Newsletter 

No.16                                                                                                          November 2004

BEING A WITNESS

About 160 years after the birth of Christ, the Latin author Pliny, friend of the Emperor Trajan, was sent as the Emperor’s Propraetor into the region of Bithynia and sent his report about the Christians he found there. He wrote that the crime of the early Christians was: that they were accustomed to assemble on a stated day before dawn, and to say together a hymn to Christ as a god, and to bind themselves by an oath [not to any crime but on the contrary] to keep them from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of promise, and making free with deposits. After this they used to separate, and then to meet again for a meal, which was social and harmless. However they left even that off, after my Edict against their meeting. [...The Christians] are likely to be many, of all ages, nay, of both sexes. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only in the cities, but about the villages and the open country.

Around the same time, the author Tacitus writes about the Emperor Nero who set fire to Rome so as to rebuild it and thus be remembered: Nero, to put an end to the common talk [that Rome had been set on fire by his order] imputed it to others, visiting with a refinement of punishment those detestable criminals who went by the name of Christians. The author of that denomination was Christus, who had been executed in Tiberius’ time by the procurator, Pontius Pilate. The pestilent superstition, checked for a while, burst out again, not only throughout Judea, the first seat of the evil, but even throughout Rome, the centre both of confluence and outbreak of all that is atrocious and disgraceful from every quarter. First were arrested those who made no secret of their sect; and by this clue a vast multitude of others, convicted, not so much of firing the city, as of hatred to the human race. Mockery was added to death; clad in skins of beasts, they were torn to pieces by dogs; they were nailed up to crosses; they were made inflammable, so that, when day failed, they might serve as lights. Hence, guilty as they were, and deserving of exemplary punishment, they excited compassion, as being destroyed, not for the public welfare, but from the cruelty of one man.

The seeds of our faith have been watered by blood. Each one of us shares, to some extent, in this same vocation. Is our Christian faith to be compromised? There is an element of ongoing struggle in the Christian life. As many saints and masters of Christian spirituality have said, prayer is the main source of strength in this struggle. In this day and age, the violence to be expected against authentic Christian principles is fortunately less explicit than in the days of Imperial Rome. Nevertheless, some element of it always remains. 

The authentic Christian needs to become aware of the resistance he or she is encountering. On what front is my faith being tested? On what issue am I being called to witness for Christ? This awareness helps us avoid living these moments superficially, or grudgingly. It helps us embrace these moments responsibly with all their spiritual depth. It opens our eyes to realise how precious these moments are. Living through them 
with generosity, we experience what St. Ignatius speaks about in the Spiritual Exercises when he asks retreatants to pray to be accepted in the service of the King, to be ready to share not only the triumph of their Lord, but also, if need be, the insults that such a triumph requires for it to be realised. The example of the early Christians stands as a beacon of light for all generations.

Fr. Louis Caruana S.J.

Ignatian Maxims

68. Generally speaking, the healthier you feel in your body, the better you feel in your soul in relating to God, in work, and in everything.
(Ribadeneira, Dicta et Facta, M.I Font. Narr., II Mon. 19, c.1 n.17, p.475)

69. Physical infirmities and other temporal privations are often seen to be from God's hand to help us to a better self-knowledge and to rid ourselves of the love of created things. They help us moreover to focus our thought on the brevity of this life, so as to prepare for the other which has no end.
(Letter to Isabel Roser, 10th November, 1532, M.I. Epp.I, p.84)

70. I value the health of one of my brethren more than the treasures of the whole universe.
(Ribadeneira, Vita Ignatii Loyolae, M.I. Font. Narr., IV, 1. V,c.VII, p.829)

71. Poverty, as the strong wall of the Religious Life, should be loved and preserved in its integrity as far as this is possible with God's grace.
(Constit. S.I. p.VI, c.2, {553})

72. Those in authority should know how to mingle rectitude and necessary severity with kindness and gentleness to such an extent that they neither allow themselves to swerve from what they judge to be more pleasing to God our Lord nor cease to have proper sympathy for those under their care.
(Constit. S.I., p. IX, c.2{727})

Book Review:

TASTE AND SEE

Margaret Silf

This is an excellent prayer book for beginners and to those not so green as pray-ers.  The content of the book helps one to get into the habit of praying.  It is “an exercise” book on prayer.  Prayer is not an innate quality.  We are not born ready made pray-ers.  We learn to pray as we learn cultural and linguistic habits from our socialisation.  Prayer needs skills.  Progressing in the experience of prayer is similar to how we build deep and lasting relationships.

Margaret Silf is presenting us with a very creative way of how to start praying.  The exercises proposed are full of stories, analogies, metaphors, parables and imaginative skills taken from life experiences.  Margaret leads the pray-er in a truly original journeying in paths of our faith.  In so doing she is being so truly Ignatian.  Ignatius himself was quite inventive in presenting imaginative prayer exercises in his manual of the Spiritual Exercises, to help the pray-er get deeper into the mystery of Christ our Lord and Saviour.

Adventuring into prayer is a worthwhile activity.  It is embarking in an inner exploration in search of true meaning of life and its ultimate aim.  

Prayer is homing in on God, ever present and distant at the same time.  Margaret teaches to pray with both spirit and body.  The more we “taste and see” God’s presence the greater the desire for deeper and continuous prayer.

Fr Vincent Magri SJ 

Universal Call to Holiness

The Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, #39, boldly states that: 

"All in the Church, whether… they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for by it, are called to holiness, according to the apostle's saying: For this is the will of God, your sanctification, (1 Thes 4, 3).

Moreover, #40 continues… all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love.

In Familiaris Consortio, #11, Pope John Paul reiterates that this call is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.

The Holy Father deeply desires our holiness. In his letter at the beginning of the new millennium he wrote, As the Council itself explained, this ideal of perfection must not be understood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few "uncommon heroes" of holiness. The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual. I thank the lord that in these years He has enabled me to beatify and canonize a large number of Christians, and among them many lay people who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life. The time has come to repropose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living…the whole life of Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction, Novo Millennio Ineunte, #31.

Let us pray to be more aware of our vocation to be holy.

For reflection:
1. What do I think of when I hear the word "holy?"
2. How can I be more conscious of the vocation that I have?

Scripture:
1. John 13, 1-15, I have given you a model to follow.
2. Eph 3, 14-21, May you be filled with all the fullness of God.

We would like to remind you that the Centre for Ignatian Spirituality offers personal spiritual direction to all those who would like to have any kind of spiritual experience like Ignatian retreats in every day life. Retreats can be tailored according to the needs and circumstances of the retreatant. CIS can call on experienced Jesuits, other religious and trained lay people to accompany retreatants through these experiences. 

Anyone interested can contact the Director on 21827323 or 99864561 or email vince@maltajesuitretreats.com.