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I’ve a confession to make.
I are likely to overlook about Jesus round per week or so into the Easter season annually. It’s by no means intentional, but it surely occurs extra typically than I wish to admit.
I feel it’s partially on account of the truth that I are likely to go all in today for Lent. I decide to fairly just a few further issues in the course of the 40 days as a means of reconnecting and renewing my relationship with Jesus. Some years, like this one, I tackle a bit too many issues, and so once I lastly attain Easter morning, I discover myself sighing in aid and releasing all my commitments directly in a joyful response to my pal that was as soon as useless and now lives on within the Resurrection.
This Lent, I wrote a sequence of reflections for the Central and Southern Jesuit Province. As I entered into the expertise of writing the sequence, “Leaning into our Belovedness,” I discovered myself participating with Jesus’ Ardour and Dying in deeper methods than ever earlier than. The journey was extra intense than I assumed it will be, however in its depth, I used to be graced with many moments of deep and significant reference to the God who loves me as I’m, it doesn’t matter what.
Whereas writing my final reflection for the sequence proper earlier than Holy Week, I skilled a second of intense longing to carry on to the connection I had fashioned. However then, once I completed all of it and at last pressed Ship, I discovered myself respiration an extended sigh of aid. I used to be grateful to have arrived on the conclusion of Jesus’ Ardour and Dying and was greater than prepared for the enjoyment of the Resurrection. I paused and thanked Jesus for the 40 days of intense focus and contemplation, after which I shut down my pc and walked away.
Reflecting on that second now within the midst of the Easter season, I understand how shortly I left my pal behind. Right here Jesus and I had walked collectively by way of this intense journey through which Jesus allowed me to get to know extra of him and I used to be capable of uncover new items of myself within the context of our growing friendship. After which I simply ended it, as if I had been writing in his yearbook post-graduation: “Thanks for the experience! See you on the reunion, Jesus!”
As I have interaction extra with the Religious Workouts by way of my graduate work this yr, I acknowledge that St. Ignatius was intentional in not ending with Jesus’ Ardour and Dying. He was additionally intentional in not concluding merely with one fast day of reflection on Easter Sunday. Ignatius, actually, devoted a whole week of the Workouts to exploring our relationship with Jesus after his Resurrection, the Jesus current with us within the right here and now. Within the Fourth Week, we’re invited to a extra complete contemplation of the love of God in order that we could take the insights we have now gained within the Workouts and determine how they are going to have an effect on our on a regular basis life shifting ahead.
So, although I’ll have began this Easter season by closing the ebook on my journey with Jesus for the yr, I’m opening it up once more now to see what it appears to be like wish to develop additional this relationship with the resurrected Jesus, who lives on in my life at present.
I’m spending some intentional time reflecting on the 4 attributes of God that the Contemplation to Attain the Love of God focuses on within the Fourth Week of the Religious Workouts. As Jim Manney writes in Ignatian Spirituality A to Z, “The Contemplation focuses on 4 of God’s attributes: his generosity to every of us personally; his presence in all issues; his energetic exercise on the planet; and his ceaseless giving of blessings and presents.”
I hope that intentional time spent reflecting on these 4 attributes of God in the course of the Easter season will assist me proceed to develop my relationship with Jesus, the one who wishes a friendship with me all the times of my life. I hope that it’s going to additionally assist me to proceed the journey I began throughout Lent, the journey to lean into my belovedness.
Will you be a part of me on this journey?
Picture by Shera Banerjee on Pexels.
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