Text for Prayer: Romans 1:20

Reflection: God does not do anything by accident; “coincidence” is not in His vocabulary.

“Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.” (Is. 55:10)

Each one of us and all created things, living and non-living, have been purposefully formed according to God’s plan.

St. Ignatius is calling each one of us to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord not solely in a vertical experience of personal prayer but in the midst of our world and in the presence of all of creation.  The people we interact with on a daily basis, the buildings and streets we pass, the conversations and topics we engage in, and even the technology we constantly use are all avenues to become aware of the Trinity closely accompanying us.  This felt-awareness permits us to respond with generosity, modeled in particular ways of praising, reverencing and serving the Trinity.

Everyone and everything that we encounter is a new and God-given opportunity to live this three-fold purpose.  God deems all that He has created to be good (cf. Gen. 1).  Therefore, our natural world can aid us in fulfilling what God has designed us for.  Even seemingly secular concepts such as sports, the media and entertainment, and yes—even blogs—can also aid us in our three-fold purpose.

But the caveat is all of these things that were just said to be able to aid us in our relationship with God can also be obstacles to fulfilling our purpose.  Ignatius calls us to pray for the grace of indifference so that we may not fall into this trap.  On first glance, it would seem contradictory to engage the wonderment of God’s creation and the goodness present in our world if we are devoid of feelings and passion.  While a common mistake, this is not what Ignatius is suggesting.  Rather, he is calling us to passionately love God such that nothing – person, place or thing – could ever get in the way of this relationship.  Only with this disposition can our attitude towards the things of this world be modeled by a true spirit of indifference: loving all things not for themselves but loving God first and foremost in relation to these things.  As Ignatius wrote in a letter in 1553, “For all goodness sought in [God’s] creatures is present with much greater perfection in Him who created them” (Monumenta Ignatiana, 5, p. 488).  This permits us to have a rightly-ordered love for both God and created beings.

All of creation and what we encounter in this world are not ends in themselves but a means, for God is our one, true and only end.  Hence, these things should be valued inasmuch as they lead us to God, and disavowed inasmuch as they lead us astray.  Ignatius proposes that we love God in all created things by stripping ourselves of all love for created things (cf. Constitutions of the Society of Jesus).  Again, Ignatius promotes this not because creation is bad and sinful but because it cannot take the rightful priority of God’s place in our lives.

The disposition of indifference is complementary to one of the aims of the Lenten Season – seeking to grow closer to God and discerning and removing any obstacles to this growth.  Freedom from these obstacles permits a greater freedom for the service of both God and neighbor.

We are called to give God our full and undivided attention by offering to Him a whole and undivided heart; to love God with our whole heart, our whole being and our whole strength (cf. Deut. 6:5).  In seeking this grace, it would be helpful to grow in the awareness that God gives each one of us His full, complete and undivided attention.  There is nothing that stands in the way of God’s love for us.  His joy and delight for each one of us is abundant.

As we reflect on the aim of created beings, let us permit our hearts to overflow in melodious fashion and join the choir of creation in praising, reverencing and serving our God and King.

Questions:  When have creation and the things of this world aided me in praising, reverencing and serving God?   When have they been an obstacle to this three-fold pursuit?  How am I growing in the awareness that God is presently giving me His full, complete and undivided attention, and is inviting me to respond to His generosity?

Text:  Ps 117

Reflection:  Today we receive ashes on our foreheads and head into the desert for 40 days.  What will guide us along the way?

We might be inclined to draw up an itinerary for ourselves: I hope to get this, this, and this out of the Lenten retreat.  But even if the things we name are good in themselves, we instantly recognize how artificial it all sounds.  We did not decide to go into the desert on our own, but only because our Lord went first.  And so we have to follow his lead.  Plus, we know from experience how quickly we run up against our own limitations and how often we have abandoned our good intentions in the past.  How can I count on myself any more this year than last?

The words we hear as the ashes are being traced on our foreheads point the way forward: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  While we are prone to forget the fact, Lent always reminds us that we are creatures.  And if creatures, then not isolated individuals.  Our very existence points beyond us to our Creator.  He alone is the answer to our questions.  He alone establishes the itinerary of our pilgrimage and gives us the grace to complete it.

Here at the very beginning of the retreat, therefore, our attention should already shift from ourselves to the Lord who created us.  If we want to know the way forward, we have to ask what the Lord created us for.  What end did he have in mind?  St. Ignatius says something that might surprise you:

 “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.”

(Spiritual Exercises, #23)

We are created, first of all, to delight in the Lord and to praise him for his goodness.  How often do you find yourself praying in this way?  We often pray to ask the Lord for something that we need.  We even pray to thank him for what he has given us.  But both of these kinds of prayers begin with our own concerns and then move outward toward God.  When we praise and adore him, on the other hand, we place our “I” so fully in God that we forget our own concerns.  And this inevitably leads to the desire to serve him—to make his concerns our own.

Knowing what we were created for frees us up to enter the retreat with great generosity.  And it will remain our essential compass throughout, because it keeps us in the disposition of receptivity.  We want to give the Lord complete control to shape the retreat, and ultimately our lives, as he desires.

So the first word of our retreat is “praise.”  We take this day to reflect on God’s goodness, to praise him for his love which radiates through all of creation.  To marvel at the fact that he is always greater from one moment to the next.

Begin by reflecting on the statement of St. Ignatius.  Do I recognize that my end is to praise, adore, and serve him?  How does this thought move me?

Then read our text for today, Psalm 117.  Hear the command going out to all the earth, to all peoples and nations: praise the Lord!  Coming into the Lord’s presence with love and reverence, how are you moved to praise him?

If you find that music moves you to greater devotion, you may draw some fruit listening to Mozart’s setting of the “Laudate Dominum,” which is the text of Psalm 117 in Latin (see text below).

Laudate Dominum, omnes gentes;
laudate eum, omnes populi.
Quoniam confirmata est
super nos misericordia ejus;
et veritas Domini manet in æternum.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto,
sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper
et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Text for prayer: Ps 91

Reflection:  Many years of St. Ignatius’s life were poured into the development of the Spiritual Exercises.  This work, though,  was not the labor wrought of  some saintly theologian academically prescribing a rigid method of prayer.  Rather, Ignatius gives us his own journey to God.  Before the Saint and before his education, he found a path to God.  His years were first spent on the journey and then later refining it so that it could be shared.  These exercises are recognized as such a great gift because they work for all of us, whether one is a pauper or papal.  If we enter this time with sincerity and an open heart, then there is little reason to fear that we are not going to do it right, for these exercises are not written just for theologians or spiritual giants, but for humans who seek God.

As we enter this Lenten Season, we should seek to enter with freedom.  Many think that Lent simply means that we need to pray harder, longer, or go to an extra Mass or two.  In this way it might feel much like an obligation or a duty.  However, this time is better thought of as an invitation.  It is an invitation into the realization of God’s life and the knowledge that God is with us.  We are free to simply accept God as an obligation, but our lives are much more enriched when we realize that God is also an unconditional gift who deserves more than just obligatory respect.

Over the many days of Lent, we will not simply give up chewing gum but will ask God, as Ignatius did, to meet us here and now.  None of this will be simple rote prayer, but a very real petition for God to meet us in our own lives and in His.

With today’s text let us ask for the freedom to pray this season with confidence that God will provide our thoughts and imagination with His direction.  When we meditate, let us be confident that God is guiding our intellect, our memory, and our will to love in order to find Him.  When we contemplate, let us be confident that God is directing all of our senses to come to a greater understanding of Christ’s life and, in turn, the meaning of our own lives.

Questions: What am I bringing to Lent this year? What do I most need to ask of the Lord? What concrete things can I do each day to grow closer to Him? What might stand in my way of doing this?

When we resume posting on Ash Wednesday (February 22), the format will be much the same as it was in years past: daily meditations based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius that will go throughout Lent and the first week of Easter. And, just like last year, you don’t need any familiarity with the Exercises to follow along. If you are new to the blog, please be sure to read the Getting Stated page first. From there, you should be able to follow along as each new post comes out.

In addition to getting a new lineup of Jesuits to reflect on the Exercises this year,  we have also tried to make the content more accessible to those who begin in the middle of Lent or who want to go at their own pace. There is a new commenting system, some new accessibility controls for those who prefer larger font sizes (coming soon), a list of related posts from previous years at the bottom of each new post, and a list of posts in chronological order that should make finding just what you are looking for a little bit easier. (If that doesn’t do the trick, you can always just do a search, too.)

If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to contact us. We always love to hear from you, and we hope that you will join us again (or for the first time) as a way to grow closer to Jesus through prayer over the course of the Lenten season.

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.

You may wish to use this as you go back over some of the prayers for the Resurrection, or the Contemplation to Attain the Love of God from yesterday. Alternately, using this method to pray over the daily Mass readings could also be a fruitful practice. Whatever your preference, taking a little bit of time each day to be with Jesus in prayer will always be important in maintaining and deepening a relationship with Him.

We hope to be back next Lent to go through the Exercises again, and hope that you will join us again in order to get to know the Lord better and discern better how to follow Jesus in all that you do.

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.

With those points in mind, we place ourselves in the presence of God and His angels and His saints, who intercede for us, who have prayed for us throughout the retreat.

Let us then consider four points, making an offering of myself after each one.

First, consider the blessings of creation and redemption, how God has called me into being and how Christ has suffered and died, so I might be reconciled to the Father. When I reflect upon the gifts of creation and then redemption, what sort of offering should I make?  Ignatius gives a model of how we might make an offering, a prayer known as the Suscipe:

Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
Thou hast given all to me.  To Thee, O Lord, I return it.
All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to They will.
Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Second, consider how God dwells in all creatures, in plants and in animals and in humans. Indeed, He makes a temple of me, since I have been created in His image and likeness. When I reflect upon this marvelous honor bestowed upon me, what sort of offering should I make?

Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
Thou hast given all to me.  To Thee, O Lord, I return it.
All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to They will.
Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Third, consider how God is laboring for me in all the creatures on the earth. He is not content simply to set things in motion, but toils for my benefit. He makes trees bear fruit for us, He makes the sun shine upon us, and never ceases to work on my behalf. When I see the Lord laboring without rest for my good,  what sort of offering should I make?

Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
Thou hast given all to me.  To Thee, O Lord, I return it.
All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to They will.
Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Finally, consider how all blessings and gifts come from heaven, like water from a fountain. All the power and justice and goodness and mercy that I possess come from God, who rains them into my soul. When I see all the gifts God has showered upon me, what sort of offering should I make?

Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
Thou hast given all to me.  To Thee, O Lord, I return it.
All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to They will.
Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

The final meditation of the Exercises is a summons to live life with gratitude.  And not a passive gratitude, but a gratitude that yearns to manifest itself in deeds. Ignatius saw ingratitude as the root of every sin. Gratitude, an ongoing recollection of the innumerable blessings the Lord has bestowed, will animate our faith, our hope and our charity.  Be grateful, and you will walk in the light.

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.

Consider how the divinity of Christ, which seemed hidden during the Passion, now appears and manifests itself so miraculously in this holy Resurrection, through its true and most holy effects.  This is the fullness of the life of God present among men!  God’s act of creation is consummated in this moment.

Consider the task of consoler which Christ our Lord carries out, and compare it with the way friends console one another.  As our friend, Christ comes near to us to put our anxieties to rest.  At first many of the people he appears to do not see that it is Him.  But through the Spirit that He bears, our vision is cleared—we recognize Christ as our Lord, Redeemer, and Friend.

The friendship that Christ offers us is a relationship of consolation.  To be consoled by the Resurrected One is to participate in the Resurrection and be left confirmed in a true experience and reception of genuine hope: God has come to us!  Not even death can restrain Him!  In His task of consoling, Christ gives us the Spirit that proceeds from His love with the Father—and He gives without measure!

The various reactions of all the people that Christ appears to amount to one thing: the adoration of our Lord.  For the man who was brutally crucified three days ago is present now, gloriously alive—because He is Life itself. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate purification that drives each human being to the most authentic of joys rooted in the Glory of God.

Questions: How does Jesus choose to people?  What kinds of things does he say to them?  How do they respond?  How would the scene play out if Jesus appeared to me and consoled me as a friends do?  What kinds of things would I want to tell him?  What kinds of things would he want to tell me?

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.

She had loved her Son to the bitter end – enduring His separation from her while teaching and preaching, His painful walk along the Way of the Cross, and ultimately His Crucifixion and death.  She never left Her Son’s side.  Could one have given any more than Mary?  And even as she lost Her Son, He gave her as Mother to all humanity from the Cross.  Her love, trust, and work is ceaseless.

Moreover, Mary is Jesus’ Mother.   She, human like us, loved Jesus in the home at Nazareth perfectly.  She searched for Him the day He remained in the temple when Mary and Joseph left in the caravan.  She lived with Him until He was about thirty years old and began His public ministry.  Could we begin to imagine the joy shared between these two who loved one another so trustingly and completely?

Considering well then the amount of love, labor, and persevering trust that Mary showed, as well as the deep affection that abides between Mother and Son, let us sit with the scene of Jesus meeting Mary in His resurrected glory.  Let us imagine their faces, their words, their feelings.  With them this Easter, let our joy be complete.

Questions:  Taking Mary as an example, at moments when the cost is greatest and the need for generosity and trust the most, can I continue to be faithful?

How can I come to trust more deeply that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, completely victorious over sin and death, and that He will lead, console, and save me?

Speaking to Jesus as a friend, what joy do I want to share with Jesus upon His Resurrection?

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?

In addition to all of those sufferings, Jesus also finds Himself mocked and ridiculed by the chief priests and the guards, who sarcastically call Him “King of the Jews.” Here, the hope of the Jewish people is crucified and their King is destroyed before their very eyes, on a hill just outside their most holy city, on a roadway where every passer-by cannot help but see. Worst of all, it is the Jewish people themselves who do this, all the while taunting God the Father to repent of His merciful plan and take Jesus down from the cross. This is the abomination par excellence in all of human history, an offense crying out for God’s action such that the world has never before seen and will never see again. How could God the Father remain silent and allow this to happen?

Such is the cry of many people even today when they are confronted by abominable suffering, and we have no answer to offer in response to their cries. Before such suffering, such injustice, such offenses in the sight of God, there is no adequate response. There are no words of explanation. Here, we are confronted with more than human beings can understand or explain.

All that we can do is watch and bear witness to all that is happening. Through the eyes of faith, all that we see is not meaningless, even in the very moment when all our explanations and attempts to find meaning fail us. In that failure of our understanding, God’s wisdom—which is forever beyond our wisdom—shines through to show us His infinite, self-giving, sacrificial, redemptive love. Christ’s Passion is not merely the greatest horror the world has ever known; it is also the greatest love the world has ever known. And in the perfect wisdom of our good God, love always wins, even when it is faced with the horrors of death on a cross.

Questions: As Jesus tells us elsewhere, those who crucify Him do not know what they are doing. They have lost sight of who they are because they have lost sight of who God is. As I stand with Jesus at the foot of the cross, what does His Passion tell me about myself? As I watch the Lord suffer death in order that I might know Him and be with Him forever, how do I feel moved to show my gratitude? What does His self-giving love call me to in my life right now?

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?

King Herod brings Jesus before him only to mock and scorn Him.  Jesus’ mission is the source of derision and contempt.  Where have I been mocked or scorned for living out my covenant with God?

Pontius Pilate is caught in an ethical bind – competing duties to justice, to his Roman superiors, to the angry crowd before him, and to this pitiable man he recognizes as unjustly accused.  Where have I compromised my principles and failed to recognize Christ as King, preferring instead expediency or not ‘making waves’?

Questions for prayer.  Considering the questions above, imagine praying with Jesus staring at me just as He looked at the thrice-denying Peter.  In what areas is He calling me to greater purity of heart and single-mindedness of intention?  Let the grace today be to simply feel Jesus’ pain as I stand beside Him: Christ as He is feared, reviled, ridiculed and abandoned before the complex intentions of earthly powers.