Welcome

This website is dedicated to helping people grow in faith, hope and love through the use of Ignatian Spirituality.

What is Spiritual Direction?

Spiritual direction is listening for God. Perhaps better called spiritual accompaniment,
it offers an opportunity to reflect upon questions such as these:

"What are my deepest values; what matters to me most?"

"What do I want the direction of my life to be?"

"What are God's desires for me?"

"What blocks me and how can I be free from these blocks?"

An important aspect of this conversation may be to discuss spiritual practice or prayer life, work and relationships. T

he conversation with a spiritual director also offers a space to articulate realistic visions for your life and to explore how they may be grounded in practice.

Spiritual direction is the act of paying attention to God, calling attention to God, being attentive to God in a person or circumstances or situation. A prerequisite is standing back, doing nothing. It opens a quiet eye of adoration. It releases the energetic wonder of faith. It notices the Invisibilities in and beneath and around the Visibilities. It listens for the Silences between the spoken Sounds. Eugene H Peterson

Spiritual direction is sitting in the room together talking about what no one can say. James Finley

To explore how Spiritual Direction may be helpful for you at this time please contact Reuben for a conversation and organize an initial session to see what you think.
People often see their Spiritual Director every 4 to 6 weeks.

What is Ignatian Prayer?

Ignatian prayer is imaginative, reflective, and personal. St. Ignatius Loyola encouraged people to develop a

n intimate relationship with a God who loves them and desires the best for them. Ignatius Loyola

trusted human desires. He believed that our deepest desire is to return God’s love. Ignatius Loyola also trusted feelings. He believed that feelings of joy and sorrow, peace and distress, w

ere important indicators of the path toward fruitful decisions and deeper union with God. At the heart of Ignatian prayer are the Spiritual Exercises and the Daily Examen.

What are the Spiritual Exercises?

The Spiritual Exercises are a compilation of meditations, prayers, and contemplative practices developed by St. Ignatius Loyola to help people deepen their relationship with God. For centuries the Exercises were most commonly given as a “long retreat” of about 30 days in solitude and silence. In recent years, there has been a renewed emphasis on the Spiritual Exercises as a program for laypeople.  The most common way of going through the Exercises now is a “retreat in daily life,” which involves a monthslong program of daily prayer and meetings with a spiritual director.  The Exercises have also been adapted in many other ways to meet the needs of modern people.

A noted novelist and essayist believes that Ignatius Loyola’s spiritual notebook is a practical manual for realizing our soul’s deepest yearnings.

What is the Daily Examen?