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Latest News:
The
AISGA Mobile is back in action: (00 353) 87 202 8056
2010
For the AISGA Easter Newsletter click here...
For the Formal Notice of AISGA's AGM click here...
Neighbourhood Retreat Leaders Training Workshop
This Retreat is based on Ignatian Spirituality.
It is given by two people (lay/religious or two lay people) to small groups of 12-14.
The aim of the retreat is to help people understand the Gospels and to pray them in their own homes.
It introduces them to scripture and different ways of praying.
Retreatants meet once a week for 8 weeks in Parish or Community Centres.
Workshop will be held on 17/18th September 2010 (Friday 7-9 p.m., Saturday 9.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m.).
at Sisters of Charity, Mary Aikenhead House, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Enquiries: Neighbourhood Retreat
Central Office, 1,Temple St. Dublin 1
Phone: 087 1557829 01 8747703
Email: neighbourhoodretreat@eircom.net
Conference in June with BEVERLY LANZETTA
NEW CONVERSATIONS IN SPIRITUAL
DIRECTION:
GLOBAL SPIRITUALITY AND THE DARK
NIGHT OF THE FEMININE
(FOR WOMEN AND MEN)
See Conferences page for more.....
2009
AISGA newsletter November 2009
Forthcoming
events
AISGA ADVENT Retreat
Avila Retreat Centre, Morehampton Road, December 5th, 10am -
4pm
To Book Telephone Sorcha or Click here for more...
The Board of AISGA offers sincere condolences on the death of one of its esteemed members
Fr Jim O Sullivan
May he rest in peace
We are happy to announce
that Bob Faricy has agreed to address an AISGA
Conference
on March 28th 2009
Robert Faricy, S.J. is a Jesuit priest and theologian who is an Emeritus Professor of Spirituality lives at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is an Emeritus Professor of Spirituality of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Father Faricy has written over thirty books, most translated into several languages, and several hundred articles. He frequently ministers in Italy, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, and other countries, speaking at conferences and conventions and giving talks and retreats. Brief biographies can be found in: Who's Who in the World; in Contemporary Authors; in The Dictionary of Pentecostalism, and in other reference works.
Recent News
Pauline Campbell, accredited member of AISGA, is the Chairperson of the
recently established Neighbourhood Retreat Movement. She has
provided a brief outline of the ministry that she, Eilis Coe and others,
religious and lay are developing, based in their office in All Hallows. It
is hoped this initiative will attract AISGA members to work at fostering
faith and life-sharing in local communities.
Neighbourhood Retreat
Spiritual Development in the local Community
We are a committee of lay and religious people who have an office in All Hallows College. Our address is: Neighbourhood Retreat, Rm. 75, Senior House, All Hallows College, Grace Park Rd, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. We have used this office for the past few months, with the aim of building up the Body of Christ in local settings. We had our first Training of Readers in the Diocesan Centre, Limerick last weekend (Oct 3rd -5th). It’s wonderful to see how the Spirit is working there and the response of those involved in the training. We usually have one Leaders’ Training Workshop annually in Dublin, but now we hope to move out to the four corners of Ireland. We call ourselves: The Neighbourhood Retreat Movement which offers a unique opportunity for strengthening faith and deepening knowledge and love of God. The movement could benefit by the involvement of AISGA members, since it a combined Lay/ Married/ Religious Life initiative, where all pool expertise from all walks of life and work for the development of prayer initiative in local communities. In this way we work at building up the Body of Christ.
Book Sales at the Conference
50 copies of Daniel's book, Begin with the Heart were sold at conference price and 16 of his prize winning volume Already Within. A CDs of Daniel's talks delivered at a recent event in All Hallows were also on sale. In general, our speaker does not like being taped; it interferes with his spontaneity. All books and tapes have now been returned to their respective homes. We also sold some copies of Dr Catherine McCann's book: New Paths Towards the Sacred, published by Paulist Press which has since been launched on Tuesday Nov 18th.
New Initiatives
v An enterprising group of AISGA members and others, religious and lay, have launched a new project offering opportunities for strengthening faith and deepening knowledge and love of God at locations around the country. AISGA members who wish to get involved with this group contact them at: Neighbourhood Retreat, Rm. 75, Senior House, All Hallows College, Grace Park Rd, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
v You will be glad to know that Carmel Boyle and Geraldine Holton have launched a new delivery of their An Croi Higher Diploma Programme in Spiritual Guidance at Stirling, New Jersey, USA. This new venture was launched in September last and has already been highly acclaimed.
A Question raised at the Conference.
Question: What is the Distinction between Associate Members and Full Members of AISGA?
Answer: Associate Members are those interested in Spiritual Guidance as a metier or in the process of working towards full membership of the professional Spiritual Guidance Association, AISGA. They enjoy the same privileges as full members at AISGA conferences. However, they may not represent themselves as full members of AISGA, nor are they eligible to become members of the Board of AISGA. Full membership means that one’s name is placed (if one wishes) on the list of fully accredited members of AISGA who may include this accreditation on copies of their CVs. Full members are also supplied with a certificate of accredited membership which they can post at their place of work. The list of associates is not made available to the public; it may be made available on a limited scale through certain full members who wish to set up support reflection groups for all AISGA members in a particular locality. Both Associate members and Full members can apply for insurance with AON and both agree to abide by the AISGA Code of Ethics.
AISGA Activity Reports
Some Reflections on
Begin with the Heart
Daniel O’Leary S.J. was the speaker at the AISGA Conference for Spiritual Directors, held on Saturday Nov 16 2008 in Milltown Park, Clonskeagh, Dublin. He is a quiet spoken Kerry man and an author, who lives and works in a parish in England and from where he travels and teaches internationally. His latest book ‘Begin with the Heart’ is his response to the English Bishops’ Report entitled ‘On the Way to Life’ concerning the need for a new way to engage in Catholic Education and especially with Catechesis.
‘God is in the bits and pieces’ he told us, quoting from the poet Kavanagh as he began outlining a way to be present to our directees and / or to our students. The core of his thesis is that we need to be present contemplatively, not intellectually – not listening and critiquing with the head but rather listening with the heart. He gave us a wealth of quotes from mystics, saints and poets as he expounded ideas largely still undeveloped from the time of Vatican II - Ideas long given to us by the mystics and saints from all Spiritual traditions.
He spoke about God being present within us - within all of creation - and of not dualistically separating out the sacred from the secular. We need a new Theology, he said, not a dualistic theology where we view ‘Church’ as a weekend activity as opposed to ordinary weekday life, where we value the priest’s blessing over an ordinary person’s blessing and where we see God’s love as entirely different and superior to ordinary human love.
‘Speak to us of God’, the cherry tree was asked. And the cherry tree blossomed. ‘God’s seed becomes God. Just as the pear seed becomes the pear tree and the maple seed becomes the maple tree, so too, God’s seed in us grows into God.’ Meister Eckhart.
The Heart, he said, is the essence of our own humanity so that in fact ‘everything is holy’.
‘When we ourselves become more familiar with these ideas we see the light – God begins to be experienced. People are not looking for Exegesis, for Doctrine, for explanations but what they are looking for is the experience of God.’
‘We need to recover a Sacramental Vision of life, of people of nature. We have moved away from the senses and the body; and our feelings . . . as not being God. We need to relocate God in the Heart of the Human Being. When the human heart validates experience then this must be right.
We need a way of seeing into what is already there; into the essence of “what is”’.
He reminded us about the story of Thomas Merton at Louisville when he realised that he was blessed to be a part of such a humanity that God would Incarnate into it in such a way as to be glowingly present in each of us. ‘Who is going to tell these people that they are walking around shining like the sun?’ Merton
He spoke of seeing a small boy recently and on looking at the boy he saw ‘his father’s face in the boy’s face.’ We need to look, to see, to recognise ‘the face behind the face’ i.e. God’s face. The Sacraments, he said, are not to add Divine Icing to humanity’s cake but rather to enable the heart to see the Divine in Humanity. So too Liturgy celebrates our lived experience – the ups and the downs of our lives - for ‘Human love is God’s love Incarnate.’
We need an engagement of both Head and Heart; of wisdom and understanding. We need to replace the doctrine of Original Sin which leads us to dualism and see instead with Sacramental Vision ‘that everything speaks of God. Everything is teeming with Divinity.’
‘God comes to us disguised as life’ - Peter Yancey
‘Everything that happens is adorable’ – Teilhard de Chardin
“I have come so that your hidden self may have new life and have it abundantly” – Gospel theme.
‘Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor harkening after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seems as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.’ R.S. Thomas
He told us a story about a great conductor who was disappointed by an orchestra’s lack of enthusiasm for the music they were playing at a rehearsal. He noticed that their eyes were dull. ‘In what way am I being present to them that their eyes do not shine – or that I’m not allowing their eyes to shine?’ he asked himself.
Your eyes shine when your heart shines, Daniel told us, and then he asked ‘What makes your eyes shine?’ Our role as directors is to be present to directees in such a way as to allow their eyes shine. It is the integrity of our lives, our authenticity that is important. Can we release the Spirit in another if we are not transformed or released ourselves?
He read a poem by Mary Oliver called ‘Thirst’ which ended with the lines ‘The love of the Earth and the Love of you, O God, are having a long conversation.’ He spoke about the Gospel story of the barren fig tree and he said that it was the gardener’s response that saved the tree when he effectively said, ‘Let me nourish the heart of it.’
It is our role to nourish the hearts of our directees.
‘What is hungry and thirsty that needs to be nourished in my directees? (Or, in me)? What are they/ (we) still hungry for? What are they/ (we) longing for?’
He spoke of ‘The Secret’ and of the Law of Attraction and said that we need a Vision grounded in Christianity, in Community . . . in the Presence. He spoke of Richard Rohr and of Eckhart Tolle and of his book ‘The Power of Now’. He said that Eckhart Tolle and Richard Rohr both tell us that 80% of our thinking is unnecessary and even destructive. ‘We need to get out of our heads.’ He said, that ‘Contemplation is healing . . . reflective thinking . . . thinking in a way that connects us to the Source. Contemplation is sinking more deeply into Presence – our Presence.
The Bright Field
‘I have seen the sun break through to illuminate a small field for a while, and gone on my way and forgotten it. But that was the pearl of great price, the one field that had the treasure in it. I realise now that I must give everything I have to possess it.’ R.S. Thomas
Presence is the pearl of great price. How can we come home to ourselves - Befriend ourselves? We need to befriend our own brokenness. From what are we estranged? What prisons do we live in – dogma, expectations, fear? Who, or what are we afraid if? Where does our fear come from? Can we befriend this ‘stranger’ in us? For then we will find joy and bring joy too to our directees.
‘God is sheer joy. And sheer joy demands company.’ – Thomas Aquinas
And Merton again: ‘We exist solely for this – to be the human place that God has chosen for his presence, his manifestation in the world, his epiphany.’ – Thomas Merton
(This account only touches on the content of Daniel’s talks to us but I hope that some of the essence of it can be seen.).