An Ignatian Introduction To Prayer

In three short years, Fr. Timothy Gallagher's blend of commonsense insight and historical wisdom has made him the most sought-after expert on Ignatian spirituality. In lectures, retreats, CD programs, and TV broadcasts, he helps people of all faiths apply Ignatian truths to their own lives. In this new guide, Fr. Tim offers 40 practical, directed meditations for learning the Ignatian way to pray.

The first book to explain the popular Christian practice of the examen prayer. Fr. Gallagher takes us deeper into the prayer Ignatius of Loyola believed was at the center of the spiritual life, showing how relevant it is today.

The cornerstones of Ignatius of Loyola's spiritual practice--meditation and contemplation--are clearly explained in this simple guide to the Ignatian method with examples from the experience of practitioners and quotations from Catholic spiritual teachers. In the process, the deeper structure of the spiritual practice is illuminated, and advice about adapting it to individual needs is offered. Topics include methods of praying, struggles and growth, and the importance and role of grace. Individuals who desire to pray with scripture, spiritual directors, and all who teach prayer with scripture will benefit from the counsel in this resource.

Drawing from the timeless methods of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, this thoughtful meditation is enriched with examples and stories that offer practical and profound wisdom for aligning personal desires and goals with God's will.

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.

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.

This handy, easy-to-use workbook is chock full of probing questions, real-life stories, and practical tips on how to apply the profound spiritual insights from the Ignatian tradition of patient, prayerful self-examination. Acclaimed interpreter of Saint Ignatius, author Father Gallagher provides clear explanations of the centuries-old Jesuit method of discerning God's will in one's life--and avoiding evil. A practical guide and journaling tool, it includes ample space on every page for notes, reflections, and journaling, all to help readers track their progress toward a closer, more loving union with God.

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.

“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.

Its effects are often life changing. But what exactly is it, and why do so many people embrace it? The most influential spiritual movement of the modern age is Ignatian spirituality, an approach to the spiritual life based on the insights of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatian spirituality teaches an active attentiveness to God joined with a prompt responsiveness to God, who is ever active in people’s lives. In What Is Ignatian Spirituality?,David L. Fleming, SJ, provides an authoritative yet highly accessible summary of the key elements of Ignatian spirituality, among which are contemplative prayer, discernment, and dynamic involvement in service and mission. In twenty concise chapters, Fr. Fleming explains how this centuries-old method of disciplined reflection on God’s work in the world can deepen our spiritual lives today and guide all the decisions we make. Also available in Spanish! ¿Qué es la espiritualidad ignaciana?

What does God want for our lives? How can we assess when feelings, even pleasant ones, are signs that God is calling us in a particular direction? In Spiritual Consolation, Timothy Gallagher, a retreat leader and popular author of The Examen Prayer and The Discernment of Spirits, introduces us to the teachings of Ignatius of Loyola on this crucial question. Through the use of real-life examples and the Ignatian principles from the Second Rule, Fr. Gallagher shows how all of us, especially those with busy religious lives, can learn to hear and follow God's leading. This book is both the completion of Dr. Gallagher's esteemed Ignatian trilogy and a provocative work in its own right.

An imaginative way to pray the Stations of the Cross every day of the year. “As Jansen walks with us from station to station, he points us from pain toward love and hope, toward strength and endurance, toward transformation.” —Jessica Mesman Griffith, from the introduction Throughout the centuries, Christians have asked, “Why is there suffering?” or, on a more personal level, “Why am I suffering?” Answers abound, but none are likely to suffice or satisfy. A far more helpful question might be, “How should I respond to suffering?” And the answer to that question, believes Gary Jansen, can be found by looking closely at the Passion of Jesus. In Station to Station, Jansen uses the scriptural Way of the Cross to focus our minds and hearts on Jesus’ anguish and death. Walking through each station, we see the unique ways in which Jesus responded to suffering, and we are challenged to react similarly in our own struggles. Furthermore, through various Ignatian exercises, Jansen encourages us to imaginatively pray our way through the stations and to gradually respond more as Jesus would when we are weighed down by life’s burdens. Whether you are bearing your own cross or helping someone else carry theirs, Station to Station will show you how Christ’s character in the midst of suffering can, with time and prayer, become your character too.

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.

A follow-up to his wildly popular The Ignatian Workout, Tim Muldoon applies the principles of discernment, reflection, and action to guide readers to grow in love and transform their Lenten experience. This bite-sized volume provides forty brief exercises—organized according to the four “weeks” of prayer from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius—and can be used by anyone during Lent to help readers become both hearers and doers of the Word of God.

10th Anniversary Edition Whatever path you’re on, God is there to guide you . . . Anyone seeking to deepen his or her relationship with God will greatly benefit from Inner Compass, Margaret Silf’s dynamic presentation of the profound insights of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. While reflective, the work exudes a congenial, practical outlook and a thoroughly modern sensibility. As Silf points out, the book “grew out of questions rather than certainty, discovery rather than doctrine, the experience of everyday living rather than academic study.” This tenth-anniversary edition of the acclaimed Inner Compass features a new introduction and personal invitation to the reader, plus a significantly expanded resource section. Devoted followers of Ignatian spirituality and spiritual seekers alike will find that wherever life has led them, Inner Compass offers renewed direction and purpose and helps them recognize the will of God within their own hearts.

Thousands of people all over the world have taken the spiritual journey of Forty Weeks since we first published the program in 2013. We express our gratitude for the countless individuals who have written Sacred Story institute to tell us how Forty Weeks transformed their spiritual lives and the life of their faith communities. We also thank the countless number of individuals who have become missionary disciples and encouraged others to encounter Christ with Sacred Story Prayer. Thank you! We also wish to thank all those generous souls who have helped shape this second edition of Forty Weeks. with suggested edits to the text for clarity and readability. Special thanks go to Betsy Stokes our managing editor, and to Eileen Meinert our associate editor, for many hours of labor to make this second edition possible. Thank you! Sacred Story Institute explores dynamic new dimensions of classic Ignatian spirituality, based on St. Ignatius' Conscience Examen in the Sacred Story prayer method pioneered by Fr. Bill Watson, S.J. We are creating a new class of spiritual resources. Our Sacred Story Press publications are research-based, authentic to the Catholic Tradition and designed to help individuals achieve integrated, spiritual growth and holiness of life. Sacred Story prayer, modeled on St. Ignatius' classic examination of conscience, is a proven path to spiritual growth. It is the narrow road, but the one taken by many saints and ordinary laity in the Church's history. If you are ready to make Christ the center of your life, you will find no better daily spiritual prayer discipline. Divine love is an abiding relationship that God invites you to share daily. Listen to the wisdom below to help prepare you to enter this daily abiding love relationship with God. Integrated spiritual growth requires no money, foreign travel, gurus or years with a counselor. Forty Weeks offers us a highly practical, easily understood week-by-week process to find integrated healing and peace in Christ. Enter the Sacred Story of a new heavens and new earth that Christ is now writing in the universe and on your heart. YOU WILL LEARN TO BRING YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST FOR HEALING "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Mt. 11:28-30) YOU WILL LEARN TO CONNECT TO CHRIST IN YOUR DAILY LIFE "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another." (Jn. 15: 16-17) YOU WILL DISCERN TRUTH FROM FALSEHOOD IN YOUR CORE IDENTITY "Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 Jn. 4: 1)

One of the key figures in Christian history, St. Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491-1556) was a passionate and unique spiritual thinker and visionary. The works gathered here provide a first-hand, personal introduction to this remarkable character: a man who turned away from the Spanish nobility to create the revolutionary Jesuit Order, inspired by the desire to help people follow Christ. His Reminiscences describe his early life, his religious conversion following near-paralysis in battle, and his spiritual and physical ordeals as he struggled to assist those in need, including plague, persecution and imprisonment. The Spiritual Exercises offer guidelines to those seeking the will of God, and the Spiritual Diary shows Ignatius in daily mystical contact with God during a personal strugg;e. The Letters collected here provide an insight into Ignatius' ceaseless campaign to assist those seeking enlightenment and to direct the young Society of Jesus.

How many times have you attended Mass and desired that it more fully touched your heart? You find that everyday worries and to-do lists distract from its prayers, the readings vanish from memory, and even the consecration and Communion pass by in a moment. Too often, the Mass feels like a missed opportunity for grace. To help you fully tap into the abundance of grace offered at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Fr. Timothy Gallagher resurrects here the teachings of Venerable Bruno Lanteri. A holy priest seeking to root himself in prayer during the turbulence of war and persecution in northern Italy, Venerable Bruno developed a biblical way of praying the Mass that transforms it into a true prayer of the heart. Fr. Gallagher discovered this method of praying the Mass forty-five years ago, and it has been a blessing for him ever since. He now shares this method with you. Through a selection of biblical figures, he invites you live each part of the Mass with these figure’s sentiments and hearts. In these pages he shows you how to: Humbly seek forgiveness like the tax collector Give glory to God like the angels Listen to God’s Word with the hunger of a disciple Profess the Faith with the courage of the martyrs Receive communion with the heart of a lover Go forth from the Mass with the zeal of an Apostle To fruitfully pray the Mass from the heart is a gift of grace. The biblical way of praying the Mass method is a means to dispose your soul to receive this grace. Combined with spiritual exercises and reflections – and full-color images of sacred art – you’ll find this book to be a great gift to not only grow in prayer during Mass, but in your spiritual life.