For both the early Celtic Christians and for Ignatius of Loyola, the spiritual life is envisioned as a pilgrimage of love and service in the company of Jesus Christ. It is a journey of faith made with the confidence of kno wing God is both accompanying and guiding you into a hope-filled future. Still, you will need to remain attentive to God's presence in your life and the guidance which you are receiving in expressing God's desires in you and your choices.
In this program, you have received many graces to help you in remaining faithful to God's voice. In your journey through Ignatian exercises, you have developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and received the assurance that he will remain with you in your pilgrimage of faith. Also, from your considerations of Celtic Christianity, you have witnessed the power and practicality of living as a Christian in a world where you may feel marginalized or dismissed.
Spiritual pilgrimages take many forms and our roles within them vary greatly, even when we are taking the same pilgrimage as others. So, before proceeding further into this section, compare the two following essays discussing the experiences of Brendan the navigator and his companions after returning home after a seven-year journey to the Isle of the Blessed:
To read a reflection on Saint Brendan the Navigator, please click here.
To read a reflection on Saint Brendan’s companions, please click here.
What thoughts or desires did each essay evoke in you? Summarize these feelings in your journal.
God’s Presence and Desires
As you proceed along your unique path of pilgrimage, you will find it involves both returning to your experiences in this program to renew the generosity of spirit you experienced during this intense time of prayer and reflection as well as listening for the new expressions of God's desires which you will experience in the future. So, it is important that you acquire a sensitivity to God's presence and desires in your day-to-day life.
In both of these situations, you will find it helpful to refine your reflections through a consideration of the “rules for discernment” presented in The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (#313-#336). At first, you may find yourself using these “rules” as specific (even prescriptive) regulations of your spiritual life. However, used prayerfully, the “rules for discernment” will become an organic element of your unique spiritual vision.
— To help you remain attentive to God's presence in both this program as well as in your future life, you will find it helpful to consider the Celtic Christian practices surrounding “thin places” and holy wells as well as their relevance to your own prayer.
To proceed to a consideration of these practices, please click here.
— To develop a deeper attentiveness to God's desires on a daily basis, you will find it helpful to consider a short prayer Ignatius of Loyola called the examen and develop your own way to integrate this prayer into your spiritual life.
To proceed to a consideration of the examen, please click here.
Note: It is suggested that you devote at least two weeks to these exercises so that they become familiar (and possibly habitual) while the fruits of your earlier prayers (especially during the Ignatian exercises) mature and as you begin your reflections on your personal vocation.
Since we seek to discern God's desires through our awareness of God's presence and activity in our lives, these two activities become inherently interconnected. With this in mind, it is recommended that you conduct these exercises together. So, you should integrate the exercises in "Thin Places and Holy Wells" into your explorations of the examen. This might involve contemplating your thin place and your holy well in the morning on alternate days and conducting the examen during the evening. However, as always, you should develop the habits of prayer that best suit your situation and personality.
Prayerful Life Choices
Occasionally, you will find yourself at junctions in your pilgrimage where you will need to make important life choices. These may involve decisions about educational or vocational options as well as about ways to integrate your sense of purpose with other aspects of your life which may either compliment or contradict that purpose. Ignatius of Loyola termed these as times of “election” and he provided a method for prayerfully considering and acting upon these choices.
To proceed to a consideration of this method please click here.
Review
You should consider your experiences during these times of prayer. You also will find it helpful to reflect on the expectations Ignatius of Loyola and the early Celtic saints brought to these moments of encounter with God as well as contemplate the parallels (and differences) between their experiences and your own before summarizing these thoughts and feelings in your journal.
To proceed to these considerations, please click here.
For Further Reflection and Study
Fostering the spiritual disposition necessary for discerning (and responding to) the presence of God in our lives often involves encountering the majesty of God through nature. With this in mind, you will find visceral descriptions of how others encounter the thin places and holy wells in their lives through the poetry and essays of Irish, Scottish and Welsh authors (as well as other poets and artists inspired by the natural world), from ancient times through to the present.
Examples of these experiences also may be found in the spiritual writings of Annie Dillard, Belden Lane and John O’Donohue as well as the theologies of Thomas Berry, Sallie McFague and Jurgen Moltmann.
Finally, for a better understanding the spiritual dynamics of discernment, you may find the writings of David Benner, Richard Foster and Gerard Hughes helpful.
To return to the program main page, please click here.