An Ignatian Book Of Days

Ignatian spirituality is a way to pray, an approach to making decisions, a point of view about God, and a practical guide to everyday life. An Ignatian Book of Days is an invitation to help attune ourselves to the Ignatian conviction that we can find God in all things, that our personal experience can provide authentic knowledge of God, and that we can clearly see, feel, and experience God’s presence through an Ignatian lens in our daily lives. Accessible, inviting, richly rewarding, and filled with insights and reflections from favorite Ignatian leaders, including James Martin, SJ, Pedro Arrupe, SJ, Margaret Silf, and of course, St. Ignatius, An Ignatian Book of Days sees God as actively involved in the world and intimately involved with us in every moment and place.

From the day Paul Mariani arrives at Eastern Point Retreat House to take part in the five-hundred-year-old Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, he realizes that his expectations and assumptions about who he is, what he knows, and what he believes are about to change radically. In this profound memoir Mariani blends a brief life of St. Ignatius and meditations on the life of Jesus with the day-to-day unfolding of thirty days of silence at the retreat house. His journey of introspection, self-revelation, and spiritual renewal leads him to a new understanding of his relationship with God and of what it truly means to put others before oneself.

Following the example of St. Ignatius, we believe that praying the Examen will lead to a better life. The 500-year-old daily practice of honest self-assessment and reflection is a founding principle of Ignatian spirituality. What we don’t know is if St. Ignatius ever felt like changing it up a bit. Jesuit speaker and author Mark Thibodeaux, SJ, is confident that St. Ignatius wouldn’t mind a little flexibility in his prayer. Join Thibodeaux as he guides you through new and unique versions of the Examen, totally flexible and adaptable to your life. In ten minutes, you can tailor your daily prayer practice to fit your personal and situational needs, further enhancing and deepening your meditation. Reimagining the Ignatian Examen—the only book of its kind—will lead you through a fresh and stimulating reflection on your past day, your present state of being, and your spiritual desires and needs for tomorrow.

In God Finds Us, author Jim Manney makes the Spiritual Exercises more accessible than ever by revealing his inner monologue of thoughts while he did the Exercises and giving everyday, relevant examples of sin, discernment, and meditating on the love of God. In his previous book, A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Manney presented the daily Examen to readers in a way that made them feel empowered to make it a part of their regular prayer life. Now he offers God Finds Us toshare his experiences of making the Spiritual Exercises in a down-to-earth, accessible narrative. Manney includes pertinent biblical examples that help us make the connections between how we pray, view sin, and make appropriate life decisions today.

What is discernment? Who was Peter Faber? Why do the Jesuits exude such optimism? Awareness. Emotions. Love. Work. We use such words every day in normal conversation, but those same words take on special meaning when used in the context of Ignatian spirituality. Other words and phrases, such as finding God in all things, are distinctly associated with the Ignatian approach to spiritual development. Acquiring a general grasp of these terms will prove invaluable to those who desire a better understanding of the Jesuit / Ignatian way of life. With Ignatian Spirituality A to Z, Jim Manney has provided a brief, informative, and entertaining guide to key concepts of Ignatian spirituality and essential characters and events in Jesuit history. The lexicon format allows readers to find terms quickly, and the concise descriptions are ideal for those new to the Ignatian story. From Pedro Arrupe to Francis Xavier, from Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam to Zeal, this book uncovers the rich language of the Jesuits. It will be an indispensable tool to anyone interested in Ignatian spirituality, to staff, faculty, and students at Jesuit institutions and schools, and to clergy and spiritual directors who advise others about prayer and spiritual matters.

NOW AVAILABLE IN SPANISH AS La aventura ignaciana! Third Place, Prayers & Spirituality category ACP Excellence in Publishing Awards, 2012 There is no better guide than St. Ignatius Loyola if one desires to discover how faith and everyday life can thrive together. In The Ignatian Adventure, Kevin O’Brien, SJ, follows St. Ignatius’s lead and offers today’s time-strapped individual a unique way of “making” the Spiritual Exercises in daily life. The first part of O’Brien’s book provides helpful background information, including a brief history of St. Ignatius, an explanation of the Spiritual Exercises and their purpose, and a description of different ways to make the Exercises. The book’s core offers 32 weeks of prayer and meditations to draw participants into a deeper encounter with God. But what truly sets this book apart from other 19th annotations is how O’Brien has woven throughout the chapters his own personal accounts of living out the Exercises in everyday life. Through his deeply moving stories, readers discover how the Exercises intersect with the real world. The Ignatian Adventure is an ideal resource for spiritual directors, but its user-friendly, down-to-earth style also makes it perfect for any individual seeking a deeper life of prayer.

“A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer is a valuable and thoughtful book, and a very practical one, which can be put with confidence into the hands of anyone who wishes to learn to pray the Examen and to find the presence and action of God in their lives.” —Andrea Kelly, Thinking Faith Sometimes we can experience prayer as formal, dry, and repetitious. But what might happen if we discovered a simple prayer that changed all that? In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces Christians to a 500-year-old form of prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed. The prayer is the Examen, which St. Ignatius Loyola developed for the purpose of nurturing a reflective habit of mind that is constantly attuned to God’s presence. What makes the prayer so powerful is its capacity to dispel any notion that God is somewhere “up there,” detached from our day-to-day tasks and concerns. Instead, the examen leads us into a relationship with a God who desires to be personally caught up in the lives of those whom he created.

The prayers compiled in this unique book are gleaned from the rich tradition of Jesuit reflection on the human hunger for God. Hundreds of prayers are included, many written by the most illustrious Jesuits, including Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Peter Canisius, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and others.