Food for the Soul | March 10th, 2022
3/9/2022
Dear Friends,
When I offered to write this column every week during the season of Lent, I thought it would be just like last year and the year before, fairly straight forward. Little did I know of the horrors that were about to happen in the Ukraine. The pain and suffering our sisters and brothers are enduring fills my heart with deep sorrow and heaviness. The world has changed. How do we humans manage to make such a mess of things?
In these weekly messages, I would like to attempt to follow an adapted and expanded format of the Ignatian Examen. Usually, this Examen is done on a daily basis, preferably at the end of the day. We will follow it over several weeks. It follows five basic steps:
1. Ask God for light
2. Give thanks
3. Review the day
4. Face your shortcomings
5. Look toward the day to come
I will be adding some more steps to it so that we have a full Lenten program to discuss and pray through. I hope this is not an exercise in futility, but that it may lead us to true transformation and a deeper relationship with the Divine.
“And God said ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light. (Genesis 1:3) Without this light nothing at all would exist. Every form of life proceeds from the light of God. On that first day of light everything was created, meaning the paths were laid for all forms of life to come into being at their right time, and thus all life is interwoven, past, present and future, seen and unseen. As we have experienced recently, there is also deep darkness within us and in the whole of creation. But the Divine light is the love of God which cannot be overcome by darkness.
Fast forward to Jesus’ time. Jesus tells us several times in different ways “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) And “You are the light of the world,” (Matthew 5:14). Jesus does not claim this light only for himself, but he empowers all of us to be the light for others. No, he reminds us that we are already the light of the world, we just have to awaken to this beautiful idea. What does that mean? One could take it to mean that we reflect into the world around us Divine goodness. One could also take it to mean, as Meister Eckhart says, that we see the world with the same eyes that God sees the world; “my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” God sees things through us because the Divine light already dwells in us.
I leave you with much to meditate and pray on.
PRAYER
Loving God,
We pray for the people of Ukraine,
for all those suffering or afraid,
that you will be close to them and protect them.
We pray for world leaders,
for compassion, strength and wisdom to guide their choices.
We pray for the world
that in this moment of crisis,
we may reach out in solidarity
to our brothers and sisters in need.
May we walk in your ways
so that peace and justice
become a reality for the people of Ukraine
and for all the world. Amen.
- From the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development
PRACTICE
Meditating is a way of being aware of the light of God that is at the heart of life, and, in being aware, to be renewed by that light within ourselves. I invite you to find a comfortable position, seated, lying down, or even walking. Begin to repeat silently the words from Psalm 43, ‘Send out your light; let it bring me to your dwelling.’ At the same time allow images and memories of light to be recalled within you. Allow your breathing to set the rhythm of repetition. As you breathe in say the words ‘Send out your light,’ as you breathe out say ‘let it bring me to your dwelling. Allow yourself to experience being led to the heart of light within you. Repeat these words meditatively for up to 15 minutes as you breathe in and out. After that begin to express silently the prayers of your heart. What are the desires that God has planted in the depths of your being? Express these simply in prayer.
(Adapted from The Book of Creation by J. Philip Newell)
POEM
When I Am Among the Trees
- Mary Oliver
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you, too, have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”