Jesus Invites You into New Relationship
Several postings ago I offered the text of a prayer for those who complain that their personal prayer feels dry or that their daily routine that doesn’t seem to help them live out their faith. The text gives you words for prayer, speaking to Jesus. It is equally important, though, that we hear Jesus speak to us. The following revises the earlier text, inviting you to ask Jesus to help you hear him say these things to you.
The text of this and the earlier posting come from St. Ignatius of Loyola as the statement initiating the Spiritual Exercises. This statement – the First Principle and Foundation - summarizes the dynamic of our lives in Christ. Ignatius based this statement on his experience of discovering Christ in his own life. David Fleming, SJ has translated Ignatius’ 16th Century prose into modern English. I’ve rewritten Flemings’ text as a prayer to Jesus. I hope you find it helpful.
First Principle and Foundation as Jesus speaks it to you
The goal of your life, (fill in your name), is to live with me, Jesus, forever.
I, Jesus, who love you, gave you life.
Your own response of love to me
allows my life to flow into you without limit.
All the things in this world are my gifts to you,
presented to you so that you can know me more easily
and make a return of love to me more readily.
As a result please appreciate and use all my gifts to you
insofar as they help you develop as a loving person.
But if any of these gifts become the center of your life,
they displace me and so hinder your growth toward your goal,
namely, to live with me forever.
In everyday life, then, please hold yourself in balance
before all these created gifts,
insofar as you have a choice and are not bound by some obligation.
Do not fix your desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in you
a deeper response to your life in me.
Your only desire and your one choice should be this:
to want and choose what better leads to my deepening my life in you.
Original text by St Ignatius of Loyola
Original paraphrase of Ignatius’s text by David L. Fleming, SJ
Additional paraphrase by Ben Hawley, SJ
The text of this and the earlier posting come from St. Ignatius of Loyola as the statement initiating the Spiritual Exercises. This statement – the First Principle and Foundation - summarizes the dynamic of our lives in Christ. Ignatius based this statement on his experience of discovering Christ in his own life. David Fleming, SJ has translated Ignatius’ 16th Century prose into modern English. I’ve rewritten Flemings’ text as a prayer to Jesus. I hope you find it helpful.
First Principle and Foundation as Jesus speaks it to you
The goal of your life, (fill in your name), is to live with me, Jesus, forever.
I, Jesus, who love you, gave you life.
Your own response of love to me
allows my life to flow into you without limit.
All the things in this world are my gifts to you,
presented to you so that you can know me more easily
and make a return of love to me more readily.
As a result please appreciate and use all my gifts to you
insofar as they help you develop as a loving person.
But if any of these gifts become the center of your life,
they displace me and so hinder your growth toward your goal,
namely, to live with me forever.
In everyday life, then, please hold yourself in balance
before all these created gifts,
insofar as you have a choice and are not bound by some obligation.
Do not fix your desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in you
a deeper response to your life in me.
Your only desire and your one choice should be this:
to want and choose what better leads to my deepening my life in you.
Original text by St Ignatius of Loyola
Original paraphrase of Ignatius’s text by David L. Fleming, SJ
Additional paraphrase by Ben Hawley, SJ
posted by Fr. Ben Hawley, SJ | 8:19 PM
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