Ignatian Meditations

The Ignatian Meditations follow the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) which is the religious order of Pope Francis.

The meditations are open to everybody. You may attend as often as you wish. Some people can only manage an occasional visit and others try to attend every week. You are always welcome!

Ignatian spirituality is founded on the belief that God seeks a personal relationship with each individual. It also places great importance on getting to know Jesus more deeply. Through prayer and meditation, the relationships with God and Jesus are deepened and lead to a desire to love Jesus more intensely and follow in His footsteps. The meditations bring Bible texts and our daily lives closer together.

The meditations take place sitting in a circle in a totally quiet chapel. We often start with music. The texts are printed for everyone. The person giving the meditation reads the Bible text and every 4 or 5 minutes breaks the silence to provide an impulse to help prayer. We usually end with the same piece of music with which we started the meditation.

After the half hour meditation everyone is invited to share their thoughts and experiences over a cup of tea and biscuits. The sharing is also contemplative and enriches the experience of the meditation.

We are giving these meditations for the third year in English. The Stanislas team have been giving them in Dutch on Saturday mornings at 10:30 since 1995. Some members of the team have been involved from the beginning.

Last year 3 Jesuits from the Amsterdam community came to give a presentation and meditation once a month. Bart Beckers sj, a Jesuit living in Antwerp, also visited once a month to give a contemplative mass.

This year we will faithfully follow the 33 weeks of the Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life. We are very happy that Father Bart will still come every month to give a contemplative mass and we are also very happy that 2 of the Amsterdam Jesuits will visit on some of the Fridays to give the meditation. This ensures a variety of approach to Ignatian meditation.