Monday, July 01, 2013

Ignatius of Loyola 1: Looking up to Ignatius

The image of St. Ignatius to the left hung in the stairwell at Eastern Point retreat house when I made the Spiritual Exercises there.  If you look closely, you can see my reflection at the lower right (the sleeve of my grey sweatshirt and the camera in front of my face).  Through his Exercises, Ignatius has had a substantial influence on my life, though our lives are separated by centuries, and an ocean.

In the Exercises, there is a contemplation which asks you to imagine standing before God and the communion of saints.  My image of Ignatius in that gathering was of a tall, thin man standing off to the side smiling — perhaps drawing on this image I looked up at each day on my way to meet with my director.  I was shocked to discover that Ignatius was only 4'11" tall.  I am a solid two inches taller than the good saint!


Andy Otto's wonderful post about five ways to find God in all things is reprised on Loyola Press' 31-days of St. Ignatius calendar.  I love his suggestion to do something by hand that you might not have to.  Yesterday my kids and I baked bread, kneading and shaping the loaves.  This morning I was reminded of the sacredness of the everyday when I sliced a piece for toast and noticed that my oldest had slashed the sign of the cross in the top of the loaves, as his Irish great-great-great grandmother did.

6 comments:

  1. Andy's post is wonderful! And I love that image of St Ignatius and see it daily... some nice person fashioned it into a bookmark for me!

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    1. Oh..bookmarks! I should do another bookmark give away for July!!

      And yes, Andy's post is marvelous. A place to begin (as Robin noted on her blog!)

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  2. Michelle, you and Fran are right about Andy's post being excellent. I need to be more intentional in being aware of God in every single act.
    What I really appreciate is your older son slashing the sign of the cross on the bread - now that is intentional and speaks volumes about his priorities in life.

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    1. Rising bread is always a miracle to me...even with modern yeast!

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  3. Made pizza dough twice this week, but I think my guests expect me to do it by hand.

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    1. If they are traveling thousands of miles, I would suppose so!

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