Picture source. The goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life to flow into us without limit.
All the things in this world are gifts of God,
presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all of these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
and are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
a deeper response to our life in God.
Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better
leads to the deepening of God's life in me.
--St. Ignatius, from the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises
2 comments:
Prayer report: I had to drive a half hour to a meeting this afternoon. Instead of turning on the radio, I was moved by my NaPraGoMo commitment (and this clutter-clearing meditation by St. Iggy) to pray. So I pulled out the sorrowful mysteries and chanted them out loud while trying to pierce through the haze and see the world around me as the beautiful gratuitous gift that it is.
Definitely better use of time than listening to the radio yesterday. :)
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