2.3 Workshop:

Tasting the Ignatian First Spiritual Exercises

Presenter: Ms Frances Tilly, Assistant Director, National First Spiritual Exercises Program

The First Spiritual Exercises are truly a pilgrim’s exercise. They mirror the earliest ministry of Ignatius, engaging in spiritual conversation and giving exercises for the most ordinary people and places. So too the First Spiritual Exercises highlight friendship in service of others and the Gospel.

This workshop will be experiential, with a guided prayer exercise which includes silence, sacred listening, spiritual conversation and mini-discernment. There will also be spiritual conversation and a brief presentation about the applications of the exercises and training for future givers. The approach is simple, clear and practical and invites participants into dynamic relationship with God right where they are and just as they are.

This workshop is not about producing an experience, rather opening a space, in the course of the guided spiritual exercise, in which participants can look into their lived experience and discover God at work and inviting them to deeper relationship and to the greater service of others.