I am excited about the idea of a number of people from this pastoral area taking part in the Ignatian Retreat and sharing some of their experiences as a way of growing in understanding of God in our lives.
I have found this retreat to be uplifting and challenging, I have found it to be difficult and yet rewarding. Through all of my experiences in it I found the most value arising when I could share with others about it.
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This blog is available on the parish website. We look forward to reading about people's experiences.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't easy to get started, I come up with all sort of reasons not to start just yet. And this being on the internet, there all sorts of potential distractions.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I started though. What caught me was this thought of 'how does God see me?'. I find it easier to say how I see God. As I sat with that, I came to realise that maybe the answer lies within that - if I see God in other people, then God is seeing me through them - the effort I put in to be 'God' to others is revealing how I expect God to see me. I need more time with this.
I liked the reflection on love: "The logical consequence for us must surely be that our part is to let ourselves be loved, let ourselves be given to, let ourselves be worked upon by this great God and made capable of total union with Him".
A bit harder to find time today but I persisted and created some space for myself. I do like the intimacy of psalm 139. It used to bother me though, that sense of being formed and my days being shaped before I came into being. But now I see it as being loved into existence and the desire for me to be a fully human person for my benefit. It is liberating.
ReplyDeleteI started late, only today, having found lots of reasons to put it off! I think I'm hooked. The grace to be more aware of God's nearness to me spoke directly to me. Isaiah's insistence on "Fear not..." The Anima Christi, a prayer I have never been drawn to spoke to me with "Never let me be separated from you." I look forward to tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to be surprised Anne especially when starting out.
DeleteI find it interesting how we get 'prodded' every so often. I had set a time yesterday to pray and as it approached I decided I would just pick up on a voicemail left for me. Of course, it was someone who needed me to call back which I did and that led to something else and before I knew it I had to head off to a meeting. I find it so easy to do anything else but pray.
ReplyDeleteBut the 'prodding' came later. I was listening to a CD a good friend passed onto me, talking about reclaiming the Sabbath. One thing He said on it was that the Jewish Sabbath starts at sunset on the Friday. Once the sun hits the horizon all work stops and you light a candle and enter prayer. He said there is no negotiating with the sun as to when it will set. I need to find my 'sunset' moment and stop negotiating with it.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who needs "prodding"! Psalm 139 is challenging. I find, especially in the modern version, that I fear the depth of God's knowledge of me, the fact that there is no hiding place from God. I have to trust in His all forgiving love. The Reflection is consoling to one who is always in the head and almost never experiences the "response of the heart."
ReplyDeletePraying day 5 today and I am having difficulty with 'How do I concretely praise, love, and serve God?'particularly the praise element. I can speak about God and 'praise' God especially when talking to the children in school about God and the experience of unconditional love but when I look inside of myself I find it resistance to praising God. I need to revisit this and perhaps will sit with day 5 for another day at least.
ReplyDeleteLast night I was driving to Greystones for a meeting. As I came across Windgates the full moon was lighting up a calm sea. It was spectacular, I had to stop the car so as to take a moment to admire and to just take in the beauty of the sight. After a few moments I and to move on and as I did so it occurred to me that this moment to pause and gaze in wonder was offering praise to God, the creator.
DeleteSometimes it is worth moving on even when stuck with something. I sat with this sense of how I praise God and I came to realise it was a 'traditional' sense of praise, Holy God we praise thy name and so on.
DeleteBut I moved on and day 6 gave me more support: IN it I read 'Consider it an invitation for you to experience more deeply how intimately related you are to God and to all of God’s creation (including persons, other creatures, and the natural world)..... I learn that the best way to praise God is to be who God made me to be and to honor the uniqueness of other creatures'. And that is something I can grasp and work with. It supports my revelation on the road to Greystones earlier in the week when I stopped to look at the moon reflecting on the water.
Easy in ways to be open to this praise of God in creation right now as the new buds are forming on the trees and the delicate flowers are adorning the trees with pinks and yellows. More difficult with people, but that is for another moment of reflection.
My problem with the Principle and Foundation is rather that of "indifference." I rebelled at first against the idea of "using" all created things for my own ends, but on re-reading saw that it is for THE end of loving and serving God. Still having difficulty with discovering my true self before God.
ReplyDeletePaul, I can praise God happily until I read the newspaper or watch the News - then I come close to criticising Him! I have always wondered about the first commandment being to love God and only the second to love your neighbour. I can only do the first through the second.
Huge help on Day 6 from Margaret Silf's "Meaning of Detachment."
ReplyDeleteYes Anne, I love the writing of Margaret Silf. I attended a workshop with her two years ago and she was wonderful.
DeleteShe has a beautiful example there on day 6 of what it means to be indifferent, detached.
Starting Week 2 and Psalm 121 made me remember yesterday's words from the Pope when he said it sometimes seemed as if the Lord were asleep. I have always loved the opening lines of that psalm and now I take note of the second verse "He who keeps you will not slumber". Five times in the short psalm the writer says He will "keep" you. Like many, I find myself between faith and hope.
ReplyDeleteI entered week 2 this evening and like you, Anne, found this psalm very comforting and supportive. The verse 'The LORD is your guardian; the LORD is your shade at your right hand' gives a strong sense of protection, not only id the Lord at my side but shades me also. To shade someone means you need to be watching them constantly as the shade needs to be moved this way and that to keep the person protected.
DeleteToday I was at a funeral and then the first reconciliation ceremonies for some of the children I am working with this year. Their simplicity of acceptance of the shepherd seeking the lost sheep is affirming. They do not question but that God will find me when I am lost, will continue to shade me.
The examen always seems so practical and even easy, and yet after exploring it day by day now as part of this adventure its promised fruits still seem elusive.
ReplyDeleteIt is that movement from head to heart that I find is such a difficult journey, I know the theory, but the practice is another thing altogether.
I am really struggling with week 3 and the focus on sin. I can talk to the young people in the schools about how God loves us unconditionally and talk to them about how it is when we do not show love that we 'sin' we make God less present in the world. Yet when I try to engage with the material this week it leaves me cold and unmoved. So that is my prayer on this day 3 of week 3 as ponder Jesus crucified, why am i cold to this broken body, help me to understand.
ReplyDeleteTh reflection on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus made me feel very Pharisaical; I do thank God for faith and hope in Him but "thank you for not making me like those who don't have faith"?? I know people of no faith who are much better people than I am. This week is a struggle. Maybe I have lost the sense of sin.
ReplyDeleteDay 4 of week three and the prodigal son. I have always felt sorry for the elder son but I realise now that the prodigal showed great courage and humility in risking returning to possible shame and contempt. Like the elder I have been given everything; God's generosity knows no bounds. I understand better now that He doesn't compare us with one another, I just need to do what He wants of me.
ReplyDeleteI feel a certain triumph at reaching the end of week 3. I haven't found it easy, not that it is meant to be, but I have struggled with it and haven't come to any resolution. It recommends you end the week praising God and that I can do, praising God for being with me through this. I like the Rahner reflection on the latest day of this week:The God of my beginning and end, God of my joy and my need, God of my life? Amen.
ReplyDeleteI feel a certain triumph at reaching the end of week 3. I haven't found it easy, not that it is meant to be, but I have struggled with it and haven't come to any resolution. It recommends you end the week praising God and that I can do, praising God for being with me through this. I like the Rahner reflection on the latest day of this week:The God of my beginning and end, God of my joy and my need, God of my life? Amen.
ReplyDeleteAt last I have struggled to the end of week 3. I do pray for a deeper understanding of the HIDDEN sinful tendencies that influence me but I find Paul's belief in sin dwelling within him hard to reconcile with believing God is within me. I find it even harder to pray for deliverance from "this miserable body"! Surely the "God of my life" made that too.
ReplyDelete