers a way of fully experiencing them in the context of daily life over a nine month period, setting aside between half to one hour of prayer time daily for this purpose.
Several times over the last 15 years Fr Wise has directed the full Spiritual Exercises in daily life in a small group setting of about six people, meeting fortnightly over nine months.
If you have a reasonably well developed and committed prayer life, perhaps the Lord is calling you to experience these Spiritual Exercises in this setting between October 2018 and June 2019? If you believe so, you are invited to send a confidential email to Fr Wise, outlining briefly why you feel called to take part in this retreat in daily life at this point in your life. Email aswise@nex.net.au by 14th September please.
Sancte Philippe Neri, ora pro nobis. Sancte Ignati de Loyola, ora pro nobis