Laity using Jesuit teaching in Spiritual Accompaniment

Ten lay Marists of Chile received a diploma in Ignatian Spiritual Exercises Accompaniment – along with 60 local parishioners – with the aim of better accompanying other lay Marists.

Rossana Avendaño, one of the 10, underscored that “this doesn’t end here, now begins our duty to accompany other lay Marists.” 

“I have discovered through them I have become a person more open to the action of the Spirit, they have given me the courage to break with past ties that prevented me from being totally free to love,” she added during a Eucharistic celebration, which concluded the event. 

According to Raúl Amaya, coordinator of the Marist spiritual and lay team of Chile (esp ori: coordinador del equipo de espiritualidad y laicado), “the diploma certifies them to spiritually accompany others in this method, which is considered a treasure of the Church and that the Marists in Chile have been using for some years with lay people.”

“The Spiritual Exercises are a powerful means for people to have a profound experience of encountering Christ, to live a process of permanent spiritual conversion and to order one’s life in pursuit of what the Lord is asking of us,” he added in a statement given to the general house press office on July 21. 

He told how the 10 lay Marists had been “invited in partnership with the Ignatian Spirituality Centre” to do the year-and-a-half course.

“(The Spiritual Exercises) is a spiritual school that forms a discerning heart, rooted in Christ,” he explained.  

The course included classes, readings and reports of various documents, practical exercises of accompaniment, and experiencing the Exercises themselves.

Raúl stressed that the spiritual and lay team of Chile hopes to form laity so that they can take up “the tasks of formation, accompaniment and animation of brothers and laity.”