Jesuit Refugee Services is offering an online retreat during the month of November.  The following is from their website:

“During the next four weeks we invite you — day by day — into an experience of “prayerful storytelling” as we share with you the grace-filled stories of God’s powerful love for all of us in JRS. Each day of this online “Thirty Day Retreat” will offer us the opportunity to reflect prayerfully on the situation of refugees through the lens of The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

The Spiritual Exercises have been described as “a journey of transformation and conversion.”¹ More than a book of rote prayers or lockstep exercises, Ignatius’s little book of exercises was designed to help people get in touch with their experiences of God, become more and more sensitive to them, and to see how God has been and continues to work within them.  It is with this spirit that we approach the coming thirty days.  Guided by the experiences and stories of JRS staff members—past and present—you will be invited to join your own story and lived experience to God’s story, especially as it is told to us in the life of Jesus.

As you begin this JRS retreat, we encourage you to be open and generous, asking the Lord to create within you deep desires to do great things for God and for those who are most vulnerable in our world. Remember, as you progress through this retreat, that God will direct you and touch your soul with love and challenge in a truly personal way. We trust that the graces of this retreat will renew us and transform us into the heart of Jesus, deepening our commitment to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people.”

I hope you will join JRS in this incredible opportunity to reflect on refugees through the lens of the spiritual exercises.

Becky Eldredge

Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.