Open door retreat

This year (to advent 2011) is St Nicolas Earley's year of "going deeper". One activity I am undertaking in this year is an open door retreat.  A 10 week commitment, one 2 hr session every week.  I had no idea what it would involve, other than the time, but knew it was something I should do.

Tuesday was the first session and I was thrilled to discover it follows St Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises.  I have followed them before with my spiritual director but never in a group, or in an intensive every week fashion.

We started with discussing the role of the retreat leaders, our roles and also the confidentiality issues of the group. There was then an introduction to Ignatius before a prayerful exercise remembering back to childhood.

This week, as for the next 10, we each commit to spending 15nins a day in prayer on the subject provided.  This week it is the commitment to the process.

I am amazed already how much stuff came up at the first session and how it is being dealt with.  It's not altogether pleasant, but definitely helpful.

So this is the start of the process, I'm sure I'll be sharing more over the next 10 weeks.