Scrunching the Spiritual Exercises

- The Last Supper by Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret

This time of year I'm reminded of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and the online retreat based on it that Creighton University offers, A 34 week retreat for Everyday Life. If the retreat is begun in coordination with the liturgical year then it seems sort of scrunched to me because it's always ahead of what's happenng in the liturgy - for the week of March 29-April 4 we'd be starting week 28 of the retreat - Jesus Surrenders to his Passion - which covers the gospel story from the last supper through the praying in the garden, the arrest, the trials, and the procession with the cross (April 5-1covers the crucifixion, and April 1-18 Jesus' resurrection). This allows the retreatant to spend a whole week in imaginative contemplation of a particular event.


- Christ in the garden of olives by Gauguin

Here's some of what the retreat materials have for this week ....

At this point in our retreat, we are prepared to contemplate, in detail, the passion of Jesus. Our desire is to enter into the gospel story and to be there with Jesus. We want to be touched by the power of this drama. The one we love, and want so much to be with, invites us into his story to experience his suffering, with him. The depth of our compassion for him leads to an even deeper intimacy.

Take each part of the story and experience its meaning. The garden struggle to surrender; the betrayal, the arrest and abandonment by his disciples; the trials; the mockery, the crowning with thorns, the beating, and the way of the cross are scenes we want to become very much a part of our consciousness this week.


- Ecce homo by Mihбly Munkбcsy

The retreat materials have a link to a Stations of the Cross page, but I came across another stations of the cross page that I think is worth a look as well ..... Stations of The Cross of a Person with AIDS. The drawings are by artist William Hart McNichols, SJ.


- The Road to Calvary by Giusto de Menabuoi