Last night we continued our journey through the second movement of Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises by contemplating the scandalous mystery of the incarnation. Our opening liturgy once again tapped into our longing in this Advent season. We await the coming peace of Christ.
Then, we marveled at the incarnation. How is it that the creator of the universe would come among us in diapers? The humility of our God is absolutely astonishing. While we want to win and be right, Jesus emptied himself. He humbled himself to the point of assuming the entire human experience, even death. Because of the incarnation, God has personal knowledge of contentment and poverty, joy and sorrow, excitement and fear, strength and weakness, and even pain.
We then asked how we are coming into Advent and brought that to Christ in a colloquy. We imagined ourselves meeting with Jesus and sharing with him the primary emotion we are bringing into this season. Our time conversing with Christ beautifully led us to the table and the mystery of Christ’s presence in the bread and juice.
Have a listen to the full teaching and practice.
Kingdom Practices
For the duration of our time in the second movement we will continue the practice of imaginative prayer. In order to engage this practice, we have written and recorded ten original contemplations. Each one was written by a member of our community, and they will help us to enter a Gospel story and meet personally with Jesus.
Every Monday our email will include a link to the week’s prayer. This week, we begin with an original contemplation written by Jason Feffer. This contemplation centers on the birth of Christ, and the shepherds who first heard the good news. Please make some time this week to engage this practice.