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The Latest Sharing I’ve been intentionally reflecting on my young years in this first week. I’ve also read many of the shares. What surprises me is that so many retreatants speak of unhappy childhoods. I did not know there were so many of us out there. My troubled childhood has always followed me. It’s part of my identity. Not to sound completely ungrateful — my parents loved me, this much I know- but alcoholism in the family was a true problem. I always felt different from my friends, thinking their lives were much better. But yes. I can see that God was with me in all of that. I fight sadness and anxiety as an adult prayer helps. God is still there. I'd like to share my Week One retreat with you. So far the retreat is going well, reflecting on my earliest memories until the present time. I was easily filled with joy at those happy times and the happy times I forgot I had, a joy infused nostalgia. One thing that stood out was that God was active at my early childhood through Art and Prayer; I remembered so strongly the time that I consecrated myself in prayer to Him at around 7 or 8 even though I had no idea what it meant, and its probably the reason that I could'nt forget my relationship with God altogether even though God took a back seat during the tumultuous life of puberty and early adult years. Recalling the sad memories wasn't hard either and the painful feelings associated with it. Family misunderstandings, bullying, temptations, illness, etc. God was faithful at those times even when I wasn't. And when I was old enough to understand, it was through the same problem God brought me back to Him and now start taking Him seriously. My relationship with God is still a work in progress and I believe will always be, but one thing's for sure, God sure is not in the backseat anymore, thanks to Our Lady. I started week one yesterday, after searching for a long time for a prayer programme that would help me commit to daily prayer that helps me get to know Jesus better. I feel blessed to have found this online retreat in daily life. I so often feel like my life is meaningless and I wish I could find what my purpose for life is, in the eyes of God. Dear Jesus, please help me to persist in seeking your purpose for me, and help me most of all to keep my eyes on you, on your works rather than worrying about other earthly matters that so often distract me from what is more important. Please also stay close to all those who are doing this online retreat so that they too may get to know you better and be able to serve you with peace and joy in their hearts. Thank you Lord for loving us so much :) Week 34 Week 32 I am working through Week 20 and am moved to share for the first time... Something that jumped out at me from the Temptation reading that I hadn’t thought deeply about: “…the Spirit led him into the desert.” It wasn’t an accident, but it also wasn’t as if he purposely went out to “test his strength” of resolve. He went out led and accompanied by the Holy Spirit, and after a time of fasting and prayer (during which, also, the devil tempted him, according to the text), the temptations we’re considering this week happened. Week 31 Week 30 I write this on Easter Saturday of week 27 after a very powerful week. Being there with our Lord, through His final day, seeing Him give His body and blood to the two men, one, the betrayer, the other the denier, knowing that they are both part of the unfolding of God’s will but loving them to the end. I was so touched by the depth of Jesus love. This week 28... It was painful, challenging but at the same time a voice saying: surrender, do not give up. Week 20. After dawdling around, procrastinating etc., ‘doing' this 20th week … I finished it 12 days after I began! Week 27 has been a challenging time for me, when I read the introduction on Sunday I thought I would be focusing on the Eucharist.. but this wasn’t the Spirits plan. I have been caught up with Judas betrayal of Our Lord. In your divinity, I am in awe of you... So many Graces in this weeks reflections, that I still have the vainglorious hopes of being someone special! That although I think I see what God is calling me to, I think that my sight often is shortsighted and I fill in the bits I don’t see clearly. But there is also clarity as I now understand why Jesus my friend refers to Himself as the Son of Man in the third person, as he has now given himself completely to God, there is nothing of the man Jesus left. He is now serving God alone, and ready to do all that is asked of him. In New Zealand this week we have been mourning the loss of 50 martyrs who were massacred while at Prayer. My sharing for week 25 is that I never appreciated the Scrutiny readings before. Thank you for bringing them alive. Love this lesson. I can see Jesus wanting to heal parts of me that have dried up and gently untying the bindings holding me cold and frozen. I pray again with renewed zeal on what have I given up on and doubted Jesus could transform. The last three weeks have been very powerful. One thing I heard from a podcast this week that helped with last week is that Jesus may have used very strong language with the Pharisees and Sadducees but before that he had developed a relationship with them. Jesus he had eaten with them and had conversations with them. So his rebukes came from a respect of the Pharisees and Sadducees as people worthy of engagement. I struggle with how to be authentic in love. Thinking about developing a relationship built on what I can agree with a person on first, is very helpful to me. Week 24: This week listening to Jesus speak from His heart, so passionately about the truth of God’s love and the false teachings of the leaders of the church has helped me to understand that my own self imposed rituals and patterns are also being exposed by Him. Week 23: Firstly I just want to thank everyone who has made this retreat possible, because it is through your love for God, your own discipleship in Jesus Christ, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you that you have brought so many people to know and love our Lord personally. THANK YOU. There is something about this retreat that keeps me engaged in it. I believe it is the feeling of companionship on this journey. I read and reread the lessons throughout the week, but if you asked me what they were about I would say, “sin” or “mercy” or “forgiveness” or “acceptance” -- standard stuff. Week 22 I am ending week 20 and have learned some lessons about myself that I need to address. It was heartening to read in the sharing that I am not alone in these. The first is how I can be the person of satan, when Jesus told me he was to Fast for 40 days I was incredulous! I harped on and on that he couldn’t do this that he needed to eat, that he would become too frail and sick to carry on with the work He has to do. Secondly the need for approval, that I am doing things the right way. Throwing myself into action to gain the approval of those around me, so that I can satisfy myself with a pat on the back, and a polish of my halo! I need to learn that the only thing I need to do is to trust in God, that he has all I need all I could ever want. That my journey with Jesus is unique, that as long as my focus is centred on Jesus and I am following his ways I can never be lost. I am heading out to reconciliation to clear the air, ready to start week 21 tomorrow! May God bless all of us and especially those people who have brought this wonderful Grace of this retreat to us. Week 18 What a week this has been, right from the start I was graced with insight to the attachment I have to my marriage, which has led to my husband and I living in different cities. My constant need to get reassurance that I am not the one who has caused this from all who I speak to... this led to me coming to realise that I am very attached to the need to be seen as a “good “ person. Still trying to make amends for my failings of my youth. Weeks 17 and 17a Contemplating Week 28 here in West Virginia. When I read of the disciples expressed willingness at the last supper to die with Jesus, I wondered why they all ran away in the garden. Even if Jesus was only a person, he was a close friend and teacher and others have lain down their lives over the centuries to protect/support such men. I like to think that I would have. But the thought struck me, they had come prepared to fight for him and die with him, but they had yet to fully grasp that he was the suffering servant. When they saw that there would be no fight and heard his instruction to “put away your sword,” they did not understand and fled. It would certainly have been the harder, more confusing, route for me to accept, rather than fight. Jesus, help me in my struggles with my anger and lashing out at those whom I may feel deserve it. This is the beginning of a new year and I hope, a new direction in my life. The last ten years have had their challenges. It contained the end of a thirty-five year marriage; the purchase of a new home, ( which has been named the Cloister) the returning to an empty house each day, the breaking of bread each day, alone. I live in a province where I have no family. We had no children. There are many close and wonderful friends, friends that have been the warp and woof of my life, for over four decades. I have two amazing siblings who live in different provinces, but with whom I have regular contact. My life is an abundant one. Over these last ten years I have led groups, done the Camino, visited Oberammgeau, travelled extensively, hiked, read, prayed and grown. I have learned to change furnace filters, set up my sprinkler system, buy items such as hot water tanks, air conditioners, appliances and floor coverings. The kitchen and baths have been remodelled and I purchased a new vehicle in the frozen depths of an Alberta winter. As I begin this online retreat, I look back on a life that for the most part was full, rich and filled with God’s graces. My parents were strong Christians and from a very early age, I was aware of the goodness and graciousness of God’s presence in my parents’ This is a new decade for me, a decade for last hurrahs. I am 71. I am active and healthy. Week 15a Week 14 has been so filled with Grace and finally an understanding why God had to send his Son as a baby to us. And how much love Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah had for God and how much support they would have been for each other. My reflection on Matthew’s reading gave me such insight into St Joseph, someone I have never really put into the picture other than in the background, yet without his response to the angel in his dream, would our Saviour have been born? Week 12 begins today. Amazing meditations. Here is some of my reflection from week 13 this week has certainly been a week of Grace for me Waiting for the King, The hope of the nations. A “quick” fix! Where all of the struggles, pain, sorrow and suffering will end. Were you supposed to come on a golden chariot Lord, waving a magic wand? Making everything new and taking your people to a magical place like the city of Oz? And what if you had? What if the coming of the Saviour of Man had been a quick transformation, and hey presto; everything was made right! I think it wouldn’t have been long before we went back to the old ways and patterns of sinfulness, and the pure and sacred would have been spoiled just as the Garden of Eden was by Adams turning away from You. Lord thank you for coming to us as a Child, as a little baby. Taking your place in a long line of your ancestors who had been faithful to the call of God. By growing up in a community, by the people around you as you grew, understanding that you were different, set apart. They could accept you as you spread the message of the Kingdom of God as a man. Thus the disciples dropped their nets, left their boats and followed you. You were a person; you still are that person, so when you died and rose again people knew you and the wonder touched them. Touch your world today Lord as we wait for you . Jane NZ Hi, I'm revisiting the spiritual exercises online, having undertaken it face to face -- a very, VERY long time ago -- with a spiritual director. I'm happy to see that, apace with today's connectivity, you can avail of more resources as well as bond and share your experience with other journeying souls. I'm on the fourth day of Week 1. My learning so far is to try to live serenely in the sacrament of the present moment, to dwell in full trust and faith in who I am here and now. Because, as it is written, wherever we are and however we got here, "the place on which you stand is sacred ground." The Lord, who is "Himself the deepest Ground" of our being, "in whom we live and move and have our being," is in us, ever one with us, and looking out for us. It kind of puts a momentous twist into how we inhabit every second of our lives. Did you see the scene in the movie, "Dr Strange," where Tilda Swinton, as the Ancient One, and Benedict Cumberbatch slip into eternity and share a serene, unhurried conversation on a hospital balcony the very second before she dies on the operating table...? I'm very excited at the prospect of getting back on track. Things happened, as they tend to do in life, and I've been knocking about on various side roads and alley ways. I do remember my first Ignatian retreat as soul-opening... as scary and thrilling as rollercoaster ride. But, by golly, and I know this to be true: If you let God, you may rise, you may fall and, like Dr Strange, you may grope, fumble, and stumble. And, yes, you may just get a chance to step into eternity. So here I am at the end of week 10 Praise God! Each week I have been blessed with grace love and wisdom which can only come from a desire to give myself more and more to my Lord. I can only thank God for calling me to do this retreat, as it is opening me to a new relationship with Him and others in my life. The call to serve has been very strong for a number of years now and although I would love to pack my bags and head off to the Yemen, Afghanistan or any one of a number of countries in the world needing practical help, I just don’t know if that is what God has in mind for me. I have been reflecting on my own family and how so many have “watered down” their Faith or turned away from God completely. I wonder if this is where God is asking me to work? I chose the first reading this morning in our list and it was Jesus returning to Nazareth and reading the passage from Isaiah to friends and family. He was rejected and ridiculed, and am expecting nothing less. But if this is where God wants me, I will stay. God will provide, and I will expect miracles. Thank you for your prayers I continue to pray for you. Jane NZ I am starting this retreat today. At present I feel I am in the desert with my spiritual life. I have said yes many times but I seem to take it back. Please help me with your prayers to start a new. I do not know where I would be without my Faith and I'm hoping in doing the retreat I can becoming deeper in it and use the gifts that God has given me. I have a lot of stress in my life at present and I want to get closer to God so I can handle it better and learn ways to deal with it by having God in my life. I have finished Week 9, and decided to share some of my thoughts and feelings. I think, after having experienced the Exercies in daily life many times, that I have finally come to a deep sense of my sinfulness of selfishness self centeredness and the fear and anxiety this causes. Flowing from this fear and anxiety is an absence of love in my relationships. Instead, they are selfish, controlling and protective of self and the things I consider mine: money, property, pretstige. I hope God can heal some of this at age 68, so my remaining years can be in service to God and God’s creation. JWNY The end of week 9 and as has been my practice, I have just read through the sharing for the week. Week 8 The end of week 7! Thank God! This week has been a really difficult one and I found myself caught up in self condemnation struggling to see how I could be forgiven. All of the sinfulness in my life seemed to stem from my need for acceptance. Acceptance from others, people who I saw as meaningful and wanting to be like them, I abandoned the cross and followed their rules. During this first week, this quote appeared in my Facebook feed, and it seems particularly appropriate: Greetings from England. It is such a privilege to take this retreat in daily life , and I have to say, that the generosity of the Jesuits, in making this course available for free, is staggering .!! I have just come to the end of my first week . Very uncomfortable airing painful memories, but taking Jesus with me and imagining Him there as the events took place was a great comfort. Just to see Him walking with me in the times when I thought I was abandoned, and to see the Lord carry me when I was too exhausted to go on, was a revelation. As for the times when I made idiotic decisions and regretted all the mistakes I had made, Jesus' response was compassion not judgement. This brought so much healing ! A week of being invited to forgive those who hurt me and to seek forgiveness too. I am so thankful for the love God has shown me ! I love the story of Zacchaeus because it gives me great hope that I will be forgiven and reach Heaven at the end of time. I’m late to this... but I don’t want to just jump in on the current week so I’m going to start at week one. My earliest memories were mixed.. coming from a family of 5 girls there was a lot of sugar but also a lot of spice. My 3 older sisters could be very catty and mean and my mother rarely came to my rescue. And so I tried to be invisible through much of my childhood. Until I discovered... horses (no not boys : ). My younger sister and I saved up our birthday, Christmas and allowance and bought a horse, Gina. I can honestly say I sailed through adolescence because of that old mare, but more than that, she taught me so much; ability to not take a back seat in my life, and yes, acceptance. It always floored me this huge beautiful animal let me ride on her back when she could easily just say “no” and toss me off. I’d like to think it’s about trust more than controlling another entity. They say a horse needs to “accept the bit” in order to be a good ride. But I think it’s about accepting the rider. It’s humbling to think of the acceptance of these beautiful spiritual creatures and how they accept us... and how much more powerful to know that God accepts me. Week 4 The question was asked: Are we free enough to face our unfreedoms? And we are told "Be not afraid".. My gallery included: 1. Sister Norma Pimentel: She is serving the migrants at the border. "The Caritas Campaign is a great opportunity for us...to promote and encourage others not to be afraid, to welcome, to understand why (migrants) come, and not simply block the idea that they are people, they are human beings like you and me". Thank you so much for this on-line retreat. AS I reflect back on my memories of my life I am immediately taken to my childhood where I was abused. Thank you for the grace to see today- that God did not cause it. Thank you that today I know I was not alone. He was with me helping me to survive. I am grateful. Week 3 Reflection The bigger picture. Last night at sunset I was struck by the colors in the sky. It was the color of a fillet of a fresh caught salmon and an indescribable turquoise blue. I was sure I've never seen anything like it before. I was sure I had not ever seen such a vibrant color of blue. Perhaps these colors were in the sky many times before but I didn't have eyes to see. Maybe it was God providing me a moment of grace to help me with this week's lesson because it did draw me to ponder the greater picture. It did make me ponder the fact that I was created for a purpose, and my life somehow fits into his great plan for all creation. I found solace in the moment.Week 2 has ended and a week which was filled with Gods love, presence and Grace. I was attending another retreat but the tenure of each day totally fitting the subject of this retreat, and I felt God holding me in His love each and every day. Growing Well here I am at the end of week 1, and I praise God for answering my prayer to receive the Grace which was sought for this week. It hasn’t been easy, but I was able to find times of joy and love where in the past there has only been pain, sorrow and resentment. Thank you to all who organise this retreat. Jane Last week our four kids told us what they would like for their next birthdays. They asked us if we would be willing to respond to a question they posed every week and write about our life story. That would be our gift to them. I was overwhelmed that they would want to know my story, that they would consider that a gift to them. I felt I counted, I felt greatly loved. There is something about this retreat that keeps me engaged in it. I believe it is the feeling of companionship on this journey. I read and reread the lessons throughout the week, but if you asked me what they were about I would say, “sin” or “mercy” or “forgiveness” or “acceptance” -- standard stuff. This past weekend I spent three and a half days in silent retreat with Fr. Larry Gillick. It was humbling, yet uplifting. I pray that I may continue on the right track, Christ’s track for as long as possible. I hope that this on line retreat will assist me in doing so. Dear JB. Follow the suggestions given, you will feel a whole lot, but I would be greatly surprised if you do not eventually see your past, both good and bad. But do what I do, practice emotional control. I can emote!!!! Big time, but what controls me is the obvious and undeniable fact that apart from being loved and blessed by God, my cross has been ever so light! Look around and you will see greater problems in the lives of others! Week 6: the daily sins that we commit, sins against charity, as an example, are forgiven by the penitential rite at the beginning of mass (i.e., Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy). These are sins failing to see Christ in every person. These are the sins against the unity of the Holy Spirit (e.g., divisiveness, cynicism, neglect, selfishness). Meditating on sin at this level is to hear Christ preaching: "The thought of adultery is committing adultery"; "The thought of murder is committing murder." If one reflects on the thought of sin of committing as offensive to God, then a new relationship of holiness, of spiritual perfection is taking hold in one's heart. This level of spiritual maturity is a late stage perfection of the individual spirit. Week 3 Only a personal loving God would have created this universe for me, which is why I don't subscribe to intelligent life beyond earth. There is the very real problem of the as yet undeveloped technology that can overcome incredible distances. (Star Trek/Star Wars are such outrageous fictions in retrospect.) [Week 3] God intensely desires to reveal to us his purpose to save the world with our help. It is difficult to accept that we could matter as much, but this is what is revealed to us by Jesus Christ. Week 2: By God's grace I am who I am for myself today. --Richard I'm beginning the retreat today. Acceptance is trusting, tolerating the annoyances, doing the task instead of complaining about it. Doing it for Christ rather than for another's appreciation, recognition. Richard I'm just about to start week 3 and having read through everything, I thought that I would read some of the sharing for this week. There had generally been in weeks 1 and 2 so many positive comments that I wondered why I didn't feel necessarily the same. Reading week 3 sharing, I found myself very moved by so many of the comments and wanted to thank so many who had courageously expressed their struggles. May God bless each one of you. Thank you for your openness and vulnerability which has encouraged me in my own journey. Thanks be to God. Week 2: As I read the shares and answered the questions in week 2, I realize I am not unique. What happened to me in my early life is not so different from others, but still damaging to the being God brought into this world. I am tired tonight so am not going to share a lot, but I do want to say I am grateful. Everything in my life feels so overwhelming and hard to carry but through the last two weeks I now believe that God will carry it for me to lighten my load so I can be the woman he meant me to be. My first step is letting Him lift this heavy weight. Not sure what this weight is but do know it is strangling me. Thank you for being there for me to share. Thank God I found this retreat on line. I wanted to go on retreat during spring break, but was working so hard, I didn’t take time to make plans. So I found myself at home online trying to find a place to go on retreat. When I could not find a place near my home, I finally decided to try to find an online retreat. Wow! Was I lucky! The Jesuit influence in my life has been huge! So when I saw the word Jesuit I clicked on Creighton’s online retreat and there was an answer to prayer. This first week has been very difficult to me with so many sad memories from my childhood, but memories still of a mother who tried to do her best to create a home filled with FAITH AND GOOD FOOD despite being repressed and abused by my father.. Despite the dysfunctionality of our family life and our poverty, she took us to church and gave us a good formation in the Catholic faith. I will be forever grateful to her for those two gifts. What has finally emerged from the memories is a realization that even though I did not open myself in prayer to God, HE was always working through other people and my own perseverance to help me grow and survive. WEEK ONE In my second week, I have found a real rich relationship with God. I just cannot wait to see my dreams to come true. I love the questions and the signs from God. I'm so glad I'm doing this retreat. Even in the times I feel like I don't want to keep it up, or it's not really doing it for me, once I get back into it, I'm refreshed. I think one of the best things I've gotten out of it so far, is how I look at the MS in my life. It's only taken me 3 years (since being diagnosed), but I've finally figured out that it doesn't define me. And in the end, being healthy or not doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. Living my life to serve God is what defines me. And following Jesus on my path to heaven is what matters. And that happens regardless of MS, or really regardless of whatever struggle I have. I must take up my cross and follow Jesus. And I'm thankful to be on this journey, where everything is a gift, but above all these gifts, is the giver of all gifts. So, all that is easy to say, but harder to live every day. So I guess I'll just take it one day at time! As I read “Our Sinfulness and Our Goodness,” from week 6, a few rogue (yet sacred) thoughts came to me which brought me deeper awareness and compassion for my own sinfulness and goodness, as well as a greater receiving of Christ’s Love and compassion. The cross – the arms on the cross –one representing our deep sinfulness and the other God’s great Love – the suffering causes them to be as far apart as humanly possible – humanly. Yet – the Love of Christ compels this suffering to come to a final conclusion – death. This death allows the arms to be brought together - ending the separation. And further more it compels the arm of the sinner and the arm of the Divine Love from that cross to not only come together, but around us. Around me. The embrace of Love. Bringing together death and life – rejection and love – humanity and divinity. The final acceptance of both is within myself. I've started week 1. Week 1 - My birthday is tomorrow. My mom visited with me. She always reminds me that it was very cold the day I was born and how happy she was that I was her valentine baby; how I was special because I was her first born. Hey, there are graces and difficulties that come with that so I'll take the graces too😊. She always speaks so lovingly of how blue my eyes were and how platinum blonde I was ( cotton top) and how she longed to hold me. She had a cold so back then she could only look at me for several days as a precaution. Today she also talked about how my grandpa would ask if I was sleeping better at night because she said I moaned and made fussy noises all night which woke her repeatedly. When she'd honestly tell him " not really", he would just silently nod his head in acknowledgement of her struggle. So like my pa-pa.❤ In those days it wasn't common for men or fathers- in law to bother with such things but then he wasn't just any grandpa. He had a soft heart and he had a soft spot for me because, u see, I was his first grandchild. It renews my faith in the power of our souls to persevere for I was born during difficult times. In spite of that there were tender moments of caring and love galore. God blessed me with a family who loved me and each other unconditionally. Not perfectly of course for difficult times bring out the good and the bad in each of us. But they loved faithfully.- to each other and to our Lord. And so they taught me and now I teach my family to love the same way. What a huge blessing God has bestowed upon us. That, in a "nutshell", is the story of my life. Week 19 - As I contemplated the story of Jesus' leaving his home in Nazareth and then entering into the sacrament of Baptism, I remembered a time when I left home to do mission work. I eagerly left my family, because home wasn't a happy place. I went to Switzerland first, a foreign country with a language I had studied in school but was only learning to speak. Being immersed in a different culture, in a position of service--I worked as a maid and kitchen assistant in a retreat center, it was like being baptized by the Holy Spirit. I was the only Catholic and had to take a bus or boat to Mass every week. The prayers were in German, but they were still familiar. The familiar was merely expressed in a different language. I spent the second half of that year at a Navajo mission in New Mexico. Again, I left home eagerly, heading out to serve the People in the name of Jesus. In both of these settings, the work was hard, and Jesus bore me up. The cultures were completely different from each other and from my own. I learned to respect people and take the time to get to know individuals. I experienced Jesus in a new way that has never left me. I've never been the same. Week 17 - I am confused by the juxtaposition of this week because I don’t believe that God gave us each talents so that we might play “small” in life. Wanting poverty that is. We are here to improve the world by using our gifts - and for some, that may bring wealth, recognition and fame. I believe the challenge is to remain humble and not enslaved by the trappings of ego. The trick is to always remember that we need to be a light and the hands of God. I am working on myself to be able to put situations in perspective, to resist being ego driven. I am a leader at work - and it is important to give praise and recognition to others to encourage others development and attainment of goals. Everyone wants to be happy and have enough - it’s everyone’s job and challenge to help those that need it. I have found my real love to God through the Jesuits. I also want to share about my crisis as a pain in the Cross of Jesus and it has a merit. As I read “Our Sinfulness and Our Goodness,” from week 6, a few rogue (yet sacred) thoughts came to me which brought me deeper awareness and compassion for my own sinfulness and goodness, as well as a greater receiving of Christ’s Love and compassion. The cross – the arms on the cross – one representing our deep sinfulness and the other God’s great Love – the suffering causes them to be as far apart as humanly possible – humanly. Yet – the Love of Christ compels this suffering to come to a final conclusion – death. This death allows the arms to be brought together - ending the separation. And further more it compels the arm of the sinner and the arm of the Divine Love from that cross to not only come together, but around us. Around me. The embrace of Love. Bringing together death and life – rejection and love – humanity and divinity. The final acceptance of both is within myself. I am so grateful for this LOVE. I welcome this embrace. Thank you Jesus for your welcoming Presence. I am meditating on Week 23, Jesus as lover and healer, and it is so cool because my Kingdom Community (who is not doing the online retreat) went down this path in our prayer hour yesterday. Jesus as lover and healer! We had a week of prayer and fasting in our churches this week and 200 people are showing up every night for prayer. Jesus is healing. Love how this intersects with where I am in the online retreat. Week 31 Hi, I'm Anne and I have been blessed to find this retreat and have benefited from everyone's sharing. I would like to share with you all a meditation on this weeks theme that can be found in the book THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE by Morton Kelsey entitled "The Road to Emmaus". It is a beautifully written meditation that complements the material presented. I hope you can all get a chance to read it. I am in the 3rd week of my retreat. It had been a busy week and there were times I could not reflect on the task for the week. However I know our Lord is still with me and showing me that even in the busyness of daily life He is present with with me each and every moment. I am in the first week and grateful that I found this online retreat. I need to discern as there are stirrings inside me that I need to take on a different pathway of my life to move into mission and humanitarian service. As I reflected on my past life for the first week I realized how our Lord had been with me guiding me gently in the ups and downs of my life.How in the past years, events had actually happened so that I would grow stronger in my faith. It’s been difficult to focus on the retreat in the busyness of my life but even while I struggle I know our Lord is there guiding me. I find the prayers and readings in the first week particularly helpful. Mary I am a prayer guide for the Exercises. And these past two weeks I have found myself in such desolation. I had my adult daughter here at Christmas and for whatever reason she was unrelenting in her unkindness towards me. I began to doubt (not a sign from God!!) my ability to guide anyone in the retreat, wondered whether I was supposed to even be doing any of this. The susipe seemed to mock me and I began to go inward and pity my situation. My son died unexpectedly a year 1/2 ago, my husband of almost 50 years has developed two kinds of cancer and with my daughter's unkindnesses, I felt overwhelmed and unworthy. BUT! The lessons of Ignatius are very clear about what to do and what not to do in desolation and I took those lessons to my heart ~ I have made no major decisions, have prayed more, have rebuked the enemy of my serenity, have brought back to mind the comforts I've experienced during times of consolation and have reminded myself over and over of God's enduring love for me. While there is desolation, the Exercises have taught me how to sit with the pain and the discomfort and the emptiness, have taught me how to recognize this for what it is, and not to allow it to run roughshod over my heart. I know God is with me, loves me, and that I love Him, and the rest will play itself out. I have asked for the grace of consolation, knowing it is nothing I can create for myself out of sheer determination or the like, and have prayed that whatever it is I am to be learning from this experience at this time be revealed in a way I can absorb. So while the Exercises do not guarantee a trouble free, or desolation free life, they do teach us how to manage when things are difficult, how to recognize what is happening and give us the grace to somehow find an acceptance within oneself that this is all part of the process of being human ... and at the same time, allows me to remain in love with our Lord. That is the gift of the Holy Spirit, through the generosity of Ignatius, that was given anew to me this Christmas. Week 16 — proves an enigma to me — try as you want Jesus is God and the second person of the Trinity — I would love to know much more about the hidden 30 years but quite frankly putting Jesus as another kid on the block who cheated at something stretches the imagination a bit — the hidden years a hidden for a reason — I have often wondered about the trip to Egypt and their lives in Egypt — the part that particularly disturbed is where I read that Jesus and His Father had to rethink something that they thought was a good idea at the time but needed tweeking!!! Excuse me is this the god we pray to and created the universe. Imagination is good and thinking about Mary pregnant is something that I never thought about — however, angels coming to you. Being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit etc. I am sure Mary and Joseph fully realized what needed to be done and kept all things in their heart — imagination is good and if it helps fine — but somewhere along the line while letting our imaginations run wild, we must realize that is God and not some 2 year old throwing a terrible twos tantrum — while I have learned much week 16, its readings and sharings have left me wondering if we truly understand what God has done for us — Remarkable, extraordinary, and loving — imagination about the lives they touched while in Egypt — imaginings what was God’s plan for Egypt and not somewhere else — are inviting — Jesus as a rough neck — bare chested stud — please!!!!!!!!! Week 27 As I contemplate the Last Supper this week, I feel as if a terrible thorn pierce my heart. Wanting to convert to the Catholic Church, after some years of thinking, praying and having catechesis , the Eucharist itself forms the last obstacle. E.g., it is my state of being remarried to a woman, who herself is remarried too, - it is this, which makes my conversion so extremely difficult. Having both our first marriages nullified would be very hard for some people, and, besides, my wife does not think she has a good reason for having her first marriage nullified. I can do little or nothing about all this. I just pray Jesus to have mercy upon me in my situation. I am a Catholic in my heart, but I now have the choice of either converting to not being able to receive the Eucharist or being in my Lutheran Church, with my heart elsewhere. It is not as simple as some think, to get marriages nullified. It has some human costs for people involved. Please pray for me. Greetings from Norway. Week 12: To my Retreat Companions, As today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception I would like to add this. A few years ago I attended a funeral of a mother of my daughter’s classmate. I did not really know her because of her sickness with cancer and subsequent death, but she has left a beautiful mark on my heart. The priest, during her eulogy, spoke of the Virgin Mary’s Fiat and of this woman’s personal fiat. During that mass I asked the Lord, what is my fiat? I believe that night as tragedy struck my family to the core God began to reveal what mission he wanted me to help Him with and I answered yes. And so it has become over time, my personal fiat to love, forgive, be merciful as only I, a broken, conflicted, human person can do, with Jesus. I am to guide, protect, preserve and rebuild my family in hopes that one day the hardships, sorrows, and wounds will melt away like snow leaving only beautiful blooms of love on my family tree- strong and full of faith, love and mercy for the world. Week 12: In my 20's I had the opportunity to work at a Navajo mission in a tiny place called Thoreau, NM. The most important lesson I learned was to serve Jesus in my work there. If I try to serve people, I get burned out. I got that notion from the writings of Henri Nouwen. Anyway, working with the very poor people in our own country and learning about their culture changed me for life, or, as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps says, I was "ruined for life." I have also worked extensively in a public charter school in Nashville. Again, I was blessed to work with the working poor. I also approached that job as service to Jesus. We're called to be priests, prophets, and kings, but some say shepherd in place of king. I think we're all called to serve Jesus in our interactions with each other. If I serve him, I can follow him and do his will. In this way I can answer God's invitation of love and be with him always. KathyWeek 1: Week 10: Week 12. A sense of alienation from the retreat has been growing over the past few weeks. I find the idea of concocting an intimate love relationship with Jesus very off-putting; even creepy. At best, it feels fake and forced for me to generate an image of a male Jesus to fall in love with; it seems to me this will inevitably lead to idolatry—fashioning God after my own image of what I think I want in a love interest. Inextricably entwined with this is my awareness that the catholic church—to which I have tried my very best to belong, for some 35 years— is lorded over by men, men who insist that their maleness makes them God's chosen stand-ins for Jesus Christ on earth. Stand-ins for the God they call Father. I have suffered significantly—professionally, emotionally, and spiritually—at the hands of these men and and their attitudes and actions toward me—a woman. All this whipped-up devotion to a male Jesus makes we want to scream and vomit. I’m reading The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women by Katherine Dyckman, Mary Garvin, and Elizabeth Liebert as a companion in making this retreat. I am working with a therapist and a spiritual director as I once again take stock of the impact of parental neglect and decades of sexual harassment and abuse on my work and life, and try to move forward in hope and renewal. We’ll see where it leads. It is no fun. It is not “attractive” in the Ignatian sense. I do believe that God has given me my particular experiences, perspectives and insights as gifts of power and grace for the world. I got just as wet as any man when I was baptized. It is “my duty and my salvation” to keep faith with these particular gifts. So perhaps a next step here is for me to proceed with the retreat’s invitation to imagine Jesus by imagining her as a woman—or better yet, a post-gendered person. Or perhaps—me. Week 11 – I am loving this retreat. My heart is YES, YES, YES! God may be calling me to be a support for my abandoned nephew. Our family can offer so much more stability than my brother’s family can at this point in time. I am still listening to God about this, but I am willing. WEEK 7: I have deeply realized the pattern of mistakes, which have touched my heart. Yet, I am a loved sinner. Jesus is truly accommodating. He is in my many life angles. " O, God grant me grace to desire more your Son in many ways and patterns of my conduct." My 10th week blessing came in timely with my mother's confinement in the intensive care unit. She had congestive heart failure and still unstable. The call to be with me resonates the call of my ailing 98 year old mother. My siblings and myself after dialogue with my mother's physician agreed not to submit to extraordinary measures prolonging unnecessarily her pain and stresses. The call to be with me is my prayer that we will be around with my mother when her earthly time is going to end. It may be soon or not too soon. I ask our Lord to lead the way and give light if we are in the dark as far as journeying with my mother is concerned. Week 32 "Dear Lord, I love you and I trust you. I lay all of my troubles, worries, and concerns at your feet. I wish to serve you. I wish to share your Easter Joy with all of those around me. Give me the strength I need, Lord; show me the way. Thank you for your great mercy and love. Amen" Week 9: There was some resistance to moving ahead. Am on week 9 and just read the reflection. What moved me was relating to God's love, forgiveness and healing by using the analogy of driving to a doctor for healing advice. I am battling cancer and am driving to Chicago tomorrow to get test results from a specialist. The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. Week 8 WEEK 4: My life has been in many ups and downs, particularly during my younger years. Now, this Retreat, made me more to feel conscious on how to balance. That it is God’s Will as it comes to me through people and events in my daily life. Fine tuning is needed in order to stay in Harmony with God and Jesus Christ. I realized that Harmony in all dealings with living things and non-living items is crucial and that, I must always see the presence of God. There is purpose for each object, nature’s condition, environment change, people’s movement around me and that I am responsible to making sure that my thoughts, desires, and every activity throughout the day are in harmony with God’s Will. Hard though, but impressed by his holy Will. They say, “it is a jungle out there”; “fast lane”; day-in day out”; “people change”; “tweet”; “holy macro”;.. and many more. Harmony: Living in Balance. This Guide has indicated to me the importance of my own Freedom, that when I come low in tuning, right up I have to exercise my freedom to consciously surrender my erroneous tendencies; that I then stay course in the Habits of my Heart with God. Yes, God always call me wherever I am, for He is faithful to me. Could I be always, that’s the fine tuning towards Harmony. Dear Companions, Week 7: I regret that this is only my second time I have written to all of you! I have received much from your sharing and feel compelled to now do so for you in hopes that God may bring about blessing for you from it. These last few weeks have not been easy contemplating sin. There were times I avoided contemplating it, avoided talking with Jesus about it. But deep in my heart, I had a desire to be with Jesus and so I took some time with Him. As always, Jesus loved me through it! He graced me with the ability to truly open my heart to him and from there He gently and simply opened my eyes. Lord, show me what I need to face - Oh I sin in so many ways and my heart is so conflicted! I have caused others to suffer because of my actions and inactions! And what have I lost or what have we lost because of my temporary gratification from sin? Please forgive me! God also gifted me with the interceding presence of St. Monica through this week as we prepared and celebrated All Saints Day and I am most grateful! Thank you Papa God! Thank you for continuing to love me! WEEK 6: I contemplate imaginatively being the prodigal son. Each time, I sin, I tend to go away from my Father. After all, it is the prodigal father as the main flesh in the story. My Father understands my vulnerabilities. He welcomes me each time I come back to Him. My Father, is faithful, forgiving, compassionate God. His love and generosity cannot be outdone. The love of the Father, is revealed by the death of his Son, Jesus on the cross. Over and over again, my sin is washed off by the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. I am always being His prodigal son.
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Sharing Archive Week 1 (Part 2) |