After completing all three retreats, prayerfully consider each of the following statements:
“Your sin's effect before your loving Creator is not some vague, cosmic confusion and sorrow… To stand in your responsibility before Jesus dying on the cross brings a sorrow that simmers in your heart and drops you to your knees. The suffering and death of God's son for your sin and his words of forgiveness are a clear revelation both of the frightful reality of sin and of a powerfully transforming forgiveness.”
George Aschenbrenner
Stretched for Greater Glory
Humans are neither "sinners" – in a perpetual "state of sin" – nor "saints" who sometimes break the law. Rather we are involved in a complex process by which we must see sinful acts as symptoms of deeper problems. The process of growing in holiness and tackling these weaknesses is one we must set out upon daily.
Thomas O'Loughlin
Journeys to the Edges
Grace creates a new order. It is not just a continuation of the first creative act of God; rather, it builds a new relationship. The relationship with God is totally new because it is interpersonal. God's own person is given in forgiveness… Knowing this much about our relationship with God is a grace, but experiencing it is a further grace of world-shaking proportions.
John English
Spiritual Freedom
To subdue the flesh was to crucify the old self to Christ, to deliberately put away all those things that delude and corrupt the body. This was the call of Christ: to love a life that was self-controlled, upright, and godly asceticism was perceived to be a holy martyrdom, a daily dying to the self for the sake of the gospel.
Cintra Pemberton
Soulfaring: Celtic pilgrimage then and now
We are underway, wanderers between two worlds. Because we are still wandering on earth, let us ask for what we need on this earth. Since, however, we are pilgrims of eternity on this earth, let us not forget that we don't want to be heard as if we had a permanent abode, as if we didn't know that we have to enter the life that, through downfall and death, is the goal of life in prayer in all petitions.
Karl Rahner
The Need and the Blessing of Prayer
The kingship of God and Christ was regarded as a broad, encompassing, benevolent rule which embraced peace, protection, justice as well as having more cosmic and metaphysical elements. God was worshipped as king of the elements – of sun and moon and the stars of the sky – king of grace and glory and generosity, as well as king of the angels and all the hierarchies of heaven in their order.
Ian Bradley
Following the Celtic Way
(Our) total dependence on God does not produce an immature passivity. The realization that you are nothing on your own, rather than deflating your spirit, stretches your heart. You wait in hope and gratitude for all the other gifts that accompany life. Everything about you belongs to God.
George Aschenbrenner
Stretched for Greater Glory
What ideas or emotions do these statements evoke in you? How do they clarify your experiences during the retreats? Summarize these thoughts and feelings at the end of your retreat notes.
Afterward, you may find the following materials helpful:
The Ignatian Exercises and Personal Vocation
some thoughts by Herbert Alphonso, SJ
Exploring the Ignatian Exercises
resources for the journey forward
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