Preparing for Prayer

meditation

Ignatian Spirituality and Prayer

This audio guide gives more information on praying the Examen Prayer.

Introduction to the Examen Prayer

This Lent, become a spiritual athlete and join Tim Muldoon for The Ignatian Workout for Lent. This week Muldoon shares a reflection for Ash Wednesday.  

Learn more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/lent/the-ignatian-workout-for-lent-an-online-retreat/#sthash.r3490cbx.dpuf

The Ignatian Workout for Lent: Ash Wednesday

If you have time, this four-minute body exercise can be a useful preparation for prayer, helping you to develop the stillness, focus and attentiveness that you need.  

Body Exercise

If you have time, this four-minute breathing exercise can be a useful preparation for prayer, helping you to develop the stillness, focus and attentiveness that you need.

Breathing Exercise

The Introduction to a series of four podcast reflections on the life of St Ignatius Loyola as seen through The Spiritual Exercises.

Music: Scott Lamlein. Used with permission. http://nfrmusic.com/

These reflections are a collaboration between Pray as you go and the Jesuits in Britain and are based on the Spiritual Exercises, a prayer manual compiled by St Ignatius Loyola nearly 500 years ago. These reflections are different from many of the other reflections produced by Pray as you go, there won’t be a text you’ll be invited to listen to and reflect on. Instead, we’ll be focusing on the life of St Ignatius and the themes of the Spiritual Exercises. St Ignatius believed that it was possible for people to come to a direct experience of God, present and active in their everyday lives. His book aimed to foster just this kind of experience, so that people could use it to re-shape their lives in ways big and small. 

These four reflections correspond to the four major sections of the Spiritual Exercises. For Ignatius, the starting point is to realise deeply that you are loved by God just as you are, warts and all. You are, in truth, a loved sinner. Anyone who has this experience is then likely to hear themselves called by God to a life of loving service, and this forms the second section of the retreat. Such a life of loving service will inevitably include experiences of failure, misunderstanding, and perhaps even persecution, as Jesus found in his Passion, and the third session takes that up that theme. Yet the story doesn’t end there, and the fourth and final part of the Exercises recognises how the risen Christ is joyfully present in my life, and the life of our world.

Ignatius drew up the Spiritual Exercises by reflecting deeply on his own life experience. Later on, he broadened this out to include the experience of others whom he directed in their prayer. So this retreat will also offer some snapshots of the life of Ignatius, and invite you to find examples from your own history too.

Why use these podcasts? If you want to meet for the first time, or come to know more deeply, the God who calls to you in the events of your day-to-day living, then this may be for you. But be aware that you might meet a God who has plans for you that you have as yet scarcely dreamed of. 


Reflections on St Ignatius & The Spiritual Exercises - Introduction

The Hurtado Jesuit Centre runs retreat days for busy people, and activities that bring people of different faiths and cultures from the local community together, to help build a better future for all residents of Wapping. These interviews were with participants in the Advent 2014 retreat day.

Hurtado Jesuit Centre - Spirituality Interviews

Today it's the turn of St Ignatius as we look at Ignatian prayer and spirituality for our 'Schools of Prayer' podcast series.

St Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus - the Jesuits - in 1540. Today there are over 18,000 priests and brothers present in more than 100 countries.

One of the 18,000 just so happens to be our current Holy Father, Pope Francis. His heart for social justice, deep prayer and inspirational teaching in some ways makes him a typical Jesuit.

So who can tell us more about St Ignatius and his teaching? How can we learn from Ignatian Spirituality to deepen our own prayer by having that personal encounter with God - that face-to-face conversation?

We visited Campion Hall in Oxford to speak to Dr Rob Marsh SJ.

Prayer at the School of St Ignatius

Fr James Hanvey SJ, Master of Campion Hall, University of Oxford, gives us a simple reflection on Christian prayer. 

He discusses Christ's own prayer and how we can use the prayer of the Church to draw closer to God the Father. 

Part of our 'Schools of Prayer' podcast series. 

http://www.catholicnews.org.uk/schools-of-prayer

The Lowdown on Christian Prayer

This Step 3 Guided Prayer and Guided Meditation follows the Buddhist idea that our Higher Power can be found within within our true nature (Buddha), in the teachings of true understanding (Dharma) and in the community (Sangha) of brothers and sisters we share the path of freedom with. 

May you be happy, 
May you be free, 
May you know peace. 

The Middleway Team 

Step 3 Prayer and Guided Meditation

To see the full talk please click here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSnoklCQ_NA

I am my Story but Im not my Past

In the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius gives us the idea of meeting sacred scripture with one's own life, mediated through Imaginative Contemplation. The aim of these reflections is to do this in tandem with pieces of art. Each month therefore, we will offer a painting in the hope that it will enable you to reflect more deeply on a particular passage of scripture. The idea is that you can return to the painting and scripture and discover more depth throughout the month.

Introduction to Praying with Art

Rooted in the rich tradition of our spirituality, Jesuits are contemplatives in action, living lives of service around the world.