Holy Trinity Parish invites you and your family to participate in a Year of Prayer, in the tradition of Father Ignatius.  Beginning this fall, opportunities to study and experience Ignatian spirituality will be offered for all ages and backgrounds.  The Spiritual Exercises themselves – in a daily life format – will be facilitated in groups over a nine month period (October-June).  This experience is sometimes called the “Annotation 19” retreat.

For those eager to learn but without much time to spare, look for other programs on prayer and spiritual development, including Adult Education presentations, week-long retreats, weekend retreats, monthly prayer groups, Religious Education and youth events, and more!

We hope you’ll consider sharing in this Year of Prayer at Holy Trinity.

In 1521, an ambitious Basque nobleman named Iñigo Loyola suffered a near fatal injury while defending the Spanish city of Pamplona from a French assault.  During his long and painful recovery, Iñigo was drawn to ponder his life and ambitions.

He noticed how God led him to pay attention to the diverse “voices” inside him – to the movements of consolation and desolation in his heart and spirit.  He learned how important it is to look for God in the stuff of his everyday experience; he learned that God was shaping and forming him to be a companion of Jesus.

The fruit of these months of prayer and reflection is contained in his Spiritual Exercises.  If there is any genius to the Society of Jesus, it lies in this little treatise on prayer written over 450 years ago.  Some have said it is the only thing that all Jesuits have in common!  While too often shrouded in mystery, the Spiritual Exercises are simply a school of prayer – prayer aimed at deepening one’s awareness of God’s presence in all things.  To this end, St. Ignatius proposes a series of exercises for the soul – ways of praying and attentively pondering the Scriptures and our lives.  He was convinced that if we could experience the love God has for us, we would respond in gratitude and service to the Kingdom.

While we may “understand” our discipleship, St. Ignatius reminds us that “it is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.”  The encounter with the truth is a deeply personal one, one Ignatius trusted to the Spirit of God working in the human heart.

We all hunger to know God better; what we lack are the tools and supports to foster our spiritual growth.