Asking Correct Questions

Relationship: relationship with God and relationships with others mutually illuminate. Can possessions hinder a relationship, even put it in jeopardy?  Meet Shannon Evans. She ponders these questions in central Iowa where she lives with her husband and their five children. As Shannon ponders she makes Ignatian spirituality more accessible.

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Wiki-image circular shape created using light painting by “Subhrajyoti07 | CC BY-SA 4.0"

Learning from St. Ignatius of Loyola

When people freely isolate themselves, they fare better than when circumstances limit their freedom. Retreat—which one may not immediately classify as isolation—is freely chosen. Dealing with shifting moods on retreat happens. Knowing the end-date of retreat is one help.

Pandemic isolation is less easy to choose, yet people choose it to respect the lives of others and self.  Jesuit David Lonsdale recalled that St. Ignatius of Loyola experienced both “necessary” and “voluntary self-isolation”. His “reflections on his experience of isolation…can offer us valuable help in our present circumstances.”

In a time of pandemic, when many of us are struggling to find hope, or to live in charity with ourselves and others, the prayer of ‘Contemplation for love of God’ in the #SpiritualExercises can help as an effective response. https://t.co/sg0GUkpI9u #coronavirus #AMDG

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 27, 2020

“Power of Voice”

Likening himself to a shepherd Jesus announced in today’s gospel, “As the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them…the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.” How do we distinguish Jesus’ voice from other voices? At America Magazine Father Terrence Klein helped careful consideration. He began with “insufficient, misleading answers” before disclosing the gift of “a pattern that we perceive.”

How do we listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd? Ponder what the Spirit brings before your eyes. Pray and process. Let the patterns emerge.https://t.co/IHP4jeMVbl

— America Magazine (@americamag) May 3, 2020

Prayer and Anxiety

The pandemic causes everyone to feel anxious. Not all anxiety is equal. Some struggle with it in its severest forms. Not wanting them to be without encouragement: an archived post from Thinking Faith. 

Anglican priest Rob Culhane contributed a sensitive, thoughtful first-person account of treatment and his prayer. “I know enough from my professional training to recognise some of the symptoms — and I also know, theologically, that we are not a bundle of discrete and independent parts which compose our humanity, but an integration of soul, spirit, mind and body in a person.” Pass along to another in need of encouragement.

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Wiki-image Young Woman Contemplating by Karin Jonzen by “14GTR | CC BY-SA 4.0"

Meaning of It

The Pope’s British biographer and Pope Francis conversed. Their conversation was published today. Francis spoke of the “meaning of the coronavirus pandemic.” His biographer, “Austen Ivereigh reveals exclusively to Thinking Faith how the interview—the pope’s first for English-language Catholic publications—came about, and how the pope sees a world in crisis being offered the chance to change.”

[Links to their conversation are at the end of this exclusive.]

Remembering our future: @Pontifex speaks to @austeni about the #corona crisis: https://t.co/0essHuseUF

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 8, 2020

Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus

Jesuit General Superior Fr. Arturo Sosa promulgated the Universal Apostolic Preferences for the next decade. He summarized them in this video.            

Discernment: Tips from a Millennial

Ignatian discernment often confuses newcomers of any age. Ed Nuñez, a member of the media team of the Ignatian Spirituality Network, has two years of experience with the process. Discernment, he notes

can begin in high school, college, or even after college! For the average college student, discernment is something that we do without even realizing it.

In a recent post Ed offered “the three most important things that I have done…that have helped me discern.…” 

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Wiki-image of Cabangan by Ramon F. Velasquez CC BY-SA 3.0