Friends, Today we are entering into the final two weeks before Easter. In fact, in just ten days we will find ourselves in the most sacred days of the liturgical year, indeed, the most holy… More
Guided Meditation for Inner Peace
Guided prayer in the presence of God
What is the working image of your life? (Horizons of the Heart 17)
The grace we are asking of God: a deeply felt awareness of how God draws us into the unfolding of the mystery of the Word made flesh and how in doing this we enter into a process of healing that we might love Jesus and follow him more intentionally
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.
I invite you to read the passage below from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke a couple times. There is a Gospel contemplation on this passage here. In this meditation we will be expanding on the Gospel contemplation, exploring the fruits of your conversation with Jesus and Mary, helping you getting a sense of how Jesus is calling you to follow him more intensely and more closely.
From the Gospel of Luke:
When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him (Luke 2:21-38).
This passage that St Ignatius suggests to the person making the Spiritual Exercises can open up, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our own experience of birth, childhood, family, religious upbringing, and midlife.
It isn’t uncommon, in fact it is actually really healthy, that midway through the various periods of our life we stop and evaluate where we have been, where we are going, where we are currently. Wondering if “where we are headed” based on “where we are coming from” is really “where we want to go” is a great spiritual exercise. Certainly it isn’t couched in mystical and spiritual language. Instead it is downright real.
Am I who I want to be?
Am I who I think I am?
Am I where God has intended me to be?
These mid-way moments can happen in our mid-thirties, half-way through our fifties, or as we turn seventy. They are moments of grace.
Going Deeper
Read the passage from Luke again and notice how the four main figures that appear in the temple that day—Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna—all have a history.
Anna once was married and has lived as a widow for many decades.
Simeon is an old man and now his one goal is to see the Savior. What were his goals, I wonder, at the beginning of his priestly ministry?
Mary and Joseph had intended to live a virginal life and unexpectedly have been caught up in the mystery of salvation as the Messiah’s mother and foster-father. They now have different responsibilities than they had thought would be theirs. There is joy. There will be sorrow….
- What is your “before, present, and projected future”?
- How has your life been upended by God? By others? By situations outside of your control?
- How have you changed and grown through these transitions?
Ignatius himself had a before and an after. Very simply, we can see that before his conversion he was fascinated by daydreams and fantasies of winning the hand of a beautiful lady by doing great deeds. He desires to serve the ideal lord as a great soldier esteemed by all for his conquests. After his conversion, he was fascinated by daydreams and fantasies of doing great deeds for the Lord Jesus in service of the Divine Majesty.
“In all of us, there are similar energies that give direction, potency and meaning to our lives. They develop through the processes of our own psyches and imaginations which are influenced in a multiplicity of ways: stories we listened to as children, songs we sang, role models we experienced, images we ingested from movies and television, games we played, poetry and stories we read, historical events and movements of our own time. These archetypal energies coalesce into powerful imagery made up with images, dreams, ideologies, visions, etc., which express our heartfelt desires. The expression of these desires in story form or in some other imaginative figure can be called a myth. These myths draw upon unconscious energies fed by our own history. Myths operate predominantly below consciousness. Myths can express the direction of our lives and help us express what is ultimately ineffable — the world of ultimate meaning. Thus, my working definition of myth is a coalescence of values, images, insights, dreams, meanings that give energy and focus to our lives” (John Veltri, S.J.)
Praying with the Passage
I invite you to stand with the four adult figures of this Gospel passage. Which one of them catches your attention the most? As they meet in the Temple that day how do they represent in different ways a participation in the dreams of God for the world? What does this story make you remember or acknowledge about your own life? Your own following of Jesus?
In praying with this passage I was surprised by a few things God helped me to see about myself. I share them to jumpstart your own imagination:
- I entered the convent at 15, at almost the same age as Mary in this passage. We both entered the service of the Lord at a young age.
- I have had sorrows like Anna and have been left bereft and alone as her. Yet I haven’t taken on her stand of “worshipping night and day in the Temple, fasting and praying” so as to attain the mystic vision of seeing the Lord’s presence as he arrives unexpectedly before me.
- I have had a myth in my earlier years of doing, not wasting time, keeping my nose to the ground, propelled by forces outside me. All four of these figures in the Temple live in a stillness out of which they emerge, speak, receive, act. I have noticed that for the last number of years Jesus has gradually been attracting me to this new spiritual space. This prayer is a confirmation and a challenge to make the transition NOW.
Enter the mystery of the story. As you begin to enter the story more deeply, you will begin to see or hear or touch. You will enter into the event and interact with Jesus and Mary, Symeon and Anna more deeply. Little by little you will become more present to the mystery and the mystery will be present to you. You will feel nudged to something new. You will begin to see a thread through the last days or months or years that suddenly is understandable and makes perfect sense. You will face the option of responding or letting the opportunity go.
What is Jesus and Mary, Symeon or Anna saying to you? Continue to reflect and share a conversation with them over the next few days, noting important points in your journal.
What do you want to say to Jesus who asks you to follow him more closely today?
Photo by Dhivakaran S via Pexels
Get up and follow Christ (Luke 5:27-32)
Leaving everything behind, Levi got up and followed him.
Jesus invites people individually and personally to follow him. Levi, despite the fact that he was truly an unlikely candidate, was one of these people so blessed. As a tax collector his friends were other tax collectors and sinners. He was not in good standing in the community. His obvious riches, from which he threw a “great” banquet for Jesus in his house, were amassed at the expense of the members of the community whom he had overtaxed. His relationships there were broken, bridges burned through greed and corruption.
Yet Jesus, going out and walking along, saw Levi sitting at the customs post and knew exactly who and what he was.Jesus specifically offered an invitation to Levi to be one of the group who would become the intimate Twelve who would abide with him, build relationships with him, and become with the others the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem.
There was no mistake. Jesus wanted Levi. Jesus chose Levi.
And Levi chose Jesus.
It was Jesus who first called Levi to follow him. Levi did not call himself. He was instead irresistibly drawn. He was encountered by the Savior of the world, the King of Kings and Prince of Peace, the Christ. It was the glorious person of Jesus Christ who exerted such an attraction on him, that Levi immediately got up without hesitation, walked away from his occupation that benefited the Roman occupiers and himself, and began to walk after Jesus.
To follow Jesus is to move. To get up. To leave something behind. To enter into a new and unknown life. To be drawn into relationships where the one inviting sets the terms. To be drawn into utter obedience and submission to the demands of the Gospel.
There is a decision to be made. It may or may not have been easy for Levi to leave behind his lucrative career, but in doing so, in following Jesus, he was walking into poverty. He was walking towards the cross. He was walking into the glorious power of the resurrection.
Leaving everything behind, Levi got up and followed him.
Where have you heard these words from the lips of the Master, “Follow me.” Was it long ago when you attended a retreat, during a sacred moment of Eucharistic adoration, at a decisive moment of your vocational journey?
To follow Jesus is the most important thing you can do with your life.
It doesn’t mean you must sign away your house, your finances, your career. Levi left his tax collector’s post with all the greedy practices by which he overtaxed his fellow Jews. Yet he shortly afterward threw a large and expensive party for Jesus and invited his friends to meet the one who had become such an important part of his new life. He put his considerable wealth, property, and relationships at the service of the Kingdom in one of the first and most astounding moments of evangelization on record. He knew he was following not a project but a Person, so parties and friendships were now a part of his call, his love, and his loyalty to Christ.
So, again, where are you hearing right now the invitation of Christ to follow him? He is walking by and he is choosing you. This, by itself, is astounding. He is worthy of your time, of your attention, of your creative response. He desires your presence at the Mass, for you are his friend. He waits for you in the chapel of Eucharistic adoration because he wants to be there for you in good times and in difficult times. He hopes that you will introduce him to your friends in a way that reflects your temperament and creativity.
Leaving everything behind today. Get up and follow Christ.
Praying with this passage of Scripture
Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ.
There are four movement in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).
Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Amen.
Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Meditate (meditatio) – Read the same passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time.
Pray (oratio) – Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.
Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.
Photo Credit: Giovanni Paolo Panini, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Do not conform to the pattern of this world…
I’ve been thinking about patterns lately. How easy it is to fall into rhythms, habits, mental ruts, ideological stagnation. Patterns of living too small, too tight, too cold. Patterns of living too loud, too dispersed, too dissipated. We easily fall into emotional patterns that become so ingrained we forget that often what our emotions tell us about ourselves and about God just isn’t true. Truth is found in God’s eyes as we look at him, and no pattern—mental or emotional or behavioral—can match what we see in God’s love for us.
Lent is about getting out of some patterns that have us trapped in being smaller than God has made us to be. The Apostle Paul wrote: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world…”
Other translations of this verse are:
Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold. Do not fashion yourselves after this world.
Paul continues, “…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
Interesting.
Paul didn’t say: Be transformed by improving your behavior. Be transformed by switching your desires to better things. Be transformed through super Lenten resolutions. Be transformed by giving up chocolate.
No.
Paul said: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So what does Paul mean by his use of “mind”? The Greek word used by Paul is noûs.
Here is Thayer’s definition for noûs:
- the mind, comprising alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding and those of feeling, judging, determining
- the intellectual faculty, the understanding
- reason in the narrower sense, as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognising goodness and of hating evil
- the power of considering and judging soberly, calmly and impartially
- a particular mode of thinking and judging, i.e thoughts, feelings, purposes, desires
The Apostle Paul wasn’t thinking about our everyday patterns of thinking. By his use of noûs he was considering the intellect, the higher faculties of our soul: perceiving and understanding, as well as faculties that have more to do with our will: judging, determining, recognizing goodness and hating evil.
Lent is a perfect time to look at the patterns we’ve fallen into in our lives. Are we being molded by the fashion, enticements, pleasures, of the world around us? By what we see in the media? By our friends? Our fears?
Now is the time to sharpen our capacity for spiritual truth, to strengthen our habit of perceiving divine things, to call forth the will to recognize and choose the good and to despise and reject what is evil.
To die out of love
“No, you will not die!” hisses the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but its human inhabitants do not understand and are seduced.
Beginning with the first pages of Genesis, that demonic hissing has never ceased to tempt our human nature. As if not dying is the solution to the longing for life that we all carry within us, as if avoiding death is the way to find the happiness we so diligently seek. Even the Gospel reading is Jesus’ response to the very human temptation to escape death. A temptation multiplied endlessly in the realms of possession, religion, power–seductive answers to the fear of dying.
But when faced with death, Jesus does not try to protect himself. He dies naked, exposed, defenseless. He is not ashamed of dying, not even on the infamous wood of the cross, because if you love, you strip yourself and give yourself. The macabre dance of Calvary is also a dance of love: blood and passion, pierced hearts and tears, labored breathing and self-surrender: the grammar of love is the same as the grammar of death.
“No, you will not die!” hisses the serpent. “You are all dying even now,” replies the Master. The centurion guarding Jesus declares, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Human beings are born anew when they recognize death as an opportunity to perpetuate love. Are we dying out of love for someone? May this be the primary question we ask ourselves as we cross the desert of Lent.
Fr. Alessandro Deho’
alessandrodeho.com
This article first appeared on the Daughters of St Paul website.
The Father Himself loves you (Guided Meditation)
Some thoughts about Lenten practices (forget Lenten resolutions)
Since I was a kid Lenten resolutions were a big thing. I remember giving up chocolate in 7th grade. A friend of mine threw a party for her birthday on Holy Saturday. I told my parents I couldn’t go because I had given up chocolate. They told me that Lent was over and that Holy Saturday was looking forward to Easter, and so off I went…. Needless to say, I’m still a chocoholic.
So now that we’ve almost finished the regular run of blog posts and comments and conversations about Lenten resolutions for this year, I wanted to offer some thoughts about Lenten practices (not resolutions).
When I was a little girl I played piano. One of the important things I had to do every day was “practice” scales. Every. Day. When I was assigned this by my piano teacher, she didn’t say, “Well you just need to do this for a month or two then you can stop. Maybe the following year you could try it again if you felt like it.” No. Practicing scales is important because it makes you a top-notch pianist. Practicing every day forms you as a musician. There never is an end to it, unless of course you give up piano playing (which I did do as an adult). And I bet concert pianists, just like Olympian athletes practice many hours a day. Every. Day.
So what does this have to do with Lent?
This year I was thinking about how making Lenten resolutions at least sometimes, if not often, backfires. We give up chocolate every day for forty days and then we make up for it the first week of Easter. Or we give up our favorite TV program and then binge on it during the Easter Season.
Practices are meant to form you, perfect you, shape you, transform you from a so-so pianist, athlete or Christian to an outstanding one. And in this case, into a saint!
How to Start
So my thoughts about this are simple:
- Ask Jesus what he would like to give you this Lent. How do you want me to be more like you, Lord? In what area of my life? With which person? In what situation?
- Think about what aspects of your Christian living disappoint you the most. What are you at least slightly hiding or ashamed of. What do you wish were different.
- Then make a strategy of practices that you can BEGIN in Lent and then CONTINUE for the rest of your life. (Don’t get worried, you can modify them, perfect them, make them work better for you, but practice daily you must. After all, becoming holy and living in Christ is the most important thing in your life!)
Make a Strategy
Here are some elements you make part of your strategy. (This list is not for you to choose one thing, but to create a wholistic, integrated strategy that touches all aspects of your life.)
- Choose a book to read that addresses the area you most want to see lifted up to the Face of the Lord. Read a little bit of it every day and reflect on it. If you already have one in mind, go through and mark about 10 places in that book that you can focus on during the season of Lent so that you create a habit in those areas. (I found an old book I had greatly highlighted several years back. I located about 10 pages in it to focus on that embrace different aspects of living in holiness, and every day I choose one of these to read and reflect on. It’s not something to DO. It is rather something to take to meditation, to become convinced of, to more clearly understand how it works, what it means for you, what your resistances are, what your desires are, what you need in order to succeed.)
- Think about a couple of prayer forms or guides you could use throughout the season of Lent to make your prayer more focused, more intense.
- Identify one habit/addiction you have that is standing in your way to a deeper relationship with God. Determine something else you can do, say, eat, or have instead that will promote your holiness and which is attractive enough for you to consider it a reasonable and preferable life-change you’ll really want to keep. (For instance, I love butterscotch. For health reasons, I need to let go of chocolate completely. This Lent I’m making a conscious transition away from sugar and chocolate to peanut butter and sugar-free butterscotch pudding. Letting go of some things that are highly addictive and destructive to my health is a health decision on one level. On another level, however, it is a choice for a more intentional temperate relationship with food that is socially conscious. The fact that neither of my new choices is highly addictive will help me keep it up as well as open up the spiritual space within that sugar and chocolate is closing down.)
- Is there one person you can give your life for, in the spirit of Jesus who gave his life for you? What are some concrete things you can do to serve them, pray for them, support them?
- Choose one quote from the bible and one quote from a saint as your tagline for Lent 2023, your rallying cry to keep you coming back to the cross to beg Jesus for his grace that you might love him more truly.
After 40 days of practicing, probably rearranging and perfecting your strategy, and even possibly changing mid-stream, you should have a spiritual sense of what God is doing in your life through your commitment and perseverance. On Holy Saturday, Lent may be over, but the Easter Season begins that evening with the Easter Vigil. So you actually have 50 more days of practicing, but now in a spirit of joy!
You’ll be pleasantly surprised after 100 days of practicing that what was once an obstacle or a struggle has now become integrated into who you are in Jesus. It will be so wonderful, that you won’t ever want to stop practicing. You’ll just expand your practices, like a pianist who has moved beyond the basic scales and now has made even practicing a work of art!
Wishing you a blessed Lent!
Image credit: Vytautas Markūnas SDB via Cathopic
“See Your Savior Comes” (Horizons of the Heart 16)
The grace we are asking of God: a deeply felt awareness of how God draws us into the unfolding of the mystery of the Word made flesh and how in doing this we enter into a process of healing that we might love Jesus and follow him more intentionally
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.
Entering Prayer
Offer your prayer to God, desiring that in every way it will give him glory. I pour myself out in worship. You could use a few lines from the following Psalms if this helps you enter into prayer:
Psalm 100:1-5
Psalm 34:1-9
Psalm 111:1-5
Psalm 95:1-7
Psalm 92:1-8
Psalm 7:17
Ask of God what you think you need. (It could be later that God will show what you truly need and what you should be asking for, but begin now where you are.)
The Circumcision and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Over several periods of prayer, linger imaginatively over the events narrated in Luke 2:21-38.
In the second chapter of Saint Luke’s Gospel, beginning from verse 21, the evangelist tells us about the Circumcision and Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Circumcision was performed eight days after the birth. The Presentation of Jesus and the Purification of the Virgin was held forty days after Jesus’ birth.
At the Circumcision, Jesus was incorporated into the people of Israel. At this family ceremony, he received the name Jesus, indicating that he was to be the Savior of mankind. In the Circumcision, we encounter the true scandal of the Incarnation: God really became human. God really took up all that human life entails, including the suffering that would culminate one day on the cross.
The circumcision constituted Jesus a member of the old covenant, but his presentation in the temple was his formal dedication to the service of the Lord. According to the Law, every woman who gives birth to a son must wait forty days before entering the temple, and then “she shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for a holocaust, and another for sin: and the priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed” (Lev 12:8).
This feast also celebrates the coming of the Lord into his temple. As the prophet Malachi proclaims, “presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple” (Mal 3:1). In the Presentation of the Lord, we see the long-expected fulfillment of God’s promises. For more than a millennium, the Jewish people waited for the Messiah. Generation after generation endured hardship and suffering—evil kings, idolatrous neighbors, exile—yet still, they waited. This patient expectance is typified in Simeon and Anna, two faithful Jews who greet the baby Jesus in the Temple, recognizing at last the One who is to come.
Imagining Yourself Present
Over several days, spend some time imagining yourself at the family celebration of Jesus’ circumcision and later in the temple with Mary and Joseph, Simeon and Anna.
In Gospel contemplation you attempt to grasp something of Jesus’ human existence and as you do this, the Spirit begins to grasp you in your existence. This prayer gives us contact with Jesus, the risen Lord, who is present now, influencing my life now. The historical events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, his healing and his preaching, transcend time and place. The THEN of Jesus’ life becomes NOW. It is important to allow oneself to become part of the story-event.
This is a perfect time also to place in Jesus’ heart your own birth and childhood, early family situations and your relationship with parents, your religious upbringing in the first half of your life, encounters with the elders in your own family… Memories… Gratitude… Regrets… Hurt…
Are you carried in Mary’s arms? Does aged Anna lift you to her heart? Do you regret that there was no baptism, or no real religious sense in your home? Were you a young mother like Mary?
Where are you in these scenes? Speak to the people that populate them. Allow your affective imagination to lead you closer to them, to give you a sense of this felt-closeness that you so desire. You can imagine with your mind’s eye, with your sense of hearing or touch.
Imagining the Gospel events in the present
Over time, allow these stories in the gospel of Luke to become current as if Mary and Joseph are walking into your house with your friends and family. What do you feel as they enter into your space.
In Gospel Contemplation, Ignatius takes advantage of the way in which spiritual growth, like so many other aspects of maturing that we experience, takes place primarily when our affectivity is engaged. It is the shift in one’s deeper emotions and feelings that leads to a change in one’s behavior. We reach these deeper levels through metaphor, image, and symbol—the work of the imagination.
Observing attractions and resistance
Notice any interior reactions that you experience: comfort, discomfort, being lifted up, struggle, joy, sadness….
Observe the actions, words, emotions, sensitivities, attitudes of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and to which of them you feel more attracted. Which of them arouse more negative feelings or resistance? Return to aspects of these meditations that seem more personally meaningful.
Entering the Mystery of the story
As you begin to enter the mystery of the story more deeply, you will begin to see or hear or touch. You will enter into the event and interact more deeply. Little by little you will become more present to the mystery and the mystery will be present to you.
As you become more and more involved in the event of Jesus’ mystery that you are contemplating, your life and your choices are affected. You find yourself changing and desiring to change.
Conversing as with a friend
Read the following verses from the prophet Isaiah (62:11-12) in relation to Jesus coming to the temple. Read this slowly, several times, allowing some moments of rest between your reading.
The Lord has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your Savior comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.’”
They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the Lord;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.
Is there some new awareness coming forward as you consider these words? Do they shed some unexpected or new light on your own birth and childhood?
Continue in quiet—or even silent—intimate conversation with Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Ask them what is the grace that you should be praying for. Beg this grace of the Father. Then beg this grace of the Son, your Savior and Shepherd. Finally, beg for this grace from the Holy Spirit who is the source of all holiness.
If you wholly lived this grace that you are begging for, what would your life look like? Your relationships? Your prayer? The way you work? The way you love? The way you serve? What about you would make you the most happy?
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.
How to do Gospel Contemplation (Horizons of the Heart GUIDE)
Entering Prayer
Offer your prayer to God, desiring that in every way it will give him glory. I pour myself out in worship. You could use a few lines from the following Psalms if this helps you enter into prayer:
Psalm 100:1-5
Psalm 34:1-9
Psalm 111:1-5
Psalm 95:1-7
Psalm 92:1-8
Psalm 7:17
Ask of God what you think you need. (It could be later that God will show what you truly need and what should be asking for, but begin now where you are.)
Imagining Yourself Present
Over several periods of prayer, linger imaginatively over one of the the events of the life of Jesus or Mary. Offer yourself to Mary and Jesus, imagining yourself present to these events of our salvation. Put yourself at their service, reflecting on what they are going through and how they are experiencing these events. Be present to them with, as Ignatius says, “the whole affective power of your mind, with loving care, with lingering delight, thus laying aside all other worries and cares.”
Note regarding praying with your imagination: Everyone can imaginatively be present somehow to a past event through memory in various ways. Imagining doesn’t necessary mean making images, that is, creating a little movie about the events we are contemplating. Some people imagine through their feelings, simply having a sense of what is happening, others visually through picturing, others through hearing. Entering imaginatively into these mysteries of our salvation will gradually give one an experiential and deeply felt understanding, rather than a notional knowledge.
Why is this important? This deep-felt knowledge implies an intimate caring, an attentive closeness that is aware of even the inner movements of thought and emotion in oneself and the other. We follow Jesus here and now through the work of the Spirit who weaves together our own history with salvation history. This happens through symbol and imagination. When we become part of the gospel story we allow our whole life to be affected by the Spirit.
Imagining the Gospel events in the present
Re-read in the scriptures these events or simply reflect on them as though they were happening now. Bring them up to your mind’s eye with “lingering delight” as though they were occurring right in your neighborhood so to speak. Notice which aspects of these mysteries begin to involve you a little more deeply.
Notice: In Gospel Contemplation, Ignatius takes advantage of the way in which spiritual growth, like so many other aspects of maturing that we experience, takes place primarily when our affectivity is engaged. It is the shift in one’s deeper emotions and feelings that leads to a change in one’s behavior. We reach these deeper levels through metaphor, image, and symbol—the work of the imagination.
In Gospel contemplation you attempt to grasp something of Jesus’ human existence and as you do this, the Spirit begins to grasp you in your existence. This prayer gives us contact with Jesus, the risen Lord, who is present now, influencing my life now. The historical events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, his healing and his preaching, transcend time and place. The THEN of Jesus’ life becomes NOW. It is important to allow oneself to become part of the story-event.
Observing attractions and resistance
Observe the actions, words, emotions, sensitivities, attitudes of the various persons present in the Gospel passage and to which of them you feel more attracted. Which of them arouse more negative feelings or resistance? Return to aspects of these meditations that seem more personally meaningful.
Notice: How are you entering the story? Are you your present age or another age? How are you taking part in the mystery? What are you noticing about your emotions as you interact with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus? What happens when you interact with the persons in the story? Are you just thinking about them or are you speaking with them? Are you watching or are you a participant? Are you allowing yourself to be moved, surprised, touched, even angered by what happens or are you keeping everything under control?
Entering the Mystery of the story
As you begin to enter the mystery of the story more deeply, you will begin to see or hear or touch. You will enter into the event and interact more deeply. Little by little you will become more present to the mystery and the mystery will be present to you.
Moving through deepening levels of stillness
As your contemplative prayer deepens, you will be open to being affected deeply by Jesus’ Spirit at both conscious and less-than-conscious levels of your being.
It may move you gradually through deepening levels to stillness. You may find yourself just there, totally involved—seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting. It is almost as if the experience has gone into slow motion, and time passes as one is present to the Beloved and the Beloved to oneself. One is there; Jesus is there. The mystery is there. No words are necessary and no great thoughts need to surface. This is the experience of “O taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”
Desiring to follow Jesus
As I become more and more involved in the event of Jesus’ mystery that I am contemplating, my life and my choices are affected. I find myself changing and desiring to change. I begin to follow Jesus in a particular way.
As you contemplate more deeply, as you soak in these mysteries of Jesus’ life, where do you observe emotions or reactions like fear, guilt, resistance? Do any memories become more present to your awareness? How do you feel drawn toward something new? Speak to Jesus about what you observe and experience. What do you begin to learn about your following of Jesus?
You may wish to journal about this.
Conversing as with a friend
Continue in quiet—or even silent—intimate conversation with Jesus and Mary. Ask them what is the grace that you should be praying for. Beg this grace of the Father. Then beg this grace of the Son, your Savior and Shepherd. Finally, beg for this grace from the Holy Spirit who is the source of all holiness.
If you wholly lived this grace that you are begging for, what would your life look like? Your relationships? Your prayer? The way you work? The way you love? The way you serve? What about you would make you the most happy?
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: Cathopic, Fraylalo
Touching the Sunrise 