This Lent, I am offering a Lenten Retreat in Daily Living both in my parish, St. Hubert’s in Chanhassen, and at the University of St. Thomas. This is a retreat that is very special to me; I made this retreat as a retreatant during Lent in 2002 and it had a profound effect on both my daily prayer life and my subsequent discernment of where God was calling me.
Both retreats began earlier this week. The participants (16 at St. Hubert’s and about 30 at St. Thomas…please keep them in your prayers) have committed to daily prayer during the eight weeks of the retreat, with the prayer following the thematic approach of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. During that time we will also meet weekly for sharing of the prior week’s prayer experience and for some input relating to the subject of that week’s prayer and/or some elements of the Exercises or Ignatian prayer.
During the opening session, I gave a brief introduction to St. Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises as well as some basic instruction in praying with scripture and some other dynamics of Ignatian prayer. You can find the recording of the opening session talk I gave at St. Thomas here. (The podcast runs for 26:47.) You can find here a copy of the prayer material for the first week of the retreat, as well as a couple of other handouts I distributed (which I refer to during the talk). Perhaps you want to pray along with us during Lent. As I did today, each week I’ll post a recording of my talks and a copy of the upcoming week’s prayer material.
Creo en Dios! 