“My sheep hear my voice;I know them, and they follow me.I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.No one can take them out of my hand.My Father, who has given them to me,… More
Jesus in the Desert: Resonating with Jesus (Horizons of the Heart 34)
The grace we are asking of God: to discover Jesus in my own personal story so that my personal myth may be transformed in Jesus, as was that of Ignatius, that I will be disposed to hear God’s call and follow it wholeheartedly
Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.
Begin by relaxing your body, your mind, letting go of anxieties and ambitions and expectations and plans… Lay all that you notice and all that you are bare and exposed before the Father who welcomes you with a gaze that is gently loving. Settle into the silence that runs deeper than emotional turbulence… Move beyond imagination where you wait upon the stirring of the soul and the movement of the heart. Return to Jesus to find the Rest he offers…to welcome the gift…to become a child held in safe arms….
Resonating with Jesus
Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).
Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of entering into how Jesus is experiencing this event, how he is using his senses, what he is thinking, feeling, desiring….
Jesus could have prayed with Psalm 91 while he communed with his Father in the desert.
You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
…The fowler is set on destruction. He sets traps in favorable spots, attracting doves and other small birds by scattering grain inside the trap. The birds would walk into the snare, not suspecting danger until the trap had been sprung. Jesus would have reflected in this psalm how God delivers the one who trusts in him.. “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: The snare is broken, and we are escaped” (Psalm 14:7). In this Psalm God is proclaimed as trustworthy to rescue us by either helping us avoid the trap altogether or freeing us from the trap if caught… This is a very masculine image, particularly for Ancient Israel… The forces of evil are stalking us to destroy us, but our Rescuer ultimately calls the shots. There is only one outcome: freedom from the snare of the fowler. After the fall of Adam and Eve, through the thousands of years before the birth of Jesus, we were trapped in our infidelity and disloyalty and in the destructive power of death which seemed to have the last word…. Jesus in the desert proclaimed to Satan: “Your power is broken.”
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge.
…A pinion is the outer part of a bird’s wing and represents the protection a mother bird gives her chicks. She spread her wings over them. This is a call to confidence in God. If you make the Lord your resting place, he will never leave you…. Here the psalmist offers a feminine image for the protecting and caring power of God.
Attend to Jesus as he prays the rest of this psalm in the rocky landscape and oppressive heat of the desert loneliness:
[The Lord’s] faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High your dwelling place,
no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honor them.
With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation.
Rest in the awareness of what resonates in Jesus heart as he prays these words from the prayerbook of Ancient Israel. As you enter into his feelings, you will gradually lose interest in your own spontaneous reactions, defenses, and fears. Jesus will bring you to his way by attraction, sweetness, and beauty. He will make you feel his own heart’s safety, belonging, and hope.
Colloquy
Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.
Ask Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Reviewing the Graces of Prayer
When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.
Image: Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness (Jésus tenté dans le désert). Brooklyn Museum, New York, public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The Dynamic of the Grain of Wheat (John 12:20-33)
Amen, amen, I say to you,
John 12:20-33
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Have you ever noticed how the Scriptures are filled with people just like ourselves whose lives take unexpected turns and then blossom in ways that can only be described as flourishing in and for the Kingdom of God.
Take Jacob. His “before” was manipulating his father’s blessing from his brother Esau and then serving his uncle Laban for many years, eventually marrying his daughters Leah and Rachel. His “after” was as the patriarch of the twelve tribes of Israel who escaped from Egypt, received the Law, and were chosen by God to be his covenant people. And even to this day, we read in Revelation 21 that on the twelve gates that belong to the New Jerusalem are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The New Jerusalem itself sits on twelve foundations representing the twelve apostles who would reign over the twelve tribes of Israel.
Take Moses. His “before” was the life of Pharoah’s daughter’s adopted son in Egypt. We all know the story. His “after” was the fulfillment of God’s call to be the leader of his people to the Promised Land. And even to this day, the Christian understanding of the Paschal Mystery is rooted in the Exodus narrative.
Between the “before” and the “after” of each of these biblical figures there is a point of struggle and epiphany.
When Jesus says that the grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die if it is to be more than just a single grain, if it is to bear fruit, Jesus is talking about just this dynamic which plays out also in our own lives. Who we think we are, who we discover ourselves to be as we grow up and mature and try to figure out life, all this eventually needs to give way to the fullness of the way God lifts our lives up into his mighty and eternal plan. We each have a role to play in God’s Kingdom. We each have a mission in life. We each were created for a purpose. It is in those “hinge” seasons of our life between the “before” and “after” in which we feel the weight and sorrow of the grain of wheat dying. If you are in one of those “hinge” moments, know that this too is a way in which God raises you up to fulfill more completely the fullness of your life and his glory.
Praying with this Passage of Scripture
Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).
Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Ame
Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.
Meditate (meditatio)
Read the same passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time
Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.
Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.
Image by Hans via Pixabay
What the Pharisee Missed about the Meaning of Blessing (Luke 18:9-14)
Jesus addressed this parable
Luke 18:9-14
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray;
one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself,
‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —
greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week,
and I pay tithes on my whole income.’
But the tax collector stood off at a distance
and would not even raise his eyes to heaven
but beat his breast and prayed,
‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Humility, that most misunderstood of virtues, saves us from the theatrical pretensions to which all of us are drawn. Who hasn’t boasted occasionally of something they’ve accomplished, or been grateful, even in the secret of their hearts, that they aren’t in the class of people who they view to be beneath them as regards intellectual capacity, religious actions, cultural possibilities, or moral behavior?
The Pharisee praying in the synagogue was not exaggerating. He most probably did keep the law for that is what Pharisees did: they followed the legal traditions ascribed to the traditions of the Fathers. However, the special kind of prayer called the berakhah or blessing, so much a part of Judaism, is meant to be an expression of wonder at how blessed God is. For example, a typical blessing Jews recite before eating or drinking would acknowledge and bless God as the creator of the food and drink about to be enjoyed. The blessing for bread praises God as the one who brings forth bread from the earth. The blessing for wearing new clothing praises God as the one who clothes the naked.
These blessing prayers make clear that our true dignity lies infinitely more in God that in ourselves and can only be reached when we are united to God. The first truth that leads us to a great wonder in God’s glory and his goodness to us we find in Genesis. We are created from nothing. This very gift of an eternal existence make us utterly dependent on God and acutely aware of our own unworthiness. In love God created us and in love God upholds us. We have no being of our own but what we receive from God. Blessing God for his glory is in order!
The tax collector here is an image of all those who realize that they are dependent on God, gifted with life and an eternal purpose whose object is God, and that they can never come to completion without being perfectly united to God. In this case, sorrow for sins, even the grieving that comes from knowing that we will never be all that we were created to be, is appropriate and actually a necessary part of our relationship with God. Does this also sound familiar? We begin every Mass with a Penitential Act followed by the Glory to God. We take our place once again as God’s dear children so in need of his grace to live lives of truth and goodness and beauty.
So today, bless and thank God as the source of every good in your life, acknowledge your dependence on God for reaching the final completion of your life in Christ Jesus, sorrow for your sins and never stop believing in God’s love for you.
Image: Aberdeen Art Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Praying with this Passage of Scripture
Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).
Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Amen.
Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.
Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.
Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.
Jesus in the Desert: Entering into the Mystery (Horizons of the Heart 33)
The grace we are asking of God: to discover Jesus in my own personal story so that my personal myth may be transformed in Jesus, as was that of Ignatius, that I will be disposed to hear God’s call and follow it wholeheartedly
Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.
Begin by relaxing your body, your mind, letting go of anxieties and ambitions and expectations and plans… Lay all that you notice and all that you are bare and exposed before the Father who welcomes you with a gaze that is gently loving. Settle into the silence that runs deeper than emotional turbulence… Move beyond imagination where you wait upon the stirring of the soul and the movement of the heart. Return to Jesus to find the Rest he offers…to welcome the gift…to become a child held in safe arms….
Entering into the Mystery
Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).
Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and enter with your senses into the environment in which the story takes place.
Here in the desert Jesus was seen by no one. He wasn’t planning what he would do when he left the desert to begin his mystery. He wasn’t imagining what it would be like to be an itinerant preacher. He wasn’t thinking about the people he might ask to join him. He wasn’t strategizing. He wasn’t identified with work and ministry and role…
In the desert one learns that we are completely dependent on God. Walk with Jesus, wander around, hungry, tired…. Help him prepare a place to sleep for the night. Watch as he prays to his Father….
Sinking still deeper into the mystery of Christ, allow your heart to taste, to smell, to touch the infinite gentleness and sweetness of Jesus.
As you do this your mind’s activity will fade into the background, and the mystery you are intuitively contemplating will begin to take over and engulf you, planting within your spirit an inner knowledge of the Lord…. Take as much time with this as you are able….
You will at some point begin to intuitively sense the difference between the way Jesus spontaneously feels, speaks, and acts in the desert and the way you yourself feel, speak, and act in similar situations in your own life.
Where have been the deserts in your life? What have these treks through the wilderness been like for you?
Notice how Jesus abandons himself into his Father’s hands, as a child held in safe and loving arms… Taste the sweetness and the trust in this relationship between the Father and Jesus…
Another desert experience is recounted in Deuteronomy 8:2-4. God says he led the Israelites into the desert “to humble and test you… to know what is in your heart… to see if you will keep my commands…. I caused you to hunger and then fed you with manna to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” God tested the people to demonstrate to them that they were absolutely dependent upon him for their survival…. that they would see that God is their God, not just the God of their ancestors.
We cannot become holy by sheer effort, nor can we do good things for God solely by applying ourselves to the task…
What would it be like to rely upon God to give direction and meaning to your life?
We are, in truth, radically unable to determine what we will become. What could a life of radical dependence on God look like for you today?
Entering into the mystery of what we contemplate, we humbly allow Jesus to be our Master, to educate our senses and feelings according to the pattern of his own life and teachings. It is a matter of becoming saturated with Jesus’ own way of being and feeling. It is learning how to resonate with everything Jesus resonates with, as we gain this felt understanding through our contemplation, and of rejecting whatever Jesus rejects….
Allow your spirit to soak up what has been felt and known in this contemplative prayer.
Colloquy
Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.
Ask Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Reviewing the Graces of Prayer
When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.
Image: Moretto da Brescia, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Lavish Ways of Our God (Luke 16:19-31)
When God does things, he does them lavishly. The book of Genesis opens with the stunning array of all creation being poured forth from God’s hands in his limitless love. And here, in the familiar story of the rich man and Lazarus, we see two accounts of lavish living. The rich man clothed himself in fine linen and dined sumptuously, extravagantly, lavishly.
On the other hand, we see Lazarus taken after his death to the bosom of Abraham, a term which means being in the seat of honor at a banquet. One of my favorite word-paintings of God’s lavish feast-giving is penned by the prophet Isaiah:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear (Is. 25:6).
Simply reading these words often brings tears to my eyes. There are so many who are suffering under burdens that weigh them down, crushing burdens mostly not of their own making. They are afraid to lift their eyes to this feast of rich food that “the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples.”
God is telling you, however, “I want you at this banquet. Don’t make banquets of your own. Don’t hoard riches on this earth for yourself. Don’t give up hope when you are not wealthy. Trust entirely in my lavish love for you.”
Let us break open this lavish love of our God. The word “lavish” appears in 1 John 3:1, which reads, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (NIV)
Paul helps us understand what this means as he almost sings exultantly:
“[God] raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable [we could read here, lavish] riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6-7).
The riches of God’s grace are not able to be measured, and they will be lavished on us for all eternity. In fact it was take eternal ages for God to show us the riches of his grace through the kindness shown to us in Christ Jesus his Son. God will be ever greater in glory and we will be ever more completely satisfied with the outpouring of his unending mercies.
There in the “bosom of Abraham,” like Lazarus, our tears will be wiped away, we will finally rest in the security of God’s provision and loving protection. We will be home in our God who can never be outdone in his lavish kindness.
Let us lift our eyes from our own wealth, however great or small it may be, and rest our gaze on the riches of God given to us even now in Christ Jesus: to live in communion with God through the sacraments in ever closer intimacy and unending joy.
Praying with this Passage of Scripture
Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ. There are four movements in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).
Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Ame
Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.
Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
He customarily clothed himself in fine linen, an outer garment dyed purple and an inner garment of fine linen made of flax. He dined sumptuously, extravagantly, lavishly.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him
to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said,
‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.'”
(Luke 16:19-31)
Meditate (meditatio)
Read the same passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time
Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.
Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.
Image by Giani Pralea from Pixabay
Jesus in the Desert: Making Space for the Word (Horizons of the Heart 32)
The grace we are asking of God: to discover Jesus in my own personal story so that my personal myth may be transformed in Jesus, as was that of Ignatius, that I will be disposed to hear God’s call and follow it wholeheartedly
Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022. See an index for the whole series.
Begin by relaxing your body, your mind, letting go of anxieties and ambitions and expectations and plans… Lay all that you notice and all that you are bare and exposed before the Father who welcomes you with a gaze that is gently loving. Settle into the silence that runs deeper than emotional turbulence… Move beyond imagination where you wait upon the stirring of the soul and the movement of the heart. Return to Jesus to find the Rest he offers…to welcome the gift…to become a child held in safe arms….
Making Space for the Word
Ask Jesus that every aspect of this prayer will please him and will give glory to God.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).
Slowly read the passage for your meditation once. Leave some moments of silence and then read it again with the intention of entering into the story, of observing the details of what is happening. Take some time to set the stage and picture the environment in which the story takes place.…
The Judean desert was a rocky and barren place… In the Bible, the desert is an image of loss of control, of separation from the safety offered by villages and family, and of our utter dependence on God since without resources in these wastelands one would certainly die… Feel the heat on your face… Notice your thirst… Experience hunger… Bear the loneliness, no one as far as the eye can see… “It is through our senses that we feel the ‘touch’ within the heart (Exx 335), and then the heart expands in feelings of happiness, peace and serenity, and in a renewal of spiritual strength, along with desires to ‘move forward’ (Exx 315, 329) (Imitating Christ our Lord with the Senses: Sensing and Feeling in the Exercises: Antonio Guillen (The Way, 47/1-2 (Jan/April 2008), 225-241).
Read the passage of Scripture again.
Let the story expand from the few verses that are recounted in Scripture to what these forty days in the desert would have been like for Jesus, what he would have experienced or needed or felt, how he lived these events interiorly, how he expressed himself….
With your senses of sight, of hearing, of touch immerse yourself in the event. Is there any way you can be of help to Jesus. If so, imagine yourself entering the story through these actions. Look around for a particular moment that seems to be of greater importance to you, to catch your attention.
The desert is for Jesus a place of love. Here he has eyes and heart only for the Father. As the days of his forty day retreat go on, Jesus becomes more and more ready to live and die on the terms of love…. He hands himself over to the Father, confident in his love, willing to live and die for love of me.
Psalm 63:1:
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
Jesus asks: Who will join me? Who will love like me? Who will trust my Father this completely?
Adore Jesus in the desert… In your inspired imagination show him reverence… Speak to him about these questions he asks, have an honest conversation.
This deeper contemplation of Jesus in the Gospels is an apprenticeship of our feelings and senses in which we are formed in such a way that we feel with Jesus, that our feelings becomes those of Jesus, and our spontaneous reactions of personal promotion and self-protection are gradually curbed and re-invented so that we spontaneously react as Jesus does.
Ask for the grace “to know Jesus intimately, to love him more intensely, and so to follow him more closely.”
Colloquy
Allow an image or object that encapsulates all these experiences to form in your mind. Take some time to speak with God about the meaning or significance of this object.
Ask Jesus to show you one specific gift he wishes to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Reviewing the Graces of Prayer
When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life.
Image: Briton Riviere: Temptation in the Wilderness, public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Touching the Sunrise 