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Newsletter
No.18 January
2005
In search of the New…
The question of doing any resolutions surfaces with every New Year. The more cynic of us pose no question - no use doing any if no strong will accompanies them! Yet somehow the flame of desire to start a-new, to seek new ways how to better one's life is rekindled, at least for a moment.
It is in our culture, this search for the new - every few months or so, we are presented with new forms of technology; new data from various studies is presented daily and what about news that is announced practically every few minutes? Yet, this new-ness is synonymous with disposability - the new is exclusive of the old.
The wholesome perspective found in the Christian faith helps us to integrate the old with the new. An overview of Scriptures makes one realise that the New Testament is in fact a fulfilment of the Old. God's mercies are new every morning, the psalmist sings; many times we have been told that every day is a fresh page with God - yet every page counts since it makes up our narrative within life's history.
On further reflection, I realised how Ignatian spirituality presents one with significant prayer tools to search for the new in that which is old and familiar. In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius invites the retreatant to apply the five senses (# 121-125) using the faculty of the imagination. Is this not a challenge to be open to new perspectives in a scripture reading that one may have come to know by heart and thus take for granted? As part of the repetition, one is invited to appropriate the Word as it becomes more sensible i.e. in a way that one can see, hear, taste and touch it. New ways on how to be receptive to the Word means new ways of understanding it and consequently passing it on to others.
Another prayer tool is the Examination of Consciousness (here it will be referred to as Examen for short) that helps one to be attuned to the new i.e. to what God's indwelling presence is communicating to one through one's interior affective movements. A quote from George Aschenbrenner gives a clearer picture:
'Put simply, two spontaneities well-up in the consciousness and experience of each of us. One is good and for God, another evil and not for God. For one who is eager to seek after God, to seek first the kingdom with his or her whole being, the challenge is to sift out these various spontaneous urges and impulses, and give full existential ratification to those spontaneous feelings that are from and for God. We do this by allowing the truly Spiritual spontaneity to happen in our daily lives.'(1)
This search for the new requires of us an attitude of awareness of our creatureliness, that we depend on and need the presence of God; in fact the opening prayer of the Examen is this invitation to the Holy Spirit to guide and illuminate us on our affective interior movements. In actively thanking God for being present in our day's experience and in learning to be comfortable with what comes to our consciousness, we ask ourselves the question 'What has been happening in our hearts, how has the Lord been working in us, what has the Spirit been urging us?' In a spirit of discernment, we sift the various 'spirits': our moods, feelings, urges and movements to recognise more the Lord's call in the intimate of our core being. The Examen's dynamics then carries the person in prayer to feel sorrow and contrition. In another essay, I found a very beautiful description given by Kathleen Norris of what is repentance: it is not primarily a sense of regret but a 'renunciation of narrow and sectarian human views that are not large enough for God's mystery'. (2) In this part of the Examen we are invited to receive God's mercy afresh and according to Jon Sobrino 'they who have experienced God's mercy and forgiveness will be most understanding with the poor.' (3) The Examen concludes with an invitation to amend and resolve to respond to the indwelling Spirit with greater faith and charity. This resolution can be kept not just by strong will but more by the deepening grace accompanying us in the process.
Thus, this search for the new is not for newness' sake but for the renewal of our hearts - as His mercies are new every morning so we let grace renew and deepen our desire to allow ourselves to be more disposed to God's presence in the everyday.
Notes:
(1) As quoted in John Horn, Mystical Healing. The Psychological and Spiritual power of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, New York 1996, p 118.
(2) As quoted in an essay by Frank T Griswold, Listening with the Ear of the Heart found in Cross Currents, Vol 49/1.
(3) John Sobrino, Spirituality of Liberation as quoted in John Horn ibid, p122.
Ms Louise Laferla
IGNATIAN MAXIMS
78. In regard to our own persons and our standard of living, it is always better and safer to curtail and reduce our expenses. The more we do this, the more do we draw near to our high priest, model, and rule, who is, Christ our Lord.
(Spir Exercises 344)
79. Deal with an open hand with poor orphans and the needy. He or she with whom Our Lord has been so generous should not be close or tight-fisted.
(Letter to Don Martin Garcia de Ońaz, June 1532, M.I. Epp. 1, p.81)
80 When obedience commands you to do something that does not release you from being prudent and discrete.
(Rosephius, Promptuarium, M.I., Font.Narr. III, Mon. 29, {267, 183}, pp.539-540)
81 One who is seen to be a cause of division among those who live together, estranging them either among themselves or from their head, ought with great diligence to be separated from that community, as a pestilence which can infect it seriously if a remedy is not quickly applied.
(Constit. S.I., p. VIII, c.1, {664})
82 It is more dangerous to ignore small faults than grave ones, for the latter can be more easily detected and put us to shame, whilst the former can escape our attention and do us a lot of harm for a long time before we become aware of them.
(Lyraeus, Apophtheg. 1. I, 5, p.50)
Fr Arthur Vella S.J.
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Book Review:
Spiritual
Intelligence in the Workplace
by
Catherine McGeachy
In
this book, Catherine McGeachy examines the many social,
economic and environmental reasons why spirituality has
become important in today’s workplace.
It describes exactly what spiritual intelligence is,
why our Western society is spiritually ‘dumb’, the many
ways spiritually intelligent organisations have brought
spirituality into their workplace and the very strong
‘bottom-line’ benefits that have accrued as a result.
Spiritual Intellingence in the Workplace
offers practical suggestions for those organisations wishing
to embark on a spiritually intelligent ‘programme’ and
provides case studies of people in business whose lives and
businesses have been transformed once they connected with
their spiritual intelligence.
It also uncovers potential dangers, obstacles and
threats to the ultimate long-term success of spirituality at
work and what can be done about these.
Written
so that the most ‘pressed-for-time’ reader can dip in
and out of whatever sections capture his/her interest Spiritual
Intelligence in the Workplace makes the best and latest
thinking on this subject easily accessible.
The
author: Catherine McGeachy is a Management Consultant and is Director of
Vision Consultants Ltd, which is dedicated to promoting the
potential of human beings, individually and collectively, in
the workplace.
- Publisher: Veritas Publications
- ISBN: 1853905291
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The Human Family
One by one, Lord,
I contemplate them
And I love them,
All those people that you have given me
To help and support me.
One by one,
I count
the members of that other
very dear family
which has come together round about me,
sharing the same heartfelt affinities as me
for scientific research and thinking.
Less clearly,
and without knowing them all,
but without missing out a single one,
I evoke all those who together
form the anonymous, uncountable, mass
of all who live;
those who come,
and those who go,
but especially those who,
in the truth or through error,
at their office desk,
in their laboratory,
or in their factory,
believe in the progress of things
and who continue to pursue
with passion
the light.
From Messe sue le monde
by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.
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.
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