Meditation Mt 19,23-30

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 intentionsand actions may be directed purely to the praise and serviceof His Divine Majesty

Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: Imagine a camel who wants to go through the ear in the needle and a rich man, hung with various riches, who wants to go through the gate leading to a beautiful garden – a symbol of the Kingdom of God. See if they can get through, what they can do to fit in this gate. Maybe you are with them?

Ask for the fruit of meditation: that I would like to be able to free myself from dependencies that prevent me from experiencing God’s love more 

1. Attachment.

In the periscope there are two important sentences: …it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields because for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.

Human nature likes to accumulate, surround with broadly understood material, immaterial goods and human relations. Often, this accumulation takes the form of addiction, i.e. I have to earn and therefore work more and more so that I do not accidentally lower my standard of living, I must always drink coffee in the morning, otherwise my head will hurt, I must know what my husband or wife will do to feel safe. These are examples. Each of us has our own different attachments, which somehow desire us. So, we become their slaves. Christ encourages us to let go of these attachments because they prevent us from experiencing God’s freedom and love fully. The point is not to give up all knowledge and material goods, but to be able to use them as much as they help us draw close to God. That is why St. Ignatius in point 1 of the CD, writes: … every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise.

Take a look today at your various dependencies. See how you feel about them, which ones lead you to life, and which block you from it, take your life force away. What will you do to enter the process of freeing yourself from blocking, disordered attachments?

2. Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?

These are Piotr’s words. He left everything and is afraid that he will have nothing for it. It is a kind of fear that my work, my dedication, my commitment will not be noticed, appreciated. What are your motivations, expectations in your actions and relationships?

3. Think about what you can do today, for whom out of pure love, without waiting for the word: thank you, so that someone will be able to experience God’s goodness thanks to 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)