Ignatian Imprint: exercise bound

As we know Saint Ignatius of Loyola is famous for having invented " Spiritual Exercises". To place them into context, these exercises were written and first published in the 1540's .


On the occasion of this well-known Spanish Saint's Feast Day which falls on the 31st July, Veronica Scarisbrick speaks to Jesuit Father David Birchall, Director of Saint Beuno's Ignatian Spirituality Centre in the heart of Wales.


He shares with Veronica his knowledge of Ignatian exercises and touches on what they're about:.."...they're a combination really, they're sort of looking at the life of Christ for the individual..... Ignatian imaginative contemplation is quite well known as a method of prayer ..taking scripture and putting yourself in the picture and just letting it develop. There's an element of that and then there's an element of looking at one's own life where we're going with it , how we are responding to the call of God in life.."...


Father Birchall also tells Veronica what kind of retreats his centre offers and who it caters for.
It turns out that only half of those who attend the shorter retreats are Catholics: ..." there are alot of Anglicans , Quakers and people who just call themselves Christian... we've had Buddhists as well...very few want to know more about the Catholic Church, that doesn't motivate them to come I don't think, they really want to have the space and the time to look at what's important in their lives.."

As Veronica discovers Saint Beuno's offers a variety of options for those seeking to attend spiritual exercises . Among these, courses for religious and priests focusing on how to give retreats:.."and we're finding more and more people are coming from Africa, Asia and Australia particularly for these courses..."

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