The Ignatian Adventure in Oklahoma City

Kevin O'Brien, SJ and The Ignatian Adventure book cover

The Ignatian Adventure in Oklahoma City

On February 17, 2017, hundreds of faithful in Oklahoma participated in a spiritual enrichment day titled “The Graces of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.” The day was hosted by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral. Fr. Kevin O’Brien, SJ, led participants in a reflection on the “Grace of the Incarnation,” based on his popular, award-winning book The Ignatian Adventure, published by Loyola Press. The Roots of […]

Feeling the Joy with Jesus

Rebecca Ruiz

A few years ago, a friend gave me some prints of the Laughing Jesus painting. When I saw it, I immediately started laughing. I wondered what it was about this image that made me laugh. Part of it was that Jesus seemed to have such a joyful countenance that one could really imagine him laughing, and it looked like “contagious laughter”—the kind where it’s impossible to resist joining in. It also made me a tiny […]

Kevin O’Brien, SJ, on Adapting the Spiritual Exercises

dotMagis Editor

America magazine interviewed Kevin O’Brien, SJ, about his mission and ministry work at Georgetown University. The author of The Ignatian Adventure, O’Brien began a new role as the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA, this month. When asked about adapting the Spiritual Exercises for university audiences, O’Brien replied: Ignatius built adaptation into both the Spiritual Exercises and the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. This flexibility of approach stems from Ignatius’ […]

Kevin O’Brien, SJ, on Discernment in the Jesuit Tradition

dotMagis Editor

Kevin O’Brien, SJ, presented an hour-long webinar on “Discernment in the Jesuit Tradition” for Georgetown University Alumni Career Services. The information is valuable for anyone interested in learning about how to make decisions using Ignatian discernment. If you’re receiving this via e-mail, click through to watch the video Kevin O’Brien, SJ, on Discernment in the Jesuit Tradition.

How to Experience Eternity Today

dotMagis Editor

Kevin O’Brien, SJ, writes at On Faith that heaven can be experienced here on earth—and he outlines five ways for how that can happen. In #5, “Love Someone,” O’Brien explains: To be united with God is to be united with all whom God loves. Imagine a wheel with many spokes. The closer the spoke gets to the center of the wheel, the closer the spoke gets to the spokes next to it. To be drawn […]

What They’re Saying about Pope Francis

Jim Manney

Like you, I’ve been reading a lot of commentary about Pope Francis in the past week. I thought I’d pass along four pieces that seem especially enlightening. All four concern themselves with the question that I’m most interested in: What can we expect from a Jesuit pope? In “This Ignatian Franciscan Pope,” Tim Muldoon looks at the connection between Francis of Assisi and Ignatius Loyola. Ignatius’s order was an order of mission, with a special […]

The Contemplation on Divine Love

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The final contemplation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius is the Contemplation on Divine Love, or the Contemplation on the Love of God. It captures all of the movements we’ve been praying through during our retreat in daily life. In the video below, Kevin O’Brien, SJ, explains the exercise as contemplating God’s love, which is given to us so freely and generously. We are first asked to contemplate how God creates out of love, […]

Accompanying Jesus in His Passion and Death

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Kevin O’Brien, SJ, explains that the Third Week of the Spiritual Exercises is an extended meditation on the passion, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ. This week can be difficult, because we are accompanying our friend Jesus Christ whom we have gotten to know throughout the Exercises, through our days of prayer. We are accompanying our Lord in suffering and in death. But we are not to inflict amnesia on ourselves, because we know as […]

Kevin O’Brien, SJ, on the Two Standards

dotMagis Editor

A key meditation of the Spiritual Exercises is the meditation on the Two Standards. At this point in the Exercises we’ve reckoned with both our hopes and our failings; we’ve reckoned with our sin and also the redemptive grace, the mercy of God. And here we’re presented with a stark contrast—The Two Standards. Which will you choose? This video is part of An Ignatian Prayer Adventure, Week 5.

Kevin O’Brien, SJ, on the Call of Christ the King

dotMagis Editor

One of the central meditations of the Spiritual Exercises is the Call of Christ the King. Imagine a call from an earthly leader who has inspired us, and then imagine Christ calling us to join him in helping him to realize God’s kingdom on earth. Does that excite us or scare us? Does it make us hopeful? What does God’s dream for the world mean for us? The contemplation on the Call of Christ the […]