Services
Public Services
Monday to Friday: 9:00 am and 11:00 am
Saturday: 9:00 am, 11 am and 6:00 PM
Sunday: 11 am and 5:30 pm
CONFESSIONS : Saturday 4:00 pm till 5:00 pm
Eucharastic Adoration: Fridays 4:00 pm till 5:30 pm.
Baptisms and Marriages by arrangement. These are registered in the local parish church at St Josephs.
Prayer Guides of the West
Prayer Guides of the West operate from Knock Shrine, and on their website they explain what they provide
Personal Guidance
Spiritual Direction
What is Guided Prayer
Sacred Spaces for Personal Prayer
Spiritual Direction
Prayer Guides of the West Website
Knock Prayer Centre remains closed until further notice due to Covid 19 restrictions.
Spiritual Direction can sometimes be provided by priests from St Ignatius Church, by directly contacting a priest, or by contacting the Office Manager.
Ignatian Spirituality
Universal Apostolic Preferences
In 2019 the Jesuit General, Fr Arturo Sosa SJ announced four Universal Apostolic Preferences for the Society of Jesus.
1: To show the way to God through the Spiritual Exercises and discernment.
2: To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those whose dignity has been violated in a mission of reconciliation and justice.
3: To accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future.
4: To collaborate in the care of our Common Home.
Ignatian Discernment
Pondering and noticing interior movements of attraction and heaviness are at the heart of Ignatian discernment. Discernment involves prayer and weighing facts and feelings about the several good choices which ultimately leads to a choice about what is the best fit for an individal. (An extract from an article ‘Discernment in a nutshell by Joseph Tetlow SJ at the Marquette University website.
The Spiritual Exercises
The Spiritual Exercises are a creative and flexible programme of prayer centred on the life of Christ. Their purpose is to help you develop a deeper and more active relationship with God and the world.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius is not a book to be read for spiritual enlightenment. It describes a series of meditations and contemplations on Christ, the world and ourselves. It is a set of guidelines to help the retreat director give the Spiritual Exercises to another.
Indeed, an essential part of the Spiritual Exercises is that you are guided through them by an expert spiritual director who has been through the experience themselves. Manresa House, (https://www.manresa.ie/) is an Irish Jesuit Retreat House in Dublin specialises in residential Retreats, and the Western Spirituality Centre, based in Knock, Co Mayo. Enquiries can also be made at the Church Office by those who may be interested in doint The Exercises in Daily Life, here in Galway.
The Examen
The Examen is based on the certainty that God is talking to us all the time, and that at the end of each day, we can review what has happened, to see where God has been. We can start the Examen by thanking God, ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and then reviewing the day just past, and to look at what has given us life, and at what has drained life from us. This reflecion over a period will help us to see what God is calling us to.