The Online Ministries Year of Faith Guide
The Role of Creighton's Online Ministries
The role that Creighton's Online Ministries can play in this Year of Faith celebrated world-wide, is to focus our resources this year on our faith development as relationship. We develop all relationships through communication and time together - through a mutual exchange, which leads to deeper understanding, greater affection, love, and that growing desire to be with and like the one we love. Ignatian Spirituality can be a blessed way to grow in our relationship with a God who loves us.
So, our many resources here can support the journey we will make in our "life of communion with God" this year. Creighton's Online Ministries can also be a source of a variety resources for our reflection upon Vatican II and many other Year of Faith helps.
Faith Sharing during the Year of Faith
Because of the popularity of the sharing during the Online Retreat, we are offering a faith sharing site during the Year of Faith. Our faith is given to us as a gift. And it is given not only for us, but for us to share with others. By sharing our faith, someone might be strengthened and supported in their faith journey and we will be participating in the evangelization that is central to this special year.
The Daily Reflections
Using the Daily Reflections site can be a marvelous, daily exercise during the Year of Faith. Even if we already use it every day, we can use it in a special way this year to more consciously ask for the grace to grow in our grateful relationship with our God this year.
Student Daily Reflections
Our Student Daily Reflections are written by Creighton students. Reading how our students reflect upon their faith can be a great support for us all. Their faith is clear and
refreshing.
A Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer
Our Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer can be a powerful resource during the Year of Faith. Not only does the site offer a simple summary of what is going on in the readings of the week, but it offers a simple guide for staying focused in our faith journey that week. We can't get more time, but we can all get more focused.
A Large Collection of Audio Retreats
One great way to make a Year of Faith is to make a retreat at some point during the year - or at several times during the year. A retreat allows us to retreat from our lives a bit and retreat to a relationship with God - perfect for the Year of Faith. For those of us who can't make it to a retreat center during the year, we have recorded a large number of retreats which our Jesuit brothers have offered. Some of these are in support of the seasons of Advent or Lent. All are based upon the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. They are easy to listen to online. They can be downloaded and listened to offline. They can be burned to a CD and listened to in our cars. They can be copied to an mp3 player or smartphone to listen to wherever we are.
The Online Retreat - A Retreat for Busy People in Everyday Life
One of the most transformational resources on our website is the Online Retreat. For those desiring a deep and renewing Year of Faith, this is the resource we would recommend. The retreat can start at any time of the year. It can be made alone, with a spiritual director, with a spouse or friend, or with a faith sharing group or prayer group. All it takes is a commitment to read the Guide each week and let it rest in the background of our busy, daily life and interact with what is going on there. It is progressive, in that one week builds upon the next, and it leads us through the movements of the Spiritual Exercises and can help us find deep intimacy with Jesus.
Praying Advent and Praying Lent Sites
As Advent and Lent come around during this Year of Faith, it will be a great help to let these resources for praying these seasons be a part of our growing relationship with God and the gift of the Incarnation and Salvation being offered us in Jesus. There will be resources there for understanding and entering the seasons more deeply and praying every day during them.
The Stations of the Cross
This site offers this important prayer form in two versions: a traditional version based upon Ignatian Spirituality and a version with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, then and now.
Many other resources which can help us during the year
We have many other resources, which at various times during the year, or in various circumstances in our lives, we can find consolation and support for our faith. Besides the resources listed above, we can highlight the following resources:
Praying with Our Imaginations: A wonderful way to pray, rooted in Ignatian Spirituality.
Resources for Grieving: How faith can help us in the most challenging times of our lives.
Practical Spirituality: A summary of introductory questions about prayer in our lives.
Praying with Someone Who Has Alzheimer's: Very supportive for the faith of caregivers.
A Variety of Video Spirituality Presentations: Can be a series to build up our faith this year.
Thrift Store Saints
- Jane KnuthEffective self-leadership in a complex world: practical insights from Ignatius of Loyola
- Chris Lowney, January 21, 2010Ignatian Humanism: A Dynamic Spirituality for the 21st Century
- Ron Modras, Professor of Theology, St. Louis University, March 21, 20062009 Commencement Address
- Greg Boyle, S.J."Finding God, with the Poor, in our Poverty: The Two Standards and Our Culture Today"
- Greg Boyle, S.J., 2002"A Way of Hope for Our Times: The Two Standards and Our World Today"
- Peter Byrne, S.J. and Marilyn Kirvin-Quamme, 2001"Amazing People"
- Fr. Gary Smith, S.J.'s Presentation at CreightonHow Big Is Your God?
- Paul Coutinho
Why is Africa Important for the U.S. at this time?
- Fr. Peter Henriot, S.J. at Creighton:Service with and for the Disabled
- Fr. Rick Curry, S.J.