From the category archives:
Ann Boyd on the benefits of the Examen (“It connects my seemingly irrational emotional life with the workings of God”).
An Evangelical compares the Ignatian charism to Rick Warren’s and Bill Hybel’s (and Francis’s, Dominic’s, and Benedict’s).
Running the Catholic numbers: Catholics, bishops, priests up; women religious down.
Jake Martin, SJ, on snark (“the glorification of the mediocre”).
Vincent [...]
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…is a child sleeping. I am sometimes awed by just the feeling that rises up in me when beholding one of my daughters asleep; it is an intense experience of grace.
What makes that statement more than pious nonsense, I think, is the fact that the experience can come unbidden even a short time after the [...]
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I’m not one to make new year’s resolutions, but because my calendar now says 2010 I can’t help but think a little about them.
I just finished a review of Christopher Jamison’s fine book Finding Happiness, which is perfect for those of a resolution frame of mind. Written by a Benedictine abbot (of Worth Abbey, in [...]
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Paul Coutinho, SJ, an Indian Jesuit currently teaching at St. Louis University, has written two popular books How Big Is Your God? and Just as You Are. St. Louis University has released videos of four workshops on Ignatian spirituality that he gave last year to SLU staff. The topics are familiar, but Coutinho comes at [...]
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Anh “Joseph” Cao got a lot of attention last December when he became the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to Congress. He was in the news again recently when he became the only Republican to vote in favor of the health reform bill that passed the House of Representatives. Cao is a former [...]
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In my freshman seminar yesterday, my class and I were discussing Plato’s Republic, and specifically his strong focus on thinking about the good of the city over the good of the individual person. As usual, my students found this focus somewhat confusing—they (like us) think as free individuals and so are unaccustomed to thinking about [...]
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Consolation and desolation are key ideas in Ignatian discernment, and they are not easy to understand. Abbot Joseph has a good post about the nuances.
Even for those who are serious about the spiritual life, it is good to make the distinction between subjective feelings and objective reality when trying to discern one’s spiritual state as [...]
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If someone you know is looking for direction in life, point them to “How to Discern the Elements of Your Personal Vocation” by Peter Ryan, SJ. It’s an excellent essay that sets forth “points to bear in mind,” the first of which is that “sincere discernment infallibly succeeds.”
Another point is that we “discern only [...]
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The goal of Ignatian discernment is to discover where God is active in our lives. Here is a simple two-step exercise to get started with it. It is adapted from a “spiritual warm-up” developed by Tim Muldoon in his book The Ignatian Workout:
1. Be quiet (turn off radios, TVs, computers, video games; close books and [...]
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People who work as administrators grumble about it all the time. “Another meeting.” “Another performance review.” “Another crisis.” Yet administration is on St. Paul’s list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. Ann Garrido, an academic administrator in St. Louis, asks, “Why not reconceive administration as a potential spiritual pathway by which good people can [...]
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