On my Ignatian journey over the last few years, one of my heroes has been Father Larry Gillick SJ. He is absolutely amazing. I have some of his retreats downloaded to my iPod and I love to listen to them. Recently I have been listening again to his Lent retreat. This was partly because I wondered whether we could use this during Lent in our housegroup. We are currently looking at Micah 6.8,
'He has showed you, O man and O woman, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.'
considering our response to this verse and our call to justice and mercy. But we also want to ensure some balance - making room for the contemplative in our lives. We planned to do some sessions in the lead up to Easter, as we have done in Advent - waiting and preparing ourselves for Jesus death and resurrection.
The reason I love Larry Gillick so much is that he has such amazing and profound insights into God and our relationship with our Creator. As I have listened to his inputs and explored the way of St Ignatius I find that my theology has changed significantly. I understand God as the one who seeks after us, who reaches out to us constantly in his infinitely outreaching love; who comes to us according to us, who encourages us to slow down and to take time to look and to find him in the everyday. When I listen to Larry I am uplifted and affirmed by God and his love and care for me.
One of my blog listings on the right hand page is Small Rituals - Steve Collins' blog - Steve is another person who's insights I value. Here is a meditation that he wrote a number of years ago;
take a few moments to consider your feelings about fast and slow
are you a fast person or a slow person? do you want to slow down or speed up? is your life already fast or slow? are you in a fast place or a slow place - spiritually, mentally, physically? do you want to be in a fast place or a slower place? how fast or slow do you want to get there?
do you seek slow love and fast food? or vice versa? is work too fast and travel too slow? or vice versa? are you a contemplative trapped inside a commuter? if the motorway is empty do you slow down or speed up? is your computer too slow or too fast?
opening prayer:
to those who creep towards the kingdom god says welcome. to those who rush towards the kingdom god says welcome to all of you, however you come, in speed and sloth, god says welcome to the door and the arms that are always open wide
slow meditation:
reality is a static image, rolling past at 24 frames per second if we slow the movie down, what will we see?
slow the projector in your head and lose the fluidity embrace the flicker, the jerkiness. allow the frames of your life to disconnect and stop
now your life lies still in front of your eyes, what do you see? play 'spot the difference' with each frozen moment. now you have time to examine carefully each corner and shadow, what details are revealed that you always move too fast to see?
fleeting expressions and imperceptible gestures betraying a truth not discerned, a turning you didn't take, another universe of futures, vanishing from sight
to us the stars stand still, but ancient eyes could not navigate by our skies, the north point of the sky moves in a circle 28000 years around. the north star we know is not the north star of our ancestors or descendants. they will see other constellations
does god see our lives the way we see the stars? innumerable slow movements plotted and understood on charts long before the event, constellations drawn that serve for a while and break up. how slow is reality for god? what do fast and slow mean in eternity, where every tiny moment and endless age are available for detailed inspection. a day like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day
if we slow down do we see more like god sees? see all the details, creation's crazy minutiae. who would have time to see all that stuff except god? is that why there's so much of it?
how quickly does salvation come? if we slowed our lives down would we see every step and progression? or would its detail still evade us. a blur of motion in the shadows of a static frame. a frozen block in the centre of the movie?
if we slow down will we see what god sees? will we see what god is doing?
have you ever tried?
Larry says that we should walk more slowly, be more attentive, be more receptive to sights and sounds and touches. It is not about producing. We need to spend time in 'unproductive' solitude. We need to be quiet and just receive life and breath. To receive the day and see all that God did.
