In the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius is always attentive to the spiritual importance of the body. He invites us to inhabit the gospel not only through our thoughts and feelings but also through our posture, gestures and senses. In this way we enter into a deeper relationship with Christ, who has become human for us. This Special Issue of The Way explores and celebrates the place of the body in our spiritual lives. It draws on the 2024 St Beuno’s conference, ‘The Body and Prayer’, to set prayer practices in a wider spiritual and physical context, embracing sickness and well-being, sexuality, the Eucharist and incarnation among other themes.
Timothy Radcliffe, ‘Affecrivity and the Eucharist’, 7–13
Fredrik Heiding, ‘Body Language before the Face of God’, 15–24
John Russell, ‘Posture + Breath + Desire = Transformation’, 25–37
Kirsty Clarke, ‘Women’s Voices and Women’s Bodies: Margery Kempe’s Struggle to Make Herself Heard’, 38–52
Véronique Marie Hervé, ‘Exercises to Feel and Relish Things Interiorly’, 53–64
Martin Badenhorst, ‘Time for a Mature Approach to Sexuality: A View from South Africa’, 75–85
Marion Morgan, ‘Towards Union: Personal Reflections on Spirituality and the Body’, 65–74
Luke Penkett, ‘Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe and the imago Dei’, 87–97
Beth R. Crisp, ‘Finding God in the Slow Lane’, 98–108
Mariano Ballester, ‘A Bodily Reading of the Exercises’, 109–122
Jan Graffius, ‘The Odyssey of an Early Roman Martyr’, 123–127