Author Description

<b>"This is not a time to hunker down and lock our doors. I see clearly that the Lord is calling us out of ourselves, to get up and walk."</b> --From the Foreword by POPE FRANCIS <br> <br> <br> <br> Drawing on the wisdom of Pope Francis and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Austen Ivereigh has written a captivating spiritual guide for our turbulent age. <br> <br> <br> <br> Designed as an eight-day Ignatian retreat, <i>First Belong to God</i> serves as a roadmap to deeper discipleship. It does this by focusing on the three foundational forms of belonging: to God, to creation, and to others. <br> <br> <br> <br> Structured around the core principles of St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises, First Belong to God encapsulates the key aspects of the Francis pontificate: <ul> <li>the essence of being "God-belonging" entities </li> <li>the way God's mercy challenges our self-reliance </li> <li>the journey to building the Kingdom in the footsteps of Christ </li> <li>heeding the cry of the earth and the stranger </li> <li>striving for fraternity by championing synodality </li> </ul> Whether you're embarking on a solitary spiritual expedition or a journey with like-minded individuals, <i>First Belong to God</i> offers the next best thing to a personal retreat with Pope Francis: a full-soul immersion into his wisdom via the classic Jesuit retreat that shaped him so profoundly.<br> <br>