This past weekend, I had the blessing to give a couple of talks to a gathering of Catechists in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The event took place at a parish which is getting ready to celebrate it’s 225th anniversary. The church, dedicated to St. Ignatius, was founded in 1792, and it’s one that, despite having lived in Maryland for nearly thirty years, I had never visited. The parish has done a beautiful job at keeping the building in tip top shape, and although they have since moved into a much larger church, right next store and built to accommodate their very large congregation, the old church still gets used regularly. That’s good to see, since it’s the oldest church still being used in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
I was asked to talk on resources for children with Special Needs, and another on the Daily Examen. Both topics are near and dear to my heart, but I’m grateful any time I can speak about something drawn from Ignatian Spirituality. The fact that I was able to teach the Examen to a group of elementary school children, and get them to embrace an attitude of gratitude which is so evident in this prayer from St. Ignatius, was very intriguing to my audience. Can children really pray that deeply, on everyday events from their life? The answer, I assured them, was a resounding “yes.” I gave my listeners a couple of tools to take back to their own parishes, to try out in their classrooms. I hope they give this simple prayer some exposure to their students. It can be a life-changer. I know it was for me and the countless people I’ve taught it to. Click on the link above. Maybe it’s just the thing you’ve been looking for to deepen your own relationship with God.
