Words

Tonight I was looking through a journal I kept while taking the online Creighton retreat for the first time. In it I found a few pages set aside ... they had written on them quotes I'd taken from various places. Whenever I would get discouraged, I would look at those words to remind myself of what I hoped was true. Here are a few of them ...

On your Spiritual Exercises journey, you are the beloved and God is your lover. Father, Son and Holy Spiriit desire to share everything that they have, even their intimate life, with you.
.... To You ... From Ignatius

Just as two friends change because of their deepening intimacy, so too we are changed by a deepening intimacy with God. But the change comes about through the relationship itself, not through sheer willpower. As we relate to God in this way, we become more like God. This happens in human relationships, does it not? We become like our best friends in our likes and dislikes, in our hopes and desires, etc. So too, we become like God through the kind of prayer indicated. We become like what we love.
.... William A. Barry SJ

If you are experiencing trials or are sad, behold Him on the way to the garden. He will look at you with those eyes so beautiful and compassionate, filled with tears; He will forget His sorrows so as to console you in yours.
.... Teresa of Avila

Often one of the temptations people have on retreats - online or directed personal - is whether they are speaking to themselves or to God. One can never speak to oneself in prayer ... and even if one were to, God overhears and answers.
.... Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario

God, it would seem, is madly in love with us, is always attracted to us. The problem is that most of us do not really believe it.
.... William A. Barry SJ

Sometimes it is helpful to think of God and each of us as lovers. At first we are attracted to the good in each other and run to each other carrying all of our gifts. But unless we put down these gifts, we cannot embrace each other. When God puts down his gifts so that he can hold you, he is seen as vulnerable and human and weak. And when he comes to us that way, we tend to turn away because that is not what we want God to be for us. And when we put down our gifts to embrace God, we see ourselves as sinners and then we turn away because we are ashamed. For that embrace to happen, we both have to put down our gifts and embrace each other as we are. Then what you discover is that when you walk with someone who loves you and someone whom you love, the trials of this world do not go away but they are seen and lived out of love and that transforms doubts and fears and worries.
.... .... Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario