J 17,1-11a

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty 

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation:  Jesus is staying with disciples around Jerusalem. After a long teaching, Jesus begins to pray to God the Father. Listen to this prayer, be present in this scene.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: for the desire to know God

  1. … this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Jesus explains that eternal life consists in knowing God and Jesus Christ. It is exploring the mystery that we will fully know after death. In life, we meet another person, when we are curious about him, when we enter into a close relationship in which we accept others and we feel accepted, liked, loved. The curiosity of the other person helps to accept his otherness, helps to understand him, allow him for his autonomy. The same happens, when someone wants to know us and accept us with everything we have: with what is our resource and what is our weakness. It depends on us how much we let others meet us. It is a little different in relation to God, because we are still in process of knowing him, but he already knows each of us, knows everything about us and loves us. What is your curiosity about God, another man? How do you feel in your relationship with God knowing that he knows you and loves you so much? What is your way to know God and another person? What is your openness so that others can know you (maybe something is blocking you from openness, name it)? And finally, a very important question, from which you may want to start the topic of knowing: what is your curiosity about yourself?

  1. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus glorified his Father by doing what the Father gave him. As if we were to refer this sentence to ourselves, we can say that we show glory to God by doing what he gives us. What does he give?

He gives us our life, which consists of our duties, our everyday life, relationships with other people. How we experience our everyday lives depends on us. Will we look for what is life-giving or will we revolve around our wounds, harms, fears? It is not about denying what is difficult, and it doesn’t about looking for threats and being stuck in your suffering. It receives openness, creativity, cuteness, curiosity, deprives us of life-giving strength. And God wants our happiness.

We give praise to God also by thanking him for what we have received. Look at your day and see what goods you got from God today. He comes in simple things, such as the fact that you can breathe, in the smile of another person, in blooming flowers …

  1. I am not asking on behalf of the word, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.

The whole fragment of the mediated pericope is the prayer of Jesus. In this prayer Jesus intercedes for his disciples: I am asking in their behalf; Jesus also prays for you. Read this sentence by inserting your name: I am asking in (put your name here) behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the word, but on behalf of (put your name here) whom you gave me.

What do you feel, what this prayer of Jesus awakens in you?

Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)

 

/0 Comments/by

J 16, 5-11

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty.

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation:  Jesus stays with his disciples in the Upper Room all the time and prepares them for his departure and the coming of the Holy Spirit. See the Upper Room, look at Jesus and the disciples. Feel the atmosphere of this place, those moments of farewell to Jesus. Be in the upper room with the disciples and Jesus.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: that I would be able to accept the reality in which God comes to me

  1. Purifying.

Jesus must go away so that the Holy Spirit can come to judge the world. This judgment does not consist in condemning the world, but in purifying it from sin, so that the world will become capable of more and more fruitfulness. Purifying itself is not an easy and painless process, but it leads to the reconciliation of the world.

Each of us is subjected to such a process of purification, so that integration will take place in us through the understanding and acceptance of our life story, the space of feelings and desires. The process of purification allows us to live in God’s fuller joy, to be in peace with ourselves, to accept another person with love. St. Augustine preyed: Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know You. Therefore, knowing yourself leads to a more complete knowledge of God.

Look inside yourself: what areas of yours need purification, what acceptance do you have for it? Let this process be, it will help you live in greater joy in God.

2. Sadness and consolation.

Once again Jesus talks about his leaving and the coming of the Advocate. Disciples seem to be more focused on the departure of their Teacher. They feel sad even though Jesus promises them the Holy Spirit, whose coming will be useful for them. Understanding and accepting reality fully, with what they lose and what they gain is difficult. Perseverance may be easier than looking for hope and seeing joy. Perhaps life in some despair and sadness justifies stagnation, doing nothing, not changing. Searching for what is good and hope forces us to do something, detach ourselves from our old thinking, beliefs and patterns.Take this to yourself, your life and see what is born in you.

3. … none of you asks me, “Where are you going?”

I invite you to ask yourself this question: where am I going? What is my goal, what gives me meaning in my life, what makes me want to get up and live the day?

 

Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)

 

/0 Comments/by

J 14, 27-31a

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty 

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: Jesus is with his disciples. See the place where they are staying: how it looks, notice how and where Jesus and his disciples are in this room

Ask for the fruit of meditation: for the experience of peace, which is the result of a living relationship with Christ

1.Loss and new.

Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure. He must go away because he loves his Father and fulfills his will to the end. However, he promises he come to them, which may concern his coming after the Resurrection. We also know from an earlier verse (cf. J14,26) that he will send them the Holy Spirit – the Helper, he also says that they shouldn’t let their hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid (cf. J 14, 27b). So, disciples probably don’t understand it, they don’t yet know that Jesus’ leaving does not only mean loss, but is associated with an acquisition, a gift of something new.

Try as much as you can be with disciples: what’s going on inside them, what’s worrying, what does them give hope?

In the present time, we can also feel anxiety, uncertainty, fearing for the future, we can experience various losses (existential, related to human relations, material, or our patterns falling apart, or even our values). The loss creates an empty space that waits to be filled. It depends on us what will be created in this place.

2.Peace.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Peace is one of the gifts of the resurrected Jesus. It does not mean an external peace, no conflicts or wars. Rather, it means associated with happiness, unity, fullness, and a sense of inner, deep security resulting from being rooted in Christ. Peace is sharing my gift of faith, life and joy as a result of my relationship with God. This peace is especially needed by the poor, who need contact that will bring them hope and joy. Maybe you are poor many times, you need material support, conversation, the presence of another person.Consider what peace in the context of the above reflection do you give to others? How do you accept peace from others? How do you look for peace and where do you find it? What does Christ’s presence bring to your life, what gifts do you receive from him?

3. Exercise.

Read the following fragment of the pericope and put your name next to the word << you >>:

Peace I leave with you+ your name; my peace I give to you + your name. Not as the world gives do I give it to you + your name. Do not let your +your name hearts be troubled or afraid.What’s going on in you, what do you feel reading so? Talk to Jesus about this.

Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)

 

/0 Comments/by

J 10,22-30

Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.

Ask for the Grace: I will beg God our Lord that all my intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: Jerusalem during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. It is winter time, the air temperature can oscillate around 10 degrees C. During this time Jesus is there. He walks around the temple and talks to Jews.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: desire for closeness with Jesus 

 

 1.  My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

Jesus knows his sheep, he knows you and me. We get to know someone by listening. Jesus, therefore, listens to you: what you say, what you feel, what you experience. He listens to what you may not say verbally, but you communicate with your behavior. It’s a very intimate relationship. Also, sheep’s relationship with Jesus is based on listening. Sheep are obedient to Jesus. Obedience can be interpreted as clinging to the message heard what Jesus says. Therefore, the relationship with him is based on listening, which creates mutual trust, not fear of punishment that I did not do something, that I was not good enough. It is a relationship of love, acceptance. Jesus knows you, listens to you. What do these words cause (what feelings and thoughts) in you?

How do you listen to Jesus? What is your motivation to follow him?

 2.    I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 

Jesus gives us eternal life, from the earlier pericope we also know that he gives life abundantly for us. So, we are invited to feast, to experience joy and experience the fullness of life. We can experience life only now, at this moment. Worrying about tomorrow or thinking about the past deprives us of the possibility of being here and now. Only now is the moment you can taste. The apple eaten leaves a memory, the apple you want to eat raises expectations for taste. You can taste, smell, touch the apple only when you are eating it.

How do you experience your life here and now?

Jesus also gives us security: nobody and nothing can tear us away from him. How do these words resonate in you?

Meditation: St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.

The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)

/0 Comments/by