by Meghan Ascher
Special to The Leaven
LEAWOOD — The Ignatian Spirituality Center of Kansas City (ISC) will join hands with Church of the Nativity’s Christian Formation Office here to host a three-day guided Lenten retreat: “Their Eyes Were Opened: Encountering Christ in Daily Life.”
“The inspiration for this offering was twofold,” said Michael Sanem, minister of evangelization at Nativity and one of three presenters for the retreat. “One, the Eucharistic Revival and the desire to create a sacred space for people to encounter Christ in prayer. The second is to use Ignatian contemplation to connect the Christ we encounter in the Eucharist with the Christ we encounter in the Scriptures, and ultimately, the Christ we encounter in our daily lives,”
In addition to Sanem, Lori Stevens and Mona Snider will each present and guide one day of the retreat. Each has considerable training and experience in spiritual accompaniment, having both received their certification in spiritual direction from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Stevens serves as a teacher and board member at ISC. Snider, who has been accompanying people since 2007, is an instructor for prayer guides at ISC.
The Ignatian Spirituality Center of KC has over 40 trained Ignatian prayer guides to help accompany and assist those in the Kansas City Metropolitan area who wish to explore and deepen their relationship with God in Jesus Christ basing their ministry on St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises.
The retreat is free and open to anyone who would like to participate, not just Nativity parishioners.
“We’ll have a reflective retreat talk, time for personal prayer and time for spiritual conversation,” said Sanem. “We hope it will be a nice rest stop for three Tuesday evenings, an opportunity to slow down and go a bit deeper in our prayer life for Lent.”
“I think this offering will give people a concrete way to encounter Christ in their daily life,” he continued. “I hope that, like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, people will be invited into a more committed and intimate relationship with Christ — one that they can turn to each and every day, no matter what they are going through.
“For me, Ignatian spirituality was the catalyst for lifelong discipleship, which is really a lifelong relationship with Christ encountered in prayer and in daily life.”
The dates for the retreat are Feb. 20, Feb. 27, and March 5 from 6-7:30 p.m. The event will be held at Church of the Nativity, located at 3800 W. 119th.
More information and registration can be found on ISC’s website at: ignatiancenterkc.org/events/eyes-open.
