What
do we offer?
Communal Discernment, formation and training, retreats for groups and couples.
Activities tailored to requests from groups
Esdac brings Ignatian Spirituality to the service of groups. It offers in various ways, a process of discernment inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius to associations, communities, families, couples and groups concerned with:
- Learning to better communicate with each other, so that everyone is listened to and has the courage to speak – to become one body and grow in communion….
- Discerning the Lord’s call to them today, by listening to each member and to the group as a whole.
- Working together and making decisions in common.
- Seeing how these decisions can then be implemented.
ESDAC offers ‘tailor-made’ activities designed to meet the needs of each group, their available dates and in the place which suits them. We are normally two when we facilitate groups, or more for larger groups.
Working together:
• We clarify the desired objective, taking into consideration both the needs of the group and their request
• We fix a timescale, dates, and a place
Then:
• Our team prepares the programme
• During the process, and based on the Word of God, we offer times for personal prayer and reflection, sharing in small groups and facilitate plenary discussions
• We help the group reflect back over its history and formulate its dreams for the future
• We help them with ‘the discernment of spirits’, the Spirit of kindness and mercy and the spirit of lies and destruction
• In this way we accompany the group in a process of discernment. Depending on their request we also help them choose the practical means to plan and implement actions and to evaluate them.
ESDAC offers ‘tailor-made’ activities designed to meet the needs of each group, their available dates and in the place which suits them. We are normally two when we facilitate groups, or more for larger groups.
Working together:
• We clarify the desired objective, taking into consideration both the needs of the group and their request
• We fix a timescale, dates, and a place
Then:
• Our team prepares the programme
• During the process, and based on the Word of God, we offer times for personal prayer and reflection, sharing in small groups and facilitate plenary discussions
• We help the group reflect back over its history and formulate its dreams for the future
• We help them with ‘the discernment of spirits’, the Spirit of kindness and mercy and the spirit of lies and destruction
• In this way we accompany the group in a process of discernment. Depending on their request we also help them choose the practical means to plan and implement actions and to evaluate them.
Many religious, priests and consecrated people are used to making an annual retreat. Why not make this a retreat from time to time, for your community, Congregation, or Ministry team?
World Assembly of the CLC in Argentina
A couple discerning in view of the diaconate
A Congregational Leadership Team
Retreats proposed by Esdac
In certain countries, in order to respond to the need of communion in the Church, Esdac offers retreats for couples and groups. To do this you have to take a time of encounter with oneself, with others, with God.
Esdac offers:
• Weekends for couples and families with children. (Jonah weekends)
• Weekends for couples, ‘discovering our call as a couple’.
• Weeks of holidays & prayer in the mountains, for everyone, young and old, families and people on their own, lay or religious. (Jonah in the Mountains, in the Alps)
• Times to ‘review the past year’. (at La Pairelle Retreat Centre, Belgium)
• Class retreats for young people, when requested by schools.
Esdac Training Sessions
For those who would like to become Esdac facilitators, those who would like to gain a better understanding of spiritual conversation or for all kinds of facilitators who want to help their groups in group discernment, Esdac organises regular training sessions in different languages and countries.
A module on spiritual conversation, followed by a module on community discernment.
A full week of training.
The Ignatian methodology offers participants the opportunity to ‘learn by doing’, experiencing themselves what they would like others to experience. It places emphasis on the interior life, prayer, sharing, looking at concrete examples as well as more theoretical inputs which include material drawn from the social sciences.
General requirements for admission
• To have participated in a session organised by Esdac (desirable)
• To have an experience of group facilitation
• To be ready to pray using the Scriptures and one’s personal experience of life
• To be prepared to listen and share in depth
• To be willing to facilitate in both religious and more secular contexts
• To send a short message of introduction giving the reasons for your application
The Ignatian methodology offers participants the opportunity to ‘learn by doing’, experiencing themselves what they would like others to experience. It places emphasis on the interior life, prayer, sharing, looking at concrete examples as well as more theoretical inputs which include material drawn from the social sciences.
General requirements for admission
• To have participated in a session organised by Esdac (desirable)
• To have an experience of group facilitation
• To be ready to pray using the Scriptures and one’s personal experience of life
• To be prepared to listen and share in depth
• To be willing to facilitate in both religious and more secular contexts
• To send a short message of introduction giving the reasons for your application
