LIVING OUT THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

Nhiều bạn trong lúc này vừa hoàn thất Linh Thao trọn, theo chú dẫn 19 của Thánh I-nhã.

Cha Laurence L. Gooley, S.J. có vài lời hướng dẫn sau đây trong cuốn To Walk with Christ (The Institute of Jesuit Sources). Mong sẽ giúp ích

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And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world ....

The graces of the Spiritual Exercises continue.

You have just finished the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. As you progressed through them, they gradually became your own spiritual exercises. Your personal effort and God's grace do not end here. They continue; in fact, they may be just beginning. Ignatius himself emphasized that if we do not desire a grace, that we pray to desire it. What this means is that the graces of the Exercises may not be experienced until later, perhaps much later and at the most unexpected times. They may suddenly appear without anything in particular happening, or they may appear within the middle of an experience.

What this suggests is that living out the Exercises - your spiritual exercises - is as foundational for you as formally doing them. In fact, it is very often within lived daily experiences that the graces of the Exercises are received.

Please consider the following suggestions as you look ahead.

i. Pray through those meditations and contemplations in the Exercises to which you feel drawn.

ii. Read through your journal, praying over those points which strike you in some way, whether positively or negatively.

iii. Seek spiritual direction regarding the work of God's Spirit within you from here on.

iv. Seek confirmation of your spiritual journey from your spiritual community.

v. Share your experience of your spiritual exercises with a trusted friend.

vi. Pray for the Spirit's guidance in your personal prayer regarding focus, frequency, when in the day, where, style of prayer, and so on.

vii. Prayerfully reflect on how your experience of these Exercises has moved you to be Christ for others.

viii. Prayerfully reflect on what in your life needs to be brought into your spiritual exercises.

ix. Prayerfully reflect on the influence that your cultural and political settings have on your way of being Christ for the world.

x. Always seek calm and deep peace in your relationship with God. Anxiety and narcissistic guilt are not of God.