IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES TRAINING (ISET)
2023-BLOCK ONE – SESSION 10
RESOURCES FOR GIVING THE 19TH ANNOTATION
Annemarie: [00:00:00] So welcome, everyone. It’s great to be with you again. I hope you’ve had a good week. Just before I hand over to Adri-Marie to lead us in prayer, I just want to remind you of a couple of things—three things, in fact. The first one is just to remind you that there is no class next week. Please don’t come online because you won’t find us.
In South Africa, Easter Monday is a bank holiday, a public holiday, and I believe it’s not in the US but in some parts of the world it is, but we are not meeting. So, you have a day to relax and catch your [00:01:00] breaths and maybe do a bit of revision if you’re feeling very energetic. So, no class next week, but class will resume the following week.
The second thing is don’t forget that you have an assignment that is due on the 17th of May. That’s important to remember. Start working on it slowly. You should have enough info on some of the topics to begin that process.
And the third thing I want to say, some of you are worrying about when you’re going to be starting with your retreatants. We’re not going to ask you to begin until the end of May, but it would be good to have someone lined up and ready to start with Disposition Days come the end of May. So those are just three things to remember while we have you all together, and I’m going to hand over now to Adri-Marie to lead us in a time of prayer. Thanks, Adri-Marie.
Adri-Marie: Thank you. Lovely to be with you. It’s [00:02:00] lovely to be with you. So, I’m going to invite you to switch off your screens if that is helpful to you.
Fairly recently, I feel like I’ve gained a pet that I really love. His name is Johnny, he’s a little terrier dog. And I love watching him and what he does, and dogs do this in general. They shake their bodies a little bit to transition, and I love that. It’s just a bit of something that is it’s just cute and precious to watch.
So, I wish us as humans embraced more of those transitional habits. No, I’m not going to shake my body like that, but I think I’m going to encourage you to, if you want to just transition a little bit into this space. And sometimes it is helpful to give a big sigh or to shake and [00:03:00] put yourself properly in your chair again, or to just let out a big sigh or breathe in a deep breath.
And just as we’ll encourage our retreatants to be open and generous, I’m going to give you a moment to just be here, and then I’m going to lead us in a gospel contemplation for this evening. I’m going to guide you quite particularly in the gospel contemplation, but we will hear when we get there.
So, wherever you are, whatever will be helpful for you to become present, I’m inviting you to do that [00:04:00] and then using your own words, just invite God’s presence or just an awareness for God’s already present presence, declaring your own openness, your own wholeheartedness, your own willingness. So, as you are present, just declare that openness and generosity and perhaps in a particular way become aware of God’s loving presence[00:05:00] and now just ask the Holy Spirit to be with you in this particular gospel story, to shape and use your imagination as a gift.[00:06:00]
I’m going to invite you to enter into this particular gospel story with Jesus, with your full senses. See what hear, taste, smell and however you show up, that is okay. We are joining the story where Jesus just heard that his dear friend, John the Baptist, was beheaded.
And when Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat, privately, to [00:07:00] a solitary place.
The crowds followed him on foot from the towns, and when Jesus landed, he saw a large crowd, and he had compassion on them, and he started healing their sick.[00:08:00]
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, This is a very remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.
And Jesus replies, They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.
The [00:09:00] disciples finally came to Jesus again and said we have here only five loaves of bread and two fish. Bring them here to me, Jesus said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass.
Jesus is taking up the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven. He gives thanks.
And he starts breaking the loaves.
See, smell, [00:10:00] taste, hear, feel, touch.
Jesus started giving the loaves and the fish to the disciples and the disciples started giving it to the people and everybody ate.
The disciples started picking up 12 baskets full of broken pieces after everybody ate and were satisfied. That is what was left over. There [00:11:00] was about 5,000 men besides the women and the children.
And staying in the story, perhaps sit next to Jesus. Just spend a moment talking about what you each experience.[00:12:00] [00:13:00]
If there was a particular moment or word that moved you, also bring that into the conversation.[00:14:00]
Jesus, we thank you for your detail attention to detail in our lives. Thank you for nurturing, for seeing us, for listening. We are grateful. Amen.
Annemarie: Amen. Thank you, [00:15:00] Adri-Marie. I’m going to hand over to Brenda, who’s going to lead us tonight around resources. Thank you, Brenda.
Brenda: Thanks, Anne Marie. Good evening, everyone. It is lovely to be together again. And over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking practicalities, getting more into the nitty gritty of leading people through. And many of you have been asking, when are we going to start?
And not far behind the when are we going to start? Who am I going to accompany question is the one about what am I going to give this person to pray with? How am I going to work out what texts to give? How’s that going to work? And so that’s where tonight’s session comes in because we’re starting to talk about what are the resources that will help us direct people? What is going to help me hold that dynamic, [00:16:00] shape their brain, be aware of what’s going on? How am I going to hold things together?
So, there are a few resources that we want to talk about tonight. But before we get into the books and the articles and the public stuff, we need to stop and take note that the beginning of the resources, your very first resource that you’re going to draw on is your own lived experience of a relationship with God.
We are all here as those who’ve had a journey with God. We’ve been in accompaniment ourselves with someone directing us. We’ve learned the Ignatian tools and we’re living the Ignatian charism. We are practicing discernment of spirits. We are searching for our own vocation. We are working out what would be God’s desire for us. We’ve got our own experience of being a directee of having someone [00:17:00] listen to us.
So, we’ve got that whole experience of a living dynamic relationship with God, and we’re going to draw on that. We’re going to draw on our current experience of God with us and what it’s been like to pay attention and listen.
Perhaps even more though, when we’re talking exercises, our own experience of making the exercises is a resource, remembering what it was like for us as we journeyed through these sacred prayers and the dynamic of the exercises. I found for myself that my own experience has helped the way or shaped the way I directed in two ways.
One—there’s some things that were really helpful to me as an exercitant. Some things that my director did, some explanations that she gave me, some ways of putting things that are really helpful and [00:18:00] so they shape how I accompany others.
There are some things that in the training that I did after that, that I wished, “Oh, she didn’t say that to me.” I wish I’d known more about that. So, there’s some things that kind of were not in my experience that I make sure to put into the experience of those I accompany.
So, your own experience shapes you in two ways. The most important thing from Ignatius’s point of view and from a practical point of view is that. You can feel that experience of the dynamic of the exercises—that you entered deeply, that you prayed faithfully, that you listened and asked for the graces and were aware of receiving them. So, your own experience of that journey is a huge resource because you’ll be able to connect in with where your exercitant is. [00:19:00]
It might be important as we talk about our own experience just to remind ourselves, and I think it has come up in a couple of previous weeks. The way I experienced the exercises is not the way, nor is it the best way.
If my director, and I think she was faithful, she will have adapted and sought to stay faithful to Ignatius’s desire for the exercises, but also to me. So, my way of experiencing it—your way of experiencing it is not the only way that the exercises are experienced by directees. We sometimes have to just hold our own experience with gratitude, and loosely. Each of us is a living resource of the tradition. You’ve made the exercises. You’re directing folk in ongoing spiritual [00:20:00] direction. You’re living the tradition. So, you have that resource.
There is a third aspect to the living resources that we have available to us and that is the gift of supervision. Now, you will all be probably experiencing supervision for your ongoing spiritual direction work, and you’ll know how helpful that is. But when it comes to the exercises in particular, you will be given a supervisor who’s an experienced giver of the exercises and someone to listen, help you discern, is the grace being received? Is it time to move on? Things like, am I being hooked at this moment? Oh, it’s coming up to Easter and we’re praying with the nativity. What should we do? All of those kind of things come into your supervision space, and your supervisor and other [00:21:00] members of your group are a resource.
One of the favorite things for me about this course is actually being a supervisor because my own practice is enriched as we talk about accompanying others. You will grow as a giver of the exercises through those conversations, the stuff that you bring, but also the things that other people bring, and you get to listen in because we supervise in a group. And there’s a sense in which it just expands our knowledge and understanding of what the exercises are about and how to give them.
So, supervision will kick off once you get going and the team will let you know what that’s going to look like before the beginning, and into May, Annemarie will let us know. Don’t panic about it; you will get a supervisor and that supervisor will love [00:22:00] journeying with you as you share in the exercises. You’ve got this living resource of people who are passionate, your own journey, your experience of the exercises, your supervision, all of that, a living resource to help you.
You then have written resources. What is there available to me to help me accompany this person that I’m beginning to recruit or explore with now? Obviously, your primary resource is the text of the exercises. That original text, except most of us are not reading the original—mine is absolutely non-existent. Some of you may be reading in Spanish, but most of us will be reading in English translation, and so the question then becomes which translation am I going to use?
In the course,[00:23:00] we’ve mostly been referring to Fleming, and particularly the Contemporary Translation, and I have to say that’s the easiest one that I find. when I’m accompanying others. It’s my “go to” as a first stop. Sometimes, as Fleming explains stuff in the contemporary, I want to check out the more traditional or word for word translation, so I’ll start with his on the other side of the page, but Iven’s and Gann’s and Poole are all good.
You can use whichever one fits most comfortably with you and rolls off your tongue and feels most accessible to your exercitant. Because in the end, we’re wanting to give them language that opens stuff up for them instead of closing stuff down. So, there is a point worth noticing there around [00:24:00] exclusive language. Being aware that some of the older translations may use masculine pronouns exclusively and for many people that is really hard. So, you may want to work with your translation and just check it out. Don’t blindly give stuff without checking out that it reads easily for the person that you’re accompanying.
Which then brings us to another question around the exercises. When I made the exercises, my director gave me Puhl, and when we met, she would say, okay, you’re now going to this page, and I would read, and it was all there. So, your question is, am I going to give them the exercises, the full text. and trust or ask them not to read ahead or try to even read ahead because it’s really quite hard reading and they may get despondent if they try and read it all in one [00:25:00] sitting.
I’ve just had someone who came on an eight-day retreat who said in preparation, I read the whole exercises. I thought, “Oh dear.” So, we put that aside. That’s not always helpful to give, but there’s also a pro to giving which I’ll mention in a moment. Other people, when people are coming to see you face to face, as many of us have done, you just can give a photocopy of the exercises for the week or the particular meditation that you want to share.
There is an advantage to that and a disadvantage. You can be more flexible. You’re just giving them what they need. You’re not giving them everything so they’re getting overwhelmed, but you’ve got to be quite organized. Maybe you’ve got to have spare photocopies on hand so that you can give them as someone’s leaving the door, or if you’re lucky, you might have a photocopy machine right there, and you can copy what you need.[00:26:00]
Many of us, though, will be directing online, and I find I email the meditations that people need most often. There is an advantage to people having the book, and that is quite simply that you can refer them to the paragraph. So, in South Africa, you may know that often our power is down. You’re not going to worry if it’s load shedding and you can’t photocopy or send an email. You can just refer them to the right paragraph, and so that is helpful. Then also they have a sense of where they’re fitting into the entire journey. Ultimately though, you’ve got to work out what fits your style. What will work for you in terms of how you accompany someone? Is it going to feel most natural for you to say, I suggest you use this book or here’s this book off my shelf I’m going to lend to you for the job, [00:27:00] or are you more comfortable with photocopying or emailing? All of those are valid. So, you don’t need to stress. You just need to work out what your approach is going to be.
So that would be using the exercises and probably what you’re going to be doing now is just making sure that you have a sense of which translation is your “go to.” Which one is my one that I keep next to me on my desk? Which one am I picking up to read from or explain from? And then how am I going to share that with my exercitants?
So, living resources—the primary resource of the exercises themselves, and then secondary resources. What I’ve done, you’ll see in the notes that I sent is I put a table on the page. I did that because for myself, I want to have a sense [00:28:00] of, this is the resource to go to in this kind of situation, or with this kind of person. This one is particularly good at this, but not so good at that. So, I’m hoping that as you take notes, you may be able to see them next to each other and have a sense of where we’re at.
Before we start talking about the particular resources, just do me a favor and correct on your notes Cathy’s surname. I don’t think I’d ever seen it written, so I was just writing it as I heard it. Kathy’s surname is actually Spence. It’s the last column on the right. of your notes. T A R A N T A L. I’ll put it in the chat later, but I spelt it incorrectly, and I’m sorry for that, Kathy. I apologize for that.
Okay, shall we talk some resources that you may or may not know? I’m going to [00:29:00] start with a couple that many of you may have used yourselves in your own journey. The first one that we might want to pick up on is Journey with Jesus [Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius] by Larry Warner published in 2010. It is written for the person who’s making the exercises which is of course as we now know not really how Ignatius intended for the exercises to be.
The exercises in his writing is a manual for the director. The other thing that is to note about that is Warner does say in his text, you really should have someone accompanying you—a spiritual director—but it’s quite possible for someone to pick up the book and follow it through themselves. So that’s quite a deviation from the way Ignatius did it and the way that [00:30:00] we are trained to offer the exercises, but there are some lovely things in Warner.
The writing is very clear and in the most part faithful. There’s not stuff where you are having to explain Ignatius terms or correct his explanations or say that’s not really how I think about it. He’s faithful to the dynamic of the exercises, and I find what he writes quite creative. There are some lovely prayer exercises in there. I think one of my favorites early on in the disposition days is—I don’t want to do it today in Durban where it’s very hot—but some of you may be cool. He suggests sitting with a blanket around you and physically feeling God’s love and maybe even going for a walk and feeling God’s love surrounding you.
So, he’s got a lot of really embodied prayers and suggestions which are really lovely. There’s one that has [00:31:00] to do with putting a whole bunch of whipped cream into a cup and not stopping even when it overflows, as you reflect on the abundant love of God. So, they are really practical, tangible, embodied prayers.
He’s got some nice quotes and poetry in there so that helps people who love playing with words and thinking differently. In his structure, he does have reviews and repetitions some of the others don’t have, and so you’re having to remind people to put in a repetition or a review at the end of the week, but Warner has them in the flow that he offers.
He has great explanations of Ignatian terms and doesn’t use too much jargon. His writing is really empowering for exercitants. There are nice descriptions of, for example, the discernment of spirits, that [00:32:00] kind of thing, or just the rules for discernment. How do I make a discernment.
Because it’s a relatively new text, the way that the exercises are adapted for our times is quite helpful. So, it is a good resource for us, and I do find that I use some of his exercises for exercitants quite often. The disadvantage would be the temptation to use it as “just as it is.” So, for us as directors to go, okay, there it is, and use it as a paint by numbers. It’s got to fit everyone. You’ve got to fit into it. That’s the way it is. And then of course, the other disadvantage is that temptation for people to go it alone to pick up the book, work their way through it and miss out on the accompaniment and often then on the actual experience of making the exercises.[00:33:00] So that is a very quick overview of Warner, and you’ll have a chance to chat through them all later.
The second one that is similar, or in a similar mold, is Kevin O’Brien’s Ignatian Adventure [Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius in Daily Life]. It’s a 2011 book. It’s interesting,
One of my exercitants at the moment, began the journey with me by saying, “I’ve done O’Brien’s book twice.” So, it’s an interesting thing because it’s another one that is written for people and people have access to it themselves and they take themselves through it, and they have a sense that now I’ve done the exercises, Although O’Brien very clearly in the way that he delineates what the book could be used for says don’t use it to try and make the full exercises by yourself.
He does say you need a director, but he says it could be [00:34:00] a resource where there are not enough givers of the exercises, and he points to colleges and universities where lots of young people want to make the exercises and there’s not enough directors. He does say that it could be used for short retreats or maybe after someone’s made the exercises that they could go back and repeat some of the meditations and the prayers.
But the danger does exist, isn’t it? It’s one of the disadvantages that people will pick it up and work their way through it without an accompanier, without a director, and have a sense that they’ve made the exercises, but find that something’s missing, and that certainly is what my exercitant is saying to me as we’re journeying now—that sense of it’s different. The weekly direction sessions are very different to what she experienced making it on her own. It was a challenge for me then also [00:35:00] to make sure that I didn’t use too much of O’Brien’s material to accompany her, so that there was a nuance and a flavor that’s different.
I like that O’Brien’s got quite a lot of reflective questions in the text. You know, think about this event, reflect on that, but that may also be the downside, that it can get a bit heady, too much stuff in there, too much thinking and not enough simply being with. He also has some lovely quotes and poetry in the text, which help people as they journey through the dynamic. And again, you may want to talk more about O’Brien later in your groups or in the discussion session.
So let me talk about some older resources then as well. So, the first one that I’ve got on your list is Orientations by John [00:36:00] Veltri.
The original books were spiral round. I have not seen one of those. I have been able to download it off the internet and print it out. Annemarie’s got the original, if you can see her, and I’ve got the pile of paper that I printed out from the internet. So Veltri was a Canadian Jesuit and did a lot of work at Guelph.
You can download this chapter by chapter and print it out. The first, Orientations 1, is more sort of general spiritual direction stuff. And then Orientations 2 is focused on the exercises. It’s got two parts. Part A includes running commentaries on giving the exercises. It’s like having a supervisor or a mentor or someone really experienced sitting alongside you going “Think about this. You might want to notice that.” And you [00:37:00] saw the thickness of the file or the binder I held up. So much wealth of information there. Things like if the exercitant is coming with this, you may want to think about saying that if you’re wondering, how do I introduce this topic? Chances are Veltri’s got an explanation or a form of words that you could use to introduce an idea.
Like he says on page seven, for example, I’m just going to read. He says, “Explain the theme and the grace that is being sought, suggest that your director keep asking for that particular grace throughout each exercise. The explanation can be rather short and more suggestive. You might say something like; you might really ask God to show you how much God cares for you. Allow yourself to notice how close God is to you.” Of course, the idea is not to sit with it in your session and read it off for them. [00:38:00] But there’s ways when you’re beginning to think, how do I say that? How do I speak about that?
So, Section One of the Part A is that running commentary and then Section Two are the prayer units which is what you would give people to pray with; it includes the grace and the theme and then scripture readings for the days or the prayer periods and then also some additional texts that you might want to use. So, it’s a real wealth of information and texts and ideas that you can use with your retreatants or exercitants—some helpful ideas, some helpful wordings to help them through that.
The second part—Part B has interesting articles on different aspects and the article on gospel contemplation—really [00:39:00] worth reading; really worth living into some thinking around the different type of making the exercises a healing exercises. So that sense of extra stuff to build up our understanding so that we’re more present. to the retreatants and we have a bigger sense of that dynamic and what we’re about. So, a wealth of information, well worth accessing if you can. The danger again is it’s tempting to just hand the piece of paper across and go, “yeah, pray.” Veltri himself deals with that. He says,
“If you are looking for a handbook to help you guide someone through the 19th annotation journey, this manual may be what you need, provided that you are not looking for a recipe for the entire journey. A fixed program or recipe would [00:40:00] be too mechanical. It would not lead you to adapt the material according to the discerned needs of your unique directees, nor would it empower you to trust your own hunches and judgments. A manual that does not lead you to work on your own without it is not worth using.
And so Veltri’s got lots of wonderful stuff in there but be careful of applying it step by step. So that’s Veltri.
The next one that many of you will be familiar with is Tetlow. Choosing Christ in the World: Directing the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola According to Annotations Eighteen and Nineteen and in fact for a number of you, it may well have been the resource that accompanied you through the exercises.
Interestingly for me, it’s the one I know the least and I tried to buy a copy at the beginning of the year, and I figured out why. Because with the shipping to [00:41:00] South Africa, it was a very expensive resource, and I cancelled the sale. Annemarie can talk for ages about Tetlow. She’s got lots of experience and you may want to pick up on that.
Let’s just put Tetlow in the context of all the others. It’s a very well-known resource. Tetlow was, for many years, the head of Ignatian spirituality work worldwide, and so it’s filled with a wealth of information. I glean it as I go along. It is an older resource, so written in 1989, so that’s maybe one of the disadvantages, that some of the examples, some of the attempts to contextualize are now out of date for us 34 years later.
What this resource has is it has two pages side by side. The left hand one is for the director. So, it tells you what to expect, what the [00:42:00] retreatant might come back with, something that you’re looking for in what they’re saying, what will help you know that the grace is being received. What do you need to tell them as they begin to move forward?
The right-hand side is the page that would be given to the exercitant. It’s designed to be photocopied, and you could add in any adaptations or adjustments that you want to make. It gives the prayer for the coming week, and any reminders that they might need—remember to do this. He also does have some helpful supplementary materials. It’s written to help the director to have a sense of this is what’s happening; here’s the dynamic moving on. I am still searching for my copy when [00:43:00] I can afford it. So, lots of resources, that’s which has come through really helpful. Others will talk about that one as well. It’s so well worth it. Someone wanting to say something? No, we’re good.
Before I hand over to Kathi to speak a little bit about the resources that she’s drawn together, I also do want to share with you resources that were prepared by Renata Dillman.
Now, Renata worked at Simbinos. She’s a very creative lady. These resources are designed for a 30-day retreat., and I know Annemarie’s story. She can tell it herself, but I’ll tell you what I remember of the story. On the retreat, Renata would adjust for each retreatant on every day. So, what Annemarie got because she was so lucky, was not the same as what the next retreatant would get.[00:44:00]
What I love about Renata’s stuff, and I’m going to share a page, is it’s really very creative. It uses different images; it uses different poetry; and it has some lovely ideas for different ways to pray things. Because she is so artistic, there’s also lovely ways to draw in creative praying and so it’s really worth having a look at that one as well, and just adding it into your pot of resources.
Those will be made available via the website—Conversatio. You’ll be able to download them and use them as you want to. They were designed for 30 days, so you might have to do some tweaking into the 19th annotation, but if you have an exercitant [00:45:00] who really is creative, who loves image, who loves picture, Renata’s resources are a gift.
Now, Kathi has done some work on drawing resources together, so I’m going to hand over to her so that she can share about the resources that she has put together for us.
Kathi: Hi, good morning. Good evening. So, as Brenda said, I have gathered actually from not Warner, but O’Brien, Veltri, Tetlow, and Renata, and I’ve put together 120 handouts. Most of what I have is the handout to give to the person. I’ve gathered poems and pictures and paintings and stories. I’ve tried to make it accessible. So, most of the people I have given the exercises to have not been first language English, so I try to make it simple and [00:46:00] accessible.
The format that I have is giving five prayer times per week—mostly three input sessions, one repetition, and one application of the senses. If somebody wants to do six prayer times a week, then obviously you would need to adapt for that, but I have found most of the people I’ve given the exercises to have preferred five days. So, you have five days to pray, one day off and one day to meet with the director. That seems to be a common pattern.
I’ve tried to use inclusive language. Every time I read through them again, I find a “he” for God, and I’ve really tried to replace that. Obviously for Jesus, I leave the “he” but for God I’ve tried to not do that, and I continue to update them. This year I’ve made lots and lots of changes, so I think I’m just gonna screen share the table of contents just to give you an idea of what I have.[00:47:00] There we go. Can you see that?
These are my handouts, and I think maybe one of the advantages is I’m not so creative, but I’m very organized so for example, all the handouts that are in the Disposition Days start with a zero so this would be an example of Week One and then A, B, C, D.
If there’s more than one handout, then they’re labeled with a letter; and one of the things that I put in the first week is what I think it was Annemarie mentioned last week about the letter from Ignatius. I’ve retyped that and I’ve made one for female—if you’re a male or if you’re a female director—because it’ll say your director and then he or she. So just tried to make that user friendly.
Week two. Some ways of praying. I have a handout that explains what is a gospel contemplation? What is a [00:48:00] meditation? What is a content? What is an Electio? What is a consideration? So, I’ve explained what those are. So later on, when I say to them, okay, this is a consideration. I’ll remind them what it is, but there is that resource. What’s an examen? Different ways of offering of faith history. So, this would be the Disposition Days—the different handouts.
And then when you’re going into the Principle and Foundation, which I believe we’re going to talk about next week, I’ve given some different options. What I’ve tried to do is gather and then you can look at them and say, what would be best for this exercitant?
And then going into the first week and the second week, again, different options. The second week is about the life of Christ, so let’s say you’re looking for something about healing. So, Week 13 has some things about healing. If you just look at the table of contents and you’re looking for something, I would hope that you could maybe find [00:49:00] that. There’s a lot of pictures as well that can go along with and accompany the third week and the fourth week and then the fifth week going forward.
The third week, I try to always do in an enclosed retreat, even if it’s just three days, so it’s kind of organized like that. I’m going to stop sharing this one and just open up my file to just pull up a couple, just so that you see what they are like.
I have a file that says Handouts Master; and Table of Contents first, and then I have them listed like that so they’re in order because it’s easy to find. For example, in the Disposition Days, I add slowly the different things that they want to add to get to the routine.
So, for example, in the second week. [00:50:00] So here’s the second week of the preparation days starting to add in there each time what is the format, then act of the presence of God, then the graces. Every week you’re asking for a different grace. So, these are the graces you’re asking for and then I list the prayer material, the review, and the examen.
So, the extra ones in that week will be the Lectio Divina—entering the exercises which it gives an introduction to—some of the beginning annotations that are important—things like that. So that would be an example of that.
And gosh, I’m gonna have to keep going back and forth. And then as we go in, then I just repeat like the format every time and then I change the prayer material. At the end, I’ll have poems or pictures or something like that. So [00:51:00] anyway there’s a lot there. I don’t know if anybody has any questions about that.
Brenda: Perhaps we can pick up questions a bit later, Kathy.
Kathi: Great.
Brenda: Okay; in the conversations. Thank you for that. I have to say that those resources that Kathi has put together are a great gift in my life. They are ones that I use a lot. So, thank you for them, Kathi.
Maybe just to tie it all together—you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed because I’ve thrown a whole lot of stuff at you and you go, how am I supposed to get my head around all of this?
Please don’t worry. You don’t have to be a master of all of these. You don’t have to have them sitting all at your fingertips waiting to be used and know exactly where to go. What you really want to do is begin to go—which one of these [00:52:00] do I connect with most? Which of these resources feels like me? It may be the one that you used when you made the exercises. It may be that that’s the one that’s most familiar, and it’s going to start to be the one that assists you the most. You’ve got to feel like it fits who you are as a director, and who your exercitant is. It’s got to fit the both of you and if you have tried something and it hasn’t worked, or one particular approach doesn’t really click, you can always try something else. But it helps to have one that is, kind of the grounding and then you can add into it as you go along. You are going to, of course be drawing on the exercises themselves and using your additional resource to help you.
I think the mistake I made when I started was, I tried to [00:53:00] do all of them, all at once, and I got myself in quite a knot. Thank goodness for supervision. And you may want to just be gentle and connect with one or two; have a look at the resources and go from there. It’s important, I think, to remember as well, we’re going to obviously be preparing for a session before we meet someone and we’re going to think, Oh, this is where we’re going to be at, and this is what I’m going to give them, and this is a wonderful resource. This is really creative, and this is going to help. And then your exercitant comes in and they’re in a completely different place than what you anticipated. So, don’t get sucked into a rigid approach. Prepare; look at your resources; be ready, but you’re also going to need to be flexible enough to say, “Oh no, that’s not going to work. Let’s try that.”
It may be helpful to set aside time later in the day after you’ve seen them to prayerfully [00:54:00] consider what you’re going to send them. And particularly when we’re meeting online, that is actually the approach that works best for me now. But the disadvantage of that is if while I’m prayerfully considering, I think, “oh, I’d like to add that in.” I’m not with the person to explain. So, I kind of have a sense of where we’re going. We talk that through and then I can consider what to give them and send it off in the email. You will need to find what works for you. Don’t get trapped into rigid paint by numbers, or this is the way it must be.
Resources are a gift to help you accompany this particular exercitant as they journey through the exercises. They’re all in your tool kit and whatever you take out to help this person will depend on you, where they’re at, how the dynamic is moving, and what kind of person they are. So have [00:55:00] fun. You’ve got a whole range of resources available to you.
I’m going to end there and I’m going to put the questions for conversation and your reflection in the chat box. I also am just going to apologize because I’m leaving the meeting now and heading off to Holy Week services. So, the rest of the team will hold the discussion after your groups but have fun. These resources are a great gift.
Annemarie: Thanks so much, Brenda. Thanks for sharing all of that with us and we will talk more after you’ve had time in your breakaway rooms for any questions or things you are still wondering about. But we’ll take 15 minutes now for you to go and look at those questions that Brenda has given.
And at 15 minutes past the hour, we will come back for our small group time. So, see you in a bit.[00:56:00]
[Break]
Annemarie: So, we have space as usual to have a bit of conversation and to draw on what the team also had experienced and not only the facilitators, but also our supervisors, our mentors, who may also have something to say about their experience of using different resources. But I wonder if there are any questions or comments to get us going about what you discussed in your small groups.
Well, I wonder what happened in those small groups? Was it a bit [00:57:00] overwhelming to have all these different resources or did you feel like it was pretty clear? Here we go, Heather.
Heather: I was so fascinated by the fact that not one of us did anything the same. The four of us in our group all did something different and whatever we were given was exactly what suited us.
Some worked out of a book. I got a piece of paper every week and I couldn’t have coped with anything more than that. And it just fascinates me how God just actually—our directors must have been so in tune with us that I just love it. That each of us was tended to and encouraged just exactly how the person that we were, and I found that really beautiful. Yeah, it was good. Thank you.
Annemarie: That’s wonderful. Thank you, Heather. And it does sound like it shows a couple of things. It [00:58:00] shows how unique that journey is that each of you got given the exercises in a way that was helpful and accessible for you, using resources that kind of connected and fitted and I think that says something about, you’re right, good direction. The people who were accompanying you were obviously quite tuned in to what would be most helpful. And I think it’s saying that everyone it’s going to be different. There’s no one size fits all or one resource fits all. So that’s really helpful noticing. Thanks, Heather.
Trevor: I wonder if I could just also respond to Heather a bit and just also in choice of resource, maybe just to underline that each exercitant comes to the exercises with a certain language [00:59:00] about their relationship with God and I have found it quite helpful to be quite sensitive to their own language forms and that of using a resource or offering resources that both connect with their language, but also perhaps once there’s certain, some comfort around that for them, also maybe offering possibilities for or perhaps one or two bits of new language as well.
Just the place of language in the choice of resource and what’s going to resonate with the particular language this person uses to describe their faith journey.
Annemarie: Thanks, Trevor.
Heather: Thank you.[01:00:00]
Annemarie: I wonder what resources others have found helpful in giving the exercises. I don’t know Cheri-Lynn and others, mentors, might like to say anything about that?
Anne: Anne Marie, I think that for me, the first time I took someone through the exercises, I had received the exercises, and I could see that it was Tetlow once I had his resources, but as I took my person through the exercises, I kind of stuck quite rigidly to that because I was quite nervous.
I think my knowledge of the dynamic, of the exercises maybe wasn’t, I [01:01:00] so confident in that. And so, for the first time, I stuck pretty much to Tetlow and using some of Renata’s stuff in between like poetry, whatever. And then as I became more familiar with the dynamic, I could interchange. I could use a bit of that, a bit of that, but always staying, listening to the person, where they’re at and what my sense is telling me about what’s happening. I thought I’d just add that.
Annemarie: Thank you, Anne. I think there’s something really wise about choosing one resource as your base the first time around—the secondary resource that you’re going to draw on the most consistently—to kind of have something.
And then, as Anne said, as one grows in confidence and understanding of the dynamic, you can be freer with working out what you want to interchange. But it’s really good, especially that first [01:02:00] time around to settle on one as your main resource to use. And Tetlow is a great one. Cherie-Lynn, can I pick on you? Are you there still? No, she’s dropped off.
Cherie-Lynn: No, I’m here. Sorry I couldn’t get my unmute to unmute. With my own giving of the exercises, I also must be honest. I tended to lean a fair bit on Tetlow and with the Ivens family and have learned since then to adapt. One of the things I found fascinating on a supervision platform is one of the givers of the exercises had a particular person who, it became, obvious halfway through the first week that [01:03:00] the version they were following had become an incredible stumbling block for the retreatant and the giver of the exercises really needed to rethink her approach. And it was beautiful to see how in changing the approach in that particular instance just unlocked everything for the retreatant and the retreatant just came alive and just found God in the deepest, richest way.
So just to be able to hold whatever version you think you need to go with so lightly—quite daunting the first time around but just the freedom of holding it lightly.
Annemarie: Thank you, Cherie-Lynn. It’s really helpful. [01:04:00] Doreen, did you want to add something?
Doreen: I’ve found using some worship music, just for that, because my directees are often attuned to that so suggestions of songs with links on UTube is sometimes helpful. I also really like images, and you can get free images; not paintings, but photos on pexels.com and unsplash.com copyright free. You can also get paintings copyright free from Wikimedia Commons—old paintings.
I would want to second what Brenda said about sending the resources afterwards, because like when my director took me through the exercises and I wouldn’t get my material right away, I would tease her, that I had flunked for the day. And it’s not true, of course, and she never said that, but it felt, Oh, I’m being held back or something for now. Now it’s nice to always send the resources in the evening, [01:05:00] though I always warn my directees ahead of time that if I don’t send them, you may need to remind me because I might forget and then I can write a whole set for them.
I remember just this last time that one of my directees was very moved by Mary in the incarnation, and so I wrote a whole set for her on motherhood. And that was very meaningful for her to deepen that experience of that love relationship with Jesus. And I remember my director wrote a whole set for me on when I was wrestling. She said it seemed like you’re wrestling with God. She wrote a whole set on Jacob wrestling. So, it’s nice then you know that comes in the evening and a bad day or whatever.
Then the other thing that I do use is Creighton’s online resources. They also have quite a few different prayers and options to pray with through the exercises that are free.
Annemarie: Thank you, Doreen. I love that sense of taking the time [01:06:00] to really process what’s been heard and to think carefully about what it is that she wants to offer and sometimes even, writing something that’s particularly appropriate for that person or curating what’s there in a way that is meaningful and helpful.
So that’s really great. I think Kathi’s asking if you can put that up on the chat—a couple of those ideas of where to find things there, Doreen. Thank you for that.
Russell: Maybe linked to with what Doreen’s saying, especially for people who are doing the retreat in daily life, there was also a great set of books written called Finding God in the Dark and it was the spiritual exercise of Ignatius and films that were helpful for each week. I need to find the author of that, but that is another way as well. That’s another resource. Obviously, you’re not going to give people films the whole time, but every now and then a film may help. They’ve put together a list of films and a reflection on each and some [01:07:00] questions, et cetera.
And I think there was more than one volume because I think as films were produced, they did a second and a third volume. I can’t remember, but I know I had the copy of the first volume called Finding God in the Dark.
Annemarie: Thank you, Russell. Vicki.
Becky: I want to second what Doreen said about Creighton University or Creighton Education—the link that she put in there. I use it a lot. That’s what my director had for me, and I take and use and adapt it quite often.
I just want to give Kathi a standing ovation and just say, Oh my stars. Kathi, I use your stuff every week with everybody that I take through in some manner, shape or form and the real reason I wanted to say anything is to [01:08:00] thank you for the gift of what you have done and collated and putting it all together. It is not a small task and the way in which you have impacted so many people that you have no idea about. None. I just want to just say BRAVO because it is fantastic.
I also use a lot of Images that I pull from the same sources that Doreen said, and poetry and if it is good for your retreatant, consider it with that.
Annemarie: Thank you, Becky. I’d love to give Kathi an [01:09:00] opportunity at this moment as well to just see if there’s anything you would like to say. Just some more about the resource process and what you found helpful. Is there anymore that you would like to just add, Kathi or any questions that anyone has for Kathi.
Kathi: A couple things maybe I didn’t say is I tried to give credit where possible, but I started this so many years ago that I would make handouts, and then a couple years later, I don’t remember where I found it from, but I do try to give credit where credit’s possible.
I use a lot of paintings by Daniel Bonnell. I find them so beautiful. They’re available online, but if you do use those, I would suggest giving him a donation. That it’s all in my handouts. I also have director’s notes, like a little. before week one, before week two; just some things to remember that’s helpful for me to be reminded of that particular week. These are some things that are helpful.
I don’t know if [01:10:00] anybody knows The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth, but there’s a really helpful chapter in that, that Christopher Heuertz wrote, and I got his permission to offer it to people giving the exercises. So, I’ve tried to credit and do that. Those are the only other extra things, but yeah, I’m happy to answer any question.
I go through life watching. I see a poem, or I do something, it’s like, “Oh, that would be great in second week.” And then I just try to put it in just to have things to look at as you’re preparing for the person because obviously adaptation is so crucial.
Annemarie: If I can say something that Kathi once said. I hope you don’t mind me telling the group this; I’m sure you won’t. Kathi said that one of the things that she found frustrating when she made the exercises, and she said this in previous teaching, was that she didn’t like being handed little scrappy pieces of paper that for her, the thing to look nice was really important [01:11:00] and a sign of kind of taking and honoring that person in the process and I think that’s part of what Kathi’s really done is to create things that look really attractive and inviting and beautiful.
And also, correct me if I’m wrong, Kathi, but there was also this space; they’re not created in a way that you can’t change them. So, if you need to use the basis of a handout, you can make an adaptation on that and give it to your retreatants. You might need to swap out a reading or a picture or a poem. You can really have a springboard that you can use and adapt as you need it.
Kathi: That’s exactly right and I did that on purpose. I use the same font. I use the same size. It’s user friendly to pick and choose and add your own.
Annemarie: Thank you.[01:12:00]
Adri-Marie: Annemarie, if I can add.
Annemarie: Yes, please do.
Adri-Marie: The way I approached it is I was really drawn to Veltri because I enjoyed it. It was organized and add numbers. It was pre-Kathi days. So, I enjoyed having a structure to refer to, but what I really, really feel like encouraging just the class with is, it’s very easy to compare yourself as a director, and I think part of this as you are adapting for the person in front of you.
There’s something about especially this first time to just get to know yourself as well. To not anxiously look around and say, “Oh, I’m not creative or I am creative,” just I think, come back to that first point that Brenda made about our own walk with [01:13:00] God and getting to know our own selves. It’s really normal to feel a bit overwhelmed.
Trust the spirit is cheering you on. Trust that God is also co-directing the prime director, and that the main thing is happening still in the prayer time with the person that you are guiding. So even if you feel like, “Oh, I should have given that, and that poem could have worked. You know what’s lovely? You’re going to guide for hopefully many years, and you are going to add to this, and it will come a bit more naturally after a while. Like I love what Kathi is saying, after a while, because you know the language, you know typically what the order is of the exercises. So, after a while, it becomes a bit more natural.
Please know that this is like starting to drive. For [01:14:00] those who drive stick vehicles, it’s like learning to drive. At this stage, if you are feeling “uhhhh,” there’s one first time, That’s why you have supervision. There are resources. Trust the Spirit’s movement when you have a look at the resources. And you know what? In the end, it really is about what happens with the person between that interaction with them and God and then you are showing up and holding a safe space and hearing if the grace is being met. So, I think that’s the one encouragement.
Then also to trust if you feel, “Oh, I shouldn’t move on to the next thing.” So that’s where the faithfulness and the adaptation keep coming in. So just a gentle encouragement not to look around and feel anxious and guide as you are. Yep, just wanted to say that.
Annemarie: Thank you, Adri-Marie. [01:15:00] And I think that’s so important to just allow ourselves to be grounded in that. Maria.
Marie: I’m a fairly recent graduate of the exercises as of the end of the middle of October of 2022 and just to piggyback on Adri-Marie, I felt like the experience with my director—the trust—I think that’s the gift, is that relationship and that I didn’t feel, “oh, we gotta get through this, we gotta get through.” It was just such an attentiveness to who I was as a person and what I needed, that that was the gift and amazing things happened as a result of that. So, that’s even made me want to be here today and be part of this training. Thank you.
Annemarie: Thank you so much, Maria, for sharing that; the[01:16:00] trust and the attentiveness. Yeah. I think what we’re hearing is something about what Adri was pointing out that remembering the relationship between the directee and God has been the most important—that God is the one who is the director, the primary director [01:17:00] and Maria helping us to see the importance of also the deep trust and the deep connection between the one who is accompanying and the one who’s being accompanied, but that’s what really holds this process and that’s what’s the most important.
The resources in a sense are secondary. They are important. Which particular one you choose on a given day is not the most important thing. It’s something that is a dynamic process. You may need to change what your primary resource is or the one that you’re using in conjunction with the text of the exercises. It will shift as you journey, but it’s those relationships that are key.[01:18:00]
Adri-Marie: Annemarie, may I maybe ask the class. It’s a little bit difficult to know where you’re at at the moment for me. I don’t know how they are feeling. So, I wonder if we can maybe offer just a single word in the chat. Are you feeling excited, confused, tired? Encouraged? I wonder what are some of the things in the room.
You can just maybe get a sense or are you sorted? Are you ready to start? It would be really lovely to just get a little bit of a sense of what is [01:19:00] happening. since we’re sharing so much silence, which is also lovely. So, if people don’t mind offering just some words in the chat, where are you at the moment?
Annemarie: That would be great.
Elizabeth: Annemarie, it’s Elizabeth I don’t know how to raise my hand, but may I say something?
Annemarie: Of course you may. Do you want to pause for a moment, Elizabeth while we just do the chat and then I’ll come to you just in a moment. Let’s just see what is coming up.
Grateful, encouraged, and a little overwhelmed, appreciative of the generosity towards us, encouraged, reflecting, hopeful, taking it all in, [01:20:00] inspired, intrigued, excited, while also still wondering how to exactly offer the exercises, excited, relieved, inspired, grateful, privileged overwhelmed, excited about new ideas.
Thank you for putting these in. Let’s give it another minute to see if anyone else wants to add.
So, there’s some common words, some similar words coming up there—inspired, excited, encouraged. And also, the word that comes [01:21:00] up quite a bit isa bit overwhelmed or kind of overwhelmed. That’s there too. Experience a virtual hug, excited about the new ideas, grateful, reflective, wondering how all will eventually work together.
Okay, I’m going to come to Elizabeth in just a moment, but maybe to kind of say, if you’re feeling very overwhelmed, just in a way, it can be helpful to almost bracket some things—to just think, is there one I could start looking at—one that connects for me most at the moment? I’d encourage you maybe to possibly think about something like Veltri, which is available free online as something to maybe go and look at as a base.
If there’s another one that draws you more, then go with that, and don’t worry too much about the others until you’ve really been able to read through one. And sense, is [01:22:00] this something that fits for me? Do I connect with this? If I was to give you one piece of homework or advice for the next little while, it would be, choose one. You don’t have to be wedded to it for life. You can say, “Oh no, this doesn’t quite fit. I want to try another one,” but choose one and slowly just read through it. Just sense how that feels and then read through it again and make your own little notes in the margins. Remember that we’re going to go through every single part of this step by step.
So, we started with introduction and disposition days; then we’re going to teach you about principle and foundation and what resources there are and how you connect with that. When we get to the first week, we’re going to touch onto resources again. When we get to the second week, we’re going to be going through it step by step.
So, as we do that, you’ll become much more familiar with your resource, but just choose a base resource [01:23:00] for now, but know that you don’t want to be so attached to it that you follow it to the letter exactly when you can feel that your retreatant maybe needs you to slow down or to add a poem in. You want something that’s your guiding resource and then you want to be able to tweak it when it doesn’t quite fit, if that makes sense.
Adri-Marie: And in the end, it really has a few very beautiful, specific exercises that Ignatius designed, and different people tend to place them in different spaces, and that’s some of the variety. But in the end, there are four weeks with a beginning and an end and a disposition before, and then some [01:24:00] of these placings. That’s some of the difference. The language which Trevor referred to—big one.
Annemarie: Elizabeth. You wanted to say something.
Elizabeth: I did. I wanted to thank Maria for her tears, and then I think almost simultaneously and Anne in the chat, we bring our loaves and fishes, and I just had this—during the teaching, it is overwhelming, there’s so much, but I just was thinking, gosh, if I could be that little boy, whose lunch it was and you know, you’re a beginner, you know that you don’t know much, and yet, if I bring what little bit I have, then that’s my job.
So those reminders—I’m thrilled to know about the resources, and I want to be diligent in [01:25:00] exploring, but I just am grateful for her tears and for the reminder from you all that the primary relationship is between the retreatant and God, and the secondary relationship is to have someone who is so intimately attentive to you is life changing in itself. So, it really gives me permission to realize, okay, being small is okay. Having a little teeny lunch to offer is okay.
Annemarie: Thank you so much for that, Elizabeth. We’ve got a little bit more time if there are either questions or comments, thoughts.[01:26:00] Tracy, I wonder if you’ve got anything you want to say?
Tracy: I was debating if I was going to tell on myself with my crazy year of giving the exercises, but I’ve been giving the exercises to a younger person. And, Elizabeth, what you said was resonating with me because it has been a fishes and loaves kind of year for me with her. I started out with Tetlow, and that was great for me. I love Tetlow for me. It helped me so much, and she hated it. She just wouldn’t do it, and so it was a terrible fit. She’s more evangelical, so I thought, maybe Larry Warner would be good. So, we started doing Larry Warner. And then that was terrible. And so, we didn’t do Larry Warner.
And then I switched to Kathi’s materials and for weeks one and two, she loved Kathy’s materials. That was such a gift and such a blessing. And then she had a [01:27:00] personal crisis about a few weeks ago when we were supposed to go into the third week. And all of a sudden, I had to do another pivot. And thankfully, Brenda’s my supervisor and she gave me a lot of wisdom in our pivot, but we’re really back to some core things with some creative changes.
It’s been hard truthfully, and what was really sweet last week, because I didn’t know what I was going to do with her. It was one of those God grace moments where she just said, I hate what I’m going through in life right now. This crisis is really hard that I’m dealing with, but I’m so excited that I get to walk with Jesus with his passion while I’m going through my own version of it, and it was just that clicking moment. Now we’re back into it, into the third week, and it was just cool to see how God took this little detour that we had and is really using it to connect her in a deeper way. [01:28:00] So, that’s my reflection.
Annemarie: Thank you, Tracy. I think it’s really helpful just to hear a real example of a journey like that and how different resources help at different moments and being able to just hold that with lightness. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? Otherwise, we’re going to wrap up, I think.
Before I just hand over to Russell to end in prayer, please just don’t forget we’re not meeting next week. You have a week off. The week after when we come back, we’re going to start looking at the Principle and Foundation, and the big picture of the Principle and Foundation.
I will send [01:29:00] out to you a list of various resources and things so that you have that in an email and hopefully you’ve taken down what’s been in the chat, and we take it from there. So, Russell.
Russell: Maybe just to bring our time to an end, to pause, to become aware of where we are now, where I am now, what is in my consciousness at this moment. What I feel[01:30:00] and fitting in, perhaps with what we’ve been talking about resources, trusting that the Lord will lead us to the resources that we need and also aware of this week that we’re in, where we prepare to celebrate the passion and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Let’s listen to the words of this prayer by Pedro Rupe.
More than ever, I find myself in the hands of God. That is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now there is a difference. The initiative is entirely with God. [01:31:00] It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.
Let’s pray together.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you, now and always. Amen.
Thank you everybody. We wish you all a wonderful celebration of the Lord’s passion and death. And of course, most importantly, his resurrection may be a blessed time for you and your loved ones.[01:32:00] We see you again in two weeks’ time. So, God bless you.