Spiritual Exercises St Ignatius – Registration Now Open
Now Accepting Applications for the 2024-2025 Cohort!About
This page contains everything you need to know about the Spiritual Exercises and how to register for our next retreat beginning in September. We look forward to answering any questions you may have, offering any guidance in preparing for the retreat, and journeying with you! Contact us, at any time, with questions: renee@soulcareseattle.com or dan@soulcareseattle.com
What are the Spiritual Exercises – the 19th Annotation, a Retreat in Daily Life?
Written in the 1500’s “The Exercises of St. Ignatius” are just as relevant today as they were 500 years ago. As an invitation to healing through greater intimacy with God and self through deeper intimacy with Christ, the exercises serve to move us from an understanding and head knowledge of our faith to a lived experience of our faith – an experience not so much modeled after spiritual leaders or doctrine, as much as on how God reveals himself to us according to our unique design. In this way, the exercises invite those who want to know and serve God, as well as better know and love themselves, to a life of intimacy with God. Realizing that few can slip away from life’s responsibilities for 30 days (the original retreat format), Saint Ignatius wrote the “19th Annotation”, allowing many of us to make the retreat over nine months while living our daily lives.
How Does the Retreat Work?
The Exercises have four movements or “weeks.” Each week represents a new invitation to a different stage in Jesus’ life and your life with God, moving from our need for God’s mercy in sin and brokenness, to the life and ministry of Christ, his Passion and death, and finally the hope of the Resurrection. The four original “weeks”, or movements, have been broken down into a 30 week guide of scriptures and meditations for you to pray with as you continue with your daily commitments to family, work, or school.
Once accepted into the retreat, you will be able to begin your six week “warm ups”! Hey, they are called the “spiritual exercises” for a reason: you will be using new spiritual muscles. You will need to warm up. It takes some commitment to opening ourselves up to what God has, some determination to set up new practices, and some agility to spend time with God in ways that are perhaps new or foreign. We will meet with you twice during this time to see how things are progressing. If all goes well you will continue practicing this form of prayer until the retreat begins. If you are finding this to be a difficult approach we will continue to work with you and, together, assess the right time to make the exercises.
Once the retreat begins in earnest, you’ll meet weekly, one-on-one, with Renee Huie or Dan Huie – spiritual directors accredited in offering the exercises. There, you will discuss the specific scripture passages and meditations given for the week, noting the things that stirred in you during your daily prayer and your response. Like with any good exercise routine, you will feel like you have “worked out”. But, the payoff is huge! We cannot out give the generosity of God. In other words, for those who fully give themselves to the retreat, God will be even more generous in return.
About our Retreat Directors: The image at the top of this page says a lot. Here we see Inigo de Loyola, the man of nobility and military success laying down his sword at the alter of Christ. No longer relying on his own resources and ways of doing things, he here surrenders all and receives God’s will in how to move into his life world. This transition of control, power, and understanding and the deepening intimacy with Christ it brings captivated the imagination of our directors.
During their own retreat with ‘the exercises’, Renee and Dan met Jesus with deep intimacy, an intimacy that compels them to want to share this retreat with as many as possible. After concluding their own retreat, Renee and Dan both received their certification in Spiritual Direction through Selah – Leadership Transformations and certification in offering the exercises through The Lanteri Center for Ignatian Spirituality.
Prerequisites: For help in developing the the practices (listed below) the exercises requires:
- A genuine curiosity about God.
- A deepening awareness of God’s love for yourself and others.
- Has made at least one silent retreat.
- Prays with scripture in prayer and may have experienced praying with “entering the scene” as in Ignatian gospel contemplation (Here, you are invited to “live into” the gospels scenes for yourself, allowing scripture to enter your lifeworld).
- Comfortable sharing the your prayer experience with a spiritual director.
The Commitment:
The Spiritual Exercises (19th Annotation) uses scripture in daily prayer to draw a person deeper into relationship with Jesus and to journey with Him through His life. All relationships take time. In the exercises, you are returning the gift of your time to your God in relationship.
Entering into the Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life has a time commitment of :
- Warm Ups – a six week prayer series (spring or summer) to begin once you are accepted to the retreat, for help in developing the rhythms and dispositions needed for the retreat.
- Orientation – in person (on-line available for out of town participants) choose either Thursday, Sept 5th 7:00-8:30PM pacific or Saturday, Sept 7th 10:00 – 11:30 AM pacific
- Retreat Begins – Daily prayer (on your own) commencing the week of September 9th.
- 45 minutes to 1 hour of daily prayer (in meditation and/or contemplation)
- 10-15 minutes journaling (this is your review of prayer)
- 15 minutes Examen at some point during the day
- Weekly meeting (1hr, three times per month) with a Soul Care Seattle spiritual director, trained in offering the exercises, to go over the past week’s prayer
- Retreat Ends – the week of May 12th
- Celebration (for those who can make it) Saturday May 17th in Seattle.
If any of the practices seem unfamiliar to you, please feel free to ask us at anytime during your application process!
If you are received to join us in the retreat:
After we have reviewed your application and have met with you (in-person or by Zoom), we will contact you about joining the retreat and launch you into your Warm Up series. Additionally, we will work together to determine what days you will meet with your director. Having completed the “Warm Ups”, The 19th Annotation Retreat in Daily Life will begin in ealy September and ends with a celebratory dinner in May.
Retreat Application and & Fee
To apply for the retreat, Complete this Application and submit the non-refundable application fee. Once the application packet and fee have been received we will contact you for your interview.
Entering the retreat will be a process of discernment for you and for us, as directors. If it is discerned to postpone the retreat, we will makes every effort to offer pathways forward that will deepen the preparation toward making the retreat in the future.
Cost: Cost should not keep anyone from making the exercises. Please contact us for full or partial scholarships. The cost for the retreat is a suggested donation* of $1,600 (materials included) plus the $50 non-refundable application fee.
Scholarships: Currently, partial scholarships are available for those in financial need. Please submit your requet in the space provided in the application form.
Donations: If you are able to contribute more than the suggested amount, your gifts will help offset the amounts others may not be able to give. If you are unable to give the suggested amount, please let us know! Soul Care Seattle is 100% funded by donations. Select Donate in the uper right of this page. Thank you!
Click here to apply for 2024-2025.