St Beuno's: Ignatian spirit in Snowdonia ...

Jesuit Father David Birchall is Director of Saint Beuno's, an Ignatian Spirituality Centre, situated in a stunning location in the heart of the Welsh countryside with views over Snowdonia .


As one might imagine the hallmark of this place, which draws people from across the world to take part in spiritual exercises , is of Ignatian imprint. As Father Birchall tells Veronica Scarisbrick : "Ignatius wrote the exercises back in Spain ...they were first published in the 1540's..they're a combination really, sort of looking at the life of Christ ... Ignatian ... imaginative contemplation ...taking scripture and putting it in the picture...and then there's an element of looking at one's own life, how we are responding to God..."


People and not just Catholics seek out Saint Beuno's in an effort to retreat from their every day lives and spend a period of quiet reflection. Whatever the length of the retreat , whatever the theme the people who come to this place of silence, where Jesuit poet Gerald Manley Hopkins once wrote some of his most inspiring lines, go away more confident. As Father Birchall remarks: ".. as a retreat giver you never quite know what the Holy Spirit gets up to .." .

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