November 3, 2026

 November 3, 2026

Check-in

What are you using for your prayer? Daily Scripture? One of the Examens?

 

 

The grace to use before each prayer

 

Ask for the grace to see the pervasive power of social sin and how I personally, if unconsciously, reinforce it. Ask For the grace to resist it and, with the change of heart, the grace to make a fundamental choice to transform society and those little and large ways that I can. Ask for the grace to find others who share my commitment to make a positive difference in a certain area of concern. As for the grace to see the immense divine forgiveness flowing upon the human race that liberates me and stretches my heart to be ready to respond to God's call.

 

Social Sin

 

All humans on earth are inextricably linked together. Each of us has a vital thread and every other person's tapestry. Our lives are woven together for a reason. We are social beings continually interdependent on others.

 

I cannot live independently or separate from you. Just as we each can send personally, we can sin as a society. Social sin and personal sin are mutually reinforcing. Social sin is systemic. It is manifested and lives in social structures and the larger society. Jesus bent much of his public ministry making people aware of social evils of the day like religious hypocrisy, corrupt systems of justice, an unfair treatment of the poor by the rich. He ought so he fought against biased treatment of women, the social alienation of tax collectors and the ritually impure. The evils around Jesus diminished him and his ability to convert people to a change of heart. He was diminished by the people around him like Caiaphas, Pilate, and Judas, but also by the social evils of humanity.

 

Unjust structures are prevalent today: militarism, a culture of violence and fear, unfair labor practices, slavery, racism, drug addiction, alcoholism, political graft, materialism, individualism. They are social and cultural patterns of a larger society that lead us toward injustice and away from mutual love and respect. We all contribute to these destructive forces and we suffer because of them.

 

An Anti-Evolutionary System

 

Social and personal sin mutually reinforce each other in an anti-evolutionary way. They restrain our abilities so much that we find it harder to choose what is good and easier to choose evil. Social sin emerges within this immense living system called the cosmic Body of Christ. To use a metaphor of an infection, social sin is toxic to the health of the Body of Christ and hinders its development. Its destructiveness is a systemic reality, a product of countless interactions among humans and nature for centuries passed down through the generations. We learn almost everything we know by imitating the behaviors and values of those who surround us. We learn how to bless and curse. We learn how to be good and how to be bad, how to care and how to be selfish, how to be generous and how to be greedy, how to be humble and how to be proud, how to cooperate and how to dominate, how to work hard and how to be lazy, to praise, and to humiliate.

 

A Network of Powers:

Creating an Unjust System

 

A domination system: unjust economic relations, oppressive political relations, biased race, patriarchal gender, hierarchical power, and the use of violence to maintain them all. Human destiny was driven in a direction that few would consciously have chosen. Violence became the language of dominance and the major tool of the system. People came to believe false truths: that violence will save us, that war produces peace, that might makes right. People present the domination system as redemptive.

 

Violence is so prevalent that it has become the primary source of entertainment, from children's cartoons to comic books to computer games to professional sports. Violence is expressed in films and on TV liberally. All these human organizations perpetuate the domination system and the myth of redemptive violence. We must realize that love will ultimately save us, that war only produces more war, that might is meant to serve not dominate.

 

Social sin is the primary human condition that cries out for transcendence and grace. If social structures can be full of sin then they have the potential to also be full of grace and imbued with the Holy Spirit. Des chardin believed that the power of love could overcome the love of power.

 

Unjust social structures continue to survive despite the presence of good people who do nothing. There must be an awareness of social structures but also a concerted effort to replace unjust structures with ones that promote the betterment of society. The conversion of heart gives birth to a social conscience. This means consciously targeting those who are more immediately responsible for perpetuating unjust social structures. Perhaps the best we can do today is resist and those areas where we recognize injustice and can do something about it. We can also choose to become agents of change for organizations that address and improve certain obvious injustices. The challenge always is to turn a structure that is currently devolutionary into one that is evolutionary.

 

Social Responsibility

 

Changing unjust social structures is the social responsibility. Individually we are not personally responsible for social sin in the sense that we could change an evil social situation into a just and merciful one. Jesus could not do that on his own. We are involved in the social sins. We participate in them no matter how hard we try to avoid them. The society is responsible to make needed changes. The responsibility for making changes is primarily a social one. Certain social sins like racism or abuse, society can choose through its laws and values to act responsibly or irresponsibly.

 

Social sin and the crucifixion

 

because social sin and personal sins are tied together, we cannot only say that the crucifixion of Christ was only for our personal sins. Jesus of Nazareth very consciously died bearing the weight of the social sins of organized society, those very sins he openly struggled to confront during his ministry. They are the sins of humanity. Our personal sins are bound up in those social evils and have contributed to their existence.

 

Jesus found it very easy to declare forgiveness of the sin of individual people during his lifetime. He experienced most resistance from those ingrained destructive patterns of society. He bore them throughout his lifetime and brought them to the cross. He bore them through his death and the direct experience of their power. On the cross, he came into collision with the totality of social evil and social sin. His solidarity with the human race reveals a primary reason for his death. He died on the cross, in obedience to his gospel, and in his solidarity with the selfish humanity that was bent on diminishing itself. His death is a triumphal act asserting that love, not selfishness, is the true basis for human society. Love is the life force of the Body of Christ.

 

Meditation: Social Sin

Basic Principle 16

 

Imagine that you have a cosmic view of the earth looking down and seeing the network of sinful social structures that keep people from living full human lives and hindering the development of the Christ project. You can see dominator people trying publicly to deny the harms these evil structures are doing to the human race and to nature itself. You can see others observing the destruction, yet doing nothing, or perhaps looking for someone to blame in order to absolve themselves from responsibility. Still others feel hopeless were too impotent to say or do anything to make a difference. Others are resisting one specific social evil but without a true change of heart. They end up unwittingly supporting different social evils: for example, some may condemn abortion yet support the death penalty.

 

Next, join Jesus and his companions as they confront the social sins that burdened the people around them.

 

Ask for the grace to see the pervasive power of social sin and how I personally, if unconsciously, reinforce it. Ask For the grace to resist it and, with the change of heart, the grace to make a fundamental choice to transform society and those little and large ways that I can. Ask for the grace to find others who share my commitment to make a positive difference in a certain area of concern. As for the grace to see the immense divine forgiveness flowing upon the human race that liberates me and stretches my heart to be ready to respond to God's call.

 

Jesus and the Pharisees

 

Consider Jesus confronting the Pharisees about the religious hypocrisy, and the lawyers about unnecessary burdens they place on ordinary people without lifting a finger to ease their burdens (Luke 11:37-54.) The Pharisees and lawyers are so unconsciously habituated to the social diminishment they help perpetual that they cannot see it as a personal or social sin.

 

Jesus and the Moneychangers

 

Consider Jesus confronting the money changers in the temple in their greed and obsession with making a profit (Luke 19:45-46, Luke 16:9-13.) The startled money changers are so used to performing their generation's old functions that they have convinced themselves that they are performing a ministry, not perpetuating a social injustice. Talk to them about it. Then speak with Jesus.

 

Jesus and the Mistreatment of Women

 

Consider Jesus confronting the mistreatment of women in their capacity for love and generosity (Luke 7:36-50; Luke 21:1-4); In their capacity to think as well as men (John 4:1-26; Luke 10:38-42), against men's violent mistreatment of them (John 8:1-11); and the financial abuse of women (Luke 8:43-48; Luke 7:11-17). The Jewish men took offence, claiming that even in the 10 commandments God seems to imply that women and wives are possessions of men, much as their homes, land, cattle are possessions.

 

Conversation:

 

In this period, talk with Jesus on the cross. See how he bears the weight of social sins of organized society, those very sins he openly struggled to confront during his ministry, those sins that you and I continue to support by our choices and our inactivity.

 

You may acknowledge the inescapability of social sin and how the only possible hoping this situation is God's mercy, forgiveness, and transforming grace. Divine forgiveness give him visibly on the cross remains an essential expression of God's love and grace period this forgiveness liberates us and renews us to be able to work confidently for Christ and God's divine project.

 

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages: 113-115, 119-122

                        107, Day 4 (Matthew 25:31-46)          

 

Song: Gwynneth Walker's God speaks to each of us as He makes us. She also set a Merton text, Thou Inward Stranger. 

 

The wonderful video from the satellite, that has the "Earth" movement from that song cycle Helios by Tim Takach. 

Tuesday, October 27th: Week One

 October 27, 2026

Check-in

What are you using for your prayer? Daily Scripture? One of the Examens?

 

 

The grace to use before each prayer

 

Ask for the grace of generosity and industriousness in working at the Christ project. Ask also to be more proactive like the first two servants. Pray to become aware of how you might be hiding and not using your talents.

 

Sins of Omission

 

Matthew 25:14-30 describes the Christ project, which needs our positive human cooperative response. In this parable, Christ expects his servants to be active but also outwardly active in promoting and developing the wealth of the master. Each servant is given a certain amount to work with according to one's abilities. It is interesting to think about God's relation to us with this difference in mind: what is the relationship with God to those who use their talents to make a difference in the world, and what is God's relation to those who hide their talents and never use them.

 

Other Unproductive Responses

 

We have to see these talents as human gifts, skills, and abilities. This provides A wider range of unproductive responses. 

 

• There are people who are totally unconscious of their gifts and talents. 
• Others may know of their talents but don't see their usefulness. 
• Others may refuse to exercise their talents because they are not outstanding. 
• Others do not put any value on their talent or appreciate them. 
• Still others are afraid to use their talents in public for fear of embarrassment, failure, shame, disappointment, ridicule, or rejection.

 

An Unnoticed Kind of Sin

 

The sin of omission is at the heart of the parable. Even the servant who hid the money did not commit sin in a formal, active sense of the world. He had no intention of stealing his master's money we're squandering it we're using it to pay off personal debts. He kept it safe, but unused. The sin is that he failed to make his unique contribution to the great evolutionary project.

 

A Practical Challenge

 

We must learn to use our talents, knowledge, resources, personal connections, and opportunities to further develop and deepen the consciousness of the whole world. Everything that you do - or do not do - affects the Body of Christ. We have been given a variety of gifts to different members of the community to build up the Body of Christ. You have a unique set of gifts, talents, and opportunities. It doesn't matter what condition of life in which you find yourself. The task is for you to discover the gifts you have and find creative ways to use them in your community and situation.

 

Even Greater Responsibility

 

The master did not allow the servants that doubled their money to retire or relax for the rest of their days. Instead, they were given even greater responsibility. Jesus reinforces the notion of God's project when he says, “From everything to whom much has been given, much will be required; And from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” We realize that even greater responsibilities, exponentially designed, will be expected of us.

 

Meditation: Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25:14-30

 

It is helpful to reflect upon the realization that each person has certain talents, graces, gifts, resources, and opportunities. Each one has the ability to help develop and build the body of Christ on earth.

 

Ask for the grace of generosity and industriousness in working at the Christ project. Ask also to be more proactive like the first two servants. Pray to become aware of how you might be hiding and not using your talents.

 

What the First Two Servants are Doing

 

Use your imagination to devise what the servants are doing with the money entrusted to them. How do they invest these talents in different ways. How do they maybe encourage each other and share ideas. Since the three servants will probably interact with one another at the master's house, they have many chances to talk to each other and support one another. After you talked with them, ask them to point out what talents you have been given by God and how you might use them to further the Christ project.

 

What The Third Servant is Doing and Not Doing

Use your imagination to probe the mind of the third servant. Ask him why he does not follow the example of the other two servants and their creative and productive investing. Why did he choose to hide the master's money? How does he interact with the other two servants as they talk about what they are multiplying what they have been given? Ask him what kinds of feelings he is going through during this time: fear, anger, resentment, annoyance, relief, or some other emotion.

 

The Reason the Master is Disappointed with the Third Servant

 

In this conversation, talk with the master and ask him about the strong feelings that are evoked in him in reaction to the third servant. You may ask the master that if you were one of the three servants reporting to him today, what kind of reaction would he have to you.

 

Conversation:

 

In this period, talk with the Creator, Christ, the Spirit about your responses to these three questions.

 

What have I done to help build the body of Christ? 

What am I doing to help build the body of Christ? 

What am I going to do to help build the body of Christ?

 

Express any sorrow for having omitted it things or actions that would have been simple and easy to do as well as some more challenging things that would have required more effort and courage. Ask for the grace to be more sensitive to opportunities that present themselves from now going forward.

 

Optional: make a list of your various resources, talents, and abilities. List out easily 20 or 30. It doesn't have to be ranked all of these abilities can help build love and connections in the Body of Christ. As you add each new item to your list, say a word of thanks for being able to use that ability to build the Body of Christ.

 

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages: -- 

 

Netflix or Streaming Service: I Swear.  (Optional)

 

“I Swear” tells the remarkable story of John Davidson, an activist from the town of Galashiels in Scotland, which followed his life with Tourette’s Syndrome beginning at age 16. Facing a lack of understanding of his condition in the 1980s, Davidson endured an extraordinary struggle on his way to becoming a prominent activist for people with Tourette’s, culminating in being honored by Queen Elizabeth II.

 

 

Song: We Bloomed in Spring, setting by Edie Hill

 

The text is the "St Theresa's Bookmark, which is just a short thing she (or likely someone else) scribbled in the margin of some scrap of paper or other. Edie Hill is a Minneapolis composer, who wrote a piece commissioned for Seraphim, Do I Wake or Sleep, a very hard-hitting text about climate change.

October 20, 2026

 October 20, 2026

Check-in

What are you using for your prayer? Daily Scripture? One of the Examens?

 

 

The grace to use before each prayer

 

During your meditations this week, ask God to reveal within you what needs to be freed, liberated, loosened, healed, strengthened, and transformed. Let God reveal to you those areas that need to be uncovered, discovered, or transformed. 

 

Activities. and Sin

 

All human experience can be divided into activities and passivities. Activities are what we do by our own effort. They include our choices and intentions as well as our physical behavior. Passivities are those things we undergo or endure and we usually have little choice. They are often the things done to us.

 

Since sin must be a free and conscious act, it can only occur and the realm of activities, specifically in activities of diminishment.

 

We can use our efforts and activities in two ways. One is by intending and choosing to do that which promotes growth and development. The other in by intending and choosing to do things that we can and diminish us. Activities of diminishment when we use our free choice that harm ourselves or others. They can be actions that are destructive, harmful, and corrupting. These are actions that we traditionally called sinful. Actions that diminish us or another person are activities that somehow diminish the Body of Christ.

 

Activities that I have failed to do

 

There are activities of omission as well. These are consciously chosen actions to be left undone and they are in the realm of diminishment. Sin may be found whenever there is unwillingness to try something for Christ. The price project keeps the cosmic body of Christ evolving towards its fullest and most complete expression. Doing whatever one can to keep the body of Christ evolving is our goal on earth. Therefore, the most obvious sin is to know that you are called to promote the Christ project but you consciously refuse to commit yourself to doing it.

 

Examples of this may be when we have an opportunity to make a positive difference but we don't follow through because of fear or failure or rejection. We may have anxiety about the negative opinions of others, lack self-discipline, or have insecurity about our abilities. Also, we can be lured away from these opportunities by attractive and pleasurable diversion. Therefore, sin is knowing when there is something you can do to further the development of yourself, others, or the earth, and you freely choose not to do it or don't even try.

 

Consciousness is defined as awareness plus appropriate response. This will depend upon your time, talent, health, family obligations, family situation. While refusing to do any of these would not be seen as traditionally sinful, they could be seen so by someone committed to the building of the body of Christ.

 

The Destructive Power of Doing Nothing

 

Our traditional way of thinking doesn't see human destructive events is being shaped by science events. We don't usually think of sin as inactivity or just standing by to see what happens. Edmund Burke: the only thing necessary were able to triumph is for good people [men] to do nothing.

 

The word only is important. Silence and inactivity provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for devolution. There are do nothing kinds of people: the cynic, the blamer, the bystander, for those who play the victim.

 

It is not easy to press beyond the status quo when others resist but try to derail your efforts. It's a struggle to push against inertia because of fear and laziness around you. Apathy seeks only comfort and pleasure and does not want to be bothered. [Nobody likes change, but they like the status quo even less.] In an evolutionary spirituality, failure to act when action is called for is the worst kind of sin of omission.

 

Jim Keenan, SJ defines sin as a failure to even bother to try to love. (Good Samaritan)

 

 

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages 

 

Song: Seek Him who maketh the seven stars, by Jonathan Dove

 

The text is Amos 5:8. There are various YouTubes videos available, but the sound quality is not great on YouTube. It might be better if people at least listen through headphones, and not just their computer speakers. If they have Spotify or Apple Music etc., it's worth searching for there. 

 

October 13, 2026

 October 13, 2026

Check-in

What was your experience of the Thanksgiving Examen?

What was your experience of the Practice of Positivity Examen?

For those of you familiar with Ignatius’s First Principles and Foundations and this one?

Do you need to change the lens of your camera? Does it have juice?

 

 

Devolution and Sin

 

 

The Christ project is aiming toward the ever-growing consciousness of the human race of its oneness with all creation. We are asked to use all our talents and energies to struggle against any form of devolution or holding back. What is devolution? It is any conscious holding back to the past or retreating to a safer place for no good reason. This is different from a retreat for the sake of growth and learning. There are times when people need to move into a safe place restore their energy, reconnect to, and re strategize. The goal of these processes is to move forward and to keep evolving.

 

In a proactive spirituality, any conscious choices to refuse to go forward is seen as sin or human weakness.

 

We press forward using our attractiveness (peacefulness, warmth, approachableness, enthusiasm, cooperation, humor) to initiate informed strong relationships. We are willing to work together with love to push through our discomfort zones. We are to improve complexity and our longing to become more and more conscious to reveal what can be.

 

So, what is sin in this perspective?

 

The traditional notion of sin is an offense against God and that still holds true. People violate the commandments and do things that are against love, compassion, forgiveness, and healing. People lie, cheat, steal, abuse and come a kill to promote their own wealth, power, and pride. Their hearts contained jealousy, hatred, revenge, resentment, lust, and greed. It is presumed that you are committed to living a life of love, compassion, forgiveness, and healing.

 

Jim Keenan, SJ defines sin as a failure to even bother to try to love. (Good Samaritan)

 

The relationship between sin and grace

 

In the traditional relationship between sin and grace, it is assumed that the more you consciously reflect on your personal sins and failures, the more you will desire God's forgiving and redemptive grace. The evolutionary relationship between sin and grace is one that is creation centered. It follows a different dynamic, uses another source of motivation, as a wider definition of sin, and creates a new context for understanding sin and grace.

 

First, it follows a different dynamic. God's evolutionary proactive love is the foundational experience of God's love for me, since God has made me a unit of the Body of Christ. It is God's love for the Christ project that puts the spotlight on my failure to act accordingly.

 

Second, it uses another source of motivation. Sin focuses primarily on the refusal could even try to live up to one's potential. It begins with the grace to realize that I am not choosing to do things in many cases that I could easily be doing to build up the 

Body of Christ. I am motivated to seek the grace to respond generously to God's call to be proactive on behalf of the Christ project.

 

Third, it has a wider definition of sin.  Go to The focus of sin is on the sins of omission the failure of the good person who has opportunities to make a difference in one's life yet does nothing.

 

Fourth, it creates a new context for understanding sin and grace. God remains loving and forgiving toward me despite the fact that I am conscious of what I could be doing for Christ and I am not doing. In light of God's unconditional love for the Christ project, I desire the grace to have more courage to be proactive for Christ.

 

During your meditations of sin and grace this week, ask God to reveal what you need to be freed, liberated, loosened, healed, strengthened, and transformed. Coming into this awareness is a revelation from God, not simply your own self-reflection. God's love is the revealing agent, uncovering what in you and your world is ripe for transformation.

 

WhatsApp: This is not a critical component of the retreat. It is there as a useful tool for communications among yourselves. It is a helpful repository for songs, poems, images, and videos that may be helpful to you. It is there just for your information. Do not feel like you have to check the app each time someone adds a post. It is simply a way for you to contact one another and build community.

 

 

TEDx Talk: Celebrate What’s Right with the World

 

This is a video that might fit in well with the Thanksgiving or Positive Particular Examen.

 

Nature photographer Dewitt Jones called the natural world “a banquet laid, a cup overflowing…” which beautifully describes the welcome to a well-set table, to a deepening of God’s life in us, one grounded in gratitude and capacious love. It moves us away from self-absorption, self-convenience, or willfulness and closer to a willing participant in God’s Project, one shaped by God’s pure intention. (Michelle Gomez)

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/dewitt_jones_celebrate_what_s_right_with_the_world

 

 

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages 101-102. My Own History of Sin and Grace

 

Song: 

 

The Planets by Holst — Each movement represents a different planet, capturing the essence of the solar system and its creation, evoking a sense of wonder about the universe.

 

A Time of Reflection

 A Time of Reflection

 

While we are not meeting this week, please continue with your daily prayers. Continue to use the Thanksgiving Examen and/or the Positive Particular Examen. The Scripture readings for each day will provide inspirational messages to bring into prayer, and the Examens will give you a framework for gratitude as you pray. 

 

We are concluding what Ignatius would call the Days of Disposition. They are times of developing your prayer routines, checking to see your interior availability to enter into the full Exercises, and determining whether the schedules fit with your situation. For some, it marks a time of postponement or departure; for others, it is a resolved commitment to move forward into the deeper relationship with the Triune God – and with ourselves. If you decide this is not the best time for you, we’ll see you back here next year or at a future time, or perhaps your schedule requires a shorter commitment of time. With those who are preparing for next year, I will work with you to further develop your prayer and discover your unique style of praying. It is all a gain. Let me know what you need.

 

Perhaps you have further questions about the Foundational Principles of Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. These will serve as the foundation for our further work. Does it make sense to you? Are you willing to go forward without understanding the entire package? 

 

Some of you already have retreat or spiritual directors. That’s great. As we move forward, we’ll be checking in with a retreat director to talk about how your prayer is going. Just as a guideline, as you set time with the director, you will want to do a quick check-in. Think about 30 minutes. If you need 40, that’s possible, but consider 30-minute meetings every other week or so. What is important is that you spend time in prayer, and you seek the grace of the Exercise.

 

What is the grace? In the first week, you will be praying for something like, “Give me a sense of the progression of sin in the world and my growing consciousness of the interconnectedness with all of creation.” When the prayer period is over, you can ask God the question, “Am I more fully aware of the progression of sin and how I am interconnected with it?” We will talk more about graces in our next Zoom meeting.

 

When you are speaking with the retreat director, let her or him know of what God is saying to you or how you are experiencing God. We often speak about what we think God might be saying or doing; We want to hear of your experience of God. 

 

Continue forward! We’ll make some sense of it together.

 

WhatsApp: This is not a critical component of the retreat. It is there as a useful tool for communications among yourselves. It is a helpful repository for songs, poems, images, and videos that may be helpful to you. It is there just for your information. Do not feel like you have to check the app each time someone adds a post. It is simply a way for you to contact one another and build community.

 

 

TEDx Talk: Celebrate What’s Right with the World

 

This is a video that might fit in well with the Thanksgiving or Positive Particular Examen.

 

Nature photographer Dewitt Jones called the natural world “a banquet laid, a cup overflowing…” which beautifully describes the welcome to a well-set table, to a deepening of God’s life in us, one grounded in gratitude and capacious love. It moves us away from self-absorption, self-convenience, or willfulness and closer to a willing participant in God’s Project, one shaped by God’s pure intention. (Michelle Gomez)

 

https://www.ted.com/talks/dewitt_jones_celebrate_what_s_right_with_the_world

 

 

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages 85-93.

 

Song: 

 

Also sprach Zarathustra by Strauss — Known for its iconic opening, this tone poem reflects on the philosophical ideas of existence and the cosmos, often associated with the dawn of creation.

 

 

Retreat Directors

 

Michelle Gomez – michelle.gomez90@gmail.com

Meg Foreman – megforeman66@gmail.com

Steve Titus – stevetitus51@gmail.com

Chad Roeber - roeverdvm@gmail.com

 

 

All Notes will be Accessible through this website: To the Frontiers

 

https://predmoresj.blogspot.com/

 

 

Christogenesis Conference

 

Ilia Delio, Kathleen Duffy, and others will chair this conference at Villanova University November 9-11. I plan on attending. Virtual attendance is available.

 

https://wisrinstitute.org/2026-conference/

For September 29th

 Consideration: The First Principle and Foundation

 

The Principle and Foundation is a statement of human meaning and purpose emerging from a synthesis of the 17 basic principles. They assume we want to be actively involved in and cooperating with what God is doing in the world. It focuses upon what God is trying to accomplish in the world and how we can help in this co-creative process. It can become the basis of daily discernment and major decisions.

 

It is not to be prayed but reflected upon sentence by sentence.

 

You were created to make a unique contribution to the great evolutionary project initiated and continually supported by God, namely bringing all creation together into one magnificent conscious loving union.

 

Since all other created things in the universe share with you this common eternal destiny, they are essential to and inseparable from you as you participate in the pursuit of that ongoing evolutionary process all right.

 

Individually and joined with others, you are to use all means available to promote and carry out this shared purpose with all your personal creativity, compassion, and energy, always seeking and choosing what is more conducive to that purpose.

 

For this, God empowers you to grow in passionate love and care for all elements of the cosmos, since they, as you, all live and move and have their beings in God’s love.

 

And God is with you as you undergo whatever diminishments may befall you as you cooperate with others in your efforts and actions in pursuing the divine project the purpose for which we, individually and collectively, were created.

 

 

This passage omits Ignatius’ word indifference, which is about the freedom to meet God and collaborate with God in all circumstances, even if those circumstances are the opposite of what we instinctively want for others and ourselves. This understanding is an integral part of what Teilhard means by the concept of diminishment. 

 

The Thanksgiving Examen:

 

Teilhard was an optimist despite the rejection he faced from the Jesuits and from the official church. Instead of putting his attention on failures and disappointments, he focused much more on praise, reverence, and gratitude when he related to God.

 

Psychologists say that there is a basic law of psychological and spiritual life called the first law of spiritual energy. Energy follows attention. Wherever you focus your attention is where the energy of your body, mind, and spirit goes. Teilhard preferred to focus on his own resilience, his capacity to adapt, and to restore his enthusiasm for work and relationships. If he was blocked from pursuing one avenue, he found another way. He suggests a nightly review of your day focusing on what went right instead of what went wrong. If you focus on giving and receiving love, your thinking will change for the better. If you focus on thinking good thoughts, your heart will grow more loving. The heart and mind are always interacting in concert.

 

1. Give thanks in general to God for the benefits received in your life, in others, and in the world today.
2. Ask for the grace to recognize all those particular things that happened to you and others for which you should personally be grateful.
3. Take account of your day from the hour that you arose up to the present time, period by period: 
1. first your good thoughts, ideas, and intentions; 
2. Then your good words spoken and heard; And then, 
3. good acts, your actions, and those of others, small or large, that positively touched your life or the life of someone else.
4. Praise and thank God for all the opportunities you had to make a difference in the world today and to inspire you to recognize more opportunities in the future.
5. Thank God for all God has done for you, and to ask yourself: what can I envision doing that would lead me to be even more deeply grateful?
6. Close with an Our Father.

 

Examens are meant to be a lifelong practice. Jesuits do an examen at least twice a day. It becomes more natural when it becomes a part of your daily routine. The more grateful you become, the more loving you become, and the more receptive to love you become. 

 

A Way of Life

Success breeds success. Failure breeds anxiety, embarrassment, and more focus on failure, more focus on feelings of disappointment. Focus on your strengths. Accentuate the positive. Focus on what is possible.

 

Success comes from staying in the game, playing your best, and keeping your eye on the goal. God's evolutionary project in Christ will not simply come up about by not committing sins. Observing the rules and doing what is forbidden is fine, but it just produces a holding pattern. It does not promote the true purpose of your life. What could I be doing for Christ? What do I want to be doing for Christ?

 

A truly grateful person can never be a sinful person. Ingratitude is a likely cause and source of all evil and sin (Simon Rodriguez, a companion of Ignatius) One who develops a continual spirit of gratitude will likely notice many of his or her undesirable faults falling by the wayside. By being grateful for others’ good qualities, you come to love others more easily.

 

The Positive Particular Examen (Presupposition)

 

Instead of counting the number of times you made critical remarks to others today, count the number of times you found ways to notice the good qualities of others and affirm them. Instead of counting the number of times you were afraid to speak up, count the number of times you did speak up.

 

As these more desirable thoughts, words, and deeds increase in frequency, your ability to perform them gets stronger. They are easier to carry out and they feel more natural. At the same time undesirable behaviors will diminish and disappear. What is practiced gets reinforced. Energy follows attention.

 

1. Upon rising, take a few moments to remind yourself about the particular good words or deeds you want to develop today and ask God to help you recognize opportunities for practicing this desirable behavior.
2. Around midday, let yourself actually count the number of times you succeeded in practicing your desirable activity, and thank God for your success.
3. Near the end of the day, count the times you succeeded in practicing your desirable activity and thank God for your success.

 

You begin not to distinguish things you are not grateful for as “what went wrong” or “where I failed” or “how I have sinned.” You are simply not grateful that you feel this way or another way. When there is gratitude, even a small amount, God's grace is not blocked.

 

If you feel discouraged, surround your discouragement with gratitude. Say something like this: thank you God for helping me be conscious of this unwelcome feeling. I know you love me and I trust that I am receiving whatever grace I need to receive help from you. If I cannot change what I am not so grateful for, help me to accept it. You may also ask yourself: what can I learn from this experience? It is important to keep unwelcome experiences or feelings to round it in gratitude because gratitude generates positive outcomes. It opens your mind to new learning and your heart to new grace. It nurtures growth and consciousness.

The Ignatian Adventure

 

Read pages 252-254, 45-46.

 

Song: 

 

La Création du Monde by Milhaud — A ballet that combines jazz influences with classical elements, illustrating the creation of the world in a vibrant and imaginative way.

  

 

 

STOP

 

 

1. Stop telling yourself, “It’s too late.”
2. Stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you’d really love.
3. Stop telling yourself, “It’s just my ego” whenever you yearn for a more creative life.
4. Stop telling yourself that dreams don’t matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible.
5. Stop saying that you don’t have enough time and that you don’t have work-life balance. 
6. Stop fearing that your family and friends will think you are spending your time unwisely.
7. Stop telling yourself that creativity is a luxury and that you should be grateful for what you’ve got. 

 

 

Learn to recognize, nurture, and protect your creative side, and you will move beyond pain and creative constriction. 

 

 

Poem: the earth is our mother

The earth is at the same time mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is the mother of all,
for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
Yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humankind, but also
the substance of Incarnation.

~ Hildegard of Bingen

 

 

Christogenesis Conference

 

Ilia Delio, Kathleen Duffy, and others will chair this conference at Villanova University in November. I plan on attending. 

 

https://wisrinstitute.org/2026-conference/