From a Word from Becky, my monthly newsletter to my readers
Dear friends,
Today is a big day. It’s launch day for Ignatian Ministries!!! I am so excited to open the doors and welcome you to your new home of accompaniment, Ignatian Ministries! I encourage you to take a moment and go visit our website, sign up for emails, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Launch Day’s Special Meaning:
We picked today as launch day with great intention. In the Catholic Church, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary today. Our team and board knew we wanted our day of public birth to be a Marian Feast Day, honoring the image of Mary going out with us to bring people closer to her Son. We wanted to honor her accompaniment and prayers.
Today also holds personal meaning as it was on August 15, 2016 that we received my grandfather’s diagnosis of Glioblastoma, terminal brain cancer. Little did I know the journey of faith that God would invite my grandfather, my grandmother, and all of our family on. As I shared in past letters to all of you, both my grandparents made it a point before they died to affirm and bless the ministry God was unfolding in me and through me. They asked me to make them promises to keep sharing with others my faith and relationship with God.
Welcome to Your Home of Accompaniment:
Ignatian Ministries feels like an extension of their impact and legacy. My grandparents always made everyone feel welcome. They gave people a place to belong and to feel welcome. They brought people together from all walks of life to simply be together for good conversation, for fun, for support, and for celebration.
For these past few years, I have heard so many of you tell me you long to feel you belong. You long to know you are not alone. You long to have a space that can feed you and care for you so that you can go out into your life and do the good work God has called you to do: Accompany others, love your family and friends well, raise children, take care of sick loved ones, lead organizations and ministries, put your gifts to use in the world, and go to the peripheries of need that Jesus is inviting you to do.
My hope, and all of our hope, is when you enter the doors of Ignatian Ministries you feel what my grandparents helped others feel. Warmth. Welcome. Belonging. At home. We pray that as you enter you know that people are here for you. That there are resources and communities that allow you to be fed, to be renewed, and to be nourished. I pray that you find hope in hard times and that you find people who, like you, are seeking ways to live and lead in deep waters.
Why it’s changing:
People have asked me, “Becky, why are things changing?” While I could give a lot of answers, the one that matters most to me is this. Because God asked our ministry to change to meet the growing needs God was showing us. As my team and I discerned, we realized that we had outgrown our ability to serve others in the way God was asking of us. We realized we needed more hands to help us hold the mission of accompaniment. God brought forth with abundant clarity the call to become a non-profit, and for many aspects of once lived on my personal author platform to become an organization of its own.
Who We Are:
Ignatian Ministries was born to be your home of accompaniment. Our vision is to form leaders in the Ignatian way of prayer, discernment, and accompaniment.
Who We Serve:
We are here to accompany you.
- We serve those seeking deeper waters of faith and longing for more.
- We serve those who feel life has them in the deep end and are looking for support and a life-raft of hope.
- We serve those who know such an intimacy with Christ that at times they experience loneliness in the world.
- We serve those who accompany others.
We are here to offer you community, resources, personal renewal and professional development rooted in the Ignatian path of prayer and discernment. We are here to help you go deeper in your faith and to help you invite others to do the same.
How can you help us today?
In the weeks ahead, I will invite you to different ways you can hold the mission with us. Today, I offer you four simple ways:
- Pray for us and with us: We are praying to entrust this ministry into Mary’s hands that she may carry it out into the world wherever her Son needs it to go.
- Visit Ignatian Ministries website: Please go explore your new home of accompaniment. Pay attention to what resonates for you. Sign up for our email list while there. Register for our first Ignatian Ministries Retreat, To Know, Love, and Follow.
- Follow us on social media: Visit our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram. We promise you continued content of inspiration, encouragement and prayer while amplifying the many voices who hold the mission.
- Share about Ignatian Ministries with others: Ask Jesus to show you who in your life is in need of a spiritual home of accompaniment rooted in the Ignatian way. Invite this person to follow along with us. Download the launch graphic in the email and share it on your social media. Email or text friends. Share Ignatian Ministries with others in whatever way the Holy Spirit is calling you to share this with others!
Ignatian Ministries is your home. Welcome! Come in, get settled, make yourself at home. We are glad you are here and commit that we will keep walking with you!
Know that as you pray for us and with us today, we are praying for you!
Peace,
Becky
Photo by Gerald Berliner on Unsplash
Becky Eldredge
August 15, 2023