Certificate in the Ignatian Exercises

Experience a deeper relationship with God as you practice Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in a group setting.

Course Description

In weekly meetings, we will share and pray over what God has been revealing to us during our mediations and contemplations throughout the week. Our desire is to experience God’s love and respond to Him with love. We will use the Bible as our daily source to meditate and contemplate, and our journaling will be a gift we give ourselves so that we can remember God’s goodness in the future. Our meditations will focus on Scripture and contemplations will enable us to enter the story using our five senses.

Our ten-month journey together will consist first of a six week preparation, where we will learn the skills to meditate and contemplate Scripture as well as receive God’s love for the journey. Following the preparation time, we follow the 4 Weeks of the Exercises. Each Week is a period not actually a week. Week 1 (sin and its effects), Week 2 (walking with Jesus), Week 3 (the Crucifixion), and Week 4 (the resurrection).

Your expected participation includes:
  • Weekly Meetings

  • Journaling to record your feelings and thoughts for each prayer time, and then a summary of the

    week.

  • Set aside 20-30 minutes a day for meditation, contemplation, prayer, and journaling

  • Optional reading, weekly summaries, and course reflections will round out your experience.

  • Commit to engaging with Scripture 4 days/week and using a fifth day to summarize your journal.

Course Outcome

The purpose of the Ignatian Exercises is to grow in union with God, who frees us to make good decisions about our lives. Ignatius invites us into an intimate encounter with God, revealed in Jesus Christ so that we can learn to think and act more like Christ. The Exercises also help us grow in interior freedom from sin and disordered loves so that we can respond more generously to God’s call in our lives. As a result we respond to God’s love for us with love in return.

Cost

Free

Prerequisite Requirements

None- space limited to the BGU Family

Time

10-11 months, 4-6 hours per week

Instruction Method

Guided weekly assignments

Level of Instructor Involvement

Small group, highly involved instructor

Credit

Certification of completion. No academic credit.

Facilitator

Dr. Nita Kotiuga has always loved the to see the co-existence of academia and spirituality in the life of believers which was evident as a student, an interVarsity Christian Fellowship staff member, a Spiritual Director (since 2006), Pastor, and now as Spiritual formation Director at BGU.

Online Application

Please send your application to nita.kotiuga@bgu.edu