01. Exercise 1: Receiving God’s love through others
As you begin your time of reflection and prayer ask God to know more deeply that Great Love that moves the sun and the stars and the sunflowers, the plants, everything.
Thank God especially for those moments you have received this divine love through others, both human and non-human. Reflect on what love has been for you in this life. What have these experiences of love been like for you? What is your experience of being loved right now? How do you see God loving you in and through these moments?
Text to keep in mind:
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Reflection: After this time, reflect upon it. What did you notice about your experience? How was the time of giving thanks for you? How do they invite you at this time of your life to rejoice in your own uniqueness.? You may find it helpful to spend some time sharing with God your thoughts and feelings about your own uniqueness and listening to what God may be saying to you.
02. Exercise 2 Celebrating experiences of God’s love in your history
As you begin this exercise ask for a deepened awareness of the wonder of God’s loving presence in your unfolding life. Ask God to draw your attention to those specific ways in which God has loved you into your present being.
Text to live with: Psalm 136. (This psalm rehearses God’s loving presence in Israel’s history line by line. Each memory is followed by the refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” As you rehearse God’s loving presence and activity in your own life and recall the many loving gifts you have been given, and create your own short verses followed by “for his steadfast love endures forever.” Example: Who gave me my Mom and Dad/for his steadfast love endures forever/who awakened me to my love for my children/for his love endures forever. Again, let your heart be drawn to specific expressions of God’s loving presence and action in your own life.)
Reflection: After this time, reflect upon it. What did you notice about your experience? How was the time of giving thanks and creating your own Psalm for you? How do they invite you at this time of your life to rejoice in your own uniqueness.? You may find it helpful to spend some time sharing with God your thoughts and feelings about your own uniqueness and listening to what God may be saying to you.
03. Exercise 3 Praying the Principle and Foundation from the Spiritual Exercises
As you dwell in this prayer ask for your heart to be drawn deeper into God’s first love and unique purpose for your one life.
Words to pray with:
Lord my God, when Your love spilled over into creation, You thought of me.
I am from love, of love, for love.
Let my heart, O God, always recognize, cherish, and enjoy Your goodness in all of creation.
Direct all that is me toward Your praise.
Teach me reverence for every person, all things. Lord God may nothing ever distract me from your love…neither health nor sickness, wealth nor poverty, honor nor dishonor, long life, or short life.
May I never seek nor choose to be than other than You intend or wish.
As you live with the prayer above, let your own present prayer of desire and longing emerge. It may find expression in your own words, in drawing, in movement.
Reflection: After this time of prayer, reflect upon it. What did you notice about your experience? How was the time of praying these words? How do they invite you at this time of your life to rejoice in your own uniqueness? You may find it helpful to spend some time sharing with God your thoughts and feelings about your own uniqueness and listening to what God may be saying to you.