4 September 2020
Friday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians notes that at the end of time God will reveal the motives of our hearts. Here, Paul touches on a point that was very important to St. Ignatius, the growing desire to know and examine what motivates us. In the first step of his famous five-point examination of conscience, Ignatius asks those who wish to advance in the spiritual life to identify those things for which they are thankful. The question could be the subject of a retreat since the identification of those things for which we are thankful identifies those things that enable us to achieve what we desire, our motivations. Ignatius wisely realized that spiritual growth comes after a careful examination of our motivations. And this takes some courage since there are times when we don’t want to admit what motivates us.