Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Ignatius: Fruitful Labour - The Tension between Prayer and Action, Part 1

Ignatius has the expectation that, once a Jesuit has pronounced his vows after ‘tertianship’ he should be sufficiently formed so that prescriptions on prayer are not really necessary. The one thing he is insistent on though, is examination of the conscience. This is to take place at midday, and at the end of the day. The point of the examination is to give the Jesuit the opportunity to see where he has been meeting God, and where he has been avoiding God.

To participate in the examination, ‘examen’, means necessarily to stop all activity and be still; to give time to one’s heart; and to allow the Spirit of God to shine his light amongst our inner-most being.

This is not part of my spiritual discipline. Its something I’ve heard of before, and I like the idea of it, but have not engaged with it. I think my Journal goes some way toward it, but its not quite what Ignatius had in mind.

It would be a good discipline for Lent methinks...

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As an atheist I feel that theists treat the natural human experience of what they call "prayer" as something only practised by themeselves.

I again quote the Jesuit writer Gerrard Hughes who described the story of one non-religious man's use of "prayer" to get over the devastating experience of being jilted by his girlfriend:

"Do you know what I found myself doing? Walking the bloody moors with my wee dog. I came to cliffs by the sea, and just sat there. The sea looked awful big, and I felt very small, but I was happy. Daft, isn't it. I cannot tell my mates, because they would think I was kinky"

7:48 am

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