During the four weeks of Advent, we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth through prayer and reflection. We contemplate the First Coming of Jesus as Savior, and anticipate his promised Second Coming. And amid the flurry of Christmas preparations, we look for practical ways to observe the holiness of the season in our everyday lives.

Ignatian contemplation and reflective prayer encourage us in the season of Advent. Below we highlight Advent resources in the tradition of Ignatian spirituality.

An Advent Retreat: Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (PDF)

Printable retreat booklet that guides the participant through the Advent and Christmas seasons by using Ignatian contemplation and prayerful reading of the daily Scriptures.

Advent Retreat Weekly Reflections

Find brief reflections each week online and discuss your retreat experience with others through the following links (will be updated each week).

November 27, 2011: The First Week of Advent
December 4, 2011: The Second Week of Advent
December 11, 2011: The Third Week of Advent
December 18, 2011: The Fourth Week of Advent
December 25, 2011: Christmastime First Week
January 1, 2012: Christmastime Second Week

Loyola Press Bloggers Advent Experience
The Loyola Press bloggers invite you to join them for an Advent experience through their online communities. Each day of Advent, one of the Loyola Press websites will host the experience for the day.

Loyola Press Advent Retreat
This Loyola Press Advent Retreat presents links to daily Scripture readings and prayerful reflections throughout Advent.

Longing for the Lord: An Advent Examen
The Jesuits of the Missouri Province provide this site, which links the Ignatian Examen with another treasure of Church tradition, the O Antiphons.

Advent Podcasts
The New England Jesuits offer meditations and reflections intersecting themes of Advent and Ignatian spirituality. The topics are: Anticipating Joy, Using the Examen During Advent, Imaginative Prayer, and Advent Gifts and Graces.

Praying Advent
Creighton University’s Online Ministries offers a selection of materials to help people prayerfully enter into Advent, from short prayers to longer reflections and audio retreats.

Pray-as-you-go Advent
Pray-as-you-go changes its regular daily prayer format for Advent, focusing on some of the issues raised and insights offered in the encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).

Contemplation on the Incarnation Part One: The Trinity Looks Down from Heaven
By Daniel Ruff, SJ
The Contemplation on the Incarnation begins with imagining the Trinity looking down from heaven and responding with the Incarnation. Ruff introduces readers to this aspect of the Spiritual Exercises.

Contemplation on the Incarnation Part Two: Mary’s Human Response
By Daniel Ruff, SJ
The second part of the Contemplation on the Incarnation explores the Annunciation and Mary’s response.

Mary at Her Annunciation as a Model for Growing in the Virtue of Faith
By Gerald M. Fagin, SJ
In contemplating the Annunciation, we see Mary as a model of faith and are called to trust and openness ourselves.