When my son, Brady, was eight weeks old, I led my first Charis retreat in the Diocese of Baton Rouge. I remember kneeling at the closing Mass, both exhausted and energized from juggling being both mom and minister, and begging God, “If you want me to continue this ministry, show me how. Is this a [...]
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It’s a problem we’ve all experienced: we deeply desire something; we think God has put the desire in our hearts; but it seems impossible that we’ll ever have it. Ignatius had a suggestion, Lisa Kelly says: Ignatius told his companions that the solution to dealing with this tension . . . is to step back [...]
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I recently followed a link on this site to a 2003 article in America that expanded my understanding of Ignatian discernment. I knew about discernment of the inner movements of the heart. But William Spohn, SJ, points out how important it is to discern the what is happening outside ourselves. How does God call us [...]
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My new favorite description of love is the willingness to enter a mess. It’s a pretty decent description of the Incarnation (or kenosis for you theologians out there); it captures the spirit of that oft-quoted passage from Matthew 25 about feeding Jesus when you feed the hungry. It’s pretty close to the sentiment that Ignatius [...]
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In recent weeks, Vinita Wright has been posting some terrific material about Ignatian discernment on her blog Days of Deepening Friendship. For starters, take a look at “Four Strategies for Discernment,” “The Grace We Need,” and “Consolation and Desolation.” To keep track of Vinita’s posts, sign up for her blog. Vinita is a spiritual director, [...]
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Something to think about | Discernment presupposes an ability to reflect on the ordinary events of one’s life, a habit of personal prayer, self-knowledge, knowledge of one’s deepest desires and openness to God’s direction and guidance. Discernment is a prayerful “pondering” or “mulling over” the choices a person wishes to consider. In his discernment, the [...]
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This week we are republishing some of the most popular posts from dotMagis. The word “God” is a pronoun whose antecedent we do not know. When we are struck by beauty, when it lays claim to our attention and nearly takes our breath away, or when beholding the beautiful makes us for a moment deeply [...]
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The last straw which led to Saint Augustine’s conversion to Christianity was the voice of a child, playing a game in which he chanted “take and read, take and read.” The voice led Augustine to pick up the Bible and read a passage from Romans which made him look upon himself and the world in [...]
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No kid stuff to plaster all over my refrigerator with fruit magnets, just stuff that has captured my attention. Mostly images, snippets of scripture, prayers. Some stuff, like the laminated Sacred Heart of Jesus card from a funeral back in 1996 has been posted on at least three different refrigerators since then. The chart with [...]
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Lisa Kelly says that consolation is sometimes painful: On the surface, we fun-seeking humans will do lots of things that are not of God to avoid feeling bad, to avoid the aches of the heart. We shop. We eat. We yell. We procrastinate. We deny the reality before us. But while each of those may [...]
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