Practices in 2013: Returning to My Beloved Teresa & the Ignation Exercises.

Kat asks us: What is the single most important habit you intend to cultivate in 2013?

First, as I know is always cool in Reverbalicious land, I want to slightly tweak the prompt to say, “What is the single most important practice you intend to cultivate in 2013.

Teresa of Avila Portrait (while writing)... something else she and I have in common! I am planning, once again, to experience the Ignacious exercises daily. I was first inspired to study this man and his exercises when I was studying Teresa of Avila, because I learned this is how she first had a spiritual breakthrough. She is such an interesting character. There is a link to more information about her underneath her picture.

I used them – when? Probably more than four years ago now – on a regular basis. It was before Katherine’s junior year high school year so yes, it would have been four plus years ago.

I found an online “Ignation Adventure” which sounds like a perfect fit for me. There are bloggers who adventure, too, so I won’t be alone in this. This is perfect for me. Spiritual disciplines are so invigorating!

(for some of you, I realize, this may sound foreign but believe me it is not!)

St Ignatious Church, San Francisco. Address: 650 Parker Avenue San Francisco, California 94118 My love for Teresa of Avila and St. Ignatious brought me back to the church with that same name in San Francisco three years ago. I had been rushed through it on a tour, with Katherine, of University of San Francisco. I wanted to just stay in the church… my head up, I was in awe. I even whispered to a Dad, “This is why I prayed to God asking him if I was supposed to be a Catholic now but he said, ‘No’.”

At the end of the tour he asked, “So, have you changed your mind about Catholicism?”

Unfortunately the politics keep me from that church AND I maintain a great love and high regard for the Mystics within Catholicism, Teresa of Avila being one of my many “Go to Women” to discern what disciplines to follow. I now have a friend I adore who happens to be a religious woman. She worked for a time at St. Ignatious Church AND University of San Francisco.

Synchronicity rocks! This question really spurred me into an area I should have known to choose on my own, but as soon as I read it, I had a spiritual revelation on my own. Without a moment of hesitation, “Ignatian Exercises” flowed into my mind.

How Teresa of Avila-like, eh?

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