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.
- Give thanks in general to God for the benefits received in your life, in others, and in the world today.
- Ask for the grace to recognize all those particular things that happened to you and others for which you should personally be grateful.
- Take account of your day from the hour that you arose up to the present time, period by period:
- first your good thoughts, ideas, and intentions;
- Then your good words spoken and heard; And then,
- good acts, your actions, and those of others, small or large, that positively touched your life or the life of someone else.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- Around midday, let yourself actually count the number of times you succeeded in practicing your desirable activity, and thank God for your success.
- 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
- Stop telling yourself, “It’s too late.”
- Stop waiting until you make enough money to do something you’d really love.
- Stop telling yourself, “It’s just my ego” whenever you yearn for a more creative life.
- Stop telling yourself that dreams don’t matter, that they are only dreams and that you should be more sensible.
- Stop saying that you don’t have enough time and that you don’t have work-life balance.
- Stop fearing that your family and friends will think you are spending your time unwisely.
- 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/
No comments:
Post a Comment