Category: Horizons of the Heart

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

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.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

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

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.” (Luke 4:14-21 NIV)

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and picture the environment in which the story takes place.… Use one of your five senses that is most helpful in entering into an experience. For some it is sight—visualizing what is happening, for others it is hearing—noticing sounds like the swoosh of a robe, a voice, the people sitting down, the sounds of nature or feet as they walk…

I invite you to zoom out and see this event within the larger arc of Jesus’ life and mission. This passage, which we’ve heard so many times, is really the beginning of a love story. It is the entrance of the lover who has come to woo his bride Israel and all humanity. You may wish to read through the passage a third time looking for hints of this story of love.

The way this passage is set up is similar to another biblical account of the entrance of a Lover. This one is found in the Old Testament book Song of Songs:

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).

Notice your response to this passage. What occurs to you? What surprises you? What moves within you? What is your emotional response: hope? Excitement? Relief? Uncertainty? Fear? Joy?

Entering more deeply into the Love-Story of the Word Made Flesh

The Lover comes. He chooses his bride.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up…

Listen! I hear my lover’s voice.
I know it’s him coming to me— (Sg 2:8)

The Lover enters…

…and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.

leaping with joy over mountains,
skipping in love over the hills that separate us… (v. 8)

The Lover stands…

He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.

Now he comes closer,
even to the places where I hide.
He gazes into my soul,
peering through the portal
as he blossoms within my heart. (v. 9)

The Lover speaks…

Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

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

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.” (Luke 4:14-21 NIV)

The one I love calls to me:
Arise, my dearest. Hurry, my darling.
Come away with me!
I have come as you have asked
to draw you to my heart and lead you out.
For now is the time, my beautiful one.
The season has changed,
the bondage of your barren winter has ended,
and the season of hiding is over and gone.
The rains have soaked the earth
and left it bright with blossoming flowers.
The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived.
I hear the cooing of doves in our land,
filling the air with songs to awaken you
and guide you forth.
Can you not discern this new day of destiny
breaking forth around you? (v. 10-13)

Ask for the grace “to know Jesus intimately, to love him more intensely, and so to follow him more closely.”

Here you are entering into the Mystery

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 become 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.

As you re-read the passage from Luke one more time, allow yourself to enter into the feelings of Jesus. In the thought of Ignatius, to sense what Jesus is experiencing includes mental, intuitive, emotional feelings, and bodily responses. Enter into the sense of a Lover who experienced such love for the people in Nazareth, seeing them with the eyes of God their Creator, with the heart of a Father who had been following his people for thousands of years, preparing them for the arrival of his Son who would convey to them in word and deed the treasures of his heart.

Jesus hadn’t arrived at the village of Nazareth just before the synagogue service (since walking for any great distance was forbidden on the Sabbath), so he would have walked through the city, greeted neighbors and friends, picked up the children who came to see him as he approached Mary’s house, listened to stories and sorrows, and spent at least a couple nights with Mary in the home in which he had grown up in. With your inspired imagination enter into Jesus’ arrival in Nazareth and the morning of the Sabbath where he joined the men in the synagogue. Allow these sense images to surface in your consciousness without trying to control or interpret them. Experience in Jesus and yourself any sense responses on the level of thoughts, affectivity, physical sensations, intuition and emotions. Allow yourself to gradually be overtaken by the was Jesus experienced loving, being a Lover—both for the people of Nazareth… and for you… Gently soak in these meaningful impressions.

What is the grace or spiritual gift you desire….

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: Mouse23 via Pixabay.

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….

Resonating with Jesus

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

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of entering into how Jesus is experiencing this event, how he is using his senses, what he is thinking, feeling, desiring….

Jesus could have prayed with Psalm 91 while he communed with his Father in the desert.

You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
    who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;
    my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.

…The fowler is set on destruction. He sets traps in favorable spots, attracting doves and other small birds by scattering grain inside the trap. The birds would walk into the snare, not suspecting danger until the trap had been sprung. Jesus would have reflected in this psalm how God delivers the one who trusts in him.. “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: The snare is broken, and we are escaped” (Psalm 14:7). In this Psalm God is proclaimed as trustworthy to rescue us by either helping us avoid the trap altogether or freeing us from the trap if caught… This is a very masculine image, particularly for Ancient Israel… The forces of evil are stalking us to destroy us, but our Rescuer ultimately calls the shots. There is only one outcome: freedom from the snare of the fowler. After the fall of Adam and Eve, through the thousands of years before the birth of Jesus, we were trapped in our infidelity and disloyalty and in the destructive power of death which seemed to have the last word…. Jesus in the desert proclaimed to Satan: “Your power is broken.”

He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge.

…A pinion is the outer part of a bird’s wing and represents the protection a mother bird gives her chicks. She spread her wings over them. This is a call to confidence in God. If you make the Lord your resting place, he will never leave you…. Here the psalmist offers a feminine image for the protecting and caring power of God.

Attend to Jesus as he prays the rest of this psalm in the rocky landscape and oppressive heat of the desert loneliness:

[The Lord’s] faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
    or the arrow that flies by day,
or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
    the Most High your dwelling place,
no evil shall befall you,
    no scourge come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
    so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder,
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.

Those who love me, I will deliver;
    I will protect those who know my name.
When they call to me, I will answer them;
    I will be with them in trouble,
    I will rescue them and honor them.
With long life I will satisfy them,
    and show them my salvation.

Rest in the awareness of what resonates in Jesus heart as he prays these words from the prayerbook of Ancient Israel. As you enter into his feelings, you will gradually lose interest in your own spontaneous reactions, defenses, and fears. Jesus will bring you to his way by attraction, sweetness, and beauty. He will make you feel his own heart’s safety, belonging, and hope.

Colloquy

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 Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes 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: Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness (Jésus tenté dans le désert). Brooklyn Museum, New York, public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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….

Entering into the Mystery

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

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and enter with your senses into the environment in which the story takes place.

Here in the desert Jesus was seen by no one. He wasn’t planning what he would do when he left the desert to begin his mystery. He wasn’t imagining what it would be like to be an itinerant preacher. He wasn’t thinking about the people he might ask to join him. He wasn’t strategizing. He wasn’t identified with work and ministry and role…

In the desert one learns that we are completely dependent on God. Walk with Jesus, wander around, hungry, tired…. Help him prepare a place to sleep for the night. Watch as he prays to his Father….

Sinking still deeper into the mystery of Christ, allow your heart to taste, to smell, to touch the infinite gentleness and sweetness of Jesus.

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…. Take as much time with this as you are able….

You will at some point begin to intuitively sense the difference between the way Jesus spontaneously feels, speaks, and acts in the desert and the way you yourself feel, speak, and act in similar situations in your own life.

Where have been the deserts in your life? What have these treks through the wilderness been like for you?

Notice how Jesus abandons himself into his Father’s hands, as a child held in safe and loving arms… Taste the sweetness and the trust in this relationship between the Father and Jesus…

Another desert experience is recounted in Deuteronomy 8:2-4. God says he led the Israelites into the desert “to humble and test you… to know what is in your heart… to see if you will keep my commands…. I caused you to hunger and then fed you with manna to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” God tested the people to demonstrate to them that they were absolutely dependent upon him for their survival…. that they would see that God is their God, not just the God of their ancestors.

We cannot become holy by sheer effort, nor can we do good things for God solely by applying ourselves to the task…

What would it be like to rely upon God to give direction and meaning to your life?

We are, in truth, radically unable to determine what we will become. What could a life of radical dependence on God look like for you today?

Entering into the mystery of what we contemplate, we humbly allow Jesus to be our Master, to educate our 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. It is learning how to resonate with everything Jesus resonates with, as we gain this felt understanding through our contemplation, and of rejecting whatever Jesus rejects….

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

Colloquy

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 Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes 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: Moretto da Brescia, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

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 Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and picture the environment in which the story takes place.…

The Judean desert was a rocky and barren place… In the Bible, the desert is an image of loss of control, of separation from the safety offered by villages and family, and of our utter dependence on God since without resources in these wastelands one would certainly die… Feel the heat on your face… Notice your thirst… Experience hunger… Bear the loneliness, no one as far as the eye can see… “It is through our senses that we feel the ‘touch’ within the heart (Exx 335), and then the heart expands in feelings of happiness, peace and serenity, and in a renewal of spiritual strength, along with desires to ‘move forward’ (Exx 315, 329) (Imitating Christ our Lord with the Senses: Sensing and Feeling in the Exercises: Antonio Guillen (The Way, 47/1-2 (Jan/April 2008), 225-241). 

Read the passage of Scripture again.

Let the story expand from the few verses that are recounted in Scripture to what these forty days in the desert would have been like for Jesus, what he would have experienced or needed or felt, how he lived these events interiorly, how he expressed himself….

With your senses of sight, of hearing, of touch immerse yourself in the event. Is there any way you can be of help to Jesus. If so, imagine yourself entering the story through these actions. Look around for a particular moment that seems to be of greater importance to you, to catch your attention.

The desert is for Jesus a place of love. Here he has eyes and heart only for the Father. As the days of his forty day retreat go on, Jesus becomes more and more ready to live and die on the terms of love…. He hands himself over to the Father, confident in his love, willing to live and die for love of me.

Psalm 63:1:

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

Jesus asks: Who will join me? Who will love like me? Who will trust my Father this completely?

Adore Jesus in the desert… In your inspired imagination show him reverence… Speak to him about these questions he asks, have an honest conversation.

This deeper contemplation of Jesus in the Gospels is an apprenticeship of our feelings and senses in which we are formed in such a way that we feel with Jesus, that our feelings becomes those of Jesus, and our spontaneous reactions of personal promotion and self-protection are gradually curbed and re-invented so that we spontaneously react as Jesus does.

Ask for the grace “to know Jesus intimately, to love him more intensely, and so to follow him more closely.”

Colloquy

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 Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes 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: Briton Riviere: Temptation in the Wilderness, public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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.

In the Kingdom Meditation found in the Spiritual Exercises at the beginning of the second week, we encounter Ignatius’ transformation, that is, we enter into the way the personal “this-world” myth of his life was transformed and purified and exalted by Jesus.

What do we mean by one’s personal myth? We each have a personal myth created by energies that give direction, potency and meaning to our lives. They are created from stories we listened to as children, role models who influenced us in powerful ways, songs we sang, images from movies, games we played, stories we read, historical events we lived through. All these coalesce in our psyches and imaginations into powerful imagery and archetypes that express the desires and dreams we have for our lives. The images and stories that express these dreams we can call a “myth.” So there are personal myths, but from this description we can easily see that there are also national myths, myths for the community we associate with, religious myths.

Ignatius of Loyola was born into a Spain on the verge of being united under one king. The nation was galvanized by the dream of finally experiencing itself under one flag, one king under God. The dream that the whole world would be Christian gave energy to explorers who would venture to new lands to claim them for Spain and for Christ. Ignatius of Loyola’s personal “this-world” myth was created from these experiences, stories, and images that galvanized him as a soldier. He embodied the culture of chivalry and fought with his liege lord to conquer lands for his king and God.

In the Kingdom Meditation, as it is presented in the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius presents us with a soldier’s story or dream of “myth,” because that was what was an understandable way of envisioning one’s life at that time. It would be an outrage for a soldier to refuse to join a temporal king, to fight alongside him, eat what he eats, suffer what he suffers, and share in his triumph, for the sake of the country and of God. This was the myth that at the moment of Ignatius’ conversion was transformed and gave him energy to devote himself now to Jesus as the Eternal King whose dream was to conquer the world with love. This dream of Jesus conquered his heart and soul, so that no longer was he mesmerized by dreams of chivalry and military success, but was taken up by dreams and desires of doing great deeds for the Lord Jesus Christ in service of the Divine Majesty.

We each have a personal myth that Jesus desires to transform so that we too are drawn into his dream and desires for the loving salvation of the world. Myths are usually unconscious, yet they express a set of values, energies, dreams, meanings, insights that give energy and focus to our lives.

Ignatius’ myth rooted in the imagery of a soldier—or analogously a hero, or a queen, or a lover—may not speak to you and I, but it is a profound example of the powerful things that can happen in our life when we allow our own personal myth to be transformed by Jesus. The life and writings of Saint Ignatius of Loyola have influenced and led to the transformation of hundreds of thousands of lives. The meditation on the Baptism of Jesus can be that space in which we discover for ourselves how Jesus reveals God’s dream for the world and where we fit into that dream: “Behold my Son in whom I delight. Listen to him.” In other words, meditating on the Baptism of the Lord can help us raise to consciousness our own myth so that it can be transformed by Jesus. In the Baptism of Jesus we see Jesus revealing to us God’s dream for the world.

Exploring One’s Deepest Dreams

In this meditation we are going to take some prayerful time to explore our deepest dreams and hopes about ourselves in the form of an image or a story or an insight. You might begin by praying with these questions:

• What images give me life? Are the images that have given me life up to this point in some way no longer sufficient or meaningful as I look at the future of my life as it is unfolding now?
• When I think of what I want to be remembered for in life, what is the image or story that encapsulates this?
• What dreams for myself capture what I wish I could be in the next decade of my life?
• If I could take my deepest desire and vision for the world and draw a picture of it or express it in a quote or insight, what would it be?
• When I look out at the world today what to me would be an absolutely wonderful change I’d like to see?

Personal Myths May Be Transformed Over Time

In times of transition in our life, such as a change of career, mid-life changes such as children leaving home or retirement, moving to a new location, or a shift in our personal values as we enter a new stage of life, our personal myth may undergo a transformation. So myths are flexible, open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and of grace. We could consider, for example, how the dreams of Mary and Joseph for the birth and early childhood years of Jesus had to be refashioned by the political situation in which they lived. Or how the image Jesus had of his life at Nazareth where it was just his mother and himself may have shifted at age thirty with his Baptism and the beginning of his public ministry. Jesus himself didn’t pivot to something new, but as he entered a new stage of his life and ministry as Savior and Redeemer, the images, dreams, and values shifted in a certain sense, giving him the impetus to enter into public ministry with all that this would entail. In what way has your sense of meaning, your dreams or myth shifted through the different eras of your life? Do you feel the Spirit prompting you to something new or to deepening something old?

Some examples: As I look out on the world today I have been inspired by this quote from Scripture: “”The banquet is ready. Go and tell everything that ALL IS READY” (see Mt. 22) Of course, this speaks to the ministry of a Daughter of St Paul, however while in my earlier years I lived my mission through the stance of teaching, now I live it through love. I stand, in an image given to me by our Founder, along the highways and byways of the world pointing out the way to heaven, where the banquet is ready, and the Eucharist, where the banquet can be tasted even now, while blocking the way to perdition with my whole being: through a contemplative way of life immersed in God, in dipping into the heart of Jesus the Savior the “pen” with which I write, living the urgency of love in my mission on my knees.

Others I know have found their myth embodied in the image of a sunflower which turns so that it constantly faces the sun, an image in the spiritual life of dependence on God and obedience to his will. Early on in religious life the focus could be on the virtue and vow of obedience. Later the emphasis may be on living prophetically and contemplatively God’s dream for the salvation of all.

Take some time to attend to your own personal myth.

Who Will Join Me?

Your myth, the image or story that will give energy and desire to your choices in life are a call to join Jesus, to be his companion for the sake of the world. At his Baptism in the Jordan, Jesus made holy the waters of all the baptismal fonts in every church till the end of time. He began at that moment in a particular way to reclaim us as the Father’s children, as his brothers and sisters and co-heirs. He began his journey that would culminate with his giving himself to us at the Last Supper in the Eucharist, his passion and death, and his resurrection and ascension. We too in Baptism would die and rise with him, would live in him and he in us.

Jesus stands at the Jordan, we could say, looking at each of us and asking, “Who will join me? Who will live as I live, struggle as I struggle, give as I give, love as I love, suffer as I suffer, and triumph as I triumph?”

Allow yourself to enter into the mystery of Jesus’ Baptism. What of the reflections in this article have touched you most deeply?

Jesus’ invitation is about helping you become more aware of the need for a great and generous spirit as he brings us into a mission that is greater than ourselves. Jesus is willing to sacrifice everything for the good of the people he loves and has come to save. He reaches out for others who will be willing to be with him in this mission. Jesus doesn’t ask if you are smart, if you are prepared, if you are holy. He simply asks: “Will you join me?”

This deeper contemplation of Jesus in the Gospels is an apprenticeship of our feelings and senses in which we are formed in such a way that we feel with Jesus, that our feelings becomes those of Jesus, and our spontaneous reactions of personal promotion and self-protection are gradually curbed and re-invented so that we spontaneously react as Jesus does.

Entering into the mystery of what we contemplate, we humbly allow Jesus to be our Master, to educate our 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. It is learning how to resonate with everything Jesus resonates with, as we gain this felt understanding through our contemplation, and of rejecting whatever Jesus rejects.

To stand with Jesus and to respond to his invitation to join him in will place a person squarely in the midst of the battle for the Kingdom of God against the forces of evil present in the history of the world. Suffering and struggle and hard labor will precede the fullness of God’s glory and Jesus’ triumph over all his enemies.

To follow Jesus is to take seriously his teaching, his example, and the powerful gift of his life and grace in us. Joining Jesus is a commitment to his plan for our own lives but also for the salvation of the world.

Talk with Jesus about this invitation and what you realize it will demand of you. Talk to him about what you are feeling, fearing, desiring.

Ignatius proposes an even deeper expression of commitment for those who feel a greater sense of identification with Jesus and wish to commit themselves even more in joining him. These are his words:

“Those who wish to give greater proof of their love, and to distinguish themselves in whatever concerns the service of the eternal King and Lord of all, will not only offer themselves entirely for the work, but will act against their sensuality and carnal and worldly love, and make offerings of greater value and of more importance in words such as these:

“Eternal Lord of all things, in the presence of your infinite goodness, and of your glorious mother, and of all the saints of your heavenly court, this is the offering which I make with your favor and help. I protest that it is my earnest desire and my deliberate choice, provided only that it is for your greater service and praise, to imitate you in bearing all wrongs and all abuse and all poverty, both actual and spiritual, should your most holy majesty deign to choose and admit me to such a state and way of life” (L.J. Puhl, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1951), Sections 97-98).

As you kneel before Jesus what is the commitment you wish to make to him at this time.

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.

Featured image: ilragazzoconmoltafede-Apostolada de la Palabra from Cathopic