Love Summary for the Year: Week 2
Summary: Sunday, December 25-Friday, December 30, 2016
The full and participatory meaning of Christmas is that this one universal mystery of Divine Incarnation is also intended for us and continuing in us! (Sunday)
The only way to be victim in a generative and healing way is as Jesus did, by forgiving and releasing his crucifiers and himself. (Monday)
The beginning and end of everything is love. Only inside of the mystery of love—mutual self-emptying and infilling—can we know God. (Tuesday)
Love, I believe, is the only way to initially and safely open the door of awareness and aliveness, and then suffering for that love keeps the door open and available for ever greater growth. (Wednesday)
The nature of Love and the nature of God are the same thing. (Thursday)
Is life just a great school of love? I believe it is. Love is the lesson, and God’s love is so great that God will finally teach it to all of us. (Friday)
Practice: Examen of Consciousness
St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits, proposed a daily exercise which he called the Examen of Consciousness or the Daily Examen—a simple exercise in discernment. Rather than focusing on what went right or wrong, how you failed or succeeded throughout the day, this exercise encourages you to reflect on moments when you were aware of God—when you were present to Love—and those times when you were forgetful or distracted.
Center yourself in silence and an awareness of God’s presence. Recall the day—or, on this New Year’s Eve, the entire past year—with an open spirit. Notice the emotions, sensations, and thoughts that arise as you review recent events. Let your attention settle on one of these instances and look for God’s presence within it, whether you were aware at the time or not. Pray from this memory and within this present moment.
Release the day (or year) with gratitude and rest in God’s love.
Gateway to Silence:
Be the change you wish to see in the world. —Gandhi
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations (CAC: 2016), 103.
For Further Study:
Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 1999, 2003)
Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (The Crossroad Publishing Company: 2009)
