Developing Intimacy With God: An Eight-Week Prayer Guide Based on Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises" Paperback – May 7, 2003

This book is a very good collection of meditations on Christ based on Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises". He gives all the practical details and pointers one would need to conduct their own personal 8 week course of prayer. The meditations focus on the life of Christ. The author has studied classic spirituality so his teaching is well grounded. He has good topical discussions in spiritual growth at the beginning of each week, such as types of prayer, dryness and eating habits. I believe that someone following this guide will reach the author's goal of greater "Intimate knowledge of Christ", unless they are in a painful or dry time. If you haven't done something like this you should; it is about connecting with Jesus.The 8-week prayer plan does not profess to be a complete approach to spiritual growth. If you are looking for a complete plan, I would add that one needs a spiritual director/friend to face weak areas and truly grow. The book does not delve into the need for biblical fellowship, or address soul healing. Also, one would need to have more focus on purification of life. These issues might be affected by the prayer plan but often such a plan will not directly deal with the issues. The book "Satisfy Your Soul", by Bruce Demarest would be a good companion.

Amazing! So wonderful! So helpful! This books is so helpful for me! Just reading the first few chapters helped immensely. It brings the reader constantly to the presence of God! As the reader reads further, we cannot be helped but be transformed! We learn not to focus on our faults and how we can be better but actually in every moment to fix our eyes on Jesus our Lord. We focus on all the majestic qualities of Jesus and God the Father and Holy Spirit as we devote ourselves to Him. And our devotionals really do become powerfully, devotionals, times where we are intimate with God and focus on how wonderful He is! Loving us with all our faults and imperfections! Amen!

This is my second time going through this book. I hope to read it again in a couple years. My first time going through it I really learned how to rest in God, That would then give me the strength that I needed to get through the day. The second time going through it, I discovered new things about Jesus/God that drew me closer to him. The more time I spent in prayer each day, the less anxious I was when I would face challenges throughout the week. I think this came as a result as the more time I spend with God, the more I learn to trust him and came at peace with all the things that are out of my control.

An eight week prayer guide based on Ignatius' "Spiritual Exercises" - Revised Edition. Detailed desciptions of the exercises for each day. Closely follows Ignatius' plan, but puts instruction in completely modern language.

I have done the exercises multiple times but was extremely impressed with the structure and flow of this one. The relevance and impact of intimacy and consolation were constantly evident. Much obliged to this work.

Transformative in spiritual walk

Rethinking how to pray is a good thing. It is definitely a challenge to practice, but makes sense.

I've known the author most of my life and can definitely say that this book is worth its weight in gold.I Cr 13:8a, Love never fails ! (NKJV)

This book has been so helpful for me on my spiritual journey. Rev Aronis writes clearly and the guidance he gives along the way is very helpful. If you want to start on this, you must be willing to take the time! And the rewards are wonderful.

I didn’t know much about Ignatius at all before this, and I was drawn to this book because of the title and because I have been feeling that I want to feel more intimately connected with God so I can hear his voice.Despite being from a very different Christian tradition to my own (I am not Catholic) I found the exercises incredibly moving. It’s not a typical “inspirational” book, nor one that brought me major new “insights” intellectually.But what this book has done for me has been a whole lot more.It’s introduced me to new ways of praying (new to me, but using old traditions of Christian spirituality) and going through the prayer exercises has led me to spiritual experiences which I’ve never had before. I have had moments of feeling completely loved, connected and supported by Jesus. I’ve also been lead through a deep process of evaluating what I have been put here on earth for and what I will choose to do with the rest of my life (and I’m still working through this).It’s been so impacting on me that although I’ve just finished it, today I’m starting again from Day 1 to do it all again.The book is written in 2 ways: each of the 8 sections is introduced with teaching and insights, then these are partnered with daily prayer exercises. So it takes 15-60 minutes each day to go through it if you’re taking it seriously... and I suggest you do. It might change your life.

This is an 8 week prayer guide using scripture. Alex Aronis guides you through different methods, giving considerable help at the start until by the end you are managing without his help and relying on the Holy Spirit for your guidance. It is not easy and takes several weeks before it starts to fall into place and it requires time daily to complete but having been through it once and having had a bit of a break I am now going to do it again.This is a book to help you learn how to spend time with, and how to develop your relationship with Christ and I would thoroughly recommend this book if, as Aronis puts it, you want to be with Christ, be like Christ and live for Christ.