Wading into Lent: An Ignatian Adventure

I'm easing into Lent this year.  Instead of gorging on chocolate or getting some Scrabble games lined up, I'm slowly clearing out some space, physical and spiritual, around the season.  I cleared out my prayer space, now that I can kneel again (woot!), and this weekend I began to walk the path of the Exercises again, in the company of Kevin O'Brien, SJ's The Ignatian Adventure (the book is here and an adapted version is here at Loyola Press' Ignatian Spirituality site, I'm using material from both.)

This time the adventure I'm headed into is not the immersive version of the Exercises envisioned by Ignatius in the 20th annotation, nor is it the embedded version he lays out in the 19th, but this extended retreat in daily life is informed more by the spirit of the 18th annotation in which Ignatius suggests that those who cannot (for many reasons) benefit from or undertake the full Exercises, might still be given that which may help them.

So, with a little encouragement and prayerful support from Patient Spiritual Director, I am diving into and out of the material that make up the Exercises, committing to spending 30 minutes in prayer with it each day from now through the octave of Easter.