The Ignatian Workout for Lent Retreat: First Week of Lent

The Ignatian Workout for Lent: An Online Retreat (banner)

Jesus calls us to repent and believe in the good news. We consider that in this week’s exercise in our Ignatian Workout for Lent. Listen to Tim Muldoon’s reflection below. If you’d like, share some of your own reflections in the comments.

Prayer

Bring to prayer your desire to be part of something greater than yourself. Ask God to help you name which specific desires point you in the direction of that “something greater”—God’s project—and ask God to bless your attempts to be love for others.

Action

Go to Mass and do an imaginative exercise before it begins. See the people in the congregation as God does, imagining that God has called each person to some specific work in building his kingdom. Imagine that God is calling you, too, to undertake a specific work, and offer yourself in this gathering of the Body of Christ toward God’s purposes. Pray with this intention throughout the Mass.

Learn more about the book that inspired this retreat.

9 COMMENTS

  1. I like the clear words Tim uses to call into the depths. The words , who else will love in this corner where you are, is like a match lit in an alley. Who indeed?! In that sentence I noticed in myself the way I so frequently imagine that there is a better place for me to be and better people for me to love and maybe I should move and get with this better life. But to simply stay, with the given, the cobbled together, the sceptical and holy, these are my people and I am given to them just as they are given to me. Thank you for the reminder, and the clarion call to be with God in the way things are.

  2. Thank you for this wonderful reflection. A question I need and want to reflect on each moment of every day: “Am I willing to be love in my corner of the world, my circle of influence?”

  3. I attended Stations of the Cross last night. It was emotionally stirring. Tears came unwillingly. I don’t know why but it was a half hour of sorrow. I imagined the stinging from the scourging and the fear of what was yet to come.

  4. Pray with feelings. I wonder if that is the same as pray to God with your spirit because He is spirit as scripture often says. So it is confusing to engage my ever changing feelings.

  5. Tim Muldoon’s reflection for the first week of lent has meant the world to me. Taking my dear husband of 47 years to begin being a resident at a fine Memory Care Facility had me in a nearly non functional state. “Changing ” to think of it as an opportunity to love all the new people we me gives me a totally different perspective. Perhaps one that will help me control my sadness – turn it to hopefulness. ….. Perhaps.
    Thanks.

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