This workshop for spiritual directors explored the many faces of forgiveness, what forgiveness is not, and the nature of this spiraling process.

True forgiveness does not come easily because it always involves betrayal that must be acknowledged — betrayal of values, betrayal by others, by institutions, by ourselves.

It is usually a long, slow process that involves suffering and taps into the full range of our emotions and our original wounds. The courageous journey ultimately brings us face to face with the depth of our trust in a truly compassionate and personally merciful God. Not to attempt the process is to deny ourselves an enormous spiritual opportunity for grace and healing. Come and explore the many faces of forgiveness, what forgiveness is not, and the nature of this spiraling process. As Indira Gandhi has said, “Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.”

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Janet Corso is a spiritual director and retreat and program presenter. Recently retired as director of Mariandale Retreat and Conference Center, she taught philosophy for 33 years and founded and directed Sarabrae Women’s Spirituality Center. She currently trains and supervises spiritual directors at Linwood Spiritual Center, Marist Brothers Bronx Spiritual Directors’ Training Program and leads Mariandale’s Contemplative Formation Program team.

View/download the following: presentation materials, Ignatian prayers from this workshop, Br. Don Bisson audio CDs/MP3s order form.

About This Online Workshop

Underlying feelings of shame and guilt can be among the greatest stumbling blocks to spiritual growth and a deeper relationship with God. This workshop for spiritual directors, led by Br. Don Bisson, FMS, explored feelings of shame and neurotic guilt as they relate to images of God, self and others within the context of spiritual direction.

View/download the presentation slides.

About This Online Retreat

“What is your image of God?” is among the most fundamental questions raised as a spiritual director enters into a spiritual direction relationship. In this time of great turmoil in our world and nation, we invite spiritual directors to return to this fundamental question. What is your image of God now? Who and where has God been for you — in the Pandemic, in the sustained outrage at systemic racism, in the political chaos, and in the midst of your own community and the lives of your family and friends? 

We invite you to reflect on the ways that your image of God has developed (or continues to develop) over time, and to explore ways that you might facilitate with others more expansive images of God.

About Our Presenters

Emily Egan serves as a Campus Minister at Boston College where she directs the Arrupe International Immersion program which hopes to inspire students towards a faith that seeks justice. After growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts she received her B.A. and M.A. in Theological Studies from Loyola University Chicago. Emily is a trained restorative justice circle keeper from Community Justice for Youth Institute in Chicago, IL and holds a certification in spiritual direction from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with loved ones and contributing to community-based organizations such as the Boston Chapter of the Ignatian Spirituality Project.   

Luis (Xavier) Benavides, SJ, was born in San Antonio, TX, and is part of the West Coast Province of the Jesuits. Fr. Benavides has Philosophy and English Degrees from Texas A&M University, an MA in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago, and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He worked in a variety of places before joining the Jesuits, including Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, Oxfam America and the National Council of Churches. Since joining the Jesuits, he has been serving as a spiritual director for the last 5 years and helped lead the 19th Annotation program at St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill, MA this past year. He is working toward his Master of Divinity at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and was ordained a deacon this past September. He is serving his pastoral placement with Our Lady of Grace Church in Chelsea and St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Revere.

About This Online Workshop

God invites and we respond (or not). That is the dance of the divine-human relationship.  This presentation grounded Christian conversion as a dual movement of spiritual maturation and psychological development. As St. Ignatius intended the Spiritual Exercises as a tool for a “reform of life,” we look at conversion through the Spiritual Exercises as a process of retrieving one’s divine identity. The workshop combined prayer, self-reflection, input, and reflection on the practice of spiritual direction in the Ignatian tradition.

View the presentation slides.
View/download the worksheet.

About Our Presenter

Damian Zynda, Th.D., is Director of Ignatian Identity/Mission & Ministry at McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, NY. She received a doctorate in Systematic Theology and Christian Spirituality from the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto School of Theology in 2004.  She holds Certifications in Spiritual Direction from Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario, Supervision of Spiritual Directors from St. Meinrad’s School of Theology in St. Meinrad Indiana, and Advanced Jesuit Studies from Boston College. This summer she had hoped to inaugurate the Spiritual Directors Institute (a two summer Certification in forming people to give the Spiritual Exercises), but due to COVID the opening has been postponed. Since 2004 Damian has been on faculty in the Christian Spirituality and Master of Ministry Programs at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska where she has helped form spiritual directors in the Ignatian Tradition.  Damian is the author of Archbishop Oscar Romero:  A Disciple Who Revealed the Glory of God (University of Scranton Press, 2010). Damian is an experienced spiritual and retreat director and supervisor who has directed retreats in Spain, Italy, Canada and across the United States. 

About This Online Retreat

As spiritual directors, we are called not only to accompany others as they struggle to face the history, legacy and harm of racism in American society, but in doing so, must confront our own response to the sin of racism. As the Black Lives Matter movement deepened and widened in the wake of public outcry, we invited spiritual directors to reflect on how their own interior movements have been affecting them and their ministries.

Our facilitators led us in a reflection rooted in “What We Have Seen and Heard,” the 1984 pastoral letter on evangelization from U.S. black bishops and shared their own life experience working to address racial justice. Participants were invited to prayer, reflect in silence, and discuss in small groups.

Other Presentation Materials: Brief Resource List for Information About Black Catholics, Reflection Questions (Boreta,) Reflection Questions (George.)

About Our Presenters

Boreta A. Singleton, a native of Philadelphia, is an African American "cradle Catholic." She taught in Catholic elementary and middle schools there and was the Director of the Office for Black Catholics for four years. She has worked for Jesuit-sponsored schools for the past seventeen years, first at St. Aloysius in Harlem, and now at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, NJ, where she is the Director of Faculty Formation. She holds an MA in Theology from University of Notre Dame, an MS in Pastoral Care and Counseling from Neumann University and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction from Fairfield University.

Fr. George Bur, SJ, has been a Jesuit for sixty years. After his formation years he was ordained in 1972. He spent 12 years in social ministry, most in housing ministry supported by Catholic Charities in Baltimore. After that he was a pastor for eight years with Black Catholics in Philadelphia. He then served for ten years as president of Gesu School in Philadelphia, serving Black families in that same neighborhood. He has been an administrator in Jesuit education and in Jesuit communities. Presently he is the Jesuit Superior in a house whose main ministry is a retreat house. He assists in that work at liturgies and in occasional presentations and spiritual direction.

About this Presentation:

While life has always been marked by change and loss, nothing could have prepared us for the sudden loss of “life as we know it” and the suffering that we have witnessed as a result of the ongoing global pandemic. 

In this program, Nicholas Collura, M.Div., considered experiences of grief in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, he helped participants to recognize and name grief in its many different forms, including anticipatory grief rooted in uncertainty, fear, and ambiguous loss, as well as collective "civic" grief for the suffering of our vulnerable world. Drawing on psychological, spiritual, and artistic resources, Nicholas shared insights regarding various means of coping with such grief and loss and concludes by inviting participants into a practice of self-compassion. 

Click here to download the presentation slideshow.

About our Presenter:

About this Presentation:

As the global health crisis grinds on, the demands of managing life in a new reality are taking a toll. Known routines of prayer and self-care have fallen away leaving many feeling unmoored. We invite you to take the opportunity to re-center, however briefly, in the positive connection between well-being and spirituality. 

In this program, Dr. Karen Shields Wright reflected on the commandment “Love thy Neighbor as Thyself” and what that looks like in the midst of a pandemic. What is the spiritual call to care for self and how does honoring that call, in momentary and intentional ways, naturally support flourishing and balance in body and soul? What are the ways to access the peace that surpasses understanding and, in doing so, maintain balance in this time of collective uncertainty?

Click here  to view/download the slide presentation.

About the Presenter:

Our Fall 2019 workshop, "Spiritual Direction for Young Adults" was held on Saturday, November 2, 2019, at Ignatius House in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reflection Questions

The presentation allowed some “table time” built in for discussion for those viewing in groups. Those viewing on their own can also reflect on the following questions during this time:

1. What expectations do young adults bring to direction? Are they seeking someone to listen? To guide them? 

2. What challenges have you faced relating to these directees? What graces have you experienced working with them?

3. Have you ever directed a young adult who was estranged from the Church? Or who never identified as religious to begin with? How did it impact spiritual direction? How do you reach these young adults? 

Our spring workshop for spiritual directors was hosted at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 30, 2019. This workshop was co-sponsored by the Office of Ignatian Spirituality and St. Peter's Catholic Church.