30-week Ignatian contemplation retreat planned

IC photo/Linda Petersen

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Ignatian spirituality was at the heart of Ralph and Catherine Morgan's conversion to the Church. They will share the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in an upcoming retreat.

SALT LAKE CITY — Most Catholics who are active in their faith have a desire to become closer to God. They attend Mass and pray regularly, but for some, a strong connection seems to be missing. Even in the 16th century, Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish Basque Catholic priest who co-founded the Jesuit religious order, more properly known as the Society of Jesus, sought for some further means to establish and grow that relationship.

St. Ignatius developed what are now known as the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises by gathering prayers, meditations, reflections and directions that had deepened his spiritual experience. For centuries, only the clergy practiced the Spiritual Exercises, but in the early 1980s, a 30-week form of the exercises that participants could do at their own convenience was developed.

With the approval of Bishop Oscar A. Solis, those exercises are now being offered in the Diocese of Salt Lake City by Catherine Morgan, Ph.D., certified Ignatian spiritual director, and Ralph Morgan, M.A., Ignatian spiritual companion. The Morgans, who moved to Utah from Oklahoma two years ago, were members of the Episcopal Church when they became Benedictine Oblate Novices in 2001; they were received into the Church in 2006.

Beginning Sept. 19, they will kick off “Retreat in Daily Life: Walking with St. Ignatius in the Footsteps of Christ,” a 30-week prayer journey in Ignatian contemplation that will continue to May 2020.

The retreat is for “people who want to fall in love with Jesus,” Catherine Morgan said. “It is a transformational experience where they learn methods of prayer that take them deeply into the scenes of Scripture and teach them how to become a part of that scene.”

For the retreat, participants commit to an hour daily of private prayer that includes Scripture, reflection and journaling. Each participant is assigned a spiritual companion who walks with them through their journey and with whom they meet every other week for spiritual direction. The group will meet weekly at St. Thomas More Catholic Church where, if they choose, they may share their prayer experiences with each other.

“Going through the Exercises allows a person to adopt a different worldview,” Ralph Morgan said. “One learns to see that God is at work in everything.”

Often the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises will give participants a clearer understanding of God’s relationship with his children, such as his all-encompassing forgiveness, the Morgans said.

“The only way people know that it’s true is to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, that something has transformed them, something has changed,” Catherine Morgan said.

“We hear the whats” of Jesus’ teachings “every week in the homilies, but this is the how,” Ralph Morgan added.

Over the next month, the Morgans will visit parishes throughout the diocese to speak about “Retreat in Daily Life.” They would like to find some individuals who are fluent in Spanish who would be interested in taking part in this journey so that they can provide a Hispanic program in the future. The weekly Thursday meetings are 10 – 11:30 a.m., but Catherine Morgan said if there is enough interest for an evening group, a date and night will be determined. The program costs $20 per week, with a onetime $60 materials fee, which cover the Morgans’ costs.

Those who are interested should contact Catherine Morgan at 405-642-9595 to set up a time to meet and discuss the program to see if it is right for them.