My first encounter with studying extra considerably about Ignatian spirituality was in a workshop at Boston School provided years in the past by the late Fr. Howard Grey, SJ. He was talking in regards to the Precept and Basis, that’s, the concept God created us to like and serve God and that we’re to deal with all different created issues as means to that and to not deal with these items as if they have been gods. In the middle of that discuss, Fr. Grey famous some essential options of prayer in relation to the Precept and Basis, ones which have stayed with me.
- Prayer is an encounter and never a efficiency. What this implies to me is that my focus shouldn’t be on whether or not I’m praying “properly” or “badly” or whether or not my prayer is easy or elaborate. What issues is that I present up and spend time with God. Simply as after we are with others whom we genuinely love, we present up for the second and never only for an agenda. Our lives with God can be characterised by this high quality of exhibiting as much as encounter this nice Thriller.
- Prayer is about discovering freedom. When I’m not overly connected to anyone created good, and even anyone specific form of prayer expertise, then I’m freer. God is just not in search of slaves however for buddies. However to be buddies with the Lord, we have to be freed from being overly connected to something or anybody else, in order that we will additionally love and serve others freely.
- Prayer is an invite into God’s kindness and persevering with ongoing creation of me. The best way that I perceive this concept is that I’m not a completed product. In actual fact, I’m not a product in any respect, however an individual, and God is taken with accompanying me, creating me, and forming me as my life unfolds. And that course of is rarely over.
These three options of encounter, freedom, and kindness in my ongoing development are great insights of Fr. Grey’s and assist me to recollect what’s on the coronary heart of the Precept and Basis: God’s love for me and friendship for me and for all folks.
Picture by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash.
