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Contents

Timothy P. Muldoon

Ordered Affection: Sexuality and Ignatian Spirituality

In spiritual direction it is common to ask those being directed about desires they find within themselves, and to encourage them to bring these to God in prayer. Yet the word ‘desire’ in everyday speech often has a sexual connotation that can seem distant from, or even opposed to, Christian living. Tim Muldoon invites us to bridge these ideas by asking ‘How might I use my sexuality for the greater glory of God?’

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Marion Morgan

Consecrated Women Living in the World: A Personal Journey to Wholeness

Following the Second Vatican Council a number of ancient institutions were revived within the Roman Catholic Church. One of these was the permanent diaconate, and another the Order of Consecrated Virgins. The latter is still poorly understood even within the Church. In our ‘Spirituality and Living’ strand, Marion Morgan explains what drew her to this particular way of life.

Mary Frohlich

Set Me as a Seal upon Your Heart’: Image and Imagelessness in Teresian Prayer

Teresa of Avila is today recognised as one of the principal teachers of contemplative prayer within the Christian tradition. In her teaching she draws on her own experience of overcoming the challenges that she faced as she moved more deeply into prayer. Mary Frohlich analyzes one of these key challenges: the invitation Teresa heard to move into an imageless union with Christ.

Nerea Alzola

Women Helping to Give the Spiritual Exercises: Variations on a Theme

Articles and books have been written to consider how the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius might be adapted when the one making these Exercises is a woman. In this article, reprinted from Manresa, Nerea Alzola provocatively asks whether there are similar adaptations to be made when the director is female.

J-M. Laurent

The Two Discernments

Jean-Michel Laurent concludes his series of three articles on priestly formation, published to mark the ‘Year for Priests’ called for by Pope Benedict. Here he looks at how the personal discernment of a call made by the candidate for priesthood is best integrated with that discerning process carried out by those responsible for his seminary formation.

Adolfo Chércoles

The Role of Inner Knowledge in the Process of the Exercises

In writing his Spiritual Exercises Ignatius gradually evolved a number of technical terms to describe the process the retreatant would undergo. To understand the Exercises more fully, it can be important to trace the development of these terms. Here one of the foremost contemporary Spanish givers of the Exercises asks what Ignatius means when he speaks of ‘inner knowledge’.

Lysanne Sizoo

Kumla Prison Monastery: Taking the Next Step

Some years ago The Way published an article describing an initiative that offered thirty-day retreats in Swedish prisons. This was so successful that the team responsible are now taking the further step of establishing a monastic community within the prison itself. Lysanne Sizoo reports on a visit to the men involved in setting up that community.

Tessa Frank

Margery Kempe: A Study in Urban Spirituality

Margery Kempe was a fourteenth-century English mystic, who dictated an autobiography detailing her religious quest. Tessa Frank argues that as she was neither a member of a religious order nor a recluse, but an urban lay-woman, her writings provide a unique insight into a spirituality shaped by the burgeoning commercial cities and towns; a spirituality that retains its relevance today.

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