#ignatianreflection

Thought for the Day – 27 July

Today is the feast of Blessed Rudolf Aquaviva S.J. (1550-1583), who laboured for four years at the court of the Muslim king at Agra, India, seeking converts to Christ.  The mission failed.  Shortly after, Bl Rudolf and four associates were martyred by a Hindu mob.  He wrote movingly of patient hope in the face of apparent failure:

“You know how I longed for this mission and how delighted I was when it was granted me. I have been able to do what I wished for—to bear witness to the name of Jesus Christ before the kings and rulers of this world.

We cannot speak out the truth for fear that if we go too far we endanger the life of King Akbar. So we neither die because they do not kill us and yet we do not live for our zeal wears us out. Or we live only by hope, though that is very uncertain whether it may not turn out rather evil than good. Ours is a very uncertain outlook as far as the King’s conversion goes.

Still, the Lord makes us realise that our labours are just as pleasing and acceptable to His divine majesty as if we were to obtain that for which we are striving, for God is a witness of inmost feelings and a searcher of the heart (see Wisdom 1:6). For day and night we are toiling at a work of great service to God, the planting of his faith in a barbarous nation at such peril of our lives.”

….For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond alll measure…2 Corinthians 4:17

We do NOT give up – ever, for the Lord is with us and blesses our zealous hearts!   Blessed Aquaviva please pray for us!

The Gift of Contemplative Prayer by Margaret Silf

Probably most of us, if we think of contemplative prayer at all, regard it as something that is beyond us and practiced only by a few contemplative monks and nuns whose whole lives are devoted to prayer.   Yet I have heard respected and experienced spiritual guides say that contemplation is often given to those you would least expect—to harassed mothers and people who think they can’t pray, to children, to the sick and dying, to people with no academic learning about prayer or Scripture or theology.   God sometimes seems to speak, heart to heart, in this mysterious way, to the untaught and unpracticed. None of us should imagine that the ways of contemplative prayer are closed to us because God is always infinitely larger than our expectations.

I suggest that creation itself gives us a gateway.   In every moment of our lives, a silent, invisible miracle of exchange is taking place.   We breathe out the air that our bodies no longer need, which is mainly carbon dioxide, a waste product for us but the very thing that the green leaves on the trees and plants need to produce their own energy.   So they receive our carbon dioxide and, through the process of photosynthesis, produce not only their own life energy, but also oxygen—a waste product for them but the very thing we need to live.   Whenever I stop my busyness for a few moments to look around me, I am amazed at this arrangement and it makes me think of prayer.

So perhaps a good way to open our hearts up to the gift of contemplation is simply to become still, and, quite literally, to breathe out our waste—all that clogs us and deadens us—and to breathe in God’s renewing life, as we breathe in the fresh oxygen that the plants have made for us.   This simple, deliberate breathing exercise can become something like what the French peasant was doing as he looked at God and God looked at him.   We are becoming aware of the mysterious exchange of life between ourselves and God.   And there is no reason that any period of quiet might not become prayer of this kind.

There may be other creatures who can help you cross the threshold of contemplation. If there is a baby in the family, try simply holding her in your arms as she sleeps and letting God hold both of you in his.   Nothing more.   No deep thoughts.   No search for meaning.   Just be there.

A cat (if you are not allergic to them!) can also be a great aid to prayer.   My own cat loves to sleep round my neck.   At first I found this disturbing but when he has settled into a particular hollow (perhaps where he can feel my pulse), he will lie there, quite still, just purring deeply, until he falls asleep and the purring ceases.   When he does this, I let myself find a hollow close to God’s pulse and let my own prayer become just a sleepy purr and then the silence of content.   Or you might discover prayer on a park bench.   The other day I was in Hyde Park and I spent a few minutes listening to the deep-throated cooing of the pigeons. I wanted to join them because, in their way, they were engaged in contemplative prayer, simply expressing, in this peaceful murmur, the song of their beings.

In your own home, prayer awaits you in the opening of a flower, the rising of your bread dough, or the steady, imperceptible development of a child.   Spend time in silence, aware of the wonder that is being unfolded in your cakes and your children, your houseplants or your garden.   For this is the essence of contemplative prayer—simple awareness, allowing God to be God, without trying to put the limitations of shape or meaning around him.

Contemplation, like all prayer, is pure gift and not anything we can achieve.   It happens when prayer becomes, wholly and utterly, the flow of God’s grace, transforming the land it flows through, like Ezekiel’s stream.   Or it happens when we lose consciousness of our own part in it and become simply receptors and carriers of grace.   It happens when we realise that our transformation depends on nothing but God’s grace and love, and, like the chrysalis, let go of all activity to try to achieve our own redemption.

When we try to describe it, we fail, for it lies beyond the world of words.   We can open our hearts to it by the practice of awareness but we cannot bring it about, any more than we can force a flower to open or an egg to hatch.   And in our silent, trustful waiting, we are acknowledging that God is God, the source and the destination, the means and the end of all our prayer, whatever form it may take.

from Close to the Heart: A Practical Approach to Personal Prayer

Make my Heart Still

“Lord take my poor heart. It is often so far from You, lost in a thousand things and in the trifles that fill up my everyday life. Lord, only You can collect the thoughts of my heart and have it concentrate on You, You who are the centre of all hearts, the Lord of all souls. Only You can bestow the spirit of prayer, only Your grace is able to allow me to find You amidst this multitude of things, amdist the distractions of everyday life, YOU, the one necessity, the one person with whom my heart can become still.”

“When man comes to God in awe and love, then he is praying.”

Karl Rayner SJ – The Mystical Way in Everyday Life

The Present Moment is the Only Real Moment

“The spiritual life always concerns itself with the present. Retreatants are very inclined to worry about the future and be guilty about the past. It is important to set goals for the future and to implement ways to achieve those goals. It is also important to review the past, claim the history of grace and sin and more grace. But the PRESENT MOMENT is the only real moment…………….live in the NOW moment because the present is the ONLY moment of grace.”…….Fr Bill Creed SJ

Say goodbye to golden yesterdays ……….or your heart will never learn to love the present.

Fr Anthony de Mello SJ “Wellsprings”

St Paul Miki SJ – 6 February

Today is the memorial of St Paul Miki SJ (1564-1597), a Jesuit novice from a noble Japanese family who was martyred along with 25 companions at Nagasaki in 1597.

This is from an eyewitness account of the execution:

“Our brother Paul Miki, seeing himself raised to the most honourable position that he had ever occupied, openly proclaimed that he was a Japanese and a member of the Society of Jesus.   And that he was being put to death for having preached the Gospel.   He gave thanks to God for such a precious favour.He then added these words:  “Having arrived at this moment of my existence, I believe that no one of you thinks I want to hide the truth.   That is why I declare to you that there is no other way of salvation than the one followed by Christians.   Since this way teaches me to forgive my enemies and all who have offended me, I willingly forgive the king and all those who have desired my death.   And I pray that they will obtain the desire of Christian baptism.At this point, he turned his eyes toward his companions and began to encourage them in their final struggle. The faces of them all shone with great gladness. Another Christian shouted to him that he would soon be in paradise. “Like my Master,” murmured Paul, “I shall die upon the cross. Like him, a lance will pierce my heart so that my blood and my love can flow out upon the land and sanctify it to his name.As they awaited death the entire group sang the canticle of Zachary (see Luke 1:67-79). The executioners stood by respectfully until they had intoned the last verse. Then at a given signal they thrust their spears into the victims’ sides. On that day, February 5, 1597, the church of Japan welcomed its first martyrs.”

You have heard that it was said: “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.”   But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’……Matthew 5:43-44

Consider the people who dislike you, who oppose your ideas and aims.   How can you show love to them?

Pedro Arrupe SJ, superior general of the Jesuits from 1965-1983, died on this day in 1991.

He guided the Society through the tumultuous post-Vatican II years.   He called for a renewed commitment to the Society’s roots in the Spiritual Exercises and he oriented the Jesuits toward service to the poor and to refugees.

He had a charismatic personality and was beloved by many in the Society and outside it.

He articulated the goal of Jesuit education as training “men and women for others”:

“………men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and His Christ—for the God-human who lived and died for all the world;  men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbours;  men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.” (Pedro Arrupe: Essential Writings, Kevin Burke, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books 2004, p. 173)

Let love be genuine;  hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;  love one another with mutual affection;  outdo one another in showing honour………Romans 12:9-10

Are you complacent, too accepting of things as they are?   Talk to God about this.

PRAY FOR THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU 

August 18, is the Memorial of St Alberto Hurtado SJ (1901-1952) 

August 4 – A Daily Examen for Parents

REVIEW: – From my interactions with my children today…. What did they do or say that made me smile, laugh, or pause in joy? What did they do or say that challenged or frustrated me? How did I respond to my children with love and patience? How did I respond to my children out of frustration and impatience? When did I feel closer to them? More distant from them? How might my children have tried to communicate deeper needs to me underneath the surface of their actions and words? Have I noticed God’s presence in the midst of any of this? What might God be inviting me to consider when I reflect on these experiences in my family? RESPONSE: How am I grateful for my kids today? How have they loved and supported me? What is my response to God who is present in the life of my family? As I consider my family’s day tomorrow…. How can I be an instrument of God’s love in my family tomorrow? How can I honour the gifts of my children more fully tomorrow?