"This is not a time to hunker down and lock our doors. I see clearly that the Lord is calling us out of ourselves, to get up and walk." --From the Foreword by POPE FRANCIS

Drawing on the wisdom of Pope Francis and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Austen Ivereigh has written a captivating spiritual guide for our turbulent age.

Designed as an eight-day Ignatian retreat, First Belong to God serves as a roadmap to deeper discipleship. It does this by focusing on the three foundational forms of belonging: to God, to creation, and to others.

Structured around the core principles of St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises, First Belong to God encapsulates the key aspects of the Francis pontificate:

• the essence of being "God-belonging" entities
• the way God's mercy challenges our self-reliance
• the journey to building the Kingdom in the footsteps of Christ
• heeding the cry of the earth and the stranger
• striving for fraternity by championing synodality

Whether you're embarking on a solitary spiritual expedition or a journey with like-minded individuals, First Belong to God offers the next best thing to a personal retreat with Pope Francis: a full-soul immersion into his wisdom via the classic Jesuit retreat that shaped him so profoundly.