I sit with a Jesuit friend on a pier near a fishing village overlooking the Irish Sea. The village, Howth, is a 30-minute or so drive northeast of Dublin. It’s a lovely night: cool and breezy, with the smell of salt and seaweed wafting over the ocean wall. It’s busy too. Along the pier are […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
I once worked with a teacher who started every class by inviting each pupil to say something good. Students were challenged to tell a story or name a miracle. This practice formed the students: They got in the habit of noticing what was good in their lives. Before long, they could notice and name how […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Ah…ah…achoo! “Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no!” I thought frantically. “I cannot be sick, Lord. Not now!” To be fair, it was only one tiny little sneeze. I knew I should not be jumping to conclusions, but jump to conclusions I did. “God, I have a big week coming up. There is no way I […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Here’s a helpful question to ask from time to time: Am I resisting God’s grace? Now, why would anyone do that? Resist the grace received through Jesus? Consider the following. We don’t think we deserve it. Especially for those of us who live in cultures that are highly individualistic, we are conditioned to believe that […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
After a leg injury while walking the Ignatian Camino, Brendan McManus, SJ, struggled to be grateful and find God in the experience. He writes: Ignatius managed to turn his leg injury and convalescence into a new way of relating to God. His frustrating immobility became the moment where he realised that God was speaking to […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Hearing the familiar crackle of my knees as I crouched down to scrub my shower, I recalled the days when I used to be able to clean my whole house from top to bottom in a day. Though weary, I would stand at the end of the day relishing the dust-free shine and scent of […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Many years ago, I was asked to read the Psalm at a friend’s wedding. Actually, two of us friends shared in reading Psalm 136. The other friend, a gentleman, read the first lines, and I read the alternate lines. All the initial lines of this Psalm are about the great feats of God: how he […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Human beings are built for connection, and so we experience loneliness in ways that are similar to our experiences of hunger or thirst: a lack, a privation, a pain that calls for attention. The growing field of neuroscience, for example, has expanded our understanding of a basic truth already evident in the book of Genesis: […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
We all know that medicine has side effects. Sometimes the side effects seem worse than what we take the medicine for! But still, we take our medicine diligently, confident that at some point we will get relief from our ailments. It was one day when I was taking my morning buffet of pills that I […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Lord, many people have spoken to me about you. I want to know you. I have many things in my life preventing me from seeing you, and many things not in keeping with your teachings separating me from you. They are obstacles on my way to you. I have chosen a lukewarm faith: a Christianity […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
On my phone, I keep reminder lists. I use them to keep track of nearly everything in my life, such as tasks for my job as a professor, food needed from the grocery store, and yard and interior tasks that we need to do for our home. My many lists allow me to work more […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
I got an invitation to a party today, but it didn’t state a date or time for arrival. It also said, “The gift of your presence is gift enough.” That’s always a pressure reliever when invited to someone’s special event. I tossed the invitation aside as I rushed through my long to-do list, and soon […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
Lord, grant me the grace to live in the present and recognize what is possible to look to the future and trust you to be silent, and hear your voice in the stillness to do what you ask without arguing to humbly adapt to radical change to serve, and to graciously accept being served to […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces the Examen as the prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed.
I own a peculiar baseball cap that I wear all the time. It’s a black hat, simple in appearance, save for the goofy-looking pinkish blob prominently featured above the rim. The blob is smiling, tongue out, with its big googly eyes wide and staring and happy. The blob has a name; it’s Morph. And Morph […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In God’s Voice Within, Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, shows us how to use Ignatian discernment to understand that the most trustworthy wisdom of all comes not from outside sources, but from God working through us.
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In God’s Voice Within, Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, shows us how to use Ignatian discernment to understand that the most trustworthy wisdom of all comes not from outside sources, but from God working through us.
I don’t remember much about the movie Office Space except the iconic scene in which three employees take out their frustrations on the office printer. Fed up with the repeated error message “PC LOAD LETTER” among other office things, the colleagues take the printer for a ride and destroy it with bats in a field. […]
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a Jesuit ministry.
In God’s Voice Within, Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, shows us how to use Ignatian discernment to understand that the most trustworthy wisdom of all comes not from outside sources, but from God working through us.
My 16-year-old son and I stood shielding our eyes from the sun on an unusually hot afternoon at a four-track train station in Kent, England. We were looking for my friend, a vicar in the Church of England, who was to pick us up from the station. The vicar was hosting us at his vicarage […]
Dean, my husband, asked me if my prayer list wasn’t just another to-do list, and I said, “Of course not. At least, I hope not. Well…no. I’m sure it can’t be. The irony would be extreme.” You see, my everyday to-do lists are what keep me focused on getting things done. They also give me […]
Sometimes God surprises me in less-than-ideal situations. In the midst of hospital oxygen cannulas, monitors, and nurse call buttons, God revealed to me that God is present in my suffering and desires to bless me with hope. My husband and I were on our way home from a medical test when we got a call […]
Prayer for Minneapolis Recognizing that the children are with God, we at Loyola Press, in solidarity with the suffering people of Minneapolis, pray: For the parents and families in their grief. For care and healing for surviving classmates, teachers, and administrators. For those prone to violence, that they be stopped before they act, seek help […]
