Free Website Builder: Create free websites | Webs



Theme

Discovering, more, that all things, in their own way, reflect God’s goodness and love.

Grace/Desire

I want to know and long more deeply for the God who cherishes me and seeks to fill me with deep life.

Preparing for Prayer

1. Open to the guided meditation for the day.

2. Be aware that you are in the presence of the Living God, the One who beholds you with compassion and delight and who is relentless in seeking to bless you with all that is good.

3. Ask for the Grace/Desire being sought: “I ask to and hear God’s voice more clearly and to see how deeply God cherishes me as I am.”

4. Address this prayer of desire, first to God the Source of Life, then to God the Source of Wisdom and Goodness, then to God Creator and Comforter; or Father, Son and Holy Spirit; or Father, Jesus, and mother of Jesus.

During the period of prayer

Then, enter into the guided meditation (three selections are provided). You can do that in any number of ways, and nothing constrains you to do it one way rather than another.

One way that helps some people: Notice how each of the points presented moves you—positively or negatively. Jot them down and return to them for further consideration.

Another way that helps: simply spend time on those points that most move you. Using your imagination, explore what more might be revealed and speak to the Lord about what surfaces.

And a final way: Read over the points several times moving your lips. Let each of the points gently enter your mind, consideration and heart.

Whichever of these ways you use, try to keep involved. For intimate knowledge reaches both into the one known and into the one knowing and deep love of God comes only to the one who knows himself or herself loved even while loving.

Continue with the guided meditation …

The First Principal and Foundation

( 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 of 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 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 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.

--St. Ignatius as adapted by Joseph Tetlow, S.J., Choosing Christ in the World

The First Principal and Foundation [Another reading]

( We are created to share in God's life and love for eternity. Our experience of God's love is manifested in our habitual response of praise, reverence, and service; that is, our loving God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our will.

( All of God's created order is intended to reveal this sharing of God's life and love. Therefore, with all of humanity we are called to be one with the rest of creation; and, with it, we are invited to move together into a deeper relationship with our loving Creator.

( Whenever we are hindered by another part of creation from deepening this relationship, it becomes necessary to examine our connection with that part to ensure that we are not hindered in pursuing our call. Often we may need to choose to separate ourselves from such barriers.

( It is true that we can grow in our relationship with God only by cooperating with other members of the human family in caring for each other and for creation itself. Nevertheless, it is also true that we are not to become so dependent on any part of creation that we would be distracted or separated from our fundamental relationship with God. This means that whenever we make choices concerning any aspect of our life, we are to be interiorly free with respect to those concerns that make obstacles of creation — long life or short life; health or sickness; riches or poverty; comfort or discomfort; being accepted or rejected; status or non-status.

( Therefore, our highest priority is to keep this relationship with God shining through all of our choices and everything that flows from these choices.

The First Principal and Foundation

[A Third reading]

• 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 of 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 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 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.

--St. Ignatius as paraphrased by David Fleming

Prayer

Lord, mighty God, You offer me so much. You give me so many days and years, so many strengths and abilities, so many rich things and splendid technological devices, and You surround me with so many whom I love. Teach me this one thing above all, Lord: How I am to choose. Then I hope to return to You as many wonders as You have poured out on me.

Through Christ Jesus, My Lord and good brother. Amen.

Conclude the period of prayer:

Have a simple conversation with God about what happened during the prayer, thanking God, asking that the grace/desire you prayed for continues to deepen throughout the day and week. You may consider using words similar to those in the Prayer found after the third reading of the Principle and Foundation. End with the “Lord’s Prayer.”

Further Consideration

All things are to be loved – not because of their utility to us in attaining salvation –

but because of their own innate beauty and lovableness.

Created out of love by God, they have their own beauty and their own way of reflecting God’s goodness and love.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download