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This is an Ignatian retreat in the midst of daily life over the course of one week (Sunday evening to Friday evening).
If you can find about 30 minutes each day to pray, and another 30 minutes for a daily 1-to-1 meeting with your retreat guide then you have the time you need.
As the Retreat in Daily Life is individually guided and tailored to the experience of the individual, it is equally suitable for those with some retreat experience and also for beginners with little or no experience of retreat.
The Retreat in Daily Life invites you to take extra time for prayer and reflection during the course of your everyday life. The opening and closing group sessions, and the optional evening workshops, enable you to meet others who will be your spiritual travelling companions as we form a praying community for 1 week.
Each day you will meet individually on Zoom with a trained retreat guide. Your guide will offer you suggestions for prayer and listen with you to how the Holy Spirit is at work in your life.
Every evening there will be an optional online workshop on Ignatian prayer and spirituality for one hour to which all retreatants are welcome. We also have lots of online resources to help you pray at home.
The Retreat in Daily Life starts with an introductory meeting on Zoom for all the participants and retreat guides at 7pm-8.30pm on Sunday June 30th. Please make sure that you can attend this important introductory meeting.
The week ends with a closing session online for all participants from 7-8pm on Friday July 5th.
The coordinator of the Retreat in Daily Life is Clare Bick on the LJC Spirituality Team.
If you have further questions about Retreat in Daily Life, please contact ljc@jesuit.org.uk.
The Retreat in Daily Life runs over the course of a week and is an opportunity for you to set aside some time for prayer each day, accompanied by a trained retreat guide you meet with each day.
The whole retreat takes place online using Zoom. There is an opening and closing session, a daily individual meeting with your retreat guide, and optional workshops each evening.
You will be matched with your retreat guide before the retreat begins. Your guide will contact you to arrange your individual meeting times for Monday to Friday at a time that will work for you. You meet with your guide each day for up to 30 minutes.
Each day you set aside some time for prayer, usually about 30 minutes. The most important elements of the week are this time you spend in prayer and the conversations with your retreat guide.
All participants and guides meet together for an introductory meeting on the Sunday (7.00-8.30pm). Please make sure you attend this meeting. We meet in one large group for 60 minutes, and then you will go into a smaller group to meet your retreat guide for the first time and arrange your individual meetings for the rest of the week.
The guides for this retreat are all trained in the Christian spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) and are part of the extended team at the London Jesuit Centre. The guides are a mixture of clergy, members of religious orders, and lay men and women, all of whom practice Ignatian spirituality in their own lives.
A few days before the retreat begins your Retreat Guide will get in touch with you by email, using the email address you gave us when you enrolled on this retreat.
They will introduce themselves and give you a Zoom link and ID/Passcode for your daily meeting with them. Please note that this Zoom link is different from the one you will be sent for the Opening and Closing Sessions and workshops of the retreat.
The evening workshops on Monday to Thursday are optional - you are welcome to join those you think will be helpful to:
1. Imaginative Contemplation
Imaginative contemplation is a way of praying long associated with St Ignatius. It is a method of prayer which leads to encounter and experience of the person of Jesus in a deeply intimate way. Engaging with the gospels using our senses and imagination brings Jesus into the ‘here and now’ of my story and I come to know myself within his story. Through imaginative contemplation, I come to know him rather than just know about him.
Imaginative Contemplation is a resource to pray with Imaginative Contemplation and you will find it among the other documents to download.
2. The Examen of St Ignatius
During your Lenten retreat and in the opening session, you will be introduced to the examen of St Ignatius - a cornerstone of Ignatian spirituality and a key to recognising God’s presence and movement in your everyday life. Even if you are familiar with the examen, there are always new insights into the fruits of this prayer.
The Examen of St. Ignatius is a resource to accompany the workshop and you will find it among the other documents available to download.
3. Praying with Art
Images, like music, can move us beyond words, engaging our feelings and emotions at deep we sometimes cannot express in any other way. Art, whether secular or religious, can be a way into prayer.
Praying with Art and Two Images for Prayer (Chagall and Qi) are resources to accompany the workshop and you will find them among the other documents to download.
4. Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina or Holy Reading is a traditional practice of praying with scripture which helps us to slow down and truly ‘take in’ the Word of God to us for our life today. The workshop will introduce the four stages of this form of prayer: Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio, Contemplatio (Reading, Repeating, Responding and Resting).
Lectio Divina is a resource to accompany the workshop and you will find it among the other documents available to download.
The closing session begins at 7:00pm and will last for an hour. It is an opportunity to gather again as a group of guides and retreatants at the end of the retreat and to reflect individually and together on the gift of this retreat as well as to consider some next steps in our ongoing journey with God.
Continuing your Spiritual Journey is a resource for the end of the retreat and you will find it among the other documents available to download.
In the normal course of events, your conversations with your guide are completely confidential. The two potential limits upon confidentiality of which you should be aware are supervision and safeguarding.
Supervision: All our retreat guides receive supervision for their work on this retreat, either in supervision groups or individually. This is normal practice and the anonymity of retreatants is always maintained, and your name would never be shared in supervision.
Safeguarding: At the London Jesuit Centre, we care about the safety and well-being of everyone. To this end, in the interests of transparency and in accordance with the safeguarding policy of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, we refer any allegations or disclosures of abuse made against someone working for the church (clergy, religious, employees, volunteers), whether in the past or recently and regardless of whether the accused person is living or dead, to the Jesuit Province Safeguarding Coordinator. We also refer any disclosure against any person (representing the church or not) where there may be current risk to a child or vulnerable adult. The safeguarding coordinator will then take any necessary next steps, which may include the possibility of making a report to the statutory authorities.
Evaluation
Knowing what has been more helpful or less helpful to you in this retreat enables us to shape and sharpen retreats for the future We would very much appreciate it if you would complete an evaluation of your retreat. Your response is not shared verbatim with your retreat guide – we give guides a general sense of how people found the retreat.
Please complete your evaluation online here: Feedback form - Retreat in Daily Life for Summer · ChurchSuite Forms
Contact with your retreat guide
You should not contact your Retreat Guide after the retreat. The arrangement we have with those who agree to guide retreatants is that this work is for the duration of the retreat only. If, for some particular reason, you wish to get in touch with your Retreat Guide, please do this through the LJCAdministrator and we will pass on your request. For the same reason you are asked to delete your retreat guide’s email and phone number from your laptop or phone, as they will yours.
Next Steps
You may find some of these resources helpful as you take your experience of retreat this week into your daily life.
Pray as you go is a daily prayer podcast and offers many resources for prayer and you can find it here https://pray-as-you-go.org/ and also available as an app.
The London Jesuit Centre runs in-person Saturday retreats bi-monthly and also fortnightly online sessions of Guided Prayer Thursdays 7.00-8.00pm). You can book for these on our website https://www.londonjesuitcentre.org/
PREGO is an online prayer group from St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre based on the Sunday readings.
IMAGINE is a recorded Ignatian contemplation session on YouTube and there, Imagine - YouTube and there are some audio sessions on Pray as you Go: https://pray-as-you-go.org/series/5-imaginative-contemplation-exercises
Michael Hansen SJ has put together four self-guided Ignatian retreats in his book The First Spiritual Exercises.
St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre in north Wales offers a full programme of online and in-person retreats.
The Retreat Association's website on https://www.retreats.org.uk is a good place to search for other retreat centres in the UK and Europe.
If you want to read more about Ignatian spirituality, What is Ignatian Spirituality? by David Fleming SJ is an excellent and accessible introduction.
If you enjoy praying with art, the ChristianArt website has many resources.
Fr Geoff Wheaton SJ has produced a number of Youtube videos on praying with art.
Clare Bick joined the Spirituality team at the London Jesuit centre in April 2021, having worked in spiritual direction and retreat-giving. Clare is married with 3 adult children and has been involved for many years with an ecumenical lay community in West London in pastoral work with young professionals and people of all ages, as well as with related groups in Europe and the Middle-East.
