Thank you for sharing how In Ipso has influenced your life with Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Glory be to The Father, and to The Son and to The Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and every shall be, world without end, Amen.
“I am a “cradle Catholic” who has had every advantage to learn all about my faith, theology, Sacred Scripture, and so on… my acquired knowledge about God hasn’t translated necessarily to knowing God. I took the opportunity to attend In Ipso seminar on prayer and what a blessing it was for me.What I learned was not a secret, new way to pray. No, instead, the wisdom of the church, its saints, its scriptures, in regard to prayer, was relayed in a simple, straightforward and compelling manner. I urge you to find a way to attend these classes offered by In Ipso . I hope you find, as I did, a clear path to find God in every moment of our day, to discern His will, and to find the peace that accompanies the presence of God. I think you will find this to be an opportunity for yourself and your family to grow your prayer life and closeness to God.”
R.K., Arvada, CO
“Thank you so much for your talk yesterday at Holy Ghost. It was a wonderful complement to what I am reading in Fire Within for class at the Augustine Institute, and was an extra kick for me to grow in my prayer life.”
K.F., Denver, CO
“I wanted to send a quick note to say thank you…your talk this am was amazing…I am thankful that God introduced me to you!…You are saving souls…!
J.B.,Littleton, CO
“I absolutely loved spending the day with you. I found your retreat message amazingly powerful…just what I needed to set a new higher standard (the line) on my spiritual journey.”
J.J., Lone Tree, CO
“As I mentioned to you right before we left the retreat, …I have a new life. By this I meant I have a new goal. And my goal is our Lord. He has called me by my name and asked me to trust in Him and I will be guided. The more I spend time with Him in prayer the more I trust Him, and the more I trust Him the more I listen to Him. The more I listen to Him the more I realize the things I need to get better at. I have a lot of personal work I need to do in this world. And I want to be a better man every day and follow Him and do as he says. I need to be stronger every day. The closer I get to him the harder the fight, but I know I’m not alone. I really want to be ready for when the time comes to meet Him. “
J.H., Littleton, CO
“I am so thankful for your ministry. You have truly made me realize that I have been simply rowing out and quickly returning back to land and everyday life. I am ready to go to deeper waters with Jesus…”
J.B., Englewood, CO
“I have benefited tremendously from the profound spiritual, intellectual, and human formation Father Chris Hellstrom has been giving us in his classes this year! He has taught us many fascinating and beautiful truths of the faith, and I deeply appreciate his orthodoxy. For me personally, the classes have helped me embrace forgiveness and healing which I deeply needed. With great compassion, Fr. has been teaching a lot about the human soul and how our psychology affects our spiritual life, which helps me understand the compassion Christ has for us. However, I think the greatest gift these classes and all my involvement with In Ipso have given me is a renewed trust in the Catholic Church and the priesthood. Thank you for allowing him to dedicate his time to this very fruitful apostolate!”
S.E.
“As a Catholic Biblical School student, I thought my faith life had become as strong as possible. I was much more confident in making a defense of my faith, had a much deeper appreciation for the Liturgy of the Word in Mass, and made the Bible part of my everyday reading. But what I have learned in just a few weeks of In Ipso classes with Father Chris Hellstrom has blown me away and left me yearning for more; in a way I have never experienced. My prayer life has been turned upside down as I now understand what it is to have a relationship with Christ. I have never really understood the deep mystical beauty of the Mass, or the role I am called to fill there, until now. I realize now how to prepare myself and to offer all that I have in the Mass. And I have been to Adoration Chapel more in the last 12 weeks than in the prior 12 years combined. While CBS is a beautiful and foundational introduction, the interior prayer life teaching is essential for all the faithful. After each class, the participants ask each other “why have we never heard these things before?!”. My classmates in CBS have taken notice as well from our pre-lecture sharing, and want very badly to be fed this spiritual food. I greatly appreciate your support of the In Ipso ministry and allowing Father Hellstrom to touch our souls in such a meaningful way.”
KD
“I wish to thank you for allowing the organization of In Ipso to minister to the people in Colorado. I had the opportunity to attend a silent retreat offered by In Ipso with Rev. Armando Marsal, DCJM as the retreat master and Peter Stur as spiritual director in April, 2016 and again in April, 2017. It was life altering for me. Originally, I went to “run” from my life, my family, from God. I had every intention to truly just spend that time for myself, in myself, by myself. Instead, I “ran” into God, into His love, into His mercy. I left the retreat hungry for God and for all He has to offer.
I can only thank God for this special ministry that In Ipso offers. I am no longer the same person that I was the first day that I walked into that retreat. I am grateful they offered this retreat in silence, because I know had there been any form of distraction, I would never have found God. Without In Ipso, I would still be living in my same old ways and so far from God. I am a product of mercy, of love. Daily I am reminded, and forever grateful, for His mercy, for His love. God used Peter’s words on my first retreat to begin the healing of my heart, my brokenness, and to awaken my soul that was so far from God. Peter and all those that are part of In Ipso continue to encourage me through their classes and retreats to live fully my vocation as wife, mother, teacher.
I pray God continues to bless their work, their words, and all that they do. I pray also that you may continue to support them in their ministry for the people of Colorado.”
Pam
I received the following graces as a result of the 8-day retreat at El Tesoro in October 2017:
- The ability to start living in the present moment and thereby slow down or halt the frenetic process of thinking in the past or in the future,
- Greater awareness of God’s presence and the desire to listen more attentively for His Word speaking into my life,
- Ability to recognize and experience the relationships of God as Father, Jesus as Brother and Mary as Mother,
- Awareness of how I have let disordered desires rule my life and prevent me from growing in holiness,
- The teachings on prayer and spiritual exercises that help me to start using discernment of spirits to aid my spiritual growth,
- Strength to start gaining the upper hand in the battle against Satan by calling on the help of the saints and angels,
Greater appreciation of the wisdom in the Catechism of the Catholic Church –
L.M.
God blessed me with many graces from the retreat. The first was being able to have 8 days of silence, without phone or Internet and very limited discussions. In the silence, I heard His voice and He gave me a greater desire even after the retreat for that silence. It’s been three weeks since the retreat and I make sure within my day I have my time of silence both in the morning and before bedtime, that my prayer may grow deeper. In this silence, God continues to show me His way. This has also resulted in a great reduction in my time online or watching TV. It’s leaving me far more peaceful and my sleep is improving as well.
On the retreat, He gave me a deeper awareness and understanding of who I really am and who He is. As a result, I gained a deeper desire for humility, letting go of the grip I’ve held on my life’s choices and allowing Him to continue to guide me to choices that will lead me closer to His will. I wouldn’t say I’ve completely relinquished control but God is me moving in that direction through increased awareness of who I really am. Before the retreat, it was very difficult for me to pray the Litany of Humility because I didn’t want to let go of those desires and fears. In His gentle way, God has graced me with a longing to pray it and live it.
Father Armando’s meditations and the documents he provided with each meditation gives me something to use ongoing and it’s helping me go deeper into meditation. The use of Scripture in the meditation topics have taken me deeper to where I’m learning new meanings of the passages, where I can better understand how it applies to me today in my state of life.
I thought an 8-day silent retreat would be difficult but in fact, I found it was easier than I expected and more importantly, necessary to really go deep to where God wanted to take me. It took me about 3 days to be in a peaceful state to where He could really lead me where He wanted me to go.
-CM