DotMagis: Wild Joy

Alan Holdren/CNA

"There are very few people who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves into his hands, and let themselves be formed by his grace."

— Ignatius of Loyola

I'm still fruitfully pondering Pope Francis'  Christmas message to the Curia, with its helpful list of spiritual maladies and cures. (Though I wonder if there is a spiritual equivalent of hypochondria or medical students' disease?)

The pope prescribed prayerful humor and joy for the malady of the funeral face. Which prompted me to wonder in reflection posted at DotMagis last week, can we abandon ourselves to joy in prayer?  What might happen to us — to others — if we did?

"...I love the impish way Thomas More’s prayer begins, with a request to the Lord for good digestion, and, oh, by the way, some food to digest would not go amiss. It reminds me of the way my college-aged sons banter with me in the kitchen, certain enough of my love for them, and theirs for me, to playfully tease me. In his Exercises, St. Ignatius encourages us to speak to Jesus as one friend to another. Do I love God enough to banter with him, as my sons do with me? Or perhaps I should ask if I’m certain enough of God’s love for me that I would risk bantering with God in my prayer?"

...read the rest at DotMagis