The Ignatian Center: Coming Soon!

It’s time for an update on a significant effort I am spearheading.

I’m starting an organization dedicated to Ignatian spirituality, The Ignatian Center. The Ignatian Center will offer a full range of Ignatian offerings (mostly online) from introductory Ignatian events to the Exercises, experiences for those who have prayed the Exercises and want to continue their journey, and Ignatian training and ongoing Ignatian learning. The overall goal is to share the goodness that we’ve experienced with more people! I want more people to be able to pray the Exercises and continue on in a longer Ignatian journey. I also want to see more directors trained and offering the Exercises. Oh, and I would love to have a strong and active support community for those of us on this journey!

We are currently hard at work building the infrastructure for The Ignatian Center and hope to officially launch it this coming spring. We will start by rolling many of my offerings into this effort, but we hope it becomes a place where other Ignatian directors can offer their gifts and be a place with listings of Ignatian spiritual directors and a list of directors offering the Exercises in the coming year.

If you want to know more about this effort I will be setting up some informational Zoom meetings in the upcoming months where I can share the vision in more detail and answer questions. If you are interested in joining one of these informational meetings just reply to this email and let me know.

In the meantime as we build The Ignatian Center, here are some ways you could join us in this effort:

1. Pray! This won’t be an easy effort. Please pray for me and for The Ignatian Center as you remember.

2. Fundraising! We will have some significant startup costs this year as we launch this effort. We have two significant commitments from donors already, which gives us confidence to move forward, but we still have a long way to go. So if you want to join us in supporting this effort, we would love to have your support. Additionally, if you know someone who has found a lot of life by praying the Exercises and might want to contribute to this effort please connect them with me. Online donations can be made at this link and then choose The Ignatian Center under funds. If you want to contribute by check or bank transfer, please contact me for details.

3. Contribute your time and talents! What gifts or skills would you like to use to help make this effort a reality? If there is something you would like to offer, please reach out! Here are a few specific ways you could participate. This is not an exhaustive list!

1. Someone to create a logo, promotional templates, and other design needs for this project

2. Someone to design and/or produce the e-newsletter for this effort

3. Someone to help coordinate fundraising efforts

4. Some people to contribute some written or video resources for the website resource page

5. When we are ready to launch, someone to hire to handle ongoing administrative tasks for this effort. 

I’ll be sharing more as we move forward. As always, I’m glad to hear your thoughts and ideas and look forward to what God will do!

© Dale Gish 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Where is my hope?

Today I'm feeling even more clarity that the best thing I can do for God and for our world is to lean into my work as an Ignatian spiritual director.

My hope is in God's love, embodied in Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit!

As I sometimes tell my directees, God's love is the most powerful thing in the world. That’s where I will put my trust.

© Dale Gish 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Reservoir 3: A Prayer of Grief and Hope

Reservoir 3

You meet me at your reservoir

Ocean of love

Deep within you

Filling you, overflowing you

Where it flows

New life springs up

Light shines forth

Life spreads with every touch

Alas the turning

Despise the reservoir

Lies, hate, cruel rejection

Thrown back upon you

Absorbing it all

Suffer thorns and barbs

Deep enough to puncture

Your reservoir

All these wounds

Lifeblood draining

And so you pour out

All your love

Until it is finished

Your body broken

Your reservoir empty

Hardened

A cold tomb they lay you in

Waiting

© Dale Gish 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Reservoir 2: A Prayer of Grief and Hope

Reservoir 2

You meet me at the reservoir,

Once again together

Overlooking the pain. 

So much held back.

We behold the sources

The tributaries that fill it

Which one will we navigate,

Held in your love?

Diving deep into troubled waters.

With you

Needing you

Memories wash over me

Feelings, fears, and frames

Looking together,

Seeing each wound

You are here beside me

But also there

Revealed in every frame

You

Affected

Moved to sorrow

Compassion

There with me in it all

You speak

And

Mighty waters flow

Rushing away

Down and to the right

Draining away sorrows

Revealing solid land before us

Drying out

And you

gently planting seeds

That in love will grow

And fill this reservoir within me

© Dale Gish 2023. All Rights Reserved.

Reservoir: A Prayer of Grief and Hope

Reservoir

River of pain

Dammed up, contained, stored

What can I do about this reservoir?

Nothing 

And yet, that is where you meet me

You say, “I forgive you.”

And offer healing

I see you have already started

Irrigating desserts brings the water levels down

So much life you give with your love

You give redemption

And I know your embrace

With me always

So I will say yes

And receive the fullness

Of all you are giving to me

© Dale Gish 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Treasure All This: An Ignatian Christmas Prayer

Here is a Christmas prayer I wrote for the Spiritual Exercises rewrite I am working on.
It's entitled: Treasure All This

Jesus, you have taken this stable of my heart, my mind, my imagination,
Full of stubble and dust, and filled it with joy and wonder.

Mary and Joseph arrive, exhausted from their journey
In the throes of childbirth.
You are born a helpless, fragile, little baby
Needing so much, but offering even more.
When I hold you, I feel how much love flows through you
And into me, and out of me, towards you.

I get to proclaim good news with the angels,
Be amazed with the shepherds and run to adore you,
Journey with the Magi and bring my gifts to you.
In whatever way I come to you, you welcome me.
And so, I welcome you into this world, into my life.
I want to know you, love you, serve you.

Like Mary I treasure all this in my heart
My heart, so full of you.

Your Gaze

This prayer/poem is inspired by the Ignatian practice of beginning each prayer time by receiving God’s loving gaze. For God is always looking upon you with a gaze of love. -Ignatius of Loyola

Your Gaze

Lord, you look upon me with a gaze of love

Consistent, unwavering

Constantly new

Whether I return the look or hide my face

Awake or asleep

Aware or unaware

Anywhere and everywhere

You invite me to meet your gaze

Look into your eyes

So you can fill my heart with love

Till it becomes too much for me

And I turn my eyes away 

But you patiently wait till I glance your way again

So you can offer me just a little bit more

Your loving gaze takes many forms

Sometimes I sense your joy

Other times I’m struck by your delight

Or catch you showing favor

And notice when you revel

So each day I will open my eyes

Let your smile shine upon me

Warmed by your love

Surrounded with your care

Upheld with your compassion

Drawn deep into the heart of your love

The Eyes Of Love -Anne-Marie Forest 2014

© Dale Gish 2020. All Rights Reserved.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Prayer: Cross So Costly, Cross Victorious

Lord Jesus

The way of the cross is so costly

we can barely face it

Shame, sorrow, suffering

Your life poured out

You the Passover lamb sacrificed.

Lord, we shudder at this way you have chosen

And yet we acknowledge our great need

We are so broken, so frail, so surrounded by sin

That we cannot stand

We cannot save ourselves

We are in desperate need

We need a savior

We need you

And in our time of greatest need

Your love came to us

Your love gave yourself

Your love emptied itself

Losing everything

And in this overwhelming defeat 

You claimed victory

You were victorious

You accomplished salvation

And so we honor you

And so we give ourselves to you

And so we find our life in you

Lord Jesus Christ, savior of the world

We come to worship you

Amen and amen

Lorenzo Monaco -Crucifixion

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© Dale Gish 2021. All Rights Reserved.

To The Table: A Prayer/Poem

To The Table

Jesus, you eagerly long 

To spend this time

With your friends.

To eat this meal, wash these feet

Share body, blood, communing

No matter the coming betrayal

Or denial, or scattering

Your longing is for your friends

The ones that you choose

Frail, broken, but fully beloved

They all go to the table

But I hang back

I’m not sure I am welcomed

One such as me, come so late

Joining this moment through feeble imagination

But you turn to me with that welcoming smile

“Come sit beside me. 

I’ve eagerly longed for this too

Here, eat this bread

Drink this cup

Here, with me 

and in the coming sorrow

I join you to me by this.”

“Lay your head upon my chest

With me, all is well

The dark night comes

But till then

Be together 

Stay close and laugh with me

There is so much more of my love to share

You are welcome

Always welcome

Here 

With me”

The Last Supper by John August Swanson

© Dale Gish 2021. All Rights Reserved.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

The Grace of Palm Sunday

Egyptian Coptic painting, artist unknown

Over the years, I’ve had a profound ambivalence to the Palm Sunday Story. On one hand, it is so profoundly significant that Jesus seems to go out of his way to signal that his power is not power as commonly wielded in this world (Oh that we, the church, would come to our senses!) On the other hand, these crowds that shout “Hosanna” will soon be shouting “Crucify Him.” Even his disciples will soon betray, let down, and deny him. 

If we are honest, we acknowledge that we would have been no different. We would have betrayed, denied, and abandoned him also. Additionally, we confess that we are often double-minded, half or hard-hearted, that we are sinners, frail, so often miss the mark. How is it that we can rejoice and shout “Hosanna” without being confronted with ourselves, hypocrites that we are?

This year the Lord has opened my eyes in a new way to see the grace of Palm Sunday. Jesus sees the crowds that come out to welcome him. He sees them and loves them and knows them. He knows how shallow their adulation is. He sees knows that they will soon fall away. He sees how the evil one is at work sifting them, distracting them, tempting them. And yet he loves them and receives them. He receives their worship. Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Holy and Anointed One, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and so on and so forth.  It is only right that our praise and worship be directed to him.

Here is the grace: Jesus receives us; Jesus receives our worship, no matter that we are double-minded, no matter how meager and half-hearted it is. Our praise and worship cannot stand on its own. On its own, it comes to nothing. But Jesus welcomes it, receives it, and that is grace. And in this grace, we are invited to give ourselves more and more, in joy, in love, because his desire is for his people.

This grace, revealed to us on Palm Sunday, is the same grace that makes our life in him possible. This same grace welcomes us to the table each week, welcomes us into prayer each day, welcomes us to live our life in him, each moment, each minute an opportunity for communion.

So let us rejoice, come as we are, join the parade. We are welcomed; we are received; we are loved. That is grace. That is the grace of Palm Sunday. This is the grace of our life.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.