On the Ignatian Adventure: Passion, pain and presence

From my most recent post at DotMagis on the Ignatian Adventure:

"As I walked into town for my meeting later, I thought about how difficult it was to move from threading my way through a mass of effervescent middle schoolers into the Passover crowds in Jerusalem, and to walk away from Jesus’ body in his mother’s lap out onto to the sidewalks of Bryn Mawr. Maybe it would have been better to keep these contemplations for the seclusion and quiet my study offers late at night?"

For me, at least, one grace of the Third Week of St. Ignatius' Exercises is that of presence in the midst of chaos, a way of being willing to face the difficult, the painful, the painfully confusing.  You can read the rest of this reflection here...

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For the record,  the sign inside my door, a gift from Crash, actually reads: The very contradictions in my life are in some ways signs of God's mercy to me. — Thomas Merton

Postcards from the Exercises: Reconciliation Redux

I'm retracing the Spiritual Exercises in an adapted form (though I think you could argue that the Exercises are always adapted) using the materials posted at The Ignatian Prayer Adventure and writing weekly reflections on my experience for IgnatianSpirituality.com's DotMagis blog. I joked with the editor of that series that I felt like I was sending her weekly postcards from my trip with Ignatius. Since I have more to say than fit on those virtual postcards.... 

As the First Week of the Exercises draws to a close, Ignatius suggests you might feel moved to make a general confession, to take even those sins already confessed and absolved to the sacrament of reconciliation.  Last weekend, when I pulled the copy of the Exercises I'd taken along on the 30-day retreat, I found the slip of paper on which I written a note to one of the Jesuits in residence at Eastern Point, asking if he would hear my general confession (and his response, written frugally on the same sheet), repurposed as a book mark.

As the third week of my Ignatian Adventure wound down, with its contemplations of brokeness — the world's and my own — I recognized a desire to sacramentally deepen the graces of this time.  General confessions, though, are not to be undertaken lightly, or frequently (and as practical matter, never without an appointment!)  In the spirit of this 8-week adaptation and Ignatius' notion of repetition as a tool to sharpen our focus, I decided to use an evening walk as a time to prepare, and take one single thread of brokenness to confession.

The experience knitted some of the "crushed bones," leaving me ready to welcome a steadfast spirit and walk on the journey of the Second Week.

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Make me hear rejoicing and gladness, that the bones you have crushed may revive. From my sins turn away your face and blot out all my guilt. A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me. — Psalm 51:10-12

On the Ignatian Adventure: In the heaving of the sea

In the silence of the stars,
In the quiet of the hills,
In the heaving of the sea,
                  Speak, Lord.

— David Adam, Speak, Lord

This is a view from the rocks near Eastern Point Retreat House (on a warm summer day just after dawn).  I spent a many hours looking out at the cold, heaving seas when I was there making the Spiritual Exercises.  David Adam's poem evoked so many memories of that retreat, of the sharply cold and clear night hours, the quiet calm of the house, the heaving of the seas — and the longing of my heart.

Listen to Margaret Rizza's gorgeously clear setting of Adam's poem here and read my reflection on praying with music amid the second week of an Ignatian Prayer Adventure at DotMagis.

Diving into an Ignatian Adventure

This morning this image was on a friend's Facebook stream (thanks, Tim!) — and I thought, what a perfect illustration for the first of my reflections for IgnatianSpirituality's Lent 2013 Ignatian Prayer Adventure retreat.

When I stood on that platform in the hills outside Oaxaca, it felt like I was standing in the sky.

Read the reflection at DotMagis to see what leaps I'm contemplating 40 years later.  And if you want to taste, or re-visit, the Spiritual Exercises, the materials there are a warm and gentle way to do so.

Wading into Lent: An Ignatian Adventure

I'm easing into Lent this year.  Instead of gorging on chocolate or getting some Scrabble games lined up, I'm slowly clearing out some space, physical and spiritual, around the season.  I cleared out my prayer space, now that I can kneel again (woot!), and this weekend I began to walk the path of the Exercises again, in the company of Kevin O'Brien, SJ's The Ignatian Adventure (the book is here and an adapted version is here at Loyola Press' Ignatian Spirituality site, I'm using material from both.)

This time the adventure I'm headed into is not the immersive version of the Exercises envisioned by Ignatius in the 20th annotation, nor is it the embedded version he lays out in the 19th, but this extended retreat in daily life is informed more by the spirit of the 18th annotation in which Ignatius suggests that those who cannot (for many reasons) benefit from or undertake the full Exercises, might still be given that which may help them.

So, with a little encouragement and prayerful support from Patient Spiritual Director, I am diving into and out of the material that make up the Exercises, committing to spending 30 minutes in prayer with it each day from now through the octave of Easter.