Week SixPage 1 of 3
Spiritual Exercises – Ten-week Format
Days 1-3
Theme
Discovering God’s invitation to hear and answer the call of Jesus Christ.
Grace/Desire
I want to hear Jesus’ call. I want to feel how great His project/mission is, and how tremendous His desire for it. And I want to be right there, working with Him.
Prayer Material for days 1-3
1. Prayer of Consideration: Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom. See “The Kingdom” -- Tetlow
2. Prayer of Consideration: See “Christ the King and his Call” -- Fleming
3. Matthew 4: 18-25 Jesus call His disciples to join Him and do what He is doing. He
stays with his disciples and works along with them. He means all who follow Him to join
in His great project.
Prayer
Eternal Lord of all things, I feel Your gaze on me.
I sense that Your Mother stands near, and the great beings crowd around You, angels and powers and martyrs and saints.
If you will help me please, I would like to make an offering:
I want it to be my desire, and my choice, provided that You want it this way,
To walk this earth the way You walked it.
I know that You lived in a little town, without luxury, without great education.
I know that You refused political power.
I know that You suffered: Leaders rejected You. Friends abandoned You. You failed.
I know. I hate to think about it. None of it looks romantic to me, or very useful.
But it seems to me a toweringly wonderful thing that Your divine majesty might call me to follow after You.
Additional Scripture and Prayer Material
1. Ephesians 1: 3-14 God the Creator lives in inaccessible light, all powerful. Jesus Christ comes as God’s project to save all. My first task: say yes for myself and for my world to what God envisions.
2. 1 Corinthians 15: 20-28 God hopes to draw into Jesus’ mindset all governments, teachers, bosses. God is powerful to achieve that – and what a change that will make. The accomplishment comes through Jesus Christ’ life and labors.
3. Hebrew 2: 5-13 God hopes much for humankind. We see how dreadful we are making the earth. Jesus comes, hoping.
4. Matthew 16: 24-26 Ask the Lord what it is that is being asked of you at this time.
Days 4-7
Theme
Discovering God’s love of and longing to embrace our humanity.
Grace/Desire
I want a deep-felt knowledge of the unimaginable dignity and love that God bestows on my humanity in Jesus – and God’s deep desires for all of the human family and our planet.
Prayer Material for days 4-7
4. Luke 1: 26-38 -- using the Prayer of Consideration: see “The Incarnation” - Fleming
5. John 1: 1-18 Jesus Christ stands at the beginning of all creation. He comes into our
flesh, as it is. Going through it all, He transforms me, an all humankind.
6. Prayer of Consideration: See “Contemplating the Incarnation” -- Tetlow
7. Philippians 2: 6-11 He chose to live among us. He chose littleness. He chose to
embrace all darkness in us, even the final darkness of death.
Prayer
Welcome, Lord Jesus Christ, into our flesh, into the heart of humanness. I welcome Your godly holiness upon earth. I welcome Your complete humanness upon my life world. I welcome You, Yourself, into my life and self. I thank You that I may embrace humanity and find myself embracing You. For You remain in our flesh now and forever, among humankind whose eyes reflect Your eyes, whose use of words matches Your use of words, whose need of You matches Your willing need for us.
Additional Scripture and Prayer Material
1. John 3: 16-18 God loved the world so much that God sent God’s Son.
2. Ephesians 1: 3-14 God’s plan of salvation.
3. Galatians 4: 1-7 At the appointed time, God sent God’s own Son born of a woman.
4. Titus 3: 3-8 God saves us with a heart of compassion.
5. Psalm 40 Song of praise. Now at last our caring God has stooped toward me.
Review of the Week
Who have been, or are, the persons whose lives and values inspire me? Why? What dreams, values, and issues passionately excite me at this time of my life?
For Further Reflection and Consideration
The dream of God's heart for the world is expressed in Jeremiah 31:31 where the covenant is imaged as being placed in each person's heart replacing stony hearts. The effect of this dream is recorded in Zechariah 14: 20-21 which images everything in life having become sacred, even the pans in the kitchen and the bells on the horses. And Micah 6:8, God's hopeful dream is fulfilled by our doing justice, and our loving tenderly, and in our walking humbly with our God. Jesus prayed for the achievement of this dream in John 17, "... Abba, may they be one is we are one." The completion of this dream is expressed in Revelation 21: 1-7 where the heavenly Jerusalem is imagined as coming down from the heavens with the Holy One wiping every tear from our eyes.
John Veltri, S.J., Orientations
More to Ponder
Our sensuality is grounded in nature, and compassion, and in grace. In our sensuality, God is. God is the means whereby our substance and her sensuality are kept together so is never to be part.
Julian of Norwich
Other Considerations
- Who is Jesus Christ? Spend some time reflecting on the names/titles that Jesus uses:
John 6:35,51I am the Bread of Life
John 8:12; 9:15 I am the Light of the World
John 10:7, 9I am the (Sheep) Gate
John 10:11, 14I am the Good Shepherd
John 11:25I am the Resurrection and the Life
John 14:6I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life
John 15:1,5I am the Vine
- Spend some time reflecting on Jesus’ “Inaugural Address,” the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5,6,7).
Consider the following questions: What is Jesus’ cause? … mission?