Writing Toward the Spirit
A 34-Week Group Offering Based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius“…my story? Who cares? …Hardly anything could be less important, and hardly anything could be more important…Maybe nothing is more important than these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way, because it is precisely through these stories in all their particularity… that God makes God’s self known to each of us most powerfully and personally…to lose track of our stories is to be profoundly impoverished not only humanly but spiritually.” –Frederick Buechner, Dec. 10, 2019
Our God is a constantly creating God!
Whether God is creating in the big bang of Spirit’s wind and fire, or in the slow, quiet Spirit’s whisper – God is for certain forming us and has been all our lives long.
But how do we recover the particular experiences and memories of our years – the ways God has been working with us all along, even in our worst moments? Are there themes to these experiences, patterns of which we are hardly conscious? How does it feel to touch these moments again? Can we begin to notice God in our unfolding stories of this life, today – in the very moment – and continue to open toward God?
Writing Toward the Spirit is a small group offering based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. There is no text to purchase. Rather, writing prompts given each week will point participants to their own stories. We’ll share writings in convenantal, confidential community when the writer so desires.
During a 34-week period of scripture, prayer, and writing/reflecting on our life stories, the group will meet weekly on Zoom. Space is limited.
“…this work ‘implies confidence that the insight and self-understanding flowing from this reflection can move one toward the goal of personal freedom and not toward irrelevance, self-negation, or unhealthy guilt. A decision to probe these stories in faith-filled attentiveness can reveal a new understanding of God’s mystery present in the power of narrative.“‘ ~Liebert, Paulin-Campbell (The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed)
This program will be held via Zoom on Tuesday evenings beginning in September and continue through June (with breaks around the holidays) from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. Registration deadline is September 10th. To register, click the link below.
A donation of $325 is requested. WVIS wants to make its programs available to all who want to attend. Partial scholarships are available by emailing WVIS Associate Spiritual Director, Jill Gordon at jillgordon98@gmail.com.
Questions: If you have any questions, please get in touch with Jill at jillgordon98@gmail.com
Jill Gordon is an Associate Spiritual Director Intern with WVIS, a writer, and works individually and with groups desiring spiritual direction. Jill has an MFA in writing from the University of Pittsburgh and has facilitated life-story groups for thirty years in the Pittsburgh area.
WVIS is a 501 (c)(3).
Contact
1601 Virginia Street East
Charleston, West Virginia 25311
304.345.0926 (main)
304.345.8206 (fax)
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