The grace we are asking of God: to discover Jesus in my own personal story so that my personal myth may be transformed in Jesus, as was that of Ignatius, that I will be disposed to hear God’s call and follow it wholeheartedly

Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.

Begin by relaxing your body, your mind, letting go of anxieties and ambitions and expectations and plans… Lay all that you notice and all that you are bare and exposed before the Father who welcomes you with a gaze that is gently loving. Settle into the silence that runs deeper than emotional turbulence… Move beyond imagination where you wait upon the stirring of the soul and the movement of the heart. Return to Jesus to find the Rest he offers…to welcome the gift…to become a child held in safe arms….

Making Space for the Word

Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. (Luke 4)

Here you are entering into the Mystery

Notice the sounds of everyone sitting that day in the Synagogue. Everyone turning toward Jesus, the village boy of Nazareth that had grown up among them.

His words crack like thunder on a serene day: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The statement is met by silence then an uncomfortable clearing of throats and shifting of position. Some exchanged glances, alarmed and uncertain….

“Today this scripture is fulfill in your hearing.” As if Jesus were saying: You are used to listening to the reading of the prophets Sabbath after Sabbath, as a recounting of thoughts and events and ideas and prayers of people who populated history but who are now longer here. Now I am here. I am the fulfillment of the prophecies.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.”

It was as if Jesus is trying to tell them: I want you to know that the heart of the Father who has described himself again and again as being full of hesed has now been broken open and is now at this very moment pouring out love upon you. Not loving words, or ideas, or promises, but the deed that is the sending of his Son because he has so loved the world.

Hesed is a Hebrew word that appears some 250 times in the Old Testament and is variously translated in the Scriptures as mercy, compassion, unfailing love, faithful love, grace, and faithfulness. Hesed at its very core communicated faithfulness within God’s covenant with his people. It expresses God’s faithfulness to his people.

Jesus stated that day that God was giving them the gift of his love in faithfulness to the covenant he had made with them. Jesus, God’s gift, would free, give sight, forgive, offer salvation, heal, proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor in the gift of forgiveness and salvation in Christ.

“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

What was in Jesus’ heart as he looked into each face, saying “I am here. God is here. I am God-with-you. I am love. God is love. I am going to free you so that you may be lifted up into the love that is God.”

We know the end of the story, you know the part about the villagers trying to toss Jesus off the cliff. And that kind of spoils the rest of the story. We might think that Jesus showed up at the synagogue that day in a feisty mood, arrogant, resistant…. But just forget the ending of the story of the minute and listen to Jesus’ heart….

Listen! I hear my lover’s voice.
I know it’s him coming to me—
leaping with joy over mountains,
skipping in love over the hills that separate us,
to come to me (Song of Songs 2:8).

Jesus’ heart is filled with amazing grace for the people he loves. Those people in Nazareth that day…. Enter deeply into the mystery of that moment. See the love reflected in Jesus’ gaze. Re-read his words and let them be filled with a loving offer he is making to them.

Is there hope in his heart? Excitement? Joy at being able to bring his friends and fellow Nazareans along with him?

And how does he look at you? Let there be that same excitement, joy, faithful love. That loves doesn’t come from the behavior of the one loved. Hesed, steadfast love and compassion comes from the one who is offering the love to the other.

“Will you receive my love?” Can you hear Jesus ask you this?

This deeper contemplation of Jesus is an apprenticeship of your feelings and senses in which you are formed in such a way that you feel with Jesus, that your feelings becomes those of Jesus.

Entering into the mystery you humbly allow Jesus to be your Master, to educate your senses and feelings according to the pattern of his own life and teachings. It is a matter of becoming saturated with Jesus’ own way of being and feeling.

Allow your spirit to soak up what has been felt and known in this contemplative prayer.

Allow the offer of freedom, mercy, healing, joy to wash over you….

Where is there resistance to the gift of God’s love in Christ….

To this love story into which you and I are being drawn….

This place that may feel shadowy and messy God has always known, because it is a part of your life and your struggle. But at the core of who you are, what is most deeply human within you, responds with delight and pleasure to this being drawn into the proximity of loving relationship through which our humanity will be made whole again.

“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This God who approaches us first, who shows us our beauty and our goodness when we are bathed in the light of his loving gaze…

It is from God’s love for us that we learn what love is… How beautiful the experience of God-like love is….

Entering still deeper into the mystery of Christ, allow your heart to taste, to smell, to touch the infinite gentleness and sweetness of Jesus. Allow your spirit to soak up what has been felt and known in this contemplative prayer.

As you do this your mind’s activity will fade into the background, and the mystery you are intuitively contemplating will begin to take over and engulf you, planting within your spirit an inner knowledge of the Lord.

A gift to take with you

Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.

Ask Mary, Joseph and Jesus to show you one specific gift they wish to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Reviewing the Graces of Prayer

When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.

Image Credit: Berthold Werner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons