Throughout Encounter Grace: Moments of Hope, Joy, and Peace, Becky Eldredge includes questions for reflection. To kick-off our Lenten read-along, we invited Loyola Press authors and friends to respond to two of those questions: How has your recipe for prayer changed over the course of your life? What has remained constant? Enjoy their responses. Asking […]
This post is based on Week One of An Ignatian Prayer Adventure. There’s something special about a grandmother’s love. My mother was incredibly busy with a full-time teaching job and looking after the household. My grandmother, however, was always around, eventually coming to live with us on the family farm. Initially, however, she lived in […]
Whether you’re participating in the Lenten read-along or looking to incorporate journaling into your prayer practices, the Encounter Grace Journal can be a helpful companion. The downloadable resource features quotes from Becky Eldredge’s Encounter Grace: Moments of Hope, Joy, and Peace. Click the image below to download the journal. There’s still time to join the […]
Until I dive right into a situation, I will never understand how to love the people who live there. As a writer, I could talk poetically about love and compose moving essays on love. But unless I walk into the real life of someone who needs my love, I won’t have a clue. Because I’m […]
February is the month in which many people celebrate Valentine’s Day, and while romantic and spousal love are important to celebrate, it made me think about love more widely as a vocation for all of us. We might wonder, for example, How can we best love God? In St. Augustine’s work, On the Trinity, the […]
The trick to lighting a fire is to start by burning something small. In fact, you need lots of small things, preferably ones that catch fire easily: cardboard, sticks, broken branches, small bits of wood, and fire starters (storebought chunks of wood-like cylinders that catch and burn nicely). You need all these things, plus the […]
A colleague stopped me in the hallway. “Gretchen, glad I caught you! I’ve been invited to make dessert for the gathering this week, and I wanted to check with you,” she said. Before she finished speaking, I knew exactly what she wanted to check: my food allergies. Those who know me well know I would […]
I do a lot of listening. I listen in my home, my work, in the market, and in my ministry of spiritual direction. Wherever I go, I am hearing fear and concern. Hearts are troubled. We feel compassion for the suffering in our nation and in the world, yet we are at a loss about […]
I got to know St. Ignatius many years ago, at about 5:30 a.m., when a sopping wet Examen card was stuck to the side of the washing machine. Annoyed at myself for not staying up late to change loads nor checking pockets before doing laundry, I peeled the laminated card from the washer drum, wiped […]
We develop gratitude by paying attention. We make a point to review a day or a lifetime to identify all for which we can be grateful. In fact, with practice we can identify thankworthy things in the middle of sad or stressful situations. It’s almost as if gratitude were its own radio frequency. When we […]
Ash Wednesday is February 18, 2026, so today we’re highlighting just a few of the many Ignatian-inspired features designed to help you observe Lent. Encounter Grace Lenten Read-Along Join in the annual Lenten read-along with Loyola Press. We’ll be reading Encounter Grace by Becky Eldredge. Becky offers gentle, heartfelt reflections grounded in Ignatian spirituality, each […]
We all have specific gifts given to us by God. These are Our Treasures Within. Inspired by the book of that title by Pope Francis and Peter H. Reynolds with Paul A. Reynolds, pray the Treasures Within Examen. Take a deep breath, and notice God’s presence. As you inhale and exhale, thank God for these […]
There’s nothing complicated or mysterious about making the examen part of your life. The subject matter of the examen is your life—specifically the day you have just lived through. The examen looks for signs of God’s presence in the events of the day—lunch with a friend, a walk in the park, a kind word from […]
My husband and I sat mesmerized by waves at Alki Beach. Our camp chairs were comfy as we watched children play, lovers stroll, and runners pass. My eyes were drawn to a woman lugging a fully loaded ice chest down to a picnic table. After struggling to get it situated, she disappeared briefly, only to […]
Many of us find it helpful to talk through an idea with another person when we are trying to make a decision or process the meaning of something significant that has happened. For example, when I was younger and applying to graduate schools, I decided to shift in my career plans from psychology to philosophy. […]
It is good to remember that spirituality is a series of practices that allow us to pay attention to God. God’s always there, but we get easily distracted. And the more we get distracted, the easier it is to get distracted. Distraction itself has become our practice. The answer, of course, is the opposite practice […]
My husband asked me why I was being nice instead of sharing the snarky comment the expression on my face expressed. Looking at him, I announced that I was trying to “will the good” of others in my life, and I had thought it would be a simple thing to do. “It’s hard,” I reluctantly […]
My 84-year-old father, a former Air Force fighter pilot who traveled around the world, now spends his days mainly confined to his recliner. His liberty to get up and walk to the refrigerator, let alone travel or even run an errand, is gone. He has lived in the same room for three years now, yet […]
One of the most important characteristics of Ignatian prayer is the use of imagination. Ignatius recommends practices of meditation, consideration, and contemplation as ways for humans to open themselves to the work of God’s Spirit, who prays within the bodied spirit of the human person. Each of these practices requires the person of prayer to […]
Any given day, our activities might be driven by one big to-do list: pick up and drop off; get where we need to be; see who we arranged to see; work on projects; prepare and clean up; contact the people in our lives. We put one foot in front of the other most days without […]
