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Thanksgiving may not be celebrated as a holiday all around the world, but giving thanks is an enriching element of all our lives. When we know ourselves as people who have received undeserved gifts, we are well poised to pray. We who work with Sacred Space are fortunate to find every day bringing messages of appreciation and gratitude. We are glad to be able to make them available to you on our Feedback pages and on other pages on the site - it lifts the heart to read them.
To all who pray with Sacred Space,
thank you
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and Happy Thanksgiving,
Piaras Jackson SJ
Editor, Sacred Space
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Sacred Space in Advent |
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We are preparing our Advent webpage at the moment. You can wait to use our Advent retreat when it comes online or you can buy the Sacred Space for Advent and the Christmas Season 2008-2009.
The book  is a pocket-sized (88-page) edition of the popular book with prayer for each day from 30 November 2008 to 4 January 2009. Use the 'Look inside' feature to preview the text after clicking on the image.
Our 'Book' page has more information about the other editions that are avaialble now, including the 2009 prayer book and smaller Lent 2009 book.
You can order the book from your local bookseller or online from the publishers:
or from:
http://www.sacredspace.ie/book |
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MarketPlace |
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M arket Place' originates from the idea of Jesus discussing people's concerns with them where he met them. Sacred Space tried out a new approach to the usual 'Something to think and pray about' at the end of September. A correspondent had asked about commenting on the financial crisis. We did. And, when we offered the opportunity to respond to the reflection, so did you!
http://www.sacredspace.ie/support
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Survey
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A ugust saw a notice appear on Sacred Space inviting people to participate in a survey.
We are glad that so many were willing to help us out. We called it an Autmn survey, but it looks like being a little more of an Advent variety. We will be intouch with those who offered their emails, asking them to use an alternative Daily Prayer presentation. We will ask them to fill in a questionnaire when they have used it a few times. Their reactions will help us to offer the new design to the thousands who use the site everyday.
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Thanks for your support |
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M any of the people who comment on praying during the finacial crisis note how they are brought back to a realisation of what is really important. As the global economic climate constrains each of us, we are especially grateful to all who have, nonetheless, supported Sacred Space with financial donations or otherwise.
As we often do, we encourage you to see that your friends and your local church sites have links to Sacred Space. You will find ideas about how you might support Sacred Space on our Support page.
http://www.sacredspace.ie/support
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Welcome |
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The staff of the Sacred Space office has doubled! Patrick Muldoon joined the Sacred Space team in October. In his role of Administrator, he will be working closely with the Editor to develop the the organisational structure of the site. His appointment follows the establishment of Sacred Space as an apostolate of the Irish Jesuits. Until July 2008 it was one of the many activities of the Jesuit Communication Centre. The new office is just next door to the JCC's main office on Dublin's Lower Leeson Street, a Georgian Street that runs from Saint Stephen's Green to the Grand Canal. Patrick has spent the last month becoming familiar with the many aspects of the site.
Among the ways in which the Jesuit Communication Centre continues its engagement with Sacred Space is through the work of its web-developer, John McDermott, and designer, John White. |
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Book review: Meditation and contemplation |
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simple ‘how to' book by this recently prolific Ignatian scholar and teacher. The author has one purpose: to present in a clear and usable way two foundational Ignatian methods for prayer with Scripture - meditation and contemplation. Gallagher's thesis in this short book is that prayer "comes alive when presented through experience". He consistently illustrates Ignatius of Loyola's teaching on prayer through reporting the actual experience of some of his own spiritual directees.
Gallagher follows Ignatius' teaching as given in the Spiritual Exercises. He begins by stressing Ignatius' conviction that when we come to pray we need to get in touch with what we wish and desire since this is really our quest for God. He teaches the reader the basics of Ignatian meditation - ‘praying with memory, understanding and will' and contemplation - "a loving imaginative process by which we enter God's Word and hear that Word as spoken to us today". Gallagher tackles the often asked question, how do I know that using the Ignatian contemplative method is not just an imaginative ego trip? He recounts with absolute clarity Ignatius' advice on immediate preparation for a prayer session and on how to end the session.
Gallagher stresses that Ignatius involves the total person in prayer not forgetting the body! Of crucial importance too is accompaniment in prayer - "it helps to sustain a prayer life", Gallagher writes. We can always judge real prayer by its fruits - "prayer goes over into the day".
The endnotes to this deceptively simply book are helpful and show Gallagher's Ignatian erudition.
Review by Brendan Comerford SJ
Timothy M. Gallagher, OMV. Meditation and contemplation – an Ignatian guide to praying with scripture. Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, 2008. ISBN: 0824524888 |
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Book review: Dawn without darkness |
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This book offers its readers an attractive and fruitful convergence between personal and biblical horizons. Helen Gallivan begins with an eloquent account of the birth of her daughter just before Christmas. She links this experience with the larger journey of Advent and with a meditation on the rebirth promised by the prophet Ezechiel in his celebrated image of the dry bones finding life. The book ends with another autobiographical chapter on the death of her mother after a protracted illness. But these sombre pages find larger perspective through the Gospel figure of Simon of Cyrene, carrying the cross with or for Jesus. It was a burden that nobody would ever seek but which offered, surprisingly, a life-transforming vision. In this light Helen Gallivan too came to see her mother's death, in spite of all the pain, as entering a "dawn without darkness" (hence the title of the book).
The other seven chapters of this book invite the reader to visit various moments of life in companionship with famous Biblical stories. Thus the experience of being in a desert finds deeper meaning through the parallel events of Abraham, Moses and Christ. Other biblical figures include Jonah, Hannah, Jacob, David and Job. In each case Helen Gallivan writes with down to earth psychological and spiritual sensitivity, seeking to connect these biblical paradigms with our everyday struggles. She carries her biblical scholarship lightly, making the ancient texts real as sources of reflection. She also enlivens her own text with the insights of other authors, ranging from Meister Eckhart to Merton, from the poetry of Rilke to that of Mary Oliver. Throughout these pages the author invites us to an honesty about our shadows and battle-zones: "if we are to mend something that is broken, we must first be able to look at the break". But the main hope of this book is to suggest prayerful bridges between our sometimes painful adventures and the work of God as revealed in scripture.
"Only connect" was the epitaph that E. M. Forster gave to one of his novels. This book will help many people to make connections between their experiences, the biblical narrative, and the call of God in their lives.
Review by Michael Paul Gallagher SJ
Publisher (Veritas) Amazon
Helen Gallivan, Dawn without darkness: biblical companions for a modern journey. Veritas, Dublin, 2007. ISBN: 1847300537
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Listening to Sacred Space |
Listeners to Sirius Radio's Catholic Channel may hear an interview with Piaras Jackson SJ, Editor of Sacred Space, on Thursday 4 December 2008 when Greg and Jennifer Willits, presenters of The Catholics Next Door call Dublin to find out more about Sacred Space, where 697 people prayed each hour in the last month.
- You may be interested to note that we hope to include audio in our Advent pages over the next few weeks. Our audio pages have not been active of late as we are working on developing the system that presents them.
- Over 31,000 people have listened to the Sacred Heart Novena since it went online in May. You can read some of their appreciation here.
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