Monthly Archives: October 2022

Skies are cloudy and gray? Only gray for a day . . .

Blithe Spirit

Wrap your troubles in the awareness of God . . .

Were the Society of Jesus to be dissolved, Ignatius once conjectured, it would take him 15 minutes of prayer to reconcile himself. Francis de Sales was once asked how long he went without being aware of the presence of God; his response, too, was 15 minutes.

For both masters, abandonment and holy indifference capture how they lived their lives and instructed those who follow them. To put it bluntly, each will spot us 15 minutes to get refocused on letting God lead us and not vice versa.

. . . and dream your troubles away? Not exactly. Something better here? You don’t know until you try it.

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WHIPS AND NAILS We Jesuit novices of 72 years ago got to Palm Sunday in our Long Retreat meditations and then a second break day, 17 or 18 days into the retreat. Now the Third Week . . .

. . . on the passion and death of Christ—Mel Gibson stuff, imagining it all in detail.

When Gibson’s movie came out, I was not tempted to see it and did not, having already spent a week immersed in this gruesome denouement.  Shades were drawn again, mood turned somber, laughter disappeared, the novice master did not smile.

For five or so days, we went chapter and verse, line by line through the grim tale. We imagined details—whips, nails, betrayal, agony of prayer, submission to the will of the father, burlesque-like denial by Peter, the sorrows of the mother, the loyalty of the women friends.  . . .

Read the rest here. . . .