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.
“He has sent me … to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then Jesus 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.
The last part of Jesus’ proclamation stated that he was sent to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor or grace that had been announced by Isaiah. Luke uses this same phrase in the Acts of the Apostles as a reference to the gospel proclamation.
The Greek verb μαρτυρέω (martureo) translated often as “speak well of” means simply to “testify” or to “bear witness.” Daniel Hoffman explains that translated literally, the statement reads like this: “And all were bearing witness about him and were marveling at the words of grace coming from his mouth; and they were saying, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
“They were not impressed with his words, they were amazed (in the skeptical sense) that he was telling them that the time of the Lord’s favor was now. They doubted it, and their question confirms this—Asking ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ is not a compliment, but a scoff. “
They only became angrier as Jesus continued:
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke 4:20-27)
Pause and enter into the drama of these words of Jesus and the consternation with which they must have been received…. Noticing the way in which the sunny skies of excitement and pride over Jesus were quickly turning to bafflement, confusion, and aggression.
Be present to the way Jesus “senses” the situation. As Gemma Simmonds reminds us, in Ignatian prayer, to “sense” includes mental thoughts, intuition, emotions, as well as bodily processes (our emotions often generate strong bodily reactions as when our cheeks become flushed when we are embarrassed or our fists clench when we are angry).
Be present to all the intensity in Jesus who has come as the ambassador of the Lord’s love and compassion and faithful loyalty to his people. And instead of welcoming and receiving that love, they respond by scoffing at him.
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.
You will at some point begin to intuitively sense the difference between the way Jesus spontaneously feels, speaks, and acts in a situation and the way you yourself feel, speak, and act in similar situations in your own life.
As you stay within Jesus, he will reveal to you how he is experiencing the rejection of his offer of love, freedom, good news, grace and salvation.
What is it that you notice?
What in Jesus is drawing you?
What in Jesus is speaking to your life’s story right now?
Let the mystery of Christ’s life become present to you. Take much time with this. Let your senses and his be tuned together by the action of the Holy Spirit. Let them play in harmony. Let Jesus’ interior life absorb your inner life so that you become “connatural” with him and your inner world is “taken over” at an intuitive level, being established firmly in the “inner knowledge of the Lord.”
This experience of feeling with Jesus, or enjoying this inner knowledge of the Lord, is a window into what Ignatius called “spiritual consolation.” Ignatius said consolation is when, “Some interior movement in the souls causes the soul to become inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord.” This prayer changes the way we perceive and experience reality. We learn how to be in Jesus and to imitate him in the way he experienced every aspect of human need and desire.
We reach greater understanding when we take quality time to feel with Jesus, as he reveals himself, looking and hearing, touching and tasting, in the Gospel Word. Contemplation of Jesus becomes the path to imitate Jesus.
Rest in that awareness as Jesus helps you to resonate with what he resonates with.
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.
Touching the Sunrise 