Inner and Outer Light

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believe, conscious living, fan the flames, gratitude, imagination, inner fire, light, light worker, meditation, possibility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center

Sometimes I “talk big” and really mean what I say but find at the end of the day that I haven’t come close to accomplishing what I had decided at the beginning I would be able to achieve. Such was the interim between this moment and what I wrote on Friday about diving in with vigor and making a new start. Events intervene and change the pattern of our days sometimes so all we can do is our best – sometimes starting over the next day. The key is not to get either discouraged or lazy so that nothing ever gets done. This morning I’m ready to try again. Here’s why.

1. Yesterday morning six of us sat around a blazing fire in the living room of the Sophia House considering three themes for reflection in this new year. Our wonderfully creative tech person at Sophia, Mary Pat, walked with us on a non-stressful – peaceful even – path, stopping at directional points of inner and outer light, conscious living and gratitude. Our sharing was simple and then grew as did the fire’s warmth so that, in the end, we had a sense of that fire as an ongoing potential for this year’s journey.
2. Last evening my three Sisters and I sat in our own living room and had what turned into a long, lively exchange of ideas about moving forward with the fulfillment of certain of our proposed projects at the Spiritual Center. It was another experience of how the inner fire in each of us was caught in the circle because of all of us together.
3. This morning lying in my bed after waking I began to consider my day and to wonder what might be accomplished. Suddenly a wave of light seemed to burst within me – not a tidal wave but a flicker of determination that seemed to say, “Fan the flame. Go within to catch the spirit of those light workers who can help you in this realm and beyond. Use your imagination. Get up! Believe in possibility!” Needless to say I did not go back to sleep.
4. As I sat with my coffee to relate these events and their effect on me, a strong wind began to blow through the tallest of the trees outside my window, cheering me on. It’s still waving at me – so I need to move to my meditation mat to solidify purpose and begin the day. Blessings abound!

“AMDG”

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Ad majorem Dei gloriam, conversion, find God in all things, inner fire, intervention, jesuits, saints, Society of Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, The Spiritual Exercises

As a child in Catholic school, I offered my work, as did all my classmates, to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Especially on tests, our papers were signed at the top with a small cross and the letters JMJ. As a high school student studying Latin there often appeared a more sophisticated reminder at the top of our papers: AMDG under the cross reminded us that all our work was dedicated “for the greater glory of God.” (Ad majorem Dei gloriam) I doubt that I knew at that time the origin of that phrase as a motto although I was aware of the esteemed men’s religious community that claimed it: the Jesuits, formally named the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century. Today is the feast of St. Ignatius.

Jesuits are famous for their scholarship, marked especially by the many colleges and universities in the United States and around the world. It is also interesting that the founding of this extraordinary company of dedicated men was quite similar to that of the Franciscans three centuries earlier. Both men, Francis and Ignatius, were soldiers who because of illness – Francis as a prisoner of war and Ignatius as a result of a shattered leg in battle – spent a year in convalescence during which each had a deep conversion experience. As a result, each dedicated himself totally to the work of God in differing but all-consuming ways.

The life of Ignatius and his “Company” is fascinating and it seems that much of his success – as in the life of Francis – in drawing others to his cause was his own inner fire and dedication. The basis of his teaching, his living, was finding God in all things and his legacy is seen most clearly today in his major written work, The Spiritual Exercises. Christians from every denomination and walk of life are now participating in the rigorous spiritual journey of a 30 or 40-day retreat based on the Exercises. For those unable to participate in such a concentrated time away, an adaptation called The Nineteenth Annotation of the Exercises is available. In this format, each “day” of reflection becomes a week, thus the process is spread out over 30 weeks and becomes for many a method of Scriptural reflection for a lifetime.

My interest this morning in reflection on Ignatius, however, is focused on that cannonball that so maimed his leg that he was blocked from pursuing what seemed to be a call to military greatness. Sometimes we are on a path that seems our true calling when something or someone intervenes and everything turns around. Sometimes the intervention is less stunning but still requires a response. I smile when I think of Ignatius because his conversion began in a rather ironic way. As he was lying in bed,  the story goes that there were no books (romances) to interest him in reading. All he could find or the only things that were offered to him were books concerning the life of Christ and the saints. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Whether we are shocked into our destiny or see it unfold incrementally day to day, God speaks to us and it behooves us to listen because, as Ignatius taught, we can “find God in all things.” The time to wake up is always.