A Quick Note Concerning Comments
February 18, 2010A quick note on blog comments: Early on the authors of this blog decided to moderate any comments we might get. Blog comment sections are often a forum for lively discussion that falls into debate and finally unhelpful fights. We didn’t want that since our real goal is to offer the Spiritual Exercises. Our policy became this: If the
comment distracts from the topic at hand, keep it private. If it supports the topic or is more or less neutral, allow it.
We hope this helps anyone thinking of posting a comment. We certainly don’t mean to criticize anyone who left a comment that we kept private; after all, we never made our policy known. We are grateful for all of the feedback we have gotten.
Christ’s Peace.
Posted by Fr. Kevin Dyer, S.J. in UncategorizedSelf-Control: The End of Creatures
February 18, 2010 | III.Grace: light so that I may know the origin of all created things and the reason God has given them to me – and for the grace that I might use them accordingly
Text for Prayer: Genesis 1:26-31
Reflection: “Life is too short! Have fun while you can!” That is the advice of a pagan world where gluttony masquerades as joy and indulgence passes for hope. But even in this foggy world of pitiful approximations, we can see in our natures a yearning for something else and a recognition that we are meant for something eternal. Life is indeed short when compared to the timeless time without end that we are destined for. And our hearts yearn for that stable rock that we rest upon when we rest in God. We are truly pilgrims at heart, every one of us, until we rest in God. The things of this world cannot satisfy our hearts – worthy as they are as faint likenesses of God’s infinite beauty, steps of the ladder which unites earth with heaven and by which we climb to God’s throne.
All things are a means to know God (Rom 1:20). Their goodness testifies to the goodness of the One who created them. They are a means to love Him more. To love God’s creation isn’t sinful; it is sinful only to love them independent of God, stopping before our hearts can be turned toward the Creator. And we must understand the use of things as a means to develop our activities as individuals, as members of a family and of a society. Created things can be part of how we love one another, providing for those who are in need. And finally, created things play their part in the development of our own virtues, practicing stewardship, patience, and self-denial.
So we must be on our guard to make good use of what God has given us, careful never to use these gifts contrary to their (and our) Creator’s will for us. Sin is the corruption of what is good and we must avoid using God’s creation simply with pleasure in mind or to hide from what is hard or painful. We belong to our belongings, so to speak; to misuse them is to misuse ourselves.
These created things are our servants. They are given to us that we may direct them and ourselves to the Lord Our God. We are charged with being the eyes for those who cannot see this. We must be the heart for those that cannot worship and love. We are all priests of creation, set apart to offer to God the prayer and incense of the crooked world we live in. The whole earth is a temple and our hearts are an inner shrine. In the end, we must find ourselves watchful. We must become aware of what we make use of and how we make use of it. And the standard by which we judge it can be no other than that standard given by the Creator Himself. We were made to praise, reverence, and serve God. All created things must be ordered to this end and we should prefer nothing except insofar as it helps us praise, reverence, and serve as we were created to do.
Pray: O God, help me understand that everything comes from Your hands and is ruled by Your scepter. Let me keep that scepter in my sight as I partake of what You have offered me, desiring to make use of these things only when they come to my aid in praising, reverencing, and serving You. I depend on Your grace for the knowledge of what I may make use of and what I must avoid. Please give me the grace to avoid my own selfish desires so that I may act only out of love for You and service to Your people.
Posted by Fr. John Brown, S.J. in III.Additional Resources
February 17, 2010As you are reading and praying though this blog, you may find the following books and websites to be helpful to get a more in-depth sense of Ignatian prayer and spirituality:
Making Choices in Christ: The Foundations of Ignatian Spirituality by Fr. Joseph Tetlow, S.J.
Ignatius Loyola: Spiritual Exercises by Fr. Joseph Tetlow, S.J.
Meditation and Contemplation: An Ignatian Guide to Prayer With Scripture by Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V.
Armchair Mystic: Easing Into Contemplative Prayer by Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, S.J.
A Pilgrim’s Journey: The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola
The website for the Apostleship of Prayer: http://www.apostleshipofprayer.org/
John Brown, S.J.’s website, Companion of Jesus (especially the section “Jesuit Review”): http://companionofjesus.com/
“Seasoned Spirituality”, daily reflections by Fr. Rodney Kissinger, S.J.: http://ignatiusresidence.org/blog/
Update: By no means should you feel obligated to read anything on this list. The reflections provided here are written in such a way that one who has never encountered the Exercises before can draw fruit from them. What is provided here is simply for those who may be inclined to discover more about Ignatian spirituality.
Posted by Mr. David Paternostro, S.J. in UncategorizedGodwards: The End of Man
February 17, 2010 | II.Grace: to gain a clearer understanding of the personal relationship that God created me to have with Him.
Text for Prayer: Gn. 1-2
Reflection: “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.”
-St. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises no. 23
St. Ignatius does not begin the Spiritual Exercises by talking about God. Instead, he begins by talking about the relationship we are meant to have with God. What is presented is meant to be considered, prayed over, and “savored interiorly” (cf SpEx 2) in order to help us deepen our relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. Our ongoing relationship with God is always the key in every reflection given and every prayer made.
It is also important to note that St. Ignatius does not say that “man was created”, but that “man is created”. Present tense. God’s creation of us is not some obscure act in the far-distant past. Fr. Joe Tetlow, S.J. uses a great image to describe God’s ongoing creation: that of a light bulb. The electricity must always be present right there in the bulb. The instant that the electricity is taken out of the picture, the light is gone. Similarly, God is always present with us, giving us life and being, even during the worst things we do.
God is not just always with us in the way that an interested spectator is with a beloved sports team. Our God and Father is with us as a parent is with a child. Sometimes this involves doing things for the child, and at others it involves letting the child stand and walk on its own two feet- with all the scrapes and falls this involves. But our Creator and Father is always shaping us and helping us grow.
In the First Principle and Foundation, St. Ignatius lays out the reason that we are created, and he realized that our purpose in life could not be understood without reference to the Creator of life. So why does God create us? Meister Eckhart says that “God enjoys Himself, and wants us to join Him.” In Genesis 1, as God is creating, establishing order in the chaotic waters, and decorating the order with all sorts of things and creatures, He declares each thing to be good. But it isn’t until God creates human beings, a creature in His image and likeness who can share in the joy of the Trinity, that God declares creation to be “very good”.
Genesis also tells us that God was accustomed to walking in the Garden of Eden “at the breezy time of day”, after the midday heat had died down, and everything was cool and pleasant; and that He was also accustomed to walking with Adam and Eve. This is what we are made for: to enjoy God’s company and friendship as we walk through the Garden with Him.
While we are no longer in Eden, we do have a means of returning: “to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord”. By means of these three things: the praise, reverence, and service of God our Lord, we will save our souls, which is to say that we will finally and fully have the relationship with God we were meant to, and walk with God through Eden in the breezy time of day.
Questions: What is the relationship you have with God now? How does it play out in the day-to-day activity of your life? What is the relationship you would like to have with God? Talk to the Father or Jesus about this.
Posted by Mr. David Paternostro, S.J. in II.In Preparation
February 16, 2010As we anticipate the beginning of this season of conversion and turning again in a new way to the Heart of Jesus who has turned Himself to us, we examine our own hearts on this “Fat Tuesday.” As the branches of last Palm Sunday are burned so that we might use the ashes tomorrow to remind us of our need for conversion, we might take a brief look over the past year. Where have I come from? How has the Lord met me and carried me along? How have I wandered? What part of my heart has grown hardened? Where has my heart dried up? For what do I thirst today? And even more importantly, how does Jesus thirst for me- for my freedom from sin, for my life, for my joy, for my love?
Posted by Fr. Chris Collins, S.J. in UncategorizedThe Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
February 15, 2010 | I.Grace: A deep desire to know the will of God for my life and the freedom to be able to do it.
Text for prayer: Ps 139
Reflection: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola is a great treasure for the Church and its riches have been drawn upon for five centuries now. Through the course of St. Ignatius’ conversion, he kept notes about how it was that the Lord was leading him closer to Himself. Over the years, he steadily gave shape to these note and created a kind of program of prayer for others to follow which would open themselves up to the grace of conversion and greater ability to discern the will of God for their lives as well as the interior freedom required to then respond to that Divine Will in great generosity.
St. Ignatius noticed the attachments he had to overcome in himself in order to discover the freedom necessary to enter into a more perfect union with God. This overcoming of disordered attachments is a key component of the Exercises. In the course of this retreat then, we come to know the mercy and love of God only by first encountering the nature of our own blocks that we set up within that relationship by our own sinfulness and attachments to old wounds and forms of slavery in our lives. We come to know God and we come to know ourselves more and more, then, by coming to know Jesus- the One at the center of this experience of prayer and conversion.
In the course of this encounter, it is also possible to come to greater clarity about a major decision we might have to make about our “state of life”. The Exercises have been a great gift for the Church in this regard, also, in terms of being able to learn how to “discern” the will of God for our own lives, that is, how we might best make a gift back to the Lord of our own life in response to all of his generosity to us.
Questions: What is currently blocking me from greater love for God? What blocks me from receiving God’s love for me? What do I most deeply desire in my life at this point? What does the Lord desire to give me at this time?
Posted by Fr. John Brown, S.J. in I.Praying With This Blog
February 14, 2010Welcome to the Spiritual Exercises blog! This blog is a collaborative effort between David Paternostro, S.J., John Brown, S.J., Deacon Kevin Dyer, S.J., and Fr. Chris Collins, S.J. In it, we will offer daily reflections over the course of Lent based on the prayers proposed by St. Ignatius Loyola, S.J., in his Spiritual Exercises. By Easter, one who has followed these reflections regularly will have a basic introduction to the whole of the Spiritual Exercises.
Each post will have roughly the same format. It will begin with a grace to ask the Lord for as you begin your time of prayer and reflection. Then, it will provide a text for prayer, either from the Scriptures or the Spiritual Exercises. After this will come the main part of the post, a reflection based on a prayer from the Exercises. Then, questions or a prayer that will help you reflect with greater depth how the day’s reflection applies to your own relationship with God. Having read the reflection and gone over the questions, you might then want to use the day’s text for further prayer, using your imagination to enter into the scene depicted.
As you read these daily reflections to grow in your relationship with the Lord, you should feel free to use as much or as little as you need, and spend as much or as little time as you can allow. If you simply wish to take five minutes to read the reflection of the day, that will be five minutes well spent. If you wish to spend 30 minutes and use the reflection, the questions, and the texts, that too, is fine. Likewise with anything in between, or even more time in prayer if you so desire. The ultimate goal of this blog is to help anyone who reads it to grow in their love for God our Lord, and to better discern His will in their daily lives. We would encourage you to let that goal of growing in the love of God be the one measure you use to determine how much or how little you make use of the materials provided here, and how much or how little time you spend in prayer. Let all things be Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam- for the greater glory of God!
Posted by Mr. David Paternostro, S.J. in Uncategorized