A Spirituality that Transforms the World

Rev. Howard Gray, S.J., a nationally recognized expert on Ignatian
spirituality and currently Special Assistant to the President of Georgetown University, will be presenting in Southern California the weekend of January 23 and 24, 2010. These events are co-sponsored by LIS and the Ignatian Volunteer Corps. Please join us for one of these inspiring and transformative afternoons on the topic of “Lay and Jesuit Colleagues: A Spirituality that Transforms the World.” Fr. Gray’s presentation will address the questions: How can I work together with others to bring about God’s dream of love and service for our world? How can I find spiritual direction in my life and discern the path God has for me? How can I find God in all things?

January 23, 2010
Orange

2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Presentation:
“Spiritual Direction and Discernment"
Followed by reception

St. Joseph Center Auditorium Lounge
480 S. Batavia Street
Orange, CA 92868

January 23, 2010
San Diego

2:00 p.m.
Eucharist, Founders Chapel
Howard Gray, S.J., Presider
3:00 p.m.
Presentation: “Lay and Jesuit Colleagues:
A Spirituality that Transforms the World”

University of San Diego
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110

Help LIS While Shopping on Amazon!

We are please to announce the grand opening of LIS's new "Amazon Store”! Just in time for your Holiday shopping, this is an amazing way to support LIS at absolutely no additional cost to you.

The store can be accessed directly, or though our web site. Any purchase you make through the Amazon store will provide LIS with a rebate of between 4% and 8% of the purchase price. You can use the LIS Amazon store to purchase anything available on Amazon, not just the books we recommend.

We think you will also enjoy browsing the excellent selection of recommended reading materials, selected by the LIS staff for you convenience. Please watch for updates…books on Ignatian Spirituality and other topics of interest will be added on an ongoing basis.

http://astore.amazon.com/ignatian-20

Pausing to Celebrate Advent: Weekend Ignatian Retreat

Click on the image to enlarge! Loyola Institute for Spirituality invites you to step aside from the bustle of the season and enjoy time with the One who is Reason for the Season at hand: Jesus, Emmanuel, God-WITH-us! This silent retreat will include guiding conferences as springboards to prayer, Eucharistic liturgy, and opportunity for personal accompani-ment with a director.

For information and/or registration:
Contact Sr. Barbra Ostheimer at 714-997-9587 ext. 26

Ignatian Morning: Basking in the Loving Gaze of God

Click on the image to see details! Our Ignatian Morning is here. Loyola Institute for Spirituality invites you today to come and join others explore the gift of daily life in the light of God's love and Ignatian Spirituality.. More information to come. For further information on this event please contact Sr. Barbra at (714) 997-9587 ext. 26

“I’m Charlie Jackson, and I’m getting old!”

by Charles J. Jackson, S.J.

During the spring of 1994 I was surprised to receive from my provincial superior an invitation to “A Moment for the Middle-Aged: A Retreat for Jesuits 45-55 Years of Age.” To say that I was surprised to receive the invitation would be an understatement; I was incensed. I was fifty-one years of age, teaching in one of our high schools, coaching cross-country and track, and could still run ten miles in under an hour. Middle-aged! I wasn’t middle-aged!

I remember the retreat as a wonderful and grace-filled experience. Unlike most retreats that Jesuits make, there was a great deal of talking, as the participants shared with one another their experience of being Jesuits. Among its many graces, the retreat brought each of us to the realization that we were not as young as we used to be and that we were, in fact, getting old. For me, the experience of that retreat was not unlike what I suspect an alcoholic experiences when he or she is finally able to state before everyone that “I’m John Doe…” or “I’m Jane Doe, and I’m an alcoholic.” Well, by the time the retreat ended, I believe that each of the participants could have said something similar: “I’m Charlie Jackson, and I’m getting old.”

Well, more than fifteen years have passed since that retreat, and what was true for me then is even more true today: I’m getting old. I think each of us struggles mightily against our human frailty and eventual diminishment, but these define who we are as persons. Interior freedom is many things, but at its most profound level, it is the ability to thank God for making us exactly the way we are – not simply the way we were in the vigor of our youth, but the way we are today. It is not only putting aside our agenda so as to put ourselves into God’s hands; it is thanking God for the wonder of creating us. It is to this that God invites us when we ponder our frailty and diminishment, “For it was you who formed my inmost parts, who knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works” (Ps. 139:13-14).

“The Spiritual Exercises” of St. Ignatius

“The Spiritual Exercises” of St. Ignatius, presented in the form of the 19th Annotation Retreat for Daily Life, has begun for the new 2009/10 year. LIS has been blessed with a record number of retreatants who have committed to the 9-month program of daily scriptural prayer, weekly individual spiritual direction, and monthly group faith-sharing.

This year, 88 individuals have begun this life changing process, more than doubling the number of retreatants from last year! Of this number, 36 English speaking individuals will be a part of the Wednesday night group (27 are new to LIS and 9 are enrolled in the ISFP Program) and 8 Korean speaking retreatants will be meeting on Mondays. The Korean participation has been made possible by Associate Dr. Regina Hur, who painstakingly translated LIS’s 19th Annotation curriculum into her native language. Additionally, 44 retreatants are undertaking the Spiritual Exercises as part of the Los Angeles Archdiocese Diaconate Training Program. These participants (18 English speaking and 26 Spanish speaking) will attend groups located in Los Angeles.

All classes are directed by Sr. Barbra Ostheimer, S.N.D., Brother Charles Jackson, S.J., Fr. Stephen Corder, S.J., and a team of dedicated LIS Lay Associates.