REFLECTION

Summer Solstice Prayer

By Wendy Janzen

Wild, Incarnate Christ,

Light of Life –

the sun has reached its zenith

and we can feel the heat in our bodies.


As we stand on the cusp

of this sweltering season

we give thanks and praise for

the gifts of summer –

vibrancy and radiance,

fruitfulness and playfulness,

embodiment and freedom.


Open us to the ways you are

manifest in creation,

Your presence alive and tangible

so that we may know you

to be here among us

not only through head and heart,

but also through our bodies.


Like plants stretching toward the sun,

may we reach for you,

as the Source of all being.

Enliven us and inspire us

as children of the light

to grow in maturity,

passion, and fullness. Amen.

Source: burningbushforestchurch.ca/reflections--prayers/summer-solstice-prayer3653759

 
 

Dear Colleagues,

Wendy Janzen’s invitation to give thanks and praise for the gifts of summer gives us a way of proceeding through this sweltering season. Praise for freedom as we sink into the lazy grace of kicking back and letting go. Praise for playfulness as we relax and re-create. Praise for the Wild Incarnate Christ who is alive, tangible and experienced through our bodies.


At the Ignatian Spiritual Direction Initiative (ISDI), we have been giving thanks this summer for the vibrancy of our past program year and the fruitfulness found in the Ignatian spiritual direction community. We’re grateful for important events like the recent graduation of Fordham’s 2024 supervision training cohort highlighted below. We’ve seen a robust enrollment in ongoing spiritual direction formation programs as well as a steady increase of trained spiritual directors registering in our Catalog of Spiritual Directors. For this and much more we give thanks and praise!


As we look ahead, I’m delighted to invite you to register for our Fall 2024 Ignatian series Deepening Our Engagement: Reflective Practices for Ignatian Spiritual Directors. Please check your records before registering to avoid duplication. We’re also highlighting some great resources in this issue, and we’ll be announcing additional programs once we finalize details. So stay tuned!


As you savor these final weeks of summer, may you "reach for the Source of all being like plants stretching toward the sun, continuing to grow in passion and fullness as children of the Light."

Warm regards,


Nancy


Nancy Small

Associate Director for Spiritual Direction Initiatives

Office of Ignatian Spirituality

USA East Province of the Society of Jesus

929-232-3056

nsmall@jesuits.org

 

UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND RECORDINGS

Deepening Our Engagement

Reflective Practices for Ignatian Spiritual Directors

Three-Part Virtual Series featuring Damian Zynda, Th.D & Ryan LaMothe, PhD

Sept. 17, Oct. 15, Nov. 19, 2024, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET

Program Fee: $125 (Scholarships available by clicking here.)

Reflective practices are at the heart of Ignatian spirituality. They are also a key component of an Ignatian spiritual direction practice, cultivating ongoing growth in our ministry of accompaniment. 


This three-session virtual series will explore the theological, psychosocial, and Ignatian foundations for reflective practices along with their pastoral application. Ethical considerations, such as boundaries and confidentiality, as well as criteria for effective reflective practitioners will be addressed. Participants will expand their knowledge, deepen their engagement and gain a greater appreciation for the essential place these reflective practices hold within a spiritual direction ministry.


This program is designed for trained spiritual directors and spiritual directors in formation programs. Each session will be recorded and all registrants will receive a copy of each recording.


Click here for a detailed program description and to register.

 

Now Available!

Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women (Recorded Version)

This special Ignatian series was offered live in the Fall of 2023 featuring Elizabeth Liebert, SNJM, PhD, co-author with Annemarie Paulin-Campbell of The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women, 2nd Edition. (Click here for Dr. Liebert's bio.)


A recording of this program is now available on the ISDI webpage. The program offers fresh perspectives and new insights for spiritual directors accompanying women through the Spiritual Exercises as well as deeper understanding and transformative wisdom for all spiritual directors who accompany women and men facing obstacles in their spiritual lives that flow from situations of oppression and injustice. 

Watch now!
 

FORDHAM ACS GRADUATION

 

Meet the New Supervision Graduates from Fordham University!

Pictured from top left: Matthew Leaycraft, Luke Larson, Ingrid Sletten. Line two: Sara Milone, Lisa Lee, Kimberly Krog. Line three: Jackie Sevier, Criseda Castillo.

We are delighted to celebrate this year’s eight graduates of Fordham University’s Advanced Certificate in Supervision (ACS) program through its Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE). The ACS prepares its graduates not only to supervise spiritual directors but to staff spiritual direction formation programs as well. 


Its 2024 grads include those offering and supervising the 19th Annotation and long retreat; the director of the Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association; those forming and mentoring directors of the 19th Annotation, and team members of the Post-Master's Certificate in Spiritual Formation at Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry and the Church of St. Francis Xavier’s spiritual direction formation program. Most graduates will offer individual supervision both to students in spiritual direction formation and to experienced directors as well. Watch for articles by our graduates in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction and Companionship published by Spiritual Directors International.


The Advanced Certificate in Supervision program began at Fordham in 2020 and has graduated four cohorts of students from the US, Canada, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Although Fordham’s ACS is on pause for 2024-25 as the GRE programs are redistributed to other areas of the university, supervision formation in the Ignatian tradition continues at Together in the Mystery and the Murphy Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Fairfield University. 


The ISDI assists spiritual directors in need of supervision to find individual/group supervision. Click here to complete an application form to begin the referral process.

 

RESOURCES

 

New ISDI Events Calendar!


Take some time to explore the new Events Calendar featured on the ISDI webpage!


This calendar features programs for Ignatian spiritual directors offered by the Office of Ignatian Spirituality and other organizations, including a program Revisiting the Spiritual Exercises and a virtual spiritual direction inquiry session.


Click here if you’d like us to consider posting an upcoming event for Ignatian spiritual directors. (Make sure to tag the event “SpiritualDirection.”)

 

St. Dominic’s Nine Ways of Prayer



The July issue of The Way has a focus on the body and spirituality and includes an article entitled Body Language Before the Face of God by Fredrik Heiding.

(Used with permission.)


The article explores how the body language of prayer fits into Ignatian spirituality and explains how St. Dominic’s nine ways of prayer can lead to a more incarnational spirituality.


The Way is an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality published quarterly by the British Jesuits.


Request a free sample copy.

Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color


On the tenth anniversary of its publication, we encourage you to discover this book if you haven’t already.


Embodied Spirits is “a much-needed book in the spiritual direction literature [that] showcases powerful stories of deep spiritual yearnings and sacred journeys of spiritual directors of color…enriching understanding of the ministry of spiritual direction” (from the book’s cover).


Plans are underway for an ISDI program based on this book! Stay tuned.


Click here to purchase.

The Ignatian Adventure – Revised Edition


Loyola Press has published a revised edition of The Ignatian Adventure by Fr. Kevin O’Brien, SJ.


This edition features diverse voices, providing a richer and more inclusive spiritual experience; enhanced prayer exercises with new question prompts to facilitate deeper reflection and engagement; expanded content on the inter-faith use of the Spiritual Exercises and a deeper exploration of forgiveness; updated quotes and insights from Pope Francis, enriching the spiritual depth of the text.


Click here to purchase..

Teilhard: Visionary Scientist


With compelling imagery and a script based on the words of Teilhard de Chardin himself, Teilhard: Visionary Scientist captures the deeply human story and spiritual search of a Jesuit priest and scientist famous for his spiritual writings, especially The Divine Milieu. It reveals the struggles he faced to arrive at his insights and then to persuade his Church that he had a gift to offer them by interpreting his faith in the light of science, especially evolution. Suppressed during his lifetime, his prolific posthumous writings leave a multi-faceted legacy, including a robust ecological movement cited by Pope Francis in Laudato Si.


After decades of research, travel and production work, Frank and Mary Frost have recently released this beautiful documentary, available to watch for free on pbs.org.


Watch now.

 

WHAT ARE THEY SAYING ABOUT SPIRITUAL DIRECTION?

"Spiritual accompaniment is not problem-based though problems may be part of a person's spiritual journey. It is also not solution-based. It is faith-based: listening to how God is speaking with me through my life situation. Listening for how God is shedding light on what is happening in my life NOW."


~ quoted from "Spiritual Accompaniment and Retreat" by Patricia Smith, SSJ

in Witness, Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield Magazine, Spring, 2024, Volume 33.

Used with permission.

 
 

IgnatianSpiritualDirection.org

 
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