Reflection Days with Margaret Silf

CEBU, Philippines - The New Year gives us a chance to start anew and correct the mistakes we made in the past. At the start of the year, it is best to reflect on our life so we can plan on what to do for the whole year.

The Sacred Heart Parish will help you do just that as it brings renowned spirituality author and retreat leader Margaret Silf to Cebu on Jan 16 and 17.

Margaret Silf, a regular columnist for “America” magazine, is the author of, among others, The Inner Compass, Close to The Heart, A Book of Grace-Filled Days, Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way, WAYfaring: A Gospel Journey into Life, At Sea With God, The Gift of Prayer and Companions of Christ: An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality.

She is also a contributor to the “New Daylight” series of daily readings for Bible Reading Fellowship and can be heard on BBC local radio. 

Margaret was born in l945 and raised in Sheffield, England. She lives in Cheshire, in the northwest English midlands. She received her B.A. in English from the University of London and an M.A. from the University of Keele. 

In 1992, she made her first retreat and shortly after began training as a prayer guide, mentored by Jesuits in the British Province. She made the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in daily life in 1996-97 with the British Jesuit, Gerry Hughes, author of God of Suprises. 

She worked as a translator in Germany and a systems programmer in the UK but decided in March 2000 to retire to write and conduct retreats, full time.

 Margaret was baptized a Methodist. At age l5, she joined the Anglican Church and was confirmed there; at 20, she was received into the Roman Catholic faith.

Today she calls herself a “boundary dweller,” who does not belong to a particular Christian denomination. She said she is more at home outside the institutional church than within.

Margaret spends a great deal of her time travelling around the world. She has facilitated such workshops in various centers in the U.S. and Canada, such as the Mercy Center in San Francisco and in New York, the Guelph Spirituality Centre in Ontario, the FCJ Center in Calgary, and the Institute for Adult Spiritual Renewal at Loyola University, Chicago. She has also given talks and retreats in different Ignatian Spirituality centers in South Africa, Singapore and Australia. Most recently, she was the featured resource person in the Conference of Directors of Ignatian Spirituality Centers organized by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP). This was held in Hongkong last November 2011.

The topics for the two-day sessions are: Day 1 - Topic - Discernment: Finding a True Course in a Bewildering World and Day 2 -  The Other Side of Chaos: Breaking Through When Life is Breaking Down. For more information about the Reflection Days With Margaret Silf, contact the Sacred Heart Parish. – (FREEMAN)