Articles
Articles

Imaginative prayer

Our English word imagination has its roots in the old French word imaginacion and the Latin word imaginationem. These words do mean pictorial image, but can also mean a representation or concept Read more ...


Prayer review

During your prayer period, you need the freedom to move and flow with whatever is arising and to go wherever God may be leading. It is not the time to analyse your experience or try to understand what God may be saying to you. Doing this will only hinder his communication. Why? Because you've stopped listening to do something else. Read more ...


Prayer repetition

The repetition is not a repeat of a prior prayer period. We are not returning to gain new insights or knowledge. Nor are we returning to try to 'do better' or 'get it right' as when revising for an exam. Instead, the repetition is a move toward a more simple, receptive and personal prayer. Read more ...


The Examen prayer

The Examen is a simple prayer method in which you look back over your day. It helps you notice how God is drawing you toward him, and what draws you away from him. This information enables you to spend as much of your future days with God as possible. Read more ...


Aversions and Attachments

We all have preferences. Things we like and things we don't like. Things we want and things we don't want. If I said I prefer health to sickness and plenty to poverty, you'd probably think my preferences were sensible. But is there a time when they wouldn't be? Read more ...


A short history of the Spiritual Exercises

St Ignatius of Loyola—the founder of the Society of Jesus commonly known as the Jesuits—was born in 1491 as Íñigo López de Loyola. Íñigo was a nobleman and a soldier from Loyola in the north of Spain whose early life can be described as one of loose living. Read more ...


Training Spiritual Directors

Anyone can call themselves a Spiritual Director without training. This may be legal but it is not ethical. With good intentions, an untrained person may give you their advice, try to fix you, or correct your beliefs to put you on 'the right path'. This should not happen in Spiritual Direction. Read more ...