De Mello: Ignatian Contemplation

De Mello: Ignatian Exercises and More

“This is the spirit in which we embark upon Ignatian contemplations. Through the simple childlike use of our fantasy, we attain a truth far beyond fantasy, the truth of mystery, the truth of the mystics.”—Anthony de Mello in Sadhana: A Way to God (Image Books, 1978).

De Mello offers many awareness exercises that enable us to know and feel the presence of Christ, especially in prayer. In one exercise, we imagine Jesus sitting in an empty chair beside us. He reminds us that we can start our prayer in our heads. But our prayers will become stale and dry if we do not move to our senses and heart—out of a place of thinking and talking into a place of feeling, sensing, loving, and intuiting.

De Mello suggests Ignatian contemplation to help us become part of a scene from Christ’s life, to enhance our reading of Scripture and our prayer life. He reminds us of others who experienced God using Ignatian contemplation. In contemplation, Francis of Assisi took Jesus down from the cross and knew his Lord was no longer dead. Teresa of Avila felt closest to Christ when she was with him, as he agonized in the garden. Ignatius of Loyola became a servant, accompanying Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

Learning how to enter into the truth of these mystics can transform our own experience of living in God’s presence.

We give thanks for spiritual guides who knew what we would need in today’s world of strife and illness so many years ago.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Unconditional Love

Loving and Making God’s Unconditional Love Visible

“Whenever, contrary to the world’s vindictiveness, we love our enemy, we exhibit something of the perfect love of God. Whenever we forgive instead of getting angry at one another, bless instead of cursing one another, tend to one another’s wounds instead of rubbing salt into them, hearten instead of discouraging one another, give hope instead of driving one another to despair, hug instead of harassing one another, welcome instead of cold-shouldering one another, thank instead of criticizing one another, praise instead of maligning one another...in short, whenever we opt for and not against one another, we make God’s unconditional love visible; we are diminishing violence and giving birth to a new community.”—Henri Nouwen in You Are the Beloved (Convergent Books 2017).

I share pictures of those I know who give unconditional love, members of my family, and, of course, Christ, even on the cross.

My image is that I am a loving person.

Nouwen proves me wrong.

 I rarely love my enemies or anyone who harms me, my family, or my friends.

 I am just scraping the surface of forgiveness.

I bless less frequently, as my excuse is that deacons are not supposed to bless! Sounds like a Pharisee!

I know subtle ways to rub salt into wounds.

I also have mastered the cold shoulder.

 I often forget to thank others for what they do. 

I try to encourage others and offer hope, especially to those grieving. However, I could do better by encouraging and offering hope to those I disagree with.

So, Nouwen has given us a Lenten list of loving and unloving practices to pray that the Spirit will change in us.

I also have a part. I am to stop and pause when I have the opportunity to show love or not show love in a multitude of daily situations.

 Let us pray that we may love each other.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Phyllis Tickle: Divine Hours

Phyllis Tickle: Divine Hours

“Prayer is a nonlocative, non-geographic space that one enters at one’s own peril, for it houses God during those few moments of one’s presence there, and what is there will most surely change everything that comes into it.” —Jon Sweeney, ed., Phyllis Tickle in Phyllis Tickle: Essential Spiritual Writings (Church Publishing, 2018), p. 93.

Phyllis  Tickle’s birthday is March 12th. She died in September 2015. Every year, I try to remember this outstanding writer who took time out of her amazing schedule to help me with my writing for so many years.

Phyllis Tickle, founding religion editor of Publishers Weekly, was a prolific writer and incredible lecturer, rarely speaking from notes. She was also a great mentor and friend. My thank-yous to her are feeble attempts to continue the kindness and encouragement she showed me.

She is remembered for her analysis of the Emergent Christian Church, but I most treasure her Divine Hours, a series of books that observe the fixed hours of prayer for spring, summer, fall, and winter.   

I know she not only wrote about it, but she also practiced it. I remember seeing her slipping away at meetings for a few minutes to pray at one of the fixed hours: morning, midday, vespers, or compline. Phyllis’s books allow us to follow a set prayer time, no matter where we are in time or place. She brought an ancient rule of life into the modern world and reminded us how this would change our lives. She taught us that we would never be the same after experiencing the practice.

I am not as faithful as Phyllis, but I practice the fixed hours of prayer at certain seasons of the year, sometimes for only a week or a month, and sometimes for a whole season.

Lent is an excellent time to start.

Joanna    https://www.joannaseibert.com/