Theresa Wang, a campus minister from Taiwan, was thinking about leaving her school when a t-shirt slogan caught her attention. Shortly after, she went on a retreat where she experienced the love of God. Watch the video of Wang explaining her cannonball moment below.
The English translation is available when the closed captioning is on.
This video is part of an initiative by the global Society of Jesus for the Ignatian Year.
Explore more cannonball moments with dotMagis bloggers and friends throughout July. It’s part of 31 Days with St. Ignatius, our month-long celebration of Ignatian spirituality.
Nice and inspiring video. Thanks Theresa Wang. God bless.
Trees with deep roots thrive.
That said…and all slogans only capture a partial truth…I always assumed that not gathering moss was a good thing. In other words, keep changing, keep moving forward. Of course, change for its own sake can be fruitless.
Wonderful to have a new perspective on this old saying. The Abbot at the local Benedictine monastery remarked that he really needed the structure of a daily, weekly and monthly calendar. Over the last few years I’ve really come to appreciate that as well. I wonder how many have discovered daily prayer structures during the last year of Covid, and don’t want to give that up in order to return to rolling on?
“this corner stone, this solid ground”. Poetry, music and reading the words of writers who inspire me. These are all cannonball moments. These moments bring me back to my life.
I had a cannonball moment in January1987. Our family had just moved to Alaska and so had a Jesuit named Fr. Vince Beuzer. He came to be the new director of the Holy Spirit Retreat House. The first thing he did was to offer a six-week course on prayer. About 40 people came the first night. He told us that if we really wanted to pray, we needed to set aside 20 minutes every day. Well, that didn’t sit well with me. I was busy, for heaven sake. Finally, I went to see him. I spent an hour telling him I didn’t have time and anyway I didn’t have feelings. At the end of the hour Fr. Vince asked me if I would like to finish with a prayer. So I closed my eyes but surprisingly no words came. Instead, I clearly saw a picture of Jesus and me walking down a road holding hands, soft clay under our feet, tree branches overhead with sunlight pouring through, and me talking my head off. Later I realized that I had been given the privilege of a spontaneous consolation. After that I had no trouble finding time for prayer. It was a life-changing moment.
Beautiful Paula. your comment reminded me of my graces i received from Jesus.
Friendship with jesus..friendship with God..allowing him to love you.
Reminds me of when I was in Italy in 1974. Everywhere I went, I saw an advert picturing a girl from the back wearing jeans with a toothbrush in the pocket. The caption said “all you need in life”. The brand…Jesus Jeans. Not sure whether they really knew what they were saying but it made a big impact on me! I’m 73 and I’ve never forgotten that ad!