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.