Loree and the Principle and Foundation

Good morning! We are back to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius this morning. I wanted to introduce you to the First Principle and Foundation - the first thing we learn in the exercises. This is meant to be the way we live our live, living in the love of God, sharing that love with others, and making our life with God our greatest priority.

Here is the Principle and Foundation:

The goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life
to flow into us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts of God,
presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.

As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
insofar as they help us develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
they displace God
and so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In every day life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
before all these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
and are not bound by some obligation.

We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, successor failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a
deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
to God's deepening his life in me.

- St. Ignatius of Loyola, as paraphrased by David L. Fleming, SJ. -

=====
Please join us for a virtual coffee hour from 9:15-10am on Google Meet:

Join Hangouts Meet
meet.google.com/eaw-nmmz-aeu

Join by phone
+1 631-743-5409 (PIN: 261993553)