Join us on a journey of a lifetime

 I love adventure! I welcome an energetic hike to new mountain tops and valleys. Traveling to unfamiliar lands and cultures invites me to step out of what is expected. Even well-known trails feel brand new when I wear adventure in my heart.

Last year a few of us took a bicycling trek around the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state. Our guide helped us navigate unknown territory with confidence and joy.

Many years ago, I visited my daughter in New Zealand and we jumped out of an airplane in tandem with an expert skydiver. I’ve white-water rafted some rough waters with a confident captain and rode horses deep into the mountains of Montana. They were all amazing escapades!

Do YOU like a good adventure?

Why not embark on a spiritual journey with this same expectancy and sense of adventure?

You’re invited on the Ignatian Journey, a spiritual quest with 4 key dynamics commonly experienced by all who take this venture. The Ignatian journey includes spiritual exercises traveled over 8-9 months. The Ignatian Exercises are a school of prayer that has gentle, natural rhythms and slowed gait with the Triune God.

The 4 key dynamics are:

1.    Dynamic of two people falling in love

2.    Dynamic of discovering one’s identity

3.    Dynamic of God’s desires being planted in one’s heart

4.    Dynamic of identifying and making choices

The dynamic of two people falling in love is always an adventure! Taking risks, being vulnerable, and being intentional to know one another are key elements to a lasting relationship. At times love is active, vibrant, and exciting. Human love also grows often in a quiet, unnoticed, and unobserved manner. It happens and develops over time and through shared experiences. It is similar to the Spiritual Exercises.

“The daily coming to put oneself in the presence of the Lord quietly grows a knowing of one another, an understanding of one another, an intimate love develops, perhaps a new or a restored love.” ~ Aschenbrenner SJ

As you travel the Ignatian Journey you’ll develop a good awareness of recognizing when God is initiating a deeper and more intimate relationship with you. You will walk away knowing that you are His beloved.

Discovering one’s identity in relationship with the Triune God.

The question of “Who am I?” often arises in the Spiritual Exercises, perhaps for the first time or at a deeper level. Occasionally the answer to “Who am I” has been found in what others, parents, teachers, friends, enemies, culture say about our identity.

“These influences are’ like a mist on a damp overcast day.’ The result of them on the soul’s understanding of itself is ‘a clammy dampness that does not cleanse but contaminates.”       ~George Aschenbrenner SJ

In the Spiritual Exercises, we find our identity in God’s revelation of us. We become much clearer about who we are.

Dynamic of God’s desires being planted in the directee’s heart.
St. Ignatius understood well the deeper and shared desires of all humans that lead to their true fulfillment and enjoyment. These deep, true desires are God-given and beyond personal influence. Ignatius encourages the directee each week to ask for certain graces, knowing that these graces will become the directee’s truest desires.

Dynamic of identifying and making choices
In our ordinary lives, in our day-to-day living, we make countless decisions. The choices are sometimes perplexing and complicated. The Spiritual Exercises are profoundly personal, a time of quiet prayer, that leads us to choices often radically life-changing and for the Kingdom. The prime mover in making a choice is God – stirring, stretching, and focusing a person’s soul in a unique sharing of the mission of Jesus.

Often people come to the Spiritual Exercises with a decision to discern.

The Journey Begins

This 8–9-month journey may seem daunting. Yet, with a couple of guides who have walked this path before, your travel can be light and uncomplicated. Pay attention to your longings and how God may be inviting you on a different kind of adventure.

Knowing that you are deeply loved by God in a fresh way gives stamina to your life’s journey. You will learn how uniquely designed you are by God and that He has a special purpose for you. Knowing this for the first time or reaching deeper into your soul to ground this purpose is powerful.

Our life’s journey is filled with unfamiliar territory and the ordinary. Embarking on this spiritual journey, the school of prayer, the Ignatian Exercises can lead you to a deeper and more fulfilling relationship with yourself, God and others.

If you’d like to know more information visit Ignatian Exercises click here or contact Laura at 605.381.9435 or laura@walkingingrace.biz.