Soul Food

July is St. Ignatius de Loyola’s month, so to speak, since we celebrate his feast on July 31.  So much has been written on his Spiritual Exercises and what I would like to share is just a very small aspect of my experience of making it year by year.  I am struck by the method of prayer called “contemplation.”  In prayer we are asked to “contemplate” a mystery in the life of Jesus, for example.  For me, it means to enter into the mystery by gazing on the scene, by listening and looking. Contemplation invites us to gaze deeply and profoundly into the event.  Thus it is not just to look, nor to see but to GAZE.  When one gazes at something, the “gazer” becomes affected by the object of the gaze.  As when one contemplates something happens and the process transforms.

Who among us has not drank from the cup of suffering? It could be an unexpected illness, an accident, psychological difficulties, troubled relationships, betrayal, loss of meaning, death of a loved one… The question we spontaneously ask would be something like:  “Why me?”  As we reflect on the reality of suffering, maybe we can also ask ourselves: What is God’s invitation to me with regard to my suffering? How am I to bring this experience into my relationship with God?

New year is always a good time to begin something new.  It is not a severance of the past though, but a continuation.  I like to see my journey not as a straight line but a spiral going up.  What better way to prepare for the coming year than by reviewing my planner and journal entries to know how I have spent the months, days, minutes and hours of the past year.  I find it so ironic that my days were packed with significant experiences yet I felt that the days have gone by so swiftly.