Meeting Christ in Prayer
Jackie Buffon and Rosario Conde-Johanek
New 8-week sessions start in February and September
Those who have completed Meeting Christ in Prayer are welcome to join a monthly prayer session on the first Thursday of each month.
All Meetings via ZOOM during COVID
We welcome you to the profound spiritual journey that our patron saint, St. Ignatius Loyola, experienced and shared over 500 years ago in the form of his “Spiritual Exercises.”
Meeting Christ in Prayer is one of the various adaptations of the Spiritual Exercises. Equally valuable for beginners and experienced retreatants, we strongly recommend it before undertaking the one-on-one version of the Spiritual Exercises known as the 19th Annotation.
Meeting Christ in Prayer introduces participants to various ways of praying, helps them form regular habits of prayer, and provides them with an opportunity to meet Christ anew.
Participants take part in a retreat within their daily lives, during which they commit to 20 – 30 minutes of daily prayer and reflection exercises.
Throughout the retreat, you are supported with eight weekly small group meetings that include group prayer, guided meditation, faith sharing, and reflection; and an overview of prayer exercises that are practiced throughout the week.
We look forward to answering any questions you may have and, more importantly, to welcoming you to this community of prayer.
We have been privileged to pray with over 550 Meeting Christ in Prayer retreatants since its inception in our Parish in 2011. During the lockdown starting in March, retreatants continued their personal spiritual journey by incorporating weekly zoom meetings to replace the in-person gatherings. It created comfort and solace to a world turned upside down as they prayed to deepen their relationship with Christ through prayer.
Often the impact of Meeting Christ in Prayer reaches much further than the eight weeks of the retreat. Many retreatants report that in addition to a spiritual deepening, they incorporate into their lives more ministries and spiritual works as a result.
In the words of some of our retreatants:
“For me, Meeting Christ in Prayer has allowed me to be open to Christ’s presence in my life, and recognize His joy in my soul with constancy, even when my earthly mind or heart may feel in conflict with this state.”
“Meeting Christ in Prayer has created a stillness inside me that allows me to hear His whisper, and feel His embrace, which supports me to manifest without hesitation that which He has woven into the tapestry of life around me. “
“Even after several years of studying the Bible, I was able to uncover new layers to readings I had read several times. Meditating on these familiar readings also brought the scenes to life in a new and exciting way whenever I encountered them in a Mass or while praying a Rosary. “
“I feel that I am growing in faith as the adult that I now am.”
“The value of the Exercises and the meetings (which migrated to web conferences during lockdown) intensified a hundredfold as they provided a consoling refuge throughout a Lenten season tragically void of Mass and the sacraments. Many of us found solace in the weekly meetings during a unique time of widespread panic and despair. The Exercises really motivated me to pray often for the many who were afflicted by this disease.”