An Ignatian Prayer Adventure is at the halfway point. We move into Week 5, exploring the question: What do I really want?
We begin with the meditation on the Call of Christ, Our King.
How has the retreat experience been for you so far? Please share your questions and reflections in the comments.
I too had to adjust from the medieval approach. But I had no trouble finding a “prince” who is calling me. Actually they are several – the Jesuits who staff the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. They are calling me to a ministsry to migrant Latinos here in Maryland.
Awe-some, Patrick! I think we all need a prince(ss) and we all need to be one as well.
Linda, that Creighton reflection helped me, too. I liked “I like a map but sometimes Jesus just wants to go for a walk. The reflection helped me to pray the Call of the King by reminding me that Jesus can use me however little I feel I can offer.
Maria, that resonates with me as well and I know I always want to rush ahead and look for the next thing while the Lord is trying to get me to appreciate that I am already DOING the next good thing. Yabut. But but but….
I had to smile at Linda’s first post! My faith community in my Jesuit parish is making the Spiritual Exercises each Wed at their retreat center. Last week, the speaker started by asking if we had any expectations of the evening. It was kind of a trick question! Because then he immediately said, well, forget about your expectations, let the Spirit surprise you!
I cross genres here, well no, only web sites but this one is also worthy of mention as I followed it for many years. Today’s Reflection is right on with what we are doing here: http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/031912.html
especially the part where O’Reilly says, “My prayer today is for those of us who feel frustrated with the journey or feel stagnant ….”
Not being Catholic (I’m Episcopalian) I’ve just recently discovered Ignatian spirituality thru Fr. Jim Martin’s book. It resonates strongly with me. I find the discipline of doing this retreat rewarding in that it makes me look at my spiritual practices from a different perspective. I especially enjoy the imaginative prayer parts. Your website has provided me with many rich resources to help me deepen my faith.
Evelyn, do you know that I would never have attempted that before as I thought I would go too far (writers do that) and rewrite the Bible or just get plain ridiculous (we tend to imagine beyond imaginings) but I did apply it to the writing of my novel and guess what.
It works.
Which means I have to slow down and I hate that slowing down but the Lord will use whatever means we will pay attention to.
I always thought medieval meant middle ages, not Biblical times. Yes, I noticed that without noticing, I look for similarities instead of differences. I can see for example similar attitudes such as for example the JWs, who also see marriage as a sacrament and who actually can do transfusions using their own banked blood which is a good lesson for all of us). Even facial structures are similar in totally different races.
This is a timely meditation for me, since I’m grappling with the divisiveness I’m seeing in the Church. Plus, in doing social justice work, we’re faced with the competition between different political and social points of view. I did have to adapt the medieval imagery, because I can think of no wordly leader that all Catholics or Christians reverence and obey! I have my own, especially Fr. Jim Martin, in whom I find God’s call. Maybe if we all remembered to follow Jesus’ call to kindness and mercy, we would be more tolerant of each other’s differences.
The things that happen are not the things I had intellectually anticipated but rather those which I could not have anticipated or expected. I follow the retreat and other guides loosely and know by now that when God wants me to do a thing (as we ask in the Examen) he moves me in that moment, not the day before like I think I prefer (so I can kick and scream and change my mind a few times).
Is the retreat working? Not as per scripted rote as I find much of it elementary and repetitive whereas I always want something new but that is my restless scanning mind and I realize that going over and over the same ground grounds it. Is God working? Definitely as I see from my actions and behaviours that I am different than I was a year and two years and five years ago in ways I wasn’t paying attention to and should have been.
The retreats and guides I follow definitely do make a difference inasmuch as I feel life in general moves much too slowly at times but that’s my call to fill the spaces and not for the world to move faster.