Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 7/31

Saint Ignatius of Loyola by Jusepe de Ribera

                                                                                                        I've had 5 spiritual directors in my 53 years as a priest and 4 of them have been Jesuits.  I always make my annual retreat at a Jesuit retreat house.  Jesuit or Ignatian spirituality has had a great impact on my prayer life and ministry - and if this blog touches your spiritual life, then you're sharing in what has been so formative for me.  So I can't let the feast of Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, pass by unannounced!

 

To begin our prayer, let's spend a few minutes with Ignatius' First Principle and Foundation. Please, don't let the title scare you away!  It's much simpler than it sounds - and very deserving of our attention and reflection...

The First Principle and Foundation

The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us and 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 from 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 to 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 a 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.

(A paraphrase of Ignatius' words by David L. Fleming, S.J.)

Let us pray...

Help me accept everything in my life, Lord,

    my sorrows as well as my joys,

        as your gift to me...

 

Grant me the wisdom

    to hold all things in balance and in perspective,

        insofar as I am able and your grace allows...

Let nothing in my life 

    overshadow the gift of your mercy

        or distract me from your love...

Help me find in all things

    your invitation for me to draw closer to you

        the source of my life and peace...

Let this be my one desire, Lord:

    to choose, always, what leads me to

        and deepens your life within me...

Amen. 

 

These Alone Are Enough by Dan Schutte

 

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Take my heart, O Lord, take my hopes and dreams.
Take my mind with all its plans and schemes.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

Take my thoughts, Oh Lord, and my memory.
Take my tears, my joys, my liberty.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

I surrender, Lord, all I have and hold.
I return to you your gifts untold.
Give me nothing more than your love and grace.
These alone, O God, are enough for me.

When the darkness falls on my final days,

take the very breath that sang your praise.

Give me nothing more than your love and grace.

These alone, O God, are enough for me. 

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