Hearing about the Jesuit College of Spirituality (JCS) planned “Ignatian Spirituality in a Time of Engagement“ Conference in Melbourne in January 2021, several of us in CLC started meeting informally to discern what we could offer. Over several months, through intermittent lockdowns, seven of us from five mainland states met on Zoom and prepared our reflections.

Our desire: to share our authentic, heartfelt, lived experience of Ignatian community with a wider audience.

Our way of proceeding: a live, pre-recorded, unscripted conversation on what Ignatian engagement means to us. We would have a first and second sharing and an evaluation (just like in our meetings!)

Then the practicalities-how might this work? Who might edit it? What might we include? We wanted a recorded presentation that we could send to JCS and played as a conference presentation.

Check in – light, sound, backdrop – all need to be considered.

The recording – let’s give it a go! A first and then second conversation, going around the room to share our journey and our story. It was great fun, really enjoyable and moving.

Editing – what was said? What do we keep and what do we leave out? (Julie Thorpe learnt new skills- bravo Julie, you did a fantastic job).

When we reviewed the edited conversation, we were all surprised and delighted by the result. Initially we had thought we might talk to specific points we wanted to mention about CLC but opted for a more free-flowing conversation and low and behold, we were all amazed that all the points we would have set out to speak about had been covered and with spontaneity, passion and enthusiasm – comments made by others who viewed our presentation.

On January 26th our recording was played at the conference and we attended live on Zoom to answer questions.

On reflection, in responding to the conference invitation, we were able to capture not only our own individual experiences but something deeper and richer of CLC that has formed each of us. We received many positive responses to our session, including from CLC members who attended the conference. We now want to invite others, both from CLC and anyone interested in Ignatian spirituality, to listen to our conversation on the website and share your reflections on the CLC Australia blog.

You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/xINlcrLr2_o

– Jenny Gardner, Janine Hellard, Ann Hoare, Kay Hooper, Paris Huffman, Di Mackenzie, and Julie Thorpe.