Please note this event has been cancelled

Please join us for a retreat with the writers of “Finding God in the Mess: Meditations for Mindful Living” (Loyola Press, 2020), Jim Deeds and Brendan McManus SJ of Northern Ireland.

Our busy modern lives distract us and cause us stress. Technology, media, jobs, family, appointments, hobbies—it can all feel like a mess. How do we carve out time for mindful contemplation and prayer? How can we make our prayer time mindful and fruitful and perhaps even restorative?

The spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola teaches us that God holds us close, loves us, and desires the best for us at all times. This truth is a solid foundation upon which we can build our lives, find an anchor amid life’s storms, and bring us through our darkest hours. Finding God in the Mess is the perfect tool to help us use Ignatian spirituality to learn to pause, take time to be with God, contemplate our lives, and recognize God’s presence in all of it, especially the hard times.

Schedule:

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Guided Retreat
Celebration of the Eucharist: 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Book Signing and Musical Performance by Jim & Fr. Brendan: 1:00 – 2:00 PM

Cost: $50; fee includes a copy of the book “Finding God in the Mess: Meditations For Mindful Living”

About the Retreat Leaders:

Fr. Brendan McManus is an Irish Jesuit priest. Raised on a farm in Lisnaskea, Northern Ireland, he studied psychology and I.T. at university. While working as an Interface Designer for Hewlett Packard, his dissatisfaction with the “yuppie” lifestyle led him to enter the Jesuits in Dublin.

As a priest he has worked with the Gardiner Street Gospel Choir in Dublin, as editor of the ‘Irish Jesuit News’, and served as a school chaplain and photographer in Galway. His previous book, ‘Redemption Road: Grieving on the Camino’, deals with healing and recovery in the aftermath of his brother’s death by suicide. He currently works in the area of spirituality and spiritual accompaniment in Belfast.

Jim Deeds is a husband, father, writer, and broadcaster who works in pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Belfast. His previous books include Surfing Life’s Waves (2015), Gym For the Soul (2018), and Deeper Into the Mess (2019). You can find out more about Jim and his work on Facebook and Twitter.