"Moved to Greater Love" Retreat - Finding our true selves

Two Quotations from today's reflections.



Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.
- C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"

Dying and dissolution continue to strike fear in me. Death itself does not. Ten years ago if somebody had offered me a vigorous, healthy life that would never end, I would have said yes. Today I think I would say no. I love my life as much as I ever did and will cling on to it for as long as I can, but life without death has become as unthinkable to me as day without night or waking without sleep.
- Frederick Buechner, "Listening to Your Life"

"Moved to Greater Love" Retreat - God Gifting Us

Typically, we associate our journey through Lent with penance, sacrifice, self-denial and suffering -

purifying ourselves for the grace of God ; making ourselves right with God and neighbour by.

Today's readings suggest a slightly different slant to our passage through. Rather than focusing on what it is that I am to give up,  I am invited to consider what it is that I am to receive; rather than worry about what it is I am to suffer, I am to look at where God wants to work freedom, nurture life and healing in my life. The real meaning of Lent is about receiving again --  receiving God’s love again and again and again. 

Look at the reading from Isaiah. God’s grace is not given lightly; it is given intentionally, with purpose, in order to bear fruit in our lives. Whatever God has begun in our lives – the gift he initially planted deep within – no matter how we have received, ignored, or even rejected it – God intends to see that gift take hold, grow, and bear good fruit. God is relentless in pursuing us in receiving the blessing of every grace he grants us.

What is it that God want’s to do in our lives to ground us more deeply in the reality of God’s abiding presence and love?

That is the point of the Grace for which we pray in our Moved to Greater Love Retreat today: I ask for the grace to recall and reverence the beauty in the cities, towns and villages where I have lived and where I am living now.

And so we are encouraged to review our life with an eye on where God and how God has blessed us in the past so that he might stir again and deepen any of those gifts.

"Moved to Greater Love" - Envisioning a Future Full of Hope

The grace for today’s retreat: ”to imagine a future that excites me and draws me toward it.”

There is a paradox for us to consider in today’s readings. The passage from Isaiah is a powerful and stirring one that speaks to the spirit with which we are to enter into and journey through lent. It is not simply a spirit marked by fasting and penance – BUT more importantly one that is compassionate in its response to the needs of those around us.  It is that spirit that opens us to God – to God’s promise and to the future of hope that God holds out to us – that can excite and energize us.

The kind of fast that pleases God is just and compassionate action, to break unjust fetters, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to clothe the naked, to help and care for your kin. The greatest commandment, Jesus teaches, is the commandment of love. We cannot love God if we fail to love our neighbor – and especially the needy one in our midst and those closest to us – our kin. In today’s gospel Jesus points his disciples to something deeper and more important than fasting – that is – reaching out in compassion to others to bring comfort, renewed hope.

This is the paradox: only when our hearts are opened, moved to compassion, and lead us to act with justice and kindness – will our hearts also be opened to welcome God. Then, God, who is already and always near, can set us free, make us new, heal us, and lead us forth in joy and peace into a future full of hope.  “Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over.”  

Reflection Questions

1.            Where is God offering me healing today?

2.            For whom am I to be a healing presence today?

3.            What are the needs of the Church and our world today?

                How can I best serve?

4.            How might I re-envision my engagement with Cheverus  based on the needs of the Church

               and world.

5.            Where do I find hope, encouragement? What about the future excites me. Where is God in 

                all this?

Moved To Greater Love Retreat - Call to freedom and deeper life in God

Today's Grace: I pray for the grace to choose life in whatever way God offers it to me.

In today’s first reading from Deuteronomy, we read:

“I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

Choose life, then, by loving the LORD, your God,

heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you.”

The paths that Moses sets before us today are clear - choosing between life and death, between spiritual freedom and enslavement. Choose life and inherit God's abundant blessings.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds his disciples as he embarks on his last journey to Jerusalem that he must be handed over to die and then rise to new life forever.

It is in dying – dying to our unfreedoms, dying to our false selves, our egos, dying to our compulsions, addictions, attitudes that exclude and marginalize others- it is in dying that we become open and receptive of life. 

We are called to be like the person described in today’s Psalm:

That person is like a tree

planted near running water,

That yields its fruit in due season,

and whose leaves never fade.

Whatever he does, prospers.

It is dying to our unfreedoms that we come to this life.

We read in the First Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola:

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, to be considered somebody important or a nobody, 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 the deepening of God's life in me.

Today we are invited to reflect on and talk with God about the following:

1.  What might choosing life mean for me today?

2.   Where are the darkness and unfreedoms in my life?

3.   Ignatius' Principle and Foundation calls us to be free, to let go of any attachments in my life. 

       ⟣What might I be clinging to these days? 

       ⟣What might my life be like if I let go of my attachments?

4.   Where are the lights and graces that lead me to life and hope?

Share your thoughts, reflections, lights with us by posting and adding a comment....

"Moved to Greater Love" - Lent/Easter Retreat - INVITATION

A Lenten/Easter Prayer Experience 

Lent begins tomorrow – a time for deeper and more intentional reflection and prayer on our relationship with God, ourselves, one another, and all of creation. This year we are invited to join Jesuits, lay collaborators, and friends of  Jesuit works across the United States in a Lenten/Easter prayer experience called “Moved to Greater Love.”  

This retreat in daily life calls us to a deeper experience of God’s compassionate love and to a growing freedom to respond ever more generously to the promptings of God’s spirit in our personal and communal lives. In addition to deepening God's life and goodness in our personal lives, these days of prayer will also enhance our understanding, appreciation, and appropriation of the Ignatian heritage and Jesuit mission that animates our work and life at Cheverus – especially as we continue our Sponsorship Review Process this year. These recent days of coming together in prayer and faith to support the LaMontagne family and one another has been a powerful witness of who we are.  

Please join us in this unique prayer experience as we continue to grow more deeply in our Ignatian heritage. 

Dates:

March 2 – May 4 

Commitment:

• 10-40 minutes of personal prayer per day. (You do as much or as little as you can – on as many days as you can.)
• Attend three small group sessions for sharing and conversation about the experience. (These gatherings will take place in the context of a simple, lunch-time meal during the weeks of March 17, April 7, and May 4. Details regarding specific times and dates will be forthcoming. Attending these sessions is optional.) 

To Participate:

Go to Jesuits.org -- GreaterLove, scroll down towards the bottom of the page, and click on “add me to e-mail list.”  Then you get a screen that asks you to put in your first name, last name and e-mail address. You will get the prayer materials on a daily basis (the evening before) when the program begins on March 2 at the email address you enter. 

For More Information:

• Download the Moved to a Greater Love FAQ Sheet (PDF)
• Download prayer sample (PDF) -- this sample daily prayer is typical of what participants will receive through the nine weeks.

Advent Retreat - Day 8 - Presentation in the Temple

Luke 2: 22-38

The Presentation in the Temple.

When the days were completed for their purification  according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord,  just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,” and to offer the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and glory for your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. 

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Thoughts for the Heart

Holy Listening helps define ourselves

authentically and spontaneously in relation to our world -
how we define ourselves in relation not only to the world, but also to God. – Thomas Merton 

We need to live with silence to be comfortable with it.

We must be willing to wait….silence is rarely comfortable.

Infinite patience and trust “is the slow work of God.”

Composition of Place

1.  Notice how Simeon and Anna both recognize who Jesus is. What makes this possible for them?  

2.  Notice their reaction to being in the presence of Jesus.

3.  Notice the reaction of Mary to Simeon’s prediction.

4.  Notice Anna’s response of gratitude.

Questions to Ponder

As you spend time with this passage in prayer, consider:

1. How and where  is God speaking in your heart through this passage and prayer?

2. In what surprising and unexpected ways have you experienced the presence of God in your life?

3. In what ways are you called to ponder and keep in your heart the mystery of love touching your life?

4. How are you called to be more grateful for the gift of love in God’s Son, Jesus?

Finally,

Speak to God about your fears, hopes, and desires to have a

listening heart that hears and welcomes His Spirit of love

into your life.