Week #10
Forty Weeks ~ Sacred Story
Week 10 Prayer Exercises
Encouragements & Wisdom
In addition to this week’s prayer materials, there are Encouragements and Wisdom (PDF).
Part One
Listening to Your History
1 I will select my 15-minute quiet times for the week ahead and visualize where I will go each day and at what times. I will continue to ask God for the grace to keep those times sacred. I will have my notebook at hand and I will spend no more than 15-minutes in each formal prayer session.
2 My 15-minute quiet prayer this tenth week is composed of simple prayer exercises for Monday through Saturday to help me find links in my life story. I may use my Sunday prayer time to read over the prayer exercises and diagnostic charts so I can set my heart for the week. If I am doing two prayer sessions a day, I will have more reflection time.
3 I will begin each 15-minute prayer period by sitting in a comfortable position. I will speak God’s name, and with personal words from my heart, I ask to be open to my own heart and life story. I will ask for the grace to see connections between aspects of my life story. I am invited to watch these components of my life narrative with the Divine Physician by my side. Christ invites me not to be afraid but to wake up in my life—my spiritual life. I will watch and pray with Christ.
I will awaken to the present moment.
I will take each day and each exercise as it comes.
I cannot do Sacred Story better by going faster.
I will ask God to help me.
I will awaken to my spiritual nature and to the inspirations that inspire faith, hope and love.
I will awaken to the inspirations that inspire cynicism, impatience and lusts. I will wake up!
Focus Affirmation for Week Ten
I will say this affirmation aloud once daily:
I affirm that everything that has happened to me, and everything I have experienced in my entire life,
is present in my memory.
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Read 1-5 before starting any prayer sessions this week.
Whether you have or have not done the exercises for weeks six through nine, you can still do this week’s exercises. If you wrote notes for the past weeks, refer to them. If not, take this exercise as a stand-alone and sometime later, go back and do the weeks you passed. For week ten, there are five diagnostic charts to contemplate. These charts are designed to help you pray for graced insights from God to better understand your life history. The five diagnostic charts are as follows.
- 1. A list of the vices and Commandments
- 2. A diagnostic chart for listing key elements in your life story
- 3. A diagnostic chart with four elements in your life story where you can pray for insights to see links or connections
- 4. A diagnostic chart that shows the progressive levels of sin’s impact on Ignatius’ spiritual and material being, and the way that originating sins and wounds lead to core sin, and finally to the fruit of these sins (those that are most visible or manifest in his story)
- 5. The same diagnostic chart as above, repeated with blank spaces for you to fill in your own unique experiences.
The data from your life diagnostic charts will be helpful to you throughout the year. You are only in the beginning period of attempting, with God’s grace, to see your sin history more clearly. Your goal is to better understand how to listen to your Sacred Story. Remember, Christ watches with you with love, patience, compassion and infinite mercy. BE NOT AFRAID! What follows are suggestions for how to best use the 15-minute prayer sessions in this tenth week of Sacred Story Prayer:
Sunday — I contemplate briefly all the diagnostic charts and ask God for the grace of openness to see both the trees (unique elements of my life history) and the forest through the trees (the unique elements that when combined, form a single life story).
Monday — I fill in the first diagnostic chart (Looking for Links in My Story) with at least one element for each of the statements provided.
Tuesday — I fill in the second diagnostic chart with the four elements, with the goal to write at least 3 of the 5 things requested in each category.
Wednesday — I contemplate the diagnostic chart I filled in on Tuesday, praying to see if there are any obvious links between Commandments, vices, addictions, persons and/or events. I draw lines linking those connections that are clear to me.
Thursday — I contemplate the diagnostic chart of how sin impacted the life of St. Ignatius and try to see the links in his original (root), core (trunk), and manifest (fruit) sins.
Friday — I contemplate the elements from the diagnostic charts I filled in earlier in the week and I pray for the grace to see more clearly how sin has impacted me at the roots, trunk and fruit of my life. For each of the blank spaces on the last chart, I will write those elements (at least one each) that I believe are present in my life as Original Sins (root), core sins (trunk) and manifest sins (fruit).
Saturday — I contemplate the charts I filled in this week and ask for God’s grace to see any connections that will aid me in my Sacred Story journey. I ask for God’s grace to be open this entire forty-week journey so I can begin to see my life story in its entirety.
Vices
Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth, Greed, Anger
Commandments
First: I am the Lord your God, you shall have no strange gods before Me.
Second: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Third: Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
Fourth: Honor your father and mother.
Fifth: You shall not kill.
Sixth: You shall not commit adultery.
Ninth: You shall not covet your neighbor’s spouse.
Seventh: You shall not steal.
Tenth: You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
Eighth: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Looking for Links in My Story
Monday — I fill in the first diagnostic chart (Looking for Links in My Story) with at least one element for each of the statements provided.
A Commandment That Challenges Me:
Vices That Ensnare Me
Addictions I Live With
Persons/Events That Generate Fear, Anger or Grief
Persons/Events That Generate Faith, Hope or Love
Story Lines in Books, Movies, That Always Bring Me To Tears
What Always Makes Me Angry
What Always Makes Me Grateful
What Always Inspires Fear In Me
My Ultimate Faith Goal
The Area of My Life Most Out of Control
Looking for Links in My Story
Tuesday — I fill in the second diagnostic chart below with the goal to write at least 3 of the 5 things requested in each category.
| Five Commandments I Am Most Challenged in Living | Five Vices that Ensnare Me | Five Addictions I Live With | Five Persons/Events That Cause Fear, Anger or Grief |
| 1. | 1. | 1. | 1. |
| 2. | 2. | 2. | 2. |
| 3. | 3. | 3. | 3. |
| 4. | 4 | 4. | 4. |
| 5. | 5. | 5. | 5. |
Wednesday — I will contemplate the diagnostic chart I filled in on Tuesday, praying to see if there are any obvious links between Commandments, vices, addictions and persons or events. I draw lines linking the connections that are clear to me.
Thursday — I will contemplate the diagnostic chart of how sin impacted the life of St. Ignatius to see the links in his original (root), core (trunk), and manifest (fruit) sins.
Manifest Sins
The Fruit or Ornamentation
(Ignatius’ addictive gambling, reactive anger and sexual self-indulgence)
Manifest Fear, Anger, and Grief, moral weaknesses, vices, addictions, and sinful habits that are the
most visible to you.
↓ ↑
Core Sins
The Trunk or Superstructure
(Ignatius’ arrogance, blinded conscience and narcissism)
Disobedience and narcissism, along with its fear, anger, and grief, that forms the trunk or superstructure of your daily life, feeding on originating sins and events.
↓ ↑
Original Sins
The Roots or Foundation
(Original Sin and concupiscence that wounded Ignatius’ heart and soul; distinctive family/clan sin and/or early life-events that wounded him spiritually, psychologically and physically)
Ancient, originating events that rooted the patterns of disobedience and narcissism along with its Fear, Anger, Grief.
Friday — I will contemplate the elements from the diagnostic charts I filled in earlier in the week and pray for the grace to see more clearly how sin has impacted me at the roots, trunk and fruit of my life. For each of the blank spaces on the last chart, I will write those elements (at least one each) that I believe are present in my life as Original Sins (root), core sins (trunk) and manifest sins (fruit).
Looking for Links in My Story
My Manifest Sins — The Fruit from My Tree
↓ ↑
My Core Sins — The Trunk of My Tree
↓ ↑
My Original Sins — The Roots of My Tree
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