Introduction to the guided Ignatian meditationsfor the international community in Delft
Introduction:
Saint Ignatius of Loyola developed the Spiritual Exercises to help people live happier, more loving and more fruitful lives. The Spiritual Exercises are based on Ignatius’ own personal prayer experiences and those of the people he guided. They have been used by the church for centuries to help people see the relevance of Bible texts to their own daily lives. The emphasis is on developing a deeper and highly personal relationship with the God who loves us as well as enabling us to get to know Jesus more and love Him more deeply so that we can follow Him more closely becoming the kind of Christians God wants us to be. The Ignatian meditations follow the structure and phases of the Spiritual Exercises closely over a period of 33 weeks. Normally the Spiritual Exercises are made in an abbey or monastery praying for 5 hours a day for 30 days. Many people choose to follow the exercises in daily life because this fits in better with their lives at the moment. People who commit to the Spiritual Exercises in daily life will pray (meditate) every day for 33 weeks. It is a requirement to have a Spiritual Director who is fully trained in giving the exercises and will see you every week. The spiritual director listens to your experiences during prayer, guiding you to see more clearly how God is communicating with you and helping you to enter more deeply into a personal relationship with God. The Ignatian spirituality is based on a strong conviction that God is seeking a personal relationship with every single person.
It might sound easy to say we just need to respond to God’s invitation to embark on a personal relationship with Him but it is anything but easy. To introduce you to the experience of the Ignatian meditations there will first be a short talk on the theme. We will then have a guided meditation for half an hour in the chapel followed by a sharing with tea or coffee. When the new season of meditations starts on the 17th of October there will be no introductory talks but just a guided meditation and a sharing afterwards. On the 10th October there will be a contemplative mass with Father Bart Beckers to give the new season a blessing.
The theme, “God’s Love for me”, has been chosen because Ignatius emphasized the importance of beginning the exercises by reflecting on this unconditional love of God. He himself had been tormented for a long time by scruples and a need for extreme fasting and confessions to try to rub out the sins of his past life. And then a revelation: an intense experience of God’s unconditional love for him, made him deeply aware of what God created people to be. It is the foundation on which our faith rests.
Theme: God’s Love for me
We live in a world where we are constantly trying to do our best. We try to achieve good grades in our studies. We try to succeed at work. We do our best to make friends and be liked by others. We put all our effort into being good mothers and fathers for our children. All of these efforts focus our attention on ourselves: on what we should be able to do. And when we don’t succeed all our attention is still on ourselves: we should have tried harder, worked harder, made more effort etc. All this can result in a very stressful existence. And the worst thing is that we fall into the trap of doing exactly the same in our religious life. We want, and try, to be good people and that is very commendable in itself but it again focusses our attention on ourselves and what we must and should do. And when we don’t live up to the standards which we, or the Church, set, then we judge or condemn ourselves.
Somehow, we have lost sight of what Jesus came to show us. He looked at people with love and compassion. He saw and understood when people did not manage to succeed in being the ’good’ and successful people they had hoped to be. He looked deep in the hearts of all people and saw the beautiful little piece of God that was to be found there: to be found in each and every one of us! Jesus cherished and nourished that little piece of God in people and showed them that they are loved just as they are with all their imperfections and problems. He showed them that God would always welcome them with open arms and offer them a new beginning. He taught people to shift their focus away from themselves and to focus instead on God’s infinite Love.
The most amazing and wonderful thing that arises out of Jesus’ teachings is that when people do manage to focus on God’s unconditional love, they become different people without even trying! Because the focus is purely on the joy of receiving and acknowledging God’s love, they often find they start to radiate that love in everything they do and in all their contacts. By focusing on God’s Love and not on themselves they are given the chance to become the people they had always wanted to be.
Henry Nouwen wrote some beautiful short reflections to help people grow closer to God. One of these reflections considers what the role of prayer is in our lives. It is called the Still, Small Voice of Love.
The Still, Small Voice of Love
Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove that you are a good person.” Another voice says, “You’d better be ashamed of yourself.” There also is a voice that says, “Nobody really cares about you,” and one that says, “Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.” But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, “You are my Beloved, my favour rests on you.” That’s the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.
That’s what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us “my Beloved.”
Piet van Breemen sj was a Jesuit priest who died not long ago. He was a very gentle, modest man who was filled with a deep religious understanding. He wrote a book (As Bread that is Broken) many decades ago which has helped bring many people closer to God and has helped them develop a more joyful, uplifting relationship with God. He also stresses the importance of accepting that we are loved totally, completely and unconditionally by God and, although this might seem simple, he helps us become aware that accepting this is actually incredibly challenging and something which will require our attention for the rest of our lives.
I will read aloud part of the first chapter of Piet’s book. The chapter is called: “The Courage to Accept Acceptance”.
The Courage to Accept Acceptance
The Answer
I am accepted by God as I am – as I am, and not as I should be. To proclaim the latter is an empty message because I never am as I should be. I know that in reality I do not walk a straight path. There are many curves, many wrong decisions which in the course of life have brought me to where I am now and Scripture tells me that “the place on which you stand is holy ground” (Ex 3:5). God knows my name: “See I have branded you in the palms of my hands” (Is 49:16). God can never look at his hand without seeing my name. And my name – that’s me! He guarantees that I can be myself. St. Augustine says, “A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still accepts you.” That is the dream we all share: that one day I may meet the person to whom I can really talk, who understands me and the words I say – who can listen and even hear what is left unsaid, and then really accepts me. God is the fulfillment of this dream. He loves me with my ideals and disappointments, my sacrifices and my joys, my successes and my failures. God is himself the deepest ground of my being. It is one thing to know I am accepted and quite another thing to realize it. It is not enough to have but just once touched the love of God. There is more required to build one’s life on God’s love. It takes a long time to believe that I am accepted by God as I am.
…… Creed is nothing but a statement twelve times over of belief in this very love which God has for us.
…… Tillich defines acceptance as “the courage to accept acceptance” and he means acceptance by God. We may think that such faith does not demand much courage. On the contrary, it may sound sweet and easy. But courage is required and very often it is courage which is lacking.
…… It is fairly easy to believe in God’s love in general but it is very difficult to believe in God’s love for me personally. Why me? There are very few people who can really accept themselves, accept acceptance. Indeed, it is rare to meet a person who can cope with the problem “why me?” Self-acceptance can never be based on my own self, my own qualities. Such a foundation would collapse. Self-acceptance is an act of faith. When God loves me, I must accept myself as well. I cannot be more demanding than God, can I?
Both Piet van Breemen sj and Henri Nouwen show us that still, silent prayer helps to bring us closer to God. A guided meditation is a very good way to deepen our prayer. Many people feel that sharing this experience of silent reflection with others in a circle enhances the prayer and gives an awareness of God’s and Jesus’ presence. Jesus told us that wherever two or more people gather together in his name, He will be present with us. We are going to experience a guided meditation together now.
A guided meditation:
Before starting the guided meditation, I will explain a little about how it works.
A piece of music will be played at the beginning of the meditation and again at the end. This helps to bring me into prayer and become still. At the end the music helps me to close my period of prayer and thank God for the time spent close to him.
A bible text is read aloud followed by some thoughts or a question to help connect the text with my own life today. There will then be 4 or 5 minutes of silence to reflect on the text and how it touches my life at this moment in time. Allow God to come close and share your thoughts and feelings during this stillness.
Sometimes I can get distracted by thoughts or memories while trying to pray. If this happens, I try to acknowledge the thoughts or events which are distracting me and promise that I will pay attention to them later. I then try to let them go and return to my prayer. Sometimes the distraction is so important and persistent that I can choose to deal with it during my silent prayer.
Sometimes my prayer can be very dull and boring and nothing spiritual seems to happen at all. If that happens, I tell God that I will stay faithfully sitting in silent prayer as a token of my love for him. It can help me to then spend my prayer time considering my desire for real spiritual contact with God.
Sometimes something special may happen during prayer: a moment when I feel God has touched me, a word or sentence which truly moves me revealing something important to me, a thought which takes my breath away. These moments are rare and precious gifts. I can’t make such a special moment during prayer happen. It is a grace bestowed upon me by God and my only response can be one of deep gratitude. I will probably not experience many of these special moments of grace during my prayer but when they do happen, I can pay full attention to expressing my thankfulness to God.
After the meditation there will be a short sharing where everyone will get the chance to say something about what touched them or troubled them during the meditation. We only share what we feel happy and safe to share and it is also fine to just listen to the others and remain silent if that feels better. Whatever is shared remains with us here and will not be spoken of again once we leave this place. The sharing will be contemplative in nature where we all listen in full attention and respect to what each person says without asking questions or interrupting. We receive each person’s contribution as a gift. In a second round we can ask a question if this deepens our experience or we can say what has touched us while listening to others. Finally, we can all reflect on what we are taking home with us at the end of this evening together.
We will now move to the chapel for the meditation.
This is a practice meditation so there will be slightly more words than we normally have. The comments and questions are usually printed on the back of the paper you receive but not today. Just listen and don’t try to remember everything: what touches you is of importance and everything else is far less important. The texts on the back of your sheet are for the coming week and not for this time of prayer.
To prepare for meditation I try to sit in a comfortable position with both feet on the ground and my hands relaxed in my lap. It helps to keep my back straight. I become aware of my breathing. Without forcing anything I breathe deeply in through my nose then slowly and gently out through my mouth. I pay attention to my breathing for a few breaths.