Living the Day Well

Well I have completed my 6 week preparation phase before beginning the Spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola - (see here if you want more info on what that is but it is basically a retreat in everyday life - a period where you put aside time for around 9 - 12 months to particularly seek God and to contemplate the movement of God in your life). I'm actually now in the first week of the exercises proper and this week the focus is on the mystery that is "sin".

It was really good to recover the discipline of spending time each day in prayerful contemplation of scripture. It is very much praying with what God gifts to you rather than the more familiar prayer as thanks and asking for stuff. Spending time coming to a place of stillness and allowing God to bring something to my attention from the scripture passage and then just staying with that and allowing God to unfold some meaning, revelation, something fresh; is very powerful.

The preparation phase left me in an interesting place. An accumulation of passages left me with a strong sense of slowing down, of wanting to be much more aware of the day. The bible talks about God's mercies being new every morning, Jesus asks us to focus on one day and not to worry about what tomorrow will bring. Each day is a gift and we can live distractedly or attentively. We can live in a blur of activity, eating, driving, at meetings etc. or we can live aware of the food we have and how it tastes, aware of the countryside, the colour of the leaves, the light, the sky, as we drive along. Partly I think it's a result of the stilling and the contemplative nature of the exercises. The "examen" asks us to be aware of the different feelings during the day - to pay attention to what brings life and movement towards God and what brings desolation and a movement away from God. In one of the passages I was praying with, Deuteronomy 30.15-20, God invites us to choose life and the sense I got was very much of God's joy and exuberance and gift. God invites us each day to choose life and whatever situations we face we can ask "What is God's invitation in this?"

So I am seeking to live each day more attentively, more prayerfully and more gratefully. I'll let you know how it goes.