Programmes

How We Are Formed

Spiritual Formation encompasses disciplines that help us to grow in our relationshipwith God, develop greater self-awareness and enable us to accompany others on their own spiritual journeys.

In order to serve your needs in whatever field God has called you to, the Centre for Spiritual Formation creates courses to equip you for the harvest. From spiritual accompaniment to short at-home retreats, our programmes are in response to the needs of God’s faithful who serve in church or the marketplace, or who simply desire to deepen their relationship with God.

The Centre for Spiritual Formation curates resources on prayer and disciplines that enable us to see Jesus more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly. To this end, we offer spiritual direction for individuals and groups in order to better discern God’s presence and movement in our lives. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius is a structured at-home retreat done over several months which help us to grow in intimacy with God so that we may discern and follow God’s call inspiritual freedom.

Retreats provide the space to spend extended time with God, allowing His prodigal children to recalibrate and return to God after our daily prolonged wanderings away from God and what He calls us to be.

Certificate in Spiritual Accompaniment

The Certificate in Spiritual Accompaniment (CSA) equips Christians to accompany others at work and church through trusting and authentic conversations about their inner and spiritual life. By becoming trained compassionate listeners, spiritual companions facilitate and support men and women time in nurturing a deeper self-awareness rooted in God’s presence, loving action, and guidance in their lives at home, work, and church.

This programme is for Christian leaders seeking to provide spiritual care, guidance and leadership in their churches or workplaces.

Click here to Register

For more detailed information on CSA please view our brochure: https://bgst.xyz/csa-brochure

The Spiritual Exercises

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius is a journey of ever-growing intimacy with God leading to a deeper discerned sense of God’s calling in your life. It can be experienced as a 30-day in-house retreat at a retreat centre, or as an at-home retreat presented over thirty weeks or more. There are four movements in the Spiritual Exercises, each leading to an increasing intimacy with God and a deepened sense of calling:

• Purification – embracing our sinful nature but also, more importantly, owning our belovedness in God as sinners yet loved;
• Illumination – reflecting on how Jesus embraces his calling helps illuminate ours;
• Confirmation – embracing our own passion as we embrace our calling;
• Union – living out a transformed life in union with God

The CSF has certified and experienced Givers of the Spiritual Exercises who are able to gently hold and lead you in this journey of transformation and growth.

HOW TO EXPERIENCE THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
At the Centre for Spiritual Formation, we have created a pathway for you to experience the Spiritual Exercises through:

  • Journey into Belovedness
  • Journey from Belovendness

You may choose Journey into Belovedness as a standalone, or continue on to Journey from Belovedness to complete the full Spiritual Exercises.

Proper theological reflection should give rise to a greater love for God which, in turn, informs our knowledge of God. Unfortunately, the transition from theological learning to self-knowledge is not always straight forward. Some students do not do so and end up having a ‘head full of knowledge but nothing much in the heart.’

For this reason, Journey into Belovedness is offered as a Spiritual Formation Practicum (SFP) to help each student renew and deepen their love for God, improve self-awareness (strengths and vulnerabilities), as well as also help discern their role in Christ’s mission for the world.

Journey into Belovedness captures the first movement of the Spiritual Exercises (Purification). It consists of 10 weeks of prayer which helps you to move the truth of your belovedness in God’s eyes from the head to the heart. During this time, you will meet with your assigned spiritual director six times to process and unpack your prayer in this journey of increasing intimacy.

Learning Objectives:
1. Deepen your grasp of God’s love for through prayer meditations based on scripture.
2. Enable you to better understand yourself, your gifts and vulnerabilities, your gifts, and your spiritual calling.
3. Familiarise you with prayer practices, and spiritual disciplines including the Examen, imaginative contemplation, colloquy, dealing with distractions during prayer, spiritual journaling, and spiritual discernment (using the framework of consolation versus desolation).

Programme Overview
You will commit to ten weeks of guided prayer (Text: Kevin O’Brien, The Ignatian Adventure – Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius in Daily Life), putting aside forty-five minutes to one hour each day to pray with the material. You will meet with a spiritual director every two weeks to process what went on during your prayer. Each meeting will be between one and one-and-a-half hours.

Credit
Journey into Belovedness can be taken for credit upon completion of the required assignments. It is the equivalent of a 1.5 credit course.

 

Click here to Register

 

COMPLETING THE FULL SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
The full Spiritual Exercises comprises Journey into Belovedness and Journey from Belovedness.

As there is a dynamic that flows through the weeks of prayer in the Spiritual Exercises, it is strongly recommended that Journey from Belovedness follows immediately from Journey into Belovedness. Your spiritual director will advise you as your Journey into Belovedness is about to end.

 To find out more about the Spiritual Exercises or if you are considering beginning a journey, contact chern_janice@bgst.edu.sg

Journey into Belovedness grounds you in your identity in God. This is the necessary grounding upon which you can discern where God may be calling you. Having embraced your identity as God’s beloved, Journey from Belovedness consists of a further twenty-two weeks of prayer covering the remaining three movements of the Spiritual Exercises – Illumination, Confirmation and Union.

From hereon, you are encouraged to meet weekly instead of fortnightly with your spiritual director.

Journey from Belovedness invites you to become the One you contemplate. You begin by getting to know intimately the One you have chosen to follow. As Jesus discovers his own calling, you are invited to discover yours in a path towards Illumination. Following Jesus into his Passion questions your willingness to embrace your own passion, a firm commitment indicating a Confirmation of your calling. Finally, you are invited to live your transformed life in Union with Christ.

Learning Objectives:
1. Grow in your relationship with Jesus, encountering him in prayer in order to know him intimately.
2. Discover your calling by spending time with Jesus as he discovers his calling.
3. Reflect on the obstacles that prevent you from following Christ more closely, and to embrace your own passion as you ponder your calling.
4. Discover spiritual freedom in order to live a transformed life having aligned your desires with God.

Programme Overview
You will commit to 22 weeks of guided prayer (Text: Kevin O’Brien, The Ignatian Adventure – Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius in Daily Life), putting aside forty-five minutes to one hour each day to pray with the material. You will meet with a spiritual director every week to process what went on during your prayer. The duration for each meeting will be one hour.

Coming Soon!

 

COMPLETING THE FULL SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
The full Spiritual Exercises comprises Journey into Belovedness and Journey from Belovedness.

As there is a dynamic that flows through the weeks of prayer in the Spiritual Exercises, it is strongly recommended that Journey from Belovedness follows immediately from Journey into Belovedness. Your spiritual director will advise you as your Journey into Belovedness is about to end.

 To find out more about the Spiritual Exercises or if you are considering beginning a journey, contact chern_janice@bgst.edu.sg

Spiritual Retreats

“Be still, and know that I am God.”
– Psalm 46:10

In the bible, Jesus retreated to be alone with God at least nine times. He also exhorted his disciples to “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place andget some rest.”          (Mark 6:31)

It has been said that silence is God’s first language and everything else is just a poor translation. A spiritual retreat is an intentional time of withdrawal from the daily preoccupations of life to be with God in silence and solitude.This is a precious time of prayer and reflection, quieting the busy mind and getting in touch with how God is stirring your heart.

Spiritual retreats are vital aspects of spiritual formation and are offered for individuals, groups or church groups here and overseas. There are various kinds of retreats – preached, directed, guided, themed retreats, etc. All are rooted in silence and prayer to help us deepen our relationship with God and with ourselves. The Centre for Spiritual Formation can help you to customize retreats curated to your specific formation needs according to the demographics in your church.

This Programme is still in development and will be made available at a later time. However, if you are interested, want to find out more, or would like help in curating retreats for your personal needs, or the needs of your church or organization, please fill up this Interest Form:

Click here to Register Your Interest

To help you understand Spiritual Retreats better, here is an article by Alex Carter:
https://www.sgm.org.nz/blog/alex-carter-my-first-silent-retreat

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