Doing the Spiritual Exercises

During my time in Omaha I studied the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. It is one thing to study them, but another to do them.The exercises can be done as a 30 day intensive retreat, or a week by week program. Much as I would love to, there isn't a spare month I could be away from the parish again, so I am doing the 30 week version.

I receive spiritual direction via Skype from my director (referred from the Jesuit retreat centre in Pymble). Each week she sends me a list of scripture passages to meditate on and other prayer exercises, and then in an hour conversation via Skype we talk just about how I have been praying.

It has been a very focused experience of prayer thus far. In other experiences of spiritual direction in the past we have talked about a broader range of issues of life, prayer and ministry, but this is just about prayer, nothing else. I am praying with passages of scripture which of course I have known, such as Jesus' declaration of bringing good news to the poor in Luke 4, but which I've never prayed with. I've never put myself imaginatively into the scene to draw close to Jesus in his ministry. It's been really powerful.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I was feeling happy and energised, more so than usual. I also noticed that I hadn't been on holidays, engaged deeply with a friend, achieved anything particular or had anything else that I might otherwise ascribe such a good mood to. I realised that deeper prayer was the one thing I could see that was different.


I'm still just at the beginning. There are several days / weeks of introduction before the 30 days begin proper. I can't wait to see where it takes me.