Begin with Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Below is a reflection on gratitude originally posted on This Ignatian Life blog last year. Original post...HERE.

Recently I took some time out to renew and refresh my understanding of Ignatian spirituality. While I consider myself very much a newbie to all things Ignatian, it was good to recall and remember how the themes and posture of Ignatian spirituality have impacted my life in significant ways these past five years. Ignatian themes of attentiveness, finding God in all things, contemplative activism, imagination, discernment and gratitude have all shaped and deepened my formation and vocation. All this has inspired me to give renewed attention to these Ignatian themes and practices in my own life. I begin with gratitude.

Gratitude has a prominent place in Ignatian spirituality. The practice of examen begins with looking at your day with gratitude. The process of examen that I often use says it this way,  “Gratitude is the foundation of our whole relationship with God. So use whatever cues help you to walk through the day from the moment of awakening – even the dreams you recall upon awakening. Walk through the past twenty-four hours, from hour to hour, from place to place, task to task, thanking the Lord for every gift you encounter.” (1) In my experience with examen, I have found it important to begin with this posture of gratitude.

Too often my self-examination is critical and focuses on the negative in my own life. I am my own worst critic. However, as I prayerfully enter into examen, making space for gratitude provides necessary focus and directs my self-examination towards God. As I move into reviewing my feelings of consolation and desolation, a posture of gratitude provides the lenses I need to recognize God’s presence and gifts in both the painful and the pleasing.

The Spiritual Exercises close with an invitation of “Contemplation of the Love of God.” These instructions for contemplation also begin with gratitude, "I ask God to give me an intimate knowledge of the many gifts I have received, that filled with gratitude for all, I may in all things love and serve the Divine Majesty." Ignatius celebrates gratitude and gives it a foundational place in relationship with God and others. These closing weeks of the year I intend to practice the examen regularly. I look forward to the space it will provide to not only recognize God’s gifts and grace in my life, but also joyfully respond in worship and thanksgiving.

(1) “Rummaging for God: Praying Backward Through Your Day,” Dennis Hamm (America: The National Catholic Weekly, May 14, 1994). 
(http://ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/rummaging-for-god-praying-backward-through-your-day/)

Feast Day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

The First Principle and Foundation
St. Ignatius begins his Spiritual Exercises with the below.
(Paraphrased by David L. Fleming, S.J.)

For more Ignatian Prayers check out Prayers & Creeds blog....HERE.

The Goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God’s life
to flow into us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts from God,
Presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
Insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
They displace God
And so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
Before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
And are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
Wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
A deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
To God’s deepening his life in me.

Ignatian Prayers & Spirituality in July

In honor of the feast day of Saint Ignatius on July 31, the website Ignatian Spirituality is celebrating by highlighting a selection of articles, blog posts, and videos to help you explore the riches of Ignatian spirituality. You can click on the banner above to explore the daily offerings this July.

 I also share a selection of Ignatain prayers I have posted on Prayers & Creeds these past few years. These are either classic Ignatian prayers, prayers by Jesuits, or Ignatian-inspired prayers. You can check them out by clicking...HERE.

Or you can click on each individual prayer below. I will be posting additional Ignatian prayers throughout July.

The Examen of Consciousness

El Examen de Conciencia ~ Una oración a Dios

Anima Christi (English & Spanish)
A Favorite Prayer of Saint Ignatius

Anima Christi
Rephrasing of this ancient prayer by David L. Fleming, SJ

Prayer of Gratitude

Ignatian Prayer of Gratitude

Ignatian Prayer for Detachment

A Prayer for Spiritual Freedom

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
     to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
     unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
     that it is made by passing through
     some stages of instability—
     and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
     your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
     let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
     as though you could be today what time
     (that is to say, grace and circumstances
     acting on your own good will)
     will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
     gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
     that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
     in suspense and incomplete.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

Taken from: dotMagis: the blog of Ignatian Spirituality.com
http://ignatianspirituality.com/8078/prayer-of-theilhard-de-chardin/

Raw Material for Discernment

 I continue to go through the Ignatian Lenten Retreat that I shared about in my previous post below. If nothing else, you might like to check out Week Two of the retreat that serves as an excellent foundation for the Examen. Here is the link: Week Two.

My retreat reflection this morning included this quote, which was a good reminder for me today.

Ignatius’s Great Discovery
The point has often been made that the Christian Gospel is a story of strength and triumph arising from weakness and defeat. The Savior is a poor man in a provincial, backwater land. Salvation comes about through suffering and death. In the words of Mary’s Magnificat prayer: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

We’re afflicted with divided hearts that cause us to be burdened by angst, uncertainty, and fear when making important decisions. But this very confusion of thoughts and feelings is the place where we find God’s footprints. It’s the raw material for discernment.

This was Ignatius’s great discovery.

— J. Michael Sparough, SJ; Jim Manney; Tim Hipskind, SJ,
What’s Your Decision?

Examination of Conscience – A Prayer Practice for Lent

This Lent I am going through an adapted version of the Spiritual Exercises, called “An Ignatian Prayer Adventure.” I just completed Week One and I recommend this eight-week retreat for prayer and reflection. It also serves as an excellent introduction to Ignatian spirituality. You can check it out by clicking: HERE.

Alongside this retreat, I am using a prayer book I recently purchased, Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits. I am discovering lots of new prayers and practices that compliment and speak into my formation at this time. The book includes a prayer practice appropriate for Lent called, “Examination of Conscience” based on the examen that Ignatius included in the Spiritual Exercises and urged his friends to do daily. I plan to utilize this practice during Lent and I thought I would pass it on for those who want to check it out. I have posted it on my other blog, “Quotations & Stuff.”

You can find it by clicking here:
Examination of Conscience

Reflecting on 2011

This morning I stumbled on this reflection exercise in a prayer book I recently purchased, Hearts on Fire: Praying with the Jesuits edited by Michael Harter, SJ. The below reflection questions were proposed by Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit from India. While the questions are proposed to reflect on a lifetime (a pretty big undertaking!), I think they could also be valuable in reflecting on a year. Perhaps some of the questions could be useful in reflecting on 2011 this New Year’s weekend.

I also recommend this blog article from my friend Daphne, as you look forward to 2012...Choosing to Name Your Year.  More soon on this one!

A Testament
I imagine that today I am to die. I ask for time to be alone and write down for friends a sort of testament for which the points that follow could serve as chapter titles.

1. These things I have loved in life:
    Things I tasted,
    looked at,
    smelled,
    heard,
    touched.
2. These experiences I have cherished.
3. These ideas have brought me liberation.
4. These beliefs I have outgrown.
5. These convictions I have lived by.
6. These are things I have lived for.
7. These insights I have gained I the school of life:
    Insights into God,
    the world,
    human nature,
    Jesus Christ,
    love,
    religion,
    prayer.
8. These risks I have took,
    these dangers I have courted.
9. These sufferings have seasoned me.
10. These lessons life has taught me.
11. These influences have shaped my life
  (persons, occupations, books, events).
12. These Scripture texts have lit my path.
13. These things I regret about my life.
14. These are my life achievements.
15. These persons are enshrined within my heart.
16. These are my unfilled desired.

I choose an ending for this document:
    a poem – my own or someone else’s,
  or a prayer,
  a sketch or a picture from a magazine,
  a Scripture text,
  or anything that I judge would be
    an apt conclusion to my testament.

~ Anthony De Mello, SJ

Prayer of Gratitude

As I was reflecting on gratitude for my recent This Ignatian Life blog post, I stumbled upon this prayer of gratitude...

Intimate knowledge. 
That's what I ask you for, Lord.
I want that insight, that understanding, that knowledge
that will be about our intimacy.

Many gifts.
Let me count the ways you have loved me.
The gifts of your love.
All that you have given me.
All that I am.
I so often look at my shortcomings.
Let me see the gifts.
All of them.

Filled with gratitude. 
Fill me, Lord, with gratitude.
Let my heart,
sometimes filled with so much else,
be filled with thanksgiving.
Give me the feelings of gratitude,
of a grateful heart.

Joy, freedom, peace, generosity.
In all things love and serve.
Let the overflowing gratitude in my heart
touch all the things and people in my life.
Every thought, word and deed.
Every hurt, every slight, every loss.
Every reaction and response.
Every opportunity and choice.
Every offering of myself.
In all,
let me love and serve you.

Amen.

Taken from:
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/p-33-iask.html
(Author not found.)

Examen

While I consider myself very much a newbie to all things Ignatian, the themes and posture of Ignatian spirituality have impacted my life in significant ways these past several years. Ignatian themes of attentiveness, finding God in all things, contemplative activism, imagination, discernment and gratitude have all shaped and deepened my formation and vocation. I have often shared and reflected on these themes here on my blog. I have also posted regular reflections on This Ignatian Life blog. My recent TIL post, “Begin with Gratitude,” can be found HERE.

Recently I have given renewed intentionality in practicing the examen. Here is how I described examen in a reflection last year...The Ignatian practice of examen has been especially helpful, as I seek to listen and discern God’s at work in my feelings and experiences. The idea behind the examen is to open oneself to how God has been moving throughout a specific period of time, as well as allow the Lord to search your heart in a time of self-examination and confession. Pausing to regularly recognize both the beautiful and the difficult in my life has been a meaningful discipline.

A helpful introduction to the examen, including a five-step method of examen that I often use can be found here… "Rummaging for God: Praying Backwards through Your Day."

Photo Above: “Examen” statue of Saint Ignatius recently dedicated at Fairfield University. (http://ignatianspirituality.com/11175/the-examen-set-in-stone/)

Spiritual Practice of Drinking Mate

My latest post on This Ignatian Life blog reflected on my appreciation for the Argentine tradition and custom of drinking mate. You can check out my reflection by clicking here...
The Spiritual Practice of Drinking Mate

Photo credit: Margi Felix-Lund

Reflecting on Ordinary Time

My latest reflection on This Ignatian Life blog....
Click Here: "Ordinary Time - The Other Two-Thirds of the Year"

Passion Week Reflection & Invitation

 "Imitating Jesus: A Posture of Love and Service"

I have been reflecting on Jesus' example of washing feet, as I prepare for Passion Week. My reflections were spurred on by the painting, "The Washing of Feet" by Sieger Koder. (You can check out the painting here: http://www.pauline-uk.org/productgroup2.asp?id=1937)

My reflections are now posted on This Ignatian Life blog, "Imitating Jesus: A Posture of Love and Service."

Here is the link: http://ignatianlife.org/imitating-jesus-a-posture-of-love-and-service/

In Love for Me

This is my body, broken for you,

bringing you wholeness, making you free.

Take it and eat it, and when you do,

Do it in love for me.

This is my blood poured out for you,

bringing forgiveness, making you free.

Take it and drink it, and when you do,

do it in love for me.

Back to my Father soon I will go.

Do not forget me; then you will see

I am still with you, and you will know

you’re very close to me.

Filled with my Spirit, how you will grow!

You are my branches; I am the tree.

If you are faithful, others will know

you are alive in me.

Love one another – I have loved you,

and I have shown you how to be free;

serve one another, and when you do,

do it in love for me.

Vv. 1-2 Jimmy Owens

Vv. 3-5 Damian Lundy, based on John 14-16

Taken from: In Celebration of Love - The Washing of the Feet (The Art and Inspiration of Sieger Koder), Pauline Books & Media, 1997.

Attentiveness & Call to Place

As many of you probably notice, two reoccurring themes on my blog are the church liturgical year and Ignatian spirituality. Both themes continue to deepen and encourage my relationships with God and neighbor. Late last year I began contributing regular reflections to This Ignatian Life, a blog dedicated to exploring how to live Ignatian spirituality.

“This Ignatian Life is dedicated to exploring how to live Ignatian Spirituality. We believe that among the spiritual traditions of the Christian Church, Ignatian spiritual practice is particularly helpful to busy, active people who, at the same time, experience a profound desire to live a God-centered and authentic life.”

My lasted post this past week reflects on attentiveness and call to place, as disciplines to grow in stability. You can read the reflection here:
http://ignatianlife.org/attentiveness-and-call-to-place/

For other reflections on Ignatian spirituality, click here.

Attentive to Beauty

This reflection was recently posted on This Ignatian Life blog. It reminds us “to listen for, look for and embrace the beauty” of life and creation. It includes the story of renowned violinist Joshua Bell who performed in a busy subway station to see if anyone would pause and appreciate the beauty of the music.

Already one week into 2011, I need this reminder to pay attention to the beauty all around me that I often miss in the hustle and bustle of life.

Check out the blog reflection here…

http://ignatianlife.org/time-for-beauty/

Reflecting on Ignatian Spirituality

The practices and posture of Ignatian spirituality continue to impact and shape my life and formation. I have recently reflected on themes of Ignatian spirituality in two recent articles. One was published in the most recent issue of WMF’s advocacy publication, The Cry. The second reflection is my first post on This Ignatian Life, a blog dedicated to exploring how to live Ignatian spirituality. I will join other bloggers and contribute to TIL blog every six weeks.

“Attentive to brokenness”
The Cry, Fall 2010
http://www.wordmadeflesh.org/the-cry/attentive-to-brokenness/

“Hopeful”
This Ignatian Life, October 24, 2010
http://ignatianlife.org/hopeful/

"Roots of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love"

This Ignatian Life, December 5, 2010

http://ignatianlife.org/roots-of-hope-peace-joy-and-love/

If you are interested in learning more about the practice of Examen, I have some resources I can pass your way. Just shoot me an email or comment here.