Encouragement and Challenge
April 5, 2014
A retreat with the Spiritual Exercises is always full of surprises, but this week has been full of challenges as well. Each of the meditations from the week has focused on some area where we can deepen our relationship with Christ through a conscious and firm decision to do something new for the Lord. These invitations are not new; we have all heard that voice of the Lord bidding us come closer to him. But perhaps the way in which these meditations have been presented is new, even surprising. Perhaps this week—just over half way through the joyful and penitential season of Lent—has been a chance for us to recommit ourselves to the sort of reform that God wants to work in our lives before Easter. Let us return with him to the meditations of the past five days, then, and see whether we can give thanks and deepen our commitment to accepting the Lord’s invitation to walk more closely with him each day.
- Monday: Poverty, Derision, and Humility: The Way of Christ
- Lord, the mystery of human suffering is that it ultimately helps us to realize our radical dependence upon you, and the grace of suffering is often that it leads us to call upon you for help. Help us, even in the best of times, to realize how much all good gifts come from you, but also help us to accept what you give us when it is not what we hope for. Let us grow to hope in you alone.
- Tuesday: The Three Classes: The Test of Sincerity
- Lord, I don’t always know what your will is for me in my life, but I know that my heart of hearts is a sure guide when it is illumined by your Holy Spirit. Send forth your spirit into my heart, that I might love you in each and every choice I make.
- Wednesday: To Not Go Away Sad: The Three Modes of Humility
- Lord, you give true and lasting joy to anyone who leaves everything and follows you, and your poverty, dishonor, and humility are the greatest gifts you can share with those who come to you with their own heavy burdens. Help me to lay my riches, honors, and pride at your feet so that I might walk joyfully with you all my days.
- Thursday: Reform for the Sake of Discipleship
- Lord, I want to be your disciple. Help me to grow in healthy habits that will keep me ever mindful of how I might grow closer to you.
- Friday: The Baptism of Christ: The Divine King Starts His Campaign
- Lord, you call each of your disciples into relationship with you through baptism, that all might come to share the grace of your own descent into the waters of the Jordan. Help us to recognize the radical change that you work in us each day, that we too might rise from our baptism as beloved sons and daughters of the Father.