Conclusion
April 27, 2011With this, we end our time with the Exercises over Lent and Easter. We pray that while reading these posts, you have been able to develop your relationship with the Lord, and come to know and love Him more fully. While we won’t be putting up any new material until next Lent, we will keep the posts up so that you can go back and draw fruit from them as much as you like.
As you continue praying and getting to know the Lord in everyday life, you may wish to keep praying in the way recommended by St. Ignatius. There is a post from last year that gives a good introduction to Igantian prayer.
Posted by Mr. David Paternostro, S.J. in UncategorizedContemplation to Attain the Love of God
April 26, 2011 | XXXX.Grace: An intimate knowledge of the many blessings received, that filled with gratitude for all, I may in all things love and serve the Lord.
Text for Prayer: Spiritual Exercises no. 230-237
Reflection:
The retreat, as Ignatius envisioned it, is a time of receiving many graces. Ignatius, though, was not content simply with receiving graces; he wanted us, after receiving generously from the Lord, to make an offering in return. Ignatius’ ideal was to be a ‘contemplative even in action,’ to allow the knowledge given in prayer to find expression in service. And so the final meditation of the Spiritual Exercises is the Contemplation to Attain the Love of God. One of the graces of the retreat is to allow things we all know about God to sink into our hearts, to become ‘felt’ knowledge.
Before entering into this contemplation, Ignatius calls to our attention two points. First, love ought to manifest itself in deeds more than in words. Second, love consists in a mutual sharing of goods, where the lover shares everything with the beloved, just as every good is shared between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.
Posted by Mr. Stephen Wolfe, S.J. in XXXX.Appearances
April 25, 2011 | XXXIX.Grace: to be glad and rejoice intensely because of the great joy and the glory of Christ our Lord.
Text(s): See below
Reflection: The Gospels and other new testament writings provide many accounts of different encounters between the Risen Christ and His disciples. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene (Mk 16:1-11), Mary the mother of James, Salome and Mary Magdalene (Mt 28:8-10), Peter (Luke 24:9-12, 33-34 and John 20:1-10), the disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35), to the disciples (John 20:19-23), to Thomas (John 20:24-29), on the shore of Gennesaret (John 21:1-17), on Mount Tabor (Mt 28:16-20), and forty days after the Resurrection and to St. Paul(1 Cor 15:6-8). After all this, he ascended into heaven (Acts 1:1-12).
After seeing the pretty extensive list above, perhaps picking one that draws your attention and praying with it would be the best bet. The following considerations should be taken into account during the prayer.
Posted by Mr. Mikey Wood, S.J. in XXXIX.The Resurrection: The King in Glory (Easter Sunday)
April 24, 2011 | XXXVIII.Grace: to be glad and rejoice intensely because of the great joy and the glory of Christ our Lord.
Text for Prayer: Spiritual Exercises no. 218-225, and 299.
Reflection: Today we begin celebrating the Resurrection of Christ Our Lord. In fact, liturgically the Church considers the entire week that follows, called the Octave of Easter, to be one prolonged Sunday. We ought to ask the Lord that our rejoicing in Him today be deep and full. His victory is final and utterly complete.
St. Ignatius had the sense that the first person to share in the joys of the Resurrection would be the one who had most loved, trusted, and served God in her earthly life – Mary. So St. Ignatius encourages us in the Spiritual Exercises to consider Jesus meeting His Mother on the Resurrection morning.
Posted by Mr. Andrij Hlabse, S.J. in XXXVIII.Christ: King and Victim
April 23, 2011 | XXXVII.Grace: A deep desire to have sorrow and compassion for Jesus, to suffer with Him because He is going to His Passion for me.
Text for Prayer: Mt. 27:27-50
Reflection: In today’s passage from Matthew’s Gospel, we are confronted by the scandal of a God who stoops so low as to allow Himself to be stripped naked before a crowd of soldiers, whipped and wounded without mercy, and then hung up on a tree to die.
Through all of this, what causes Jesus the most pain? Is it the physical suffering, which approaches the very limit of all that a human body can take before falling unconscious? Is it the shame of being completely naked before a host of one’s enemies, of feeling entirely vulnerable and helpless? Is it the pain of being abandoned by one’s closest friends, a group of men who all promised their unwavering fidelity only a few hours before?
Posted by Mr. Michael Wegenka, S.J. in XXXVII.Before Caiphas, Herod and Pilate: the Perils of Complex Intentions
April 22, 2011 | XXXVI.Grace: To be with Christ as he faces those who indict Him unjustly. Their indictments say more about their character than Jesus’.
Text for Prayer: Matthew 26:59-68, Luke 23:7-11, Matthew 27:11-26
Reflection. GK Chesterton once wrote that man longs for simplicity, but tends toward complexity. So it was with the intentions of earthly powers in Jesus’ day, and so it is with us today. We pray with the Jesus who is feared, reviled, and made a pawn of others’ machinations and impurity of heart. It is easy and comforting to distance ourselves from their actions; but they reflect common responses to unwelcome truths of Jesus’ mission.
Caiphas and the Sanhedrin are the fearful ecclesiastical leaders, who are concerned not with the truth but with quashing the apparent Messiahship of Jesus which threatens their authority. Where do I find this pernicious abuse of power employed to quash unpleasant truths?
Posted by Mr. Joseph Simmons, S.J. in XXXVI.From Gethsemane to Annas: Our King Betrayed and Deserted
April 21, 2011 | XXXV.Grace: To suffer with Christ who suffers for my sins.
Text: John 18:1-22
Reflection: In these final days of Lent, we are called to reflect upon Jesus’ final moments with His friends. After praying in agony throughout the night at Gethsemane, and knowing He was to be betrayed, Jesus calmly faces His betrayer. What kinds of emotions must have been coursing through His heart? Here is one of his friends! A man who chose to follow Him for at least three years—sharing in the pain and in the praise as one of Jesus’ disciple. Psalm 55 might help us to understand how Jesus felt: “It is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—then I could hide from him. But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to hold sweet converse together; within God’s house we walked in fellowship.”
Peter, overcome with righteous rage, draws his sword and strikes in violence. Jesus rebukes him—he still does not understand the type of messiah that Jesus is! Perhaps Peter cannot see past the fact that one of Jesus’ own friends betrayed Him. Perhaps Peter is still angry and ashamed from having fallen asleep while Jesus suffered and prayed alone. Perhaps Peter is still hurting from having been rebuked by Jesus during the Last Supper for not wanting Him to wash his feet. All these emotions surge to the surface. All these emotions end in violence and cowardice. Peter has to learn the hard way that Jesus needs to continue on to Calvary. Only Jesus can do this—only He can confront death. This is a hard lesson for Peter, as well as for us. He is called to follow to Golgotha. We are called as well. Called to follow Jesus and to allow Him to suffer, to let these things come to pass. We must let go.
Posted by Mr. Mikey Wood, S.J. in XXXV.The Agony of the Garden
April 20, 2011 | XXXIV.Grace: To suffer with Christ who suffers for my sins.
Text: Matthew 26:36-46
Reflection: “Do you trust me?”
That is the question the Father is asking of the Son. Jesus does not know why He must suffer, and so He asks His Father if there is any way He can be spared His Passion. His Father asks Him to trust Him. To undergo extreme physical and spiritual pain when one knows why one must is difficult; to do so when one does not know why is excruciating.
The life of Christ may seem desirable to imitiate when He is healing the infirm, forgiving the sinners, and feeding the multitudes, but what about when He is entering into His Passion? It can be easy to follow Christ when the way is pleasant and comfortable, but are we then loving the God of consolations or the consolations of God? The Father removes His consolations and asks His Son, “Do you still trust me, even though You do not understand why I am asking this of You? Do you trust me?”
Posted by Mr. Stephen Wolfe, S.J. in XXXIV.In the Cenacle: the King of Love
April 19, 2011 | XXXIII.Grace: To ask for a felt knowledge of Jesus’ desire to give Himself entirely to me, in love.
Text for Prayer: John 13:1-30
Reflection: The Last Supper – this is the last great moment of intimacy of Jesus with His Apostles, and at the same time the saddest, most convoluted time of Jesus’ betrayal. It is a rich scene of thirteen friends gathered in an upper room for the Passover meal. Yet the Last Supper bears a double seal, of the most near friendship and of the most immense sadness. Imagine what might have been going through Our Lord’s mind as He prepared Himself and His Apostles for what awaited Him, knowing one of His own would betray Him.
Yet, in the midst of all this – Christ chooses to wash the feet of His Apostles. Our King is the king who came to serve. Moreover, this most humble gesture happens before Judas leaves to betray the Lord; Jesus washes the feet of Judas this very night. Yes, Jesus washes the feet of Judas himself.
Posted by Mr. Andrij Hlabse, S.J. in XXXIII.Jesus Proclaims the Cross
April 18, 2011 | XXXII.Grace: A deep desire to have sorrow and compassion for Jesus, to suffer with Him, because He is going to His Passion for me.
Text for Prayer: Mk. 8:31-38
Reflection: At this point in the life of Christ, it is clear that Jesus knows what is coming. The cross is immediately before Him, and His words to His disciples now become the hard words of warning that they just cannot seem to understand or accept. Caught up in their own notions of what the Messiah’s reign will look like and what the Christ will do for them, they lose sight of the fact that Jesus is now speaking to them quite plainly. He is inviting them to the cross.
The cross of Christ is made of wood, but the cross we are invited to bear is likely made up of something quite different: a painful memory, a broken relationship, a physical ailment, a loved one who does not return our love, or some other source of pain and shame. It is characteristic of the cross that it not be desirable or fashionable, that it be immensely difficult to carry, and that it often tempt us to put it down or seek someone else to carry it for us. By its very nature, the cross is hard to bear, and so the invitation of Christ to carry our cross with Him is an invitation to hardship.
Posted by Mr. Michael Wegenka, S.J. in XXXII.