Contemplations on Service & Spirituality
Can We Be More Like Doña Magdalena?
Reflecting on the stories that formed Ignatius, I found myself wondering how there could only have been two books in all of Loyola castle. The availability of nothing to read but The Life of Christ and The Lives of the Saints is the core of the conversion story we tell, yet it seems so improbable. Ignatius was recuperating in the wealthy home where he had learned to read; hadn’t he also cultivated his fondness for chivalric tales and courtly romances there?
Prayerful Lenten Resources 2024
“Through the desert God leads us to freedom” is the theme of Pope Francis’s 2024 Lenten Message. Beginning in the Book of Exodus, Pope Francis said that when God reveals God’s self, the message is one of freedom: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex 20:2). Pope Francis asks us to consider those things that we cling to that perhaps need to be left behind so we can grow in the freedom of God’s love.
Service Never Stops: Talking Ignatian Volunteers with Mary McGinnity
Ignatian Volunteer Corps President and CEO Mary McGinnity was featured on the new episode of the AMDG Podcast presented by the Jesuits of Canada and the United States.
IVC Vision & Planning Winter Updates
The IVC Vision and Planning process has been active since its launch in early October 2023. With one of the goals of the process being to “gain meaningful insights on experiences and views”, three of four initiatives have either been completed or are underway as 2024 begins.
Meet IVC Albany Spiritual Reflector Eileen Shirey
Eileen Shirey serves the IVC Albany community as a Spiritual Reflector. Eileen was part of the team that provided the firm foundation that led to the approval of IVC Albany as a region in 2019. Since then, Eileen serves as a Spiritual Reflector to plan the monthly spiritual program for the IVC Albany community. Eileen and her husband Dick live in Watervliet and are parishioners at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Albany.
Meet an Imagine IVC Visioning Session Facilitator – Elise Gower
One of the most important facets of the Imagine IVC process is creating a space for our community members to share their honest opinions with each other. To do so, we made sure that our Visioning Process facilitators were experts in not only fostering dialogue and leading discussions but also well versed in Ignatian Spirituality as well.
Shabbat Shalom
Last Friday at sundown, our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world lit Shabbat candles with no idea of the horrors that were about to unfold with the Hamas attacks on Israel. Tonight, those candles are being lit by the shaking hands, broken hearts, and agonized spirits of a people at war.
Imagine IVC
After almost two years of planning and preparation today, IVC is proud to launch
‘Imagine IVC,’ IVC’s formal Vision and Planning Process. We invite you to join us in co-creating a vision and plan for the future of IVC.
Alphabet Soup: IVC and the UAPs
Needs exceed resources. That’s a fact of life. On a personal level, there’s never time enough to pursue every worthy activity, nor money enough to support every deserving charity. So, how do we decide?