Celebrate 175 Years of Life

Society of the Holy Child Jesus, Associates, colleagues, parishioners, and friends Celebrate 175 Years of life A RETREAT IN DAILY LIFE TOGETHER y Packet #3-b: The Second Week — January 31–March 6, 2021 CONTENTS Greeting, p. 2 Orientation Notes for Continuing the SecondWeek, pp. 3-5 Resources for Prayer, pp. 6-20 We go with Jesus now into his public ministry, turning our attention to him as he walked and talked, healed and preached, among us. We continue to ask for the fundamental grace to grow in a heartfelt knowledge and love of him so that we may follow him more closely. As he becomes more and more real, people may find him more challenging and daunting than they had expected him to be. He may show himself as having desires for them that they resist. They, too, may develop new or different desires toward him, realizing that he is free to choose them or not for his service. In other words, the experience of many people in this Week is of developing an adult relationship with the living Lord Jesus. Adapted from William Barry, SJ, Letting God Come Close, and Kevin O’Brien, SJ, The Ignatian Adventure 1 Retreat in Daily Life Together January 31, 2021 – #5 Dear Companions on the journey, Greetings of Ordinary Time, and whatever season it may be in your part of the world. Collectively, we cover a wide range of current climate conditions from icy mid-winter in the north, to sweltering mid-summer in the far south, with dusty dry, or pleasantly tropical seasons in between. We are still making our way through the SECOND WEEK of the Retreat in Daily Life Together, and the main reason for dividing the resources for this Week into a Part 1 and PART 2 is simply to make for a lighter packaging of them. There is, however, an organic flow from one part of the Second Week to the other. Only a week ago we were with Jesus in the desert as he made his transition from a hidden to a public life. We listened to his call to join him in his mission and be his disciples, and we responded, each in his or her own way. In its entirety, the Second Week is about knowing Christ more clearly, following more nearly, and loving him more dearly. In the next four calendar weeks we are invited to deepen our commitment to the disciple’s life. Each of us will have the opportunity to weigh the personal cost of discipleship, and to be realistic about the obstacles we contend with both within and outside of ourselves. Several distinctively Ignatian exercises will focus our prayer during this stretch of time. Not long ago, in praying the Call of the King, we could choose to offer ourselves to be followers of Christ. Just ahead, the meditation on the Two Standards reminds us that this call usually entails struggle; it asks us to make discerned choices. The next meditation, on Three Classes of Persons, helps us grapple with the need to be as interiorly free as possible for Christ. Then, as if that’s not enough, there’s yet another opportunity to look with a generous heart at what this will require of us, by considering Three Kinds of Humility, also referred to as Three Kinds of Love. These meditations and considerations are embedded in the ongoing contemplation of the one whom we follow and seek day by day — Jesus, the Christ who invites us to partner with him. At this point the “Together” in our Retreat in Daily Life opens up the broad horizon of what we — each and all of us — can do and be together with the Christ whose life we share. Blessings on the road ahead, Mary Ann and Pauline 2 Retreat in Daily Life Together y Overview and Orientation Notes for the Third Week Adapted from The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed by Katherine Dyckman, Mary Garvin, Elizabeth Liebert (DGE); also from A Retreat By All Means by Elizabeth Mary Strub, SHCJ st The Meditation on the Two Standards (Week of January 31 ) Transition from hidden life to public life Who/what represent Lucifer & Christ for me? The meditation on the Two Standards marks Meditating on the Two Standards may also open the transition from the contemplations on the up new areas of self-knowledge, understanding the hidden life to those on the public life of Jesus. It divided places within. The struggles for “standing” reminds the one making the Exercises that the may move from exterior causes to interior reali- call usually entails struggle. It extends the invita- ties: “Who or what represents Lucifer and Christ tion to follow the pathway of discipleship, focus- in my particular struggle?” Delving into issues of ing not so much on a particular choice as on the truth and power touches people deeply, for this meditation focuses on conflict within themselves discernment essential to making choices .... as well as outside. It concerns doubt and fear and denial. It means exploring what pulls people apart. Christ & Lucifer in cosmic confrontation Discern what sustains the call to discipleship This meditation draws on the deep power of myth, vividly contrasting the characters of Christ The one making the Exercises needs to carefully and Lucifer in cosmic confrontation. The text discern what reinforces and sustains her call to describes a concrete place, complete with graphic discipleship and what hinders deeper commit- imagery and imaginative design. Yet this cosmic ment. A standard or banner is not always easy to struggle echoes within each person and a world see in the middle of things. Ascertaining what marked by the continuing struggle between truth is life-giving or death-dealing to self and others and deception …. remains a challenge. The underlying touchstone, A first impression ... may suggest rejecting this of course, is always the life and death of Jesus and meditation as an historical oddity, but ... stan- openness to his Spirit. Discernment in the Two dards still have meaning; to raise a standard and Standards acts like a tuning fork for discerning follow it means publicly claiming identity and the realities of life, indicating resonance or dis- commitment. sonance with the God who dwells within. (DGE, pp.195-199) Taking a stand / With whom do I stand? y The deeper reality of the Two Standards raises “Whose side are we on, my dear Sisters,” issues about when and how women and men take a stand and when and for what reasons they As an extension of the meditation on the king- may risk alienating those standing somewhere dom, the Two Standards poses a question of else. Taking a stand raises an inherent question: loyalty. “Whose side are we on, my dear Sisters,” “If rupturing a relationship results, is it worth it?” Cornelia asks. She is very aware that evil per- Likewise, pondering the Two Standards leads sonified is active and subtle. Much of her advice to other questions: “Where and with whom do has to do with discerning and unmasking it .... I stand? What communities of resistance and Cornelia never identifies the world with Satan’s solidarity am I aligned with?” …. The Standard of standard. The battle ground is within each one, Christ is a sign of inclusion, equality and freedom, with the prize going to the victor over the unre- a vision for a new humanity. deemed self. Strub, p. 102 3 The Call and Cost of Discipleship Three Classes of Persons and Three Kinds of Humility The Meditation on Two Standards stirs in us noble desires to serve and follow Christ in his simplicity of life, his humility, and his selflessness. It presents an ideal way of living. Now, in the Meditations on Three Classes of Persons and Three Kinds of Humility we do a reality check of sorts. We know the allure of the call of Christ, but we also grapple with the demands of discipleship as we seek to become as free as possible to follow him. In all our choices, we want “to choose that which is more to the glory of the Divine Majesty and the salvation of my soul.” (SE 152) Three Classes of Persons(Week of February 7th) Three Kinds of Humility (Week of February 14th) At issue in this meditation is the inner freedom This theme is presented more as a consideration of three imagined persons who receive a highly than a formal meditation; it is like food for valued possession of some kind to which each is thought as we seek to deepen the graces we asked excessively attached. A person can be attached, and even addicted, to “ideas, relationships, sub- for in the previous meditations. O’Brien reminds stances, being liked, work, power or powerless- us that “Christian humility is not about demean- ness, self-image, or any other thing. Even small ing yourself; hating the self is a failure to honor addictions stand in the way of freedom and love the goodness of God’s creation in us. Authentic DGE, p. 200 by sapping the energy of our desires.” humility is a way of loving God and ourselves .... A humble person embraces the liberating truth During the Preparation Days we prayed for the interior freedom of indifference, which is to be of our humanity: we are not the center of the “free enough from our disordered loves and fears universe — God is! .... The three kinds of humil- to respond wholeheartedly to God’s call and ity are really just three ways or degrees of loving choose whatever leads to God’s greater glory and God.

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