Join us for our online preached retreat, based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Brian Strassburger, SJ, will guide us through themes of the exercises and offer resources for prayer and reflection. This is the first of six talks that will be released daily from April 6-11. Join us to listen, reflect, and pray.
This episode is titled “Introduction to the Journey of Faith.” It includes an introduction to the Spiritual Exercises and the guiding theme of this retreat, which is framed around our faith as a journey. The host, Brian Strassburger, will introduce himself, and will share from the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his conversion. This episode will also present a key bedrock of Ignatian spirituality called the “First Principle and Foundation.”
Suggested texts:
- Psalm 139
- Psalm 23
- Isaiah 55
- First Principle & Foundation (Text below)
- Luke 18:18-23
The First Principle & Foundation:
God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the earth to help fulfill this purpose. From this, it follows that we are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things as much as we are able, so that we do not necessarily want health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long rather than a short life, and so in all the rest, so that we ultimately desire and choose only what is most conducive for us to the end for which God created us.
Points for Reflection: Reflect on your journey of faith, your freedom, and holy Christian indifference.
- Do you ever make yourself the center of the universe? How might God be reminding you that you are a supporting actor?
- How do you exercise the freedom to choose the good? When do you struggle to choose the good?
- What are the things in your life that are out of your control? How are you growing in holy Christian indifference as you approach those things?
