Loree and St. Ignatius

For several years now, I have followed St. Ignatius of Loyola’s teaching on prayer. St. Ignatius was a lively soldier who, in 1521 suffered an injury that required many operations (with no anesthesia, remember.) During that time of convalescence, Ignatius had a conversion experience, and received a call from God to enter into religious life.  Ignatius eventually founded the Society of Jesus, which we know better as the Jesuits.
 
While in the hospital, Ignatius read many different books on the Life of Christ. One of these books suggested that the reader of scripture place himself or herself into the story, as one of the characters, as an observer, or as Jesus himself. This has such an impact on Ignatius that he created the Spiritual Exercises that used this kind of prayer. 

In 2014, I completed the Spiritual Exercises in a form called the 19th Annotation – the Exercises in every day life. Instead of learning the spiritual exercises in a 30 day silent retreat, I learned them, and used them, over 30 weeks, with a spiritual director whom I met every other week.  These exercises changed the way I looked at my life with God, and the way I prayed.

Over my next few meditations, I hope to teach you about some of the ways of praying that I have learned through the Spiritual exercises.  This week, we will start with this form of prayer that Ignatius found so helpful.

The Gospel for this Sunday is John 11:1-45. It is the familiar story of the raising of Lazarus. Today, as your spiritual practice, read the text, and place yourself in the story. We’re going to use the five senses to tell us more of what is happening. 

First, decide who you are – are you Mary, or Martha, or a mourner, or Jesus, or a fly on the wall? 

Read the text again. What do you see?  If you can, write it down. 

What do you hear as whomever you are? If you’re Mary, you’ll hear different things than if you are Martha. Use your imagination – what noise is in the background? 

What do you smell?  Are there flowers blooming? Is there food being cooked? Can you smell anything else? 

What do you taste? Dust in the air?  What else? 

What do you feel? Touch? 

Read the text as often as you need to in order to complete this meditation. When you finish looking through your five senses, write down how you see the story differently than you did before. What have you noticed? And how has this meditation deepened your own understanding of Jesus?