Three times a year at St Beuno's we offer the
full Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola. This is a silent,
individually guided retreat with the accompaniment of an experienced
prayer guide. The actual retreat lasts 30 days, but we offer
a programme from 35 to 40 days with time before for preparation
and at the end to draw fruit from the experience.
Typically if you do the full 30 day Spiritual Exercises you
will find that it helps centre on what is truly important in
your life. It helps you develop a living relationship with Christ
and acts as a school for prayer. Its a time of discernment to
see more clearly the way God deals with you as an individual.
30 days of reflection and prayer cannot fail to help you integrate
life and faith. It is also likely to be a time of healing. You
may well, like many before you, find the experience one of the
most significant positive events of your life.
Typically a retreatant spends between 4 and 5 periods of prayer
a day. These periods last for up to an hour each and are spend
quietly alone with God.
Following Christ
The Exercises follow the life of Christ, praying on the birth,
life, passion and resurrection of the Lord. You are encouraged
to let the life of Jesus in the Gospel, interact with your own
life. There are meditations on sin and forgiveness and a consideration
of your service of God both in the past and in the future.
A Programme
Unlike shorter individually guided retreats where the guide
tends to respond to your needs and can go off in any direction,
this retreat has a set of given meditations and contemplations,
usually scripturally based. Though certain sections can be made
shorter or longer, depending upon your needs, and though certain
meditations might be changed or omitted, nevertheless, there
is a dynamic to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius.
The Exercises have proved fruitful to generations of retreatants.
Be Prepared
The Spiritual Exercises can be psychologically demanding. You
need a certain robustness of spirit to get the most out of the
Exercises. Therefore if you have suffered recent significant
bereavement, or depression, or are undergoing treatment or take
medication for psychological conditions, it would be better
to leave this retreat until you are stronger.
Previous Retreat Experience
Expected
We suggest that applicants should be familiar with praying with
Scripture and have experienced a silent individually guided
retreat of at least a week.
Lead in and out
The Full Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius
at St Beuno's are preceded by days of preparation and finish
with days of reflection on the experience. There are just two
partial break 'repose' days during the month.
