Symposium on Ignatian
Spirituality
Under the able leadership of Fr Shekhar Manickam, the coordinator of
Province Commission for Ignatian Spirituality, a Symposium on Ignatian
Spirituality was organized at Jeevan Darshan Kendra, Vadodara from 1 to 3
February. The important feature of the Symposium was to share with the members
of the Ignatian Family various modules of the Ignatian retreat. There were
thirty participants, including nine Sisters from four different Congregations
that follow Ignatian Spirituality.
The resource persons were: Frs Lancy D’Cruz (Eco-Spirituality), M.I. Raj (Word of God vis-à-vis human ego), Joseph Mattam (Traditional Ignatian Retreat based on personal
experience), Victor Davamani
(Ignatian Retreat for laity blended with charismatic dynamics), Ornellas Coutinho (The 19th Annotation
– A Retreat in Daily Life) and Lawrence
Dharmaraj (Dynamics of spiritual direction). They made very creative,
insightful and richly experience-based presentations which were followed by clarifications
and interactions.
A substantial amount of time was spent on
sharing personal experience of the participants – either as retreatants or as
retreat preachers. The common thread of all the sharings was the importance of
personal prayer, gift of the Spirit, initiative of God and an interconnected
ambience in directing a retreat.
One could confidently say that this symposium
has been able to achieve its purpose: to strengthen the bond among the family
members and to deepen our common Ignatian heritage. It was an encouraging,
empowering and enriching experience as a result of which some of the
participants, especially the sisters, felt called deep within to preach
retreats in future. We wish them all the best and God’s blessings (Sr Leena
Dorothy rjm).
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