March 5, 2010

LIMEX seeks new students for spiritual journey

Andy Telli, Tennessee Register

The Loyola Institute Ministry Extension program in the Diocese of Nashville held a reunion for all its past graduates on Feb. 26. The program’s staff hopes to add to its list of graduates by starting a new class this summer.

The goal of the LIMEX program is to “give primarily lay people, but also priests and nuns, the education and formation they need to live out their baptismal call to ministry,” said Tom Ryan, director of the Loyola Institute for Ministry at Loyola University in New Orleans.

Ryan was in Nashville for the reunion and to help Pam Orlando, the local liaison for LIMEX, spread the word about the program.

Students who enroll in the LIMEX program work toward a master’s degree or a certificate in an area of ministry, such as spirituality, youth ministry, small Christian communities, ecology, marketplace ministry and Hispanic ministry. They attend weekly classes over a three- or four-year period. The curriculum is developed by faculty members at the Jesuit-run Loyola, and Deacon Bob Mahoney will be the facilitator for the local group.

“It gives students a firm theological foundation” woven with Ignatian spirituality, Ryan said. “But our focus is practical. So we always ask our students to ask the so what question. What does this mean for my life, for my faith, for the church, for the world? What this does is it gives people the tools and the resources to do that.”

“It’s very much about your spiritual journey,” said Orlando, who is a LIMEX graduate herself.

Classes are not lecture based, Ryan said. Instead, students work on assigned essays and complete reading assignments, then come to class ready to reflect on them, he said. “The classes take place in a circle, in a conversation.”

For more information about the LIMEX program, call Orlando at (615) 351-4318 or visit link on the Diocese of Nashville website: www.dioceseofnashville.com.