Meditation LK 11,37-41

The right time has come to reveal outside what the inside has done. The Gospel word for meditation has repeated, on my website you can find more than one introduction for the same periscope. From today, I invite you to deepen Words through replays, as Saint Ignatius says in Spiritual Exercises 2 that 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 What is a repeat? Referring again to Saint Ignatius in SE 62 we can read: After the Preparatory Prayer and two Preludes, it will be to repeat the First and Second Exercise, marking and dwelling on the Points in which I have felt greater consolation or desolation, or greater spiritual feeling.

Therefore, repetition is a time when prayer takes on a more personal character, becomes simpler and thus called to prayer with simplicity and depth. (cf. Guide to Spiritual Exercises, M.Ivens SJ, p. 156)

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: See the Gospel scene of Jesus’ meeting with the Pharisees or see your meeting place and your meeting with Jesus.

Ask for the fruit of meditation: about an encounter inside me- in my sanctuary, where I am. Alone with God whose voice echoes in my depths. (CCC 1776)

1. Outside.

See external things, gestures, behaviors. They can be good and needed. Sometimes they are an expression of the internal, sometimes they are the beginning of internal changes. Remember that both the external and the internal is to lead you to the Fullness of Life in God here and now.

2. Inside.

Thoughts are the result of our desires, while desires are a kind of energy that stimulates us to live. God comes to us in our desires. It is important to read them, what they say to me, what they say about me. We get to know ourselves through our desires. Look for desires in you, do not run away from them, but sit with them at the table and ask what they say to you.

3.From A Pilgrim’s Journey, The Autobiography of Ignatius of Loyola (p.64,77) to your reflection:

He ate no meat, nor did he drink wine, though both were offered him. On Sundays he did not fast, and if someone gave him wine, he drank it. And because he had quite meticulous in caring for his hair, which was according to the fashion of the day – and he had a good crop of hair – he decided to let it grow naturally without combing, cutting, or covering it with anything either during the day or night. For the same reason he let the nails of his feet and hands grow, since he had also been overly neat with regard to them. (…) It was likewise in Manresa – where he stayed for almost a year, and after experiencing divine consolations and seeing the fruit that he was bringing forth in the souls he was helping – that he abandoned those extremes he had previously practiced and began to cut his nails and hair.

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)