Cautionary notes about the Spiritual Exercises - and prayer in general
I quote from a Jesuit Father regarding the Spiritual Exercises
PERHAPS, there are two ways of getting any human approach to God wrong.
The first is to believe that it all depends on me. Unless I pray at the right time, using the correct words and adopting a suitably reverent posture, I will have no chance of entering into God’s presence.
The other wrong path is just the opposite: to hold that it is all down to God and there is nothing special that I need to do.
The truth of the matter is that prayer at its best, like any good conversation, requires all who participate to play their part.
I can trust that God is wanting to do all that it takes to get in touch with me; and there is a range of tools and techniques that I can use to help foster an encounter with God. Some of these tools and techniques are in the Spiritual Exercises
The advantage of tools and techniques is that they can be learned, to help us dispose ourselves to meet the God who is reaching out to us.
You are invited, as you read, to sample them, retaining and employing those you discover to be useful, and leaving aside others for another time or another person.
None offers a guarantee of spiritual encounter; but all are worth attempting
- Fr Paul Nicholson SJ, Editorial, The Way
July 2018
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