集美麻豆

You are beginning a Retreat in Daily Life inspired by and rooted in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. You are invited to pray every day during the next twelve weeks. You will know that you are making the Retreat generously if you give yourself to faithful, daily prayer. Keep in mind that we can never be more generous than God is: give the Lord a little time, and be surprised at the abundance of love, and everything else, the Lord pours on you.

You will want to have a special place and a definite time to pray each day. Find a place where you can expect to be undisturbed. How much time? A half hour has proven a good start. Over the weeks, you will find your own measure.听 Daily prayer, as outlined in your book, is the bedrock of this retreat. We have found that praying along with others magnifies the results of the Retreat in Everyday Life. You might meet with a group every week, and we find that having a facilitator deepens the prayer experience and the sharing. Never fear about sharing. With the helps given in the materials, you will readily find what to talk about and how to do it. 听

All retreatants will benefit from looking at the Guide Notes on the Experience of the Retreat, starting on page 242.

We hope that this retreat provides an opportunity to discern God鈥檚 voice in each of our lives and to re-encounter the unconditional love that God offers to each one of us. We recall Jesus鈥� words that wherever 鈥渢wo or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them鈥� (Matthew 18:20). Let us remember one another in prayer every single day 鈥� asking that the Holy Spirit guide our prayer, enliven our spirits, and transform us. We ask you to begin this time of retreat with the following prayer by the Jesuit Carlo Maria Martini, from :

Lord Jesus Christ, present here,
we thank You for the glory of Your resurrection;
we thank You for having called us together here;
we thank You because You praise the Father perfectly in us.
We thank You because You, in us,
are perfect justice toward our brothers and sisters;
it is You in us who continually heal our injustice, our mistrust, our fear.
We thank You, Lord Jesus,
for Your great glory
and we offer You what we are about to undertake,
everything we think, do and experience during these coming days
in Your honor and because of You.
Grant that, weary and tired as we are,
we may begin this retreat
in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

The Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises

"God who loves us creates us
and wants to share life with us forever.
Our love response takes shape in our praise
and honor and service of the God of our life.

All the things in this world are also created because of God's
love, and they become a context of gifts,
presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.

As a result, we show reverence for all the gifts of creation
and collaborate with God in using them so that, by being
good stewards, we develop as loving persons in our care for
God's world and its development.

But if we abuse any of these gifts of creation or, on the
contrary, take them as the center of our lives,
we break our relationship with God
and hinder our growth as loving persons.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in a balance
before all created gifts insofar as we have a choice
and are not bound by some responsibility.

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 more loving response to our life forever with God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
to God's deepening life in me."

~Ignatius of Loyola
Contemporary translation by David L. Fleming, S.J.,
from

A Reflection on the Suscipe,
A Prayer of St. Ignatius

"...the Suscipe is often sung, as a psalm of praise and gratitude. When it is sung by a group, everyone seems to belong to everyone else, a koinonia experience, the union of minds and hearts in melody. Recited in private, the Suscipe is solemn intimacy.
What one speaks to the Lord in the Suscipe would not likely be shared even with a close friend. Love is spoken in silence as much as in words. How can one beg for God's love after so many years and still sense that one is asking for the first time?
Has some level of mutuality been reached in this giving and receiving, in receiving, and giving? For a moment it would seem that love is not the final word: 'grace' is the last of the Suscipe's requests. But grace is the code for the Holy Spirit, and so is another of Ignatius's favorite words, consolation. For Ignatius the primary consolation is God's love, who is the Holy Spirit.

What wondrous wisdom it is that reveals to retreatants how the Suscipe changes hands, as it were! At times it is the Lord himself who prays the Suscipe in the experience of being loved, and in turn the Lord hears the Suscipe from our lips. In the end, of course, God remains Lover and we the beloved. 'Take, Lord, and receive, all is yours.' To know this is the supreme gift of consolation. The return of love is not so much in giving up anything as it is in sharing everything."

Suscipe

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my entire will -
all that I have and call my own.
You have given it all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

~J. Thomas Hamel, S.J.,
from 听

(Prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola)

A Discerning Vision of Heart:
A Reflection on the Ignatian Examen

鈥淲hen we first learned about the examen in religious life, it was a specific exercise of prayer for about a quarter of an hour. And at first it seemed quite stylized and almost artificial. This problem was not in the examen-prayer but in ourselves; we were beginners and had not yet worked out the integration in ourselves of a process of personal discernment to be expressed in daily examens. For the beginner, before [one] has achieved much of a personalized integration, an exercise or process can be very valuable and yet seem formal and stylized. This should not put us off.

...But the examen will fundamentally be misunderstood if the goal of this exercise is not grasped. The specific exercise of examen is ultimately aimed at developing a heart with a discerning vision to be active not only for one or two quarter-hour periods in a day but continually. This is a gift from the Lord - a most important one as Solomon realized (1 Kings 3:9-12). So we must constantly pray for this gift, but we must also be receptive to its development within our hearts. A daily practice of examen is essential to this development.鈥�

~George A. Aschenbrenner, S.J.,
听from