What is Ignatian spirituality?

St. Ignatius of Loyola became a Christian around 1521 when he started reading a lot of books about Jesus and the saints during a lengthy recovery from a cannonball wound. You could call it a case of the right books at the right time, because Ignatius realized that God was guiding him to change his life.

That’s kind of the whole thing with Ignatian spirituality: God is always speaking in a myriad of ways, and we can hear him if we know how to listen.

Because that listening looks different for everyone, Ignatius developed a series of spiritual exercises to help us tune our attention to the right radio frequency, so to speak. You may have heard of some of them through the society Ignatius founded, the Jesuits. Contemplative prayer, the daily examen, and Lectio Divina are all Ignatian spiritual exercises.

What does that have to do with Let It Go?

My favorite Ignatian exercise is that of surrender.

We don’t actually control much of anything in this world. This spiritual exercise invites us to loosen our grip and hold our plans lightly. Learning to let things go has been the single most helpful tool in managing my mental health, figuring out how to raise my kids, and discerning what the heck I’m supposed to be doing with my life.

I’m here to share Ignatian surrender with you through weekly reflections and prayer prompts, as well as monthly book reviews that have nothing to do with anything but that are pretty fun, if I do say so myself.

Who am I?

I'm Ashley Brooks, a graduate student studying Christian Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at Loyola University Chicago. I also have two part-time jobs (freelance editing, and office manager for my husband’s company) and one very full-time job of raising four kids. 

I’m a writer at heart, a mediocre but enthusiastic knitter, and the kind of gardener who buys houseplants at Trader Joe’s every spring to replace the ones I killed over the winter. Like any good English major, I read widely and with abandon. 

(I'm also an INFP/Enneagram 4, if you're into that sort of thing.)

In my early 30s, I discovered that my squirrel brain is largely thanks to then-undiagnosed ADHD. Every now and then you’ll notice my wide variety of interests cropping up in themes in my writing here. My curiosity is currently directed toward finding Sabbath in the modern world, capitalism and its influence on American Christianity, and eco-theology and care for creation.

Ignatian spirituality is, for me, a way to find stillness in God even when my world is swirling. It offers me endless invitations to release control over all the things I can't change anyway—in other words, to Let It Go. 

Thanks for joining me here. I'm happy to have you.