Jesuits & Jedi: What Star Wars Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Journeys
Date: Friday, 12th September 2025
Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Belfast Jesuit Centre, 193–195 Donegall Street, Belfast, BT1 2FL
Suggested Donation: £10–£15
In this engaging workshop, Eric A. Clayton, author of My Life with the Jedi: The Spirituality of Star Wars, invites us to explore how the Ignatian tradition helps us find God in all things—even in galaxies far, far away.
Through storytelling, reflection, and practical tools, Eric will guide us in navigating our own spiritual journeys, confronting inner darkness, and embracing the light.
About the Speaker:
Eric A. Clayton is a writer, speaker, and retreat leader who blends Ignatian spirituality with pop culture. He serves as deputy director of communications for the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S., and his work inspires deeper faith and personal transformation.
Sacred Story, Modern Myth: Praying with Pop Culture
Saturday 13th September 10am–4pmLed by Eric Clayton
Location: Belfast Jesuit Centre
We often share stories—films, books, songs—with the people we love. “You have to see this,” we say. But what if that impulse is spiritual? What if God is speaking through the stories of our time?
In this full-day workshop, Ignatian author and retreat leader Eric Clayton invites us to explore how pop culture can become a rich source of prayer and reflection. Rooted in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and inspired by Joseph Campbell’s mythic structure, we’ll journey through four spiritual movements:
- The Call to Adventure: Seeing the chaos of the world and choosing to respond
- The Guide Appears: Discovering our gifts and dreaming the impossible
- The Dark Night: Facing suffering and choosing love
- The Return: Living transformed and sharing joy with others
Through storytelling, guided meditations, short films, and group conversation, we’ll discover how our favourite cultural narratives mirror our own spiritual journeys—and how God is present in them all.
Facilitator: Eric Clayton, author of My Life with the Jedi and Deputy Director of Communications at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S.
Suggested Donation: £25 – £35 (subsidies available)
A Year of Ignatian Prayer: 2025-26
After the success of our programme: A Year of Ignatian Prayer, 2024-2025 the Belfast Jesuit Centre is delighted to be able to run the programme again from October 2025 to June 2026. The aim of the programme is to give participants an immersive Ignatian experience of prayer and reflective living, so that whether you are already familiar with Ignatian spirituality, or are coming to it for the first time, you can deepen your relationship with God, find clarity in your life’s purpose, and cultivate a more mindful, spiritually-enriched way of living.
Topics covered will include:
- Introduction to St Ignatius: a man for our times
- Images of God
- Approaches to prayer – praying with scripture – imaginative contemplation – praying the Examen – journalling
- Finding God in all things – paying attention to feelings
- Consolation – Desolation – Discernment
- Communal Discernment and Synodality
- God calls me
- What next?
This list is intended to give a broad flavour of the programme but it is by no means exhaustive.
The emphasis throughout the programme will be on the practice, experience, application and integration of Ignatian spirituality into everyday life, rather than theoretical learning.
The programme will draw on a wide range of Ignatian resources, and sessions will have a mixture of input from the BJC team, experience and practice of prayer, small group sharing, and experience of guided prayer, as well as optional movie screenings each month.
Fourteen Mondays (approximately 2 a month) from 7.00pm – 9.30pm
Four Saturdays from 10.00am to 4.00pm between September 2025 and June 2026.
See flyer for dates.
A donation of between £180-£250 is suggested to defray costs and a number of bursaries are available for those unable to pay the suggested donation.