Happy Easter! We’ve come to the final week of An Ignatian Prayer Adventure. Jesus is risen! And in exploring our theme of “God’s Love and Our Response,” we take the lessons from the entire retreat and go forward, changed by the experience.

This retreat has been introduced during Lent and Easter, but it will have a permanent home on this site. You may wish to return to the entire experience or select portions in the future. Or invite a friend to experience the retreat at a convenient time.

Please share your questions and reflections in the comments section throughout the week.

Holy Week begins today and so does Week 7 of our Ignatian Prayer Adventure online retreat.  You might think about following the retreat this week even if you haven’t done it so far.  The readings follow Jesus through his passion and death.  They will help you pray during this sacred time.

Next week the retreat ends with scripture readings and reflections on the resurrected Jesus and God’s boundless love.

Please share your questions and reflections in the comments section throughout the week.

For this Week 6 of An Ignatian Prayer Adventure, we consider the public ministry of Jesus, focusing on his interactions with people. And because we’re all so busy, we start by joining Jesus on a busy day.

Please note that all of the retreat materials will remain online after Lent and Easter, so if you want to slow down the pace of your reflections, feel free to do so. And if you haven’t started the retreat yet, you may begin An Ignatian Prayer Adventure at any time.

Throughout the week, come back here and share your experiences of praying imaginatively.

An Ignatian Prayer Adventure is at the halfway point. We move into Week 5, exploring the question: What do I really want?

We begin with the meditation on the Call of Christ, Our King.

How has the retreat experience been for you so far? Please share your questions and reflections in the comments.

Our online retreat continues with Week 4 of An Ignatian Prayer Adventure ready today. We’re moving into the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises and begin by contemplating the Incarnation and the birth of Jesus.

If you’re just coming to the retreat, welcome. You can start the retreat back at Week 1, or follow along now as we explore our theme of “Knowing Jesus.” For those of you who have been participating since the start of Lent, you can look forward to the usual reflections from Paul Campbell, SJ, and Vinita Hampton Wright tomorrow. Visit dotMagis on Tuesday for my video of the week.

An Ignatian Prayer Adventure continues with Week 3 materials ready today. Our theme is “Something’s Broken,” and we consider the effects of sin in the world and in our lives.

The aim is not to dwell in guilt and despair. As Kevin O’Brien, SJ, writes:

We don’t get very far just by counting our sins and trying to overcome them by sheer force of will. Instead, we need to keep our eyes fixed on God’s ever-present mercy, which is the ultimate source of our lasting liberation from sin.

We seek healing. Just as bodily healing often begins with some physical pain, healing of the soul begins with a graced awareness of our disordered loves and self-preoccupations.

—The Ignatian Adventure

Week 2 of our Ignatian Prayer Adventure retreat begins today.  The theme of the week is “Finding God in All Things.”

Don’t worry if you haven’t done Week 1.  You can start the retreat now.  Or you can just stop by on the days when you have the time.  Each day has a grace to pray for, a reading, and a reflection related to the week’s theme.  Go here for suggestions about praying the retreat.

An Ignatian Prayer Adventure begins today. Our focus for this first week of the retreat is “Love, Freedom, and Purpose.” We’ll consider questions such as: Who is God for me? How does God see me? When have I experienced interior freedom? and How do I praise, love, and serve God?

Visit People for Others and Days of Deepening Friendship tomorrow for reflections by Paul Brian Campbell, SJ, and Vinita Hampton Wright. I’ll have a video reflection for you here on dotMagis on Tuesday. May you have a blessed Lent.

On Sunday the Ignatian Prayer Adventure retreat begins here on IgnatianSpirituality.com. I hope you take a look at it and consider following it through the Lent-Easter season. Prayer material will be posted every day for the next eight weeks.

The retreat follows the design of St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises. Here’s what you can expect to find every day:

A Grace to Pray For. Ignatius said that we should directly ask God for the grace we want to receive. Different graces are associated with each part of the Exercises, and you’ll find these graces every day. For example, the grace to pray for on Sunday is “to be more aware of how God is near; to trust in God’s personal care and love for me.”

A Reading. Most of these are scripture passages. Some are contemplations and meditations from The Spiritual Exercises.

A Reflection. These are quotes, prayers, Ignatian exercises, or other material related to the subject of the day.

There’s more: every week you can watch short videos by Paul Campbell SJ, Vinita Wright, and me about that week’s theme. We’ll also be writing on our blogs: Days of Deepening Friendship (Vinita) and People for Others (Paul), as well as dotMagis.

You can spend as much or as little time on this material as you wish. You can have a fine retreat if you just pray for the day’s grace and read the reading. If you have the time and inclination, you can keep a prayer journal and spend 30 to 40 minutes a day in prayer, as people do when they are making the Spiritual Exercises. Read this page Before You Begin for some ideas about praying this retreat.

If you can, try to visit the retreat pages every day (or most days). The retreat is a version of the Spiritual Exercises. It’s adapted from the excellent book The Ignatian Adventure, a presentation of the Spiritual Exercises by the author and spiritual director Kevin O’Brien, SJ. The Exercises have a structure and direction. If you follow An Ignatian Prayer Adventure for the next two months, you’ll experience many of the graces of the Exercises.

So please visit the retreat here on Sunday. If your friends and colleagues are looking for a good Lenten program, tell them to come too.

For  man of 96 years, Fr. Rodney Kissinger, SJ, is wired in.  Eight years ago, he began conducting a version of the Spiritual Exercises by e-mail.  Fr. Kissinger thinks that St. Ignatius himself would have embraced e-mail.  He points out that Ignatius was one of the most prolific letter writers of the sixteenth century, and did much counseling and spiritual direction with his pen.

For the New Year, Fr. Kissinger is offering an online retreat on his website.  Presentations will be posted every Tuesday and Friday.

Fr. Kissinger admits that his digital retreats don’t have the benefit of face-t0-face personal contact between retreatant and spiritual director.  But he says that has at least one advantage.  “It stimulates more initiative, responsibility, and independence on the the part of the retreatant,” he says.