Returning to God
March 19, 2011For those who are just coming to the blog, weekends are set aside for repetitions, a chance to go back to a prayer from the week and allow the graces of the prayer to deepen. This week, the focus has been on our sinfulness. As we continue to pray over our sins, it is helpful to remember why we do so. We do not pray over our sins just to wallow in self-pity and say “I am the worst sinner ever.” We also do not pray over our sins as though we were assessing ourselves at the beginning of a self-help program.
While there is nothing necessarily wrong with a self-help regimen, it is important to note that the point of calling to mind our sins in prayer is very different. The idea behind the reflections on sin in the Exercises is not “self-help,” where we recognize that we are not doing everything we should and say “I will try to be better.” In the Exercises, as with Lent, we pray over our sins in order to be closer to God in all that we do.
Posted by Mr. David Paternostro, S.J. in Weekend Repetition