In the Hand of the Potter

July 31, 2008

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, priest

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done?” says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. Jeremiah 18:5-6

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad, they throw away. Matthew 13:47-48

Piety

Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve You as You deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any reward, except to know that I am doing Your Will. Pray for us St. Ignatius, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Oblation by St. Ignatius

Take, O Lord, into Thy hands my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my will. All that I am, and have. Thou hast given me, and I surrender them to Thee, to be so disposed in accordance with Thy holy will. Give me Thy love and Thy grace, with these I am rich enough and desire nothing more. Amen.

~~From the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Indulgence of 300 days (Leo XIII, 1883)

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/073108.shtml

Thirty-one days and thirty memorials to our saints in July. Our month-long encounter with the lives of the saints ends today with the celebration of the impact made by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. There may be months where the Proper of the Saints celebrates more lives than we do during the days of July (I have not gone through the annual calendar day-by-day or month-by month). However, I can not imagine a month where we celebrate more of the greatest saints and doctors of the church that we have this month. Boniface and Benedict. Mary Magdalene. Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Thomas and James. Now Ignatius.

Some of us are touched every day by the hand of the Jesuits. They were our pastors, teachers, mentors, confessors and spiritual directors. Every Sunday, one of his heirs shares his Gospel reflections as we read the inspired reflections of Fr. Joe McCloskey.

While recovering from an injury, Ignatius of Loyola began reflecting on the Lives of the Saints. He asked himself, “Why should I not do what blessed Francis or blessed Dominic did?” The secular or earthly ideas which had been preoccupying his mind were now replaced with such ideas. He slowly began to realize the fulfillment that was possible when your mind is filled with the lasting spiritual delights of such discipline. In the end, all that mattered to Ignatius was “seeing the love of God as insatiable.”

In a meditation on the life of St. Ignatius, Ron Knox writes:

We live in times when great importance is attached to planning, and Christian people are apt to catch the infection from their surroundings. We must revise, we must reorganize, we must have a plan or we are lost! But I don’t think St. Ignatius would encourage us to echo that cry. Rather, he would find fault with our half-heartedness – ready to believe, to do, to spend just so much and no more. But the fire never has enough.

But the refining fire never has enough and the hand of the potter never has enough clay. When he makes something imperfect, he starts over and works on a new creation “of whatever sort he pleased.”

Action

Does our fire burn bright enough? Do our hands work hard enough at the potter’s wheel?

What fires do today’s readings ignite and consume in you?

Are you choosing the best course like that of Ignatius? What will the angels do at the end times when they pick up the fish that is your life? Into which bucket will they toss you? Will you end up in the good bucket or in the bucket which gets thrown away?

St. Ignatius’ life proves to us that we can change. We can start to make good decisions whenever we choose. And one of those is the decision to reinvigorate our prayer life step by step in ways that bring you closer to your very reason for being.

Ignatius tells us that the purpose of Spiritual Exercises is “To overcome oneself, and to order one’s life without reaching a decision through some disordered affection.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises begins with the following foundation:

Principle and Foundation

The First Week of the Spiritual Exercises

Human beings are created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by means of this to save their souls.

The other things on the face of the earth are created for the human beings to help them in working toward the end for which they are created.

From this it follows that I should use these things to the extent that they help me toward my end, and rid myself of them to the extent that they hinder me.

To do this, I must make myself indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to my freedom of will and is not forbidden. Consequently, on my own part I ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on in all other matters.

I ought to desire and elect only the thing which is more conducive to the end for which I am created.

According to various sources, an anonymous Southern minister put this foundation another way when describing his study and prayer life and how these affect his action.

I reads myself full.

I thinks myself clear.

I prays myself hot.

Then, I lets myself go.

Are you ready to “lets yourself go” in your life of Piety, Study and Action?