Jesuit Spirituality


Ignatian spirituality

Australia



Listening for God

Ignatius discovered that God can be found in all things, in all
events, in every moment. Learning to listen to the movements of his heart,
he was led to a profound faith in Jesus, and he invited others to journey along
the path he trod. Generations later we call this path ‘Ignatian Spirituality’. It is
a pilgrim’s path, a way that respects each one’s life journey, but profoundly
challenges the pilgrim to hear, to decide and to journey onwards.

You are invited to deepen your ability
to discern the ways God speaks to you, hearing God’s voice in the depths of
your heart, your life, your story, your history. God calls us as individuals and as
a community. We can hear where God is calling us to grow and we can hear
where God is calling us to go. We can know who God is calling us to be and we
can know what God is calling us to do.

One of the loveliest gifts we have been given is to have been made cocreators
with God. God gives us a share in building our own future and a share in
shaping a future for our world. The world and all that’s in it is a work in progress.
Each of us is a work in progress. We each make our own contribution to God’s
creation as we develop and use our God-given talents and share with our
brothers and sisters in God’s family the blessings we have been given.
In our Catholic tradition, when we talk of preparing people to share more
effectively in the mission of Jesus, we speak of ‘formation’. Formation is much
more than training or education because it is about the internalisation of values,
attitudes and ways of seeing and the maturing of faith. It is something that we
do in co-operation with God. Formation seeks to develop in us a sensitivity to
where God is leading our lives and our mission.

Ignatian spirituality is built around two key relationships - the
relationship between a person and God, and the relationship between
that person and their spiritual director. The latter relationship can also
be experienced in a group. The spiritual director takes as a model the
relationship between Jesus and his disciples, including the times
when they withdrew to the mountains. Here Jesus had conversations
with them and they prayed together before returning to down into
daily life.

The greatest resource of each Ignatian Centre is the spiritual directors
that work in it - it is in effect a great part of what is offered in this
program of retreats. We are all formed in Ignatian spirituality by our
lived faith, our love of Ignatian spirituality, our professional training
and experience in giving the Exercises. Part of this experience is being
wonderfully taught by those who come to make retreats.

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