WEEK 18

Three Kinds of Responses.
Before returning to the life of Jesus, we will take one more week to lay further foundation for our upcoming reflections. We know we will be drawn more deeply into our relationship with Jesus and that this will call us to greater freedom regarding the choices we will make for living our lives.

This week we will spend our background time reflecting upon a simple "case study." We will consider an imaginary, but very real situation, in order to reflect upon three ways of responding to it.

We consider a case in which someone finds himself or herself in a way of life or in a pattern of acting that he or she is not entirely proud of. It is important to note here that we are not talking about something really bad, rather something that has not been very responsive to God's movement in their lives. It might be an attachment to the way he or see looks, or simply the amount of creature comforts he or she has become dependent upon. It might be an attachment to a pattern of always using his or her gifts to manipulate others to get his or her own way, or simply being attached to the habit of mediocrity in my family life or work, i.e., getting by with as little effort as is required of me.

Having one or more of these "cases" in our minds all week, we will consider three kinds of responses.

Wanting to free oneself from this attachment and really be more attentive to God's calls in one's life, but just never getting around to doing it. This type of response only responds with good intentions, and never gets around to putting them into action.
Wanting to free oneself from this attachment but ending up rationalizing it to such a degree that one can work out a justification that makes it seem that this way of being attached is actually what God wants.

Responding to the attachment by neither trying to keep it or get rid of it. This is a desire to free oneself of the attachment in such a way that one becomes no longer attached to it. Rather, one becomes more responsive to and more attached to however God might be moving one to act here and now. The desire becomes purer. One wants only what will be of greater service to God. Whatever would be of greater service becomes what motivates one's choices.


As we prepare to contemplate more of the life of Jesus, we beg for the grace this week, perhaps every morning when we rise, and each night, before we sleep. We ask for the gift to respond more and more freely, that all we choose might be for God's greater glory and the salvation of our souls.

WEEK 17

Two Ways of Desiring.
We have begun to contemplate the life of Jesus. We have seen how, from the very beginning, his life was shaped by profound trust in God, surrender to God's plan, and the acceptance of poverty and rejection. We have been praying to know, love and be with him more deeply. Before we move on to contemplate his active ministry, we will take a few weeks to prepare for how this retreat will shape our lives and the choices we will make, as we draw more closely to Jesus.

It is desire that leads to choice. To understand the choices we make, and prepare to make new ones, we must understand our desires, and prepare to reform them.

Throughout this week, in all the in-between times, especially in the busiest and most pressured moments, we will try to understand the way of desiring that places us with Jesus. And, in order to freely respond to Jesus' way, we will try to understand the very opposite way of desiring, a way that surrounds us in our culture today.

The clearest message from our society today, and the values that shape the advertising that tries to seduce us, is that we will be happier if we have more. It's subtle, but consistent. If some is good, more is better. It seems so natural to work hard to earn more so that I can have more. We acquire and consume and become addicted to some bad things, but normally we just adopt a life style that fits what we can afford. And, it's not just things that we accumulate. We experience a desire to gather accomplishments or attractive relationships - other indications of our success. What is closely associated with this movement is the inevitable connection between what we possess and our identity. It's tempting to think that we are more, because we have more. We judge each other by these measures of success. And, while there is nothing inherently bad about having things or achievements and the recognition and adulation that goes with them, they can seductively lead to pride, arrogance, and independence from God. Riches, leading to honors. Honors, leading to pride. This is a pattern of desiring we want to understand, insofar as it is at work in us.

We've already seen that the way Jesus desires is quite different. His way of making choices is formed by a pattern of desiring we've already been attracted to and which we want to understand more deeply this week. Jesus attracts us to the fundamental desire of trusting in God. When we place our lives in God's hands, as Jesus did, we experience the vulnerability of that surrender. When all is gift, we can no longer measure ourselves by what we've accumulated. This poverty of spirit, and the freedom that comes with it, often feels wonderful. Jesus, however, wants us to understand that it is quite counter-cultural. If riches lead to honors, poverty of any kind inevitably leads to dishonor. Much of our society doesn't respect simple trust in God. From the desire for spiritual poverty comes the free openness to actual poverty, if it should come to us. The less we desire to acquire, the less we will be regarded. Therefore, the desire to trust in God alone leads to the incredible desire for the dishonor, humiliation, and contempt that will place me with Jesus. For ultimately, this is the path to humility and humble readiness for any service, with him. Spiritual poverty leading to humiliation. Humiliation leading to humility. This week we want to understand this way of desiring.

The helps to the right of this page will assist us in entering into these reflections more deeply. They will help us get started and to turn these reflections into prayer.

Week 16

A Hidden Life for Thirty Years
One of the most remarkable realities about Jesus is that we know almost nothing about the first 30 years of his life. We know the stories from his public life that tell us that people who knew his relatives were fairly underwhelmed by his background. One of the charges leveled against him was, "Isn't this the carpenter's son?"

This week of our retreat allows us to get to know the developing person, Jesus. Since there are so few scripture references to the period from his birth to his baptism, we will have to imaginatively fill them in, from what we do know about him.

If we reflect upon the kind of adult person Jesus became, it is possible for us to reflect upon what kind of childhood he had, what kind of kid he was, what kinds of issues he wrestled with, what kind of choices he made. Using what we know about the development of children, young adults and maturing adults, we can make some wonderful guesses at some of the human issues Jesus must have faced.

Praying this way lets us get to know him more deeply, that we might fall in love with him more intimately, and come to our deepest desire to be with him in his mission from God.

Let us open our hearts to be shown the early childhood of Jesus. Can we go through this week, imagining all the very human childhood traumas and growth that was his? And, as we walk around in Jesus' teen and young adult years, we can let him show us how he became who he is today? Can we imagine his struggles? His questions? His strengths? His weaknesses? Can we imagine his relationships at different stages of his development?

If we can get beyond what we think we don't know about those years, we can learn about how Mary and Joseph raised him. We can imagine what life in the town of Nazareth might have been like.

We know that Jesus saw himself as one called to proclaim liberty to captives and to preach the good news to the poor. We know that he saw the blessedness of being spiritually poor. We know that he understood that the Reign of God was like yeast or a small seed, and that weeds and wheat must grow together. We know that he was not afraid to eat and drink with sinners and those that religious leaders avoided. We know that he saw himself as a servant, a foot washer, and as bread that would be broken and given for the life of the world. How did the carpenter's son come to all of this?

Week 15

We experience his birth, for us.
Many mothers, on their children's birthday each year, tell them the details of the day they were born. Year after year, the details are repeated. At this point in our retreat, we will let Jesus show us the details of his birth. We will go beyond the words of the accounts in Matthew and Luke. We will enter more deeply than our imaginative recollection of realistic nativity scenes. This week, we will receive the grace to experience the birth of Jesus and to understand its meaning for us.

Our desire continues. It is important for us to renew it this week. We desire to know who Jesus is much more deeply. In our observing and understanding him, we desire to fall in love with him more completely. With our love for him growing, we grow in our desire to be with him in his mission.

We will let the background of our entire week be filled with the images of his birth. They tell us who he is. As we've experienced before, this is not an intellectual exercise. It's experiential. We need to move within the scenes to know the anxiety of his parents, the poverty of their situation, the simple yet extraordinary joy of his very human birth, the wonder of his being visited by shepherds, the danger that already surrounds his life.

This week, can I let every anxiety I am feeling become connected with the anxiety of Mary and Joseph? Can I get in touch with Mary's labor and giving birth, through experiences I have this week, struggling to surrender myself to give life to others? Can I come to know the beds of hay I am being asked to lie in? And then feel them transformed as I stare at Jesus lying there in that bed of hay? Are there poor or simple or handicapped or struggling people in my life that can remind me why the shepherds were so joyful at his coming?

Please use the helps to the right. They offer very practical entries into the graces of this week. And, please consider sharing the graces you are receiving with others, through the "Place to Share" at the right.

May the One, who entered our lives so humanly and completely, continue to help us to grow in a knowledge and love of him today.

WEEK 14

God announces the way; servants are open.
When we look at a friend's photo album, some of the most intriguing pictures are the ones of our friend's grandparents and parents. We stare into those faces to look not only for some resemblance, but to discern something of the character, the traits, the personality of our friend.

This week, we will use the first chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in pursuit of our growing desire to know Jesus more completely, that we might grow in love with him more intimately, because we want to follow him more freely.

Our method this week will be to stare into the faces of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary and look for what they tell us about our friend Jesus. We will try to enter into these scenes in the midst of our busy, everyday lives. We will try to learn about the character and personality of Jesus, by studying the faith that formed him.

This type of prayer takes some practice, but anyone can do it, because it's what we most naturally do when we meet the parents of a friend. And when we learn something about our friend's family, we learn something about our friend. For practical help in praying with these scenes, be sure to read the Getting Started link to the right.

Zechariah couldn't imagine how God could overcome Elizabeth's old age. And he could not speak at all until he could say his new son's name, "God is Faithful." The angel announced to Mary that "nothing is impossible with God." Elizabeth says, "blessed is she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled." Mary's whole being proclaims the greatness of God and her words echo the faith of her ancestors.

As we walk around in our busy lives this week, these wonderful stories will shape our week. There will be a Zechariah-in-doubt moment, when we can't imagine God's presence, and another Zechariah moment, when we can say, "God is Faithful." There will be times when this week's photo on our computer screen will remind us of a feeling of being overwhelmed and saying, "How can this be?" And there will be times when it will remind us of Mary's words, "I am the Lord's servant! Let it happen as you have said."

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REVELATION

WEEK 13

God prepares the way.
The early pages of Jesus' photo album show us God's patient and faithful preparation to send Jesus among us. We find the photo of God calling Abram and Sarai to leave their homeland to begin a new journey. There are the births of Isaac and Jacob/Israel. The album has page after page of photos of the long slavery in Egypt, of Moses' birth and life, the exodus/liberation, the 40 years wandering in the desert, and the early years in the promised land. From desert nomads to a people with a covenant: you be my people and I will be your God.
God sent Judges to adjudicate their differences and then Kings to rule them, and then prophets to challenge them and their corrupt Kings. As with any family photo album, we are puzzled and perhaps shocked to see the incredible infidelity of the people, the division of the nation, and its demise in the Babylonian captivity. Then there is the rebuilding of the temple and those final years of occupation and relative peace that came with Rome's occupation.
There is an Advent feel to this week of the retreat. In our growing desire to know, love and be with Jesus, we are taken back to the years of anticipation. There's the promise of a land, of a King, of an everlasting Kingdom. The prophets speak of what it will be like when "the day of the Lord" comes. This all tells us so much about the mission of Jesus. It will help us understand the confused expectations he will face, the rejection he will encounter, the paradoxical way he will fulfill those promises.
This week we let our minds and hearts listen to the story that prepared the way for Jesus to enter into our world and our lives. As lovers, we want to know everything about Jesus. Looking through all those early photos, we appreciate, perhaps as never before, God's fidelity and the enormous mission Jesus is born to take up.
Throughout the background times this week, we reflect upon whatever comes to our hearts. How much more do we understand who he is? How is our love growing? What do we feel drawn to express to the one who is showing us his incredible photo album?