My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

–Thomas Merton

Our sixth and last Lunchtime Examen goes online today. This week’s question is “What shall I do?” It’s about the final step of the traditional Ignatian examen–the action we take to love God and other people in the day ahead.  Click on the button above. (Click here if you can’t see it.)

These Lunchtime Examens have been introduced every Wednesday in Lent, but they’ll be permanently available here at IgnatianSpirituality.com.

Our fifth Lunchtime Examen goes online today. This week’s question is “What does the Examen have to do with being honest with God?” Click on the button above. (Click here if you can’t see it.)

These Lunchtime Examens will still be available on IgnatianSpirituality.com after Lent is over. We’re working out the details now.

Our fourth Lunchtime Examen goes online today.  This week’s question is “What do our feelings have to do with prayer?” Click on the button above.

Our third Lunchtime Examen is online today.  This week, in addition to the guided prayer, I talk about how the examen answers the question, “what do I pray about?”  Click on the button above.

Today is the first day of the  Novena of Grace, an annual time of prayer directed to the intercession of St. Francis Xavier.  This special novena has been celebrated for hundreds of years.  It ends on March 12, the day that St. Francis and St. Ignatius Loyola were canonized.  A Jesuit who was miraculously healed through Francis’s intercession said that the saint promised  that “all who ask his intercession with God for nine days, in honor of his canonization, would infallibly experience the effects of his great power in heaven and would receive whatever they asked that would contribute to their salvation.”

Prayers for the novena have been posted by the Maryland province of the Jesuits.  If you pray them, you’ll learn much about the dramatic life of one of the church’s great saints.

During December 2010, I visited Loyola Press to talk with the marketing and sales team about why, when and how to use social media. As part of my preparation, I hunkered down to take a more rigorous look at the Virtual Abbey, an online community offering the Daily Office via Twitter.  This virtual monastery seems to engage new and active participants on a weekly basis.

People are hungry for prayer as well as engagement in community.  Yearning to seek and find, they’re knocking on virtual doors that open into real experiences of faith lived out in the secular world.  The Virtual Abbey uses online technologies and tools to provide prayer, as well as community, for people of faith–and those who yearn to be.

My experience with the Virtual Abbey plus participating in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be “church” these days, inspired me to create this contemporary take on Saint Teresa of Avila’s well-known prayer, Christ Has No Body. For your consideration and contemplation:

The feast of Epiphany today brings the Christmas season to an end.  To mark the day, here’s a litany called “Now the Work of Christmas Begins” composed by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own. Amen.

Most of us are feeling the pressure at this time of year.  Too much to do; too little time.  Here’s a prayer for anxious people, written by William Browning,  C.P.  I found it on the Orientations website, a fine resource for prayer maintained by the Canadian Jesuits.

A Prayer to the Holy Spirit

O Holy Spirit, give me stillness of soul in you.
Calm the turmoil within, with the gentleness of your peace.
Quiet the anxiety within, with a deep trust in you.
Heal the wounds of sin within, with the joy of your forgiveness.
Strengthen the faith within, with the awareness of your presence.
Confirm the hope within, with the knowledge of your strength.
Give fullness to the love within, with an outpouring of your love.

O Holy Spirit, be to me a source of light, strength and courage
so that I may hear your call ever more clearly
and follow you more generously.