‘Channelling the inner fire’
Brendan McManus SJ and Christine Halloran have recently finished delivering a 6-week course in the Jesuit Centre, Belfast, called ‘Channelling the Inner Fire: An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality’. Christine is a spiritual director and pastoral volunteer at Gardiner Street Parish in Dublin, and Brendan is one of the Jesuit team in Belfast. They first presented the course via Zoom as part of the Ignatius500 year.
Now they have brought it ‘in person’ to Belfast. The course will be run again in the New Year.
Based on Brendan’s book Channelling the Inner Fire, it synthesizes Ignatian spirituality into 15 concrete points. Over the 6-week course participants discover God communicating, in a dynamic relationship that is alive and working in everyday life.
“It’s like a retreat during which you learn the Examen of Consciousness and other skills of prayer and quietness,” Brendan explains, adding: “Each session begins with a guided meditation leading from “headspace-to-heartspace. Small group sharing helps people verbalise their experience in a safe listening space and groups help each other to grow and integrate the Ignatian techniques. Some report that it brings awareness of what Ignatius called the ‘inner movements’ especially in making better decisions.”