Symposium on Ignatian Spirituality - Sr Leena Dorothy rjm

Symposium on Ignatian Spirituality

Under the able leadership of Fr Shekhar Manickam, the coordinator of Province Commission for Ignatian Spirituality, a Symposium on Ignatian Spirituality was organized at Jeevan Darshan Kendra, Vadodara from 1 to 3 February. The important feature of the Symposium was to share with the members of the Ignatian Family various modules of the Ignatian retreat. There were thirty participants, including nine Sisters from four different Congregations that follow Ignatian Spirituality.

The resource persons were: Frs Lancy D’Cruz (Eco-Spirituality), M.I. Raj (Word of God vis-à-vis human ego), Joseph Mattam (Traditional Ignatian Retreat based on personal experience), Victor Davamani (Ignatian Retreat for laity blended with charismatic dynamics), Ornellas Coutinho (The 19th Annotation – A Retreat in Daily Life) and Lawrence Dharmaraj (Dynamics of spiritual direction). They made very creative, insightful and richly experience-based presentations which were followed by clarifications and interactions.

A substantial amount of time was spent on sharing personal experience of the participants – either as retreatants or as retreat preachers. The common thread of all the sharings was the importance of personal prayer, gift of the Spirit, initiative of God and an interconnected ambience in directing a retreat.

One could confidently say that this symposium has been able to achieve its purpose: to strengthen the bond among the family members and to deepen our common Ignatian heritage. It was an encouraging, empowering and enriching experience as a result of which some of the participants, especially the sisters, felt called deep within to preach retreats in future. We wish them all the best and God’s blessings (Sr Leena Dorothy rjm).