Have you completed the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and wish to deepen that experience?
The Magis Program
Greater Understanding, Love and Service
The Magis program offered by the Bridges Foundation provides diverse, experienced lecturers who share their insights and wisdom for people who wish to continue their spiritual journey. Seven sessions (offered monthly beginning in September) are designed to deepen your experience of the Spiritual Exercises.
Participants have the opportunity to explore the dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises and share their insights with others in a small group. You may participate in the Magis Program every year if you wish in order to take advantage of new perspectives from presenters that will be offered each year.
Here’s a video describing the Magis program:
The objectives of the program are four-fold:
1. Deepening the prayerful experiences of participants in the Ignatian Way.
2. Facilitating a sense of connection and community through a monthly gathering and small group sharing.
3. Enhancing the learning and understanding of the spiritual and psychological movements of the Spiritual Exercises.
4. Discerning, learning, and practicing to be prayer companions (for those called to be companions). Click here to read more about that program
Suggested text for all participants: DRAW ME into YOUR FRIENDSHIP by David Fleming, S.J.
Cost: Contribute whatever amount you can afford. The cost to the Bridges Foundation per participant is approximately $350.00. One person’s contribution helps another and no one is turned away for financial reasons. We ask you to prayerfully consider what you can afford to pay. A payment schedule can be arranged. Everyone must pay the $35 non-refundable application fee, which is 10 percent of the total cost of the program and will be put toward your “Promise to Pay” amount.
Checks can be mailed to: Bridges Foundation, 331 N. New Ballas Box 410275, St. Louis, MO 63141-9998
To discuss your ability to pay and payment options, please email executive director Steve Givens: executive.director@bridgesfoundation.org
For a PDF version of the Magis brochure, click here: Magis Brochure – 2024-2025
Program Requirements: Completion of the Spiritual Exercises, including the 18th, 19th, or 20th Annotation
Dates and Topics
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Speaker: Fr. Paul Hoesing
The Purpose of the Spiritual Exercises:
Annotations
Principle and Foundation
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Speaker: Jeff Harrison, SJ
Root Sin and Root Grace
Speaker: Jeff Schulenberg
Social and Systemic Sin
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Speaker: Paul Coutinho
Jesus’ Invitation (Call of the King)
Consolation, Desolation, and the Examen
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Speaker: Dan Daly, S.J.
Following Jesus using Imaginative Prayer
Two Standards
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Speaker: Pam Mason
Discernment of Spirits Week 1
Discernment of Spirits Week 2
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Speaker: Marian Love
Eucharist: Jesus’ Gift of Self
Living the Paschal Mystery
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Speaker: Virginia Herbers
Contemplating Divine Love
Ignatian Spirituality in the Market Place
Descriptions of Small Groups:
All small groups have a minimum of 5 and maximum of 12.
- Reimagining the Ignatian Examen
How is your practice of the Examen? Is it a beloved part of your day? A struggle to include in your prayer routine? A tried and true practice? Needing a refresh? We will explore new ways to approach the Examen using a text, an online app, journaling, and sharing to bolster our practice of this time-honored prayer. Required text: Reimagining the Ignation Examen by Mark E. Thibodeaux SJ
Facilitated by Martha Broyles and Laurie Hannigan
- Extracting Wisdom from the Parables of Jesus
In the Spiritual Exercises there was an emphasis placed on using our imagination and inserting ourselves into key moments in the Gospels. In this small group we will insert ourselves into the parables of Jesus to pull out the meaning of each parable for us in today’s world. This small group will focus on a few dozen parables using Week 2 of the Spiritual Exercises in a very discussion-oriented approach. Required text: Being There: The Parables of Jesus in a Different Voice by Fr. William O’Malley, SJ
Facilitated by Dan Coughlin
- Magis Speaker Forum
This new offering will be an open, facilitated discussion group focused on unpacking, asking questions and sharing insights from the presentations given that morning during the large group session. The day’s featured presenters will be invited to join in the conversation.
Facilitated by Jill Carnaghi and Rick Lageson
- Women as Integral Formators of St. Ignatius
Women played a pivotal role in the life and spirituality of St. Ignatius. The required text opens the riches of the Spiritual Exercises to women – and to men who love and care about women. At each gathering, the group will discuss, reflect, and share insights gained from one of the book’s 7 chapters. Required text: Why Do You Trouble This Woman? Women and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola by Anne Arombe, SSS.
Co-facilitated by Mary White and Vicki Harpring
- Prayer Companion Training
Entry into this group requires admission into the Prayer Companion Training Program and is preparation for leading others through the Spiritual Exercises. Specific requirements: a thorough knowledge and love of the Spiritual Exercises, full participation in the Magis program, evidence of a discerned call, obvious intention for helping individuals grow in their relationship with God using the Spiritual Exercises, and willingness to be a listener and to practice growing in these gifts with others in this group. Open to approved participants only. Minimum of 4, maximum of 8 participants.
Co-Facilitated by Marian Love and Steve Givens.
6. Dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises
The main focus of this group is an in-depth study of the psychological/spiritual dynamics and graces of the Exercises. Participants will review their own experience of the Exercises and gain increased self-awareness and understanding of how the movements in each Week of the Exercises take place in their personal spiritual journey, leading to a deeper relationship with God. Participation in this group is required for all those who wish to enter the Prayer Companion Training Program. Potential Prayer Companions are accepted before others, but this group is open to all. Required text: Draw Me into Your Friendship by David Fleming, SJ
Facilitated in person by David Harpring, Linda Leib, and David Dickey
Facilitated online 2nd Wednesdays 7-8:30 p.m. CST by Hsin-hsin Huang, PhD
- The Call to Discernment
We will go through the book, with attention to discernment. Please bring in a story each month of how the particular topic in the SE has worked in your lives.
Required text: The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola by Dean Brackley, SJ.
Facilitated online 2nd Tuesdays 7-8:00 p.m. CST by Sharon Tan, PhD
- Prayer Companions Only – Peer Supervision/Consultation
The purpose of this group is to assist prayer companions in their spiritual growth and enhance their skills in accompaniment. It focuses on the interior movements/counter movements of a prayer companion when interacting with a retreatant. It attends to God’s presence for the retreatant and the PC and the interior reactions to God’s presence, consolation, resistance, struggle, desires, repression, and denial. Consultation on questions of interest will also be addressed. Requirement of second year Prayer Companions. Maximum 8 participants. Required text: The Discerning Heart: Exploring the Christian Path by Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon Au (Paulist Press, 2006).
Facilitated by Sister Thomas More Daly, OSU
The Magis Program will be offered at:
DeSmet Jesuit High School
233 N New Ballas Rd, St. Louis, MO 63141
If you have any questions, please contact: Magis Program Coordinator:
Vicki Harpring at 314-609-9304, or vharpring@yahoo.com