E&W 2-9-14

Sacred Story

Encouragements & Wisdom: February 9, 2014

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If you prefer to read offline, you can also download:
Encouragements and Wisdom: February 9, 2014 (PDF).

E & W reflections are additional helps for your Sacred Story prayer journey. Reflect on them at week’s beginning or outside of your 15-minute prayer periods.

The Affirmations

I will strive to curb temptations to react to people and events.

Jesuit priest George Aschenbrenner wrote in the foreword to Sacred Story:

The most dangerous issue confronting our culture is to learn to deal with violent sudden and explosive impulses. Though we can unhealthily try to squelch these strong feelings, such violent explosives simmer in all our hearts and flail out often beyond our control. Without realizing such explosive power resides within us or without an ability to control such eruptions, we all face disaster.

Learning to control these violent impulses is the greatest challenge facing our families, our culture and our world. In many ways these sudden violent eruptions are the worst issue facing our families and cultures.

Facing, learning and helping to control these activities can be the most important issue for the Examen. In years gone by, often children learned from parents and family how to deal with these attacks. But so much of our family structure has now fallen apart – and all of us are now available to deadly disaster.

Facing and dealing with these impulses must cut deep inside our human hearts. The Ignatian Examen can provide a faithful human education for simmering emotions, unreflective thoughts and explosive impulses. This is the deep-seated heart of Ignatian Examen. Never automatic, it requires gutsy work and tough decisions if we are to avoid the deadly disaster that faces us all.

Lord Jesus Christ, help us to curb our temptations to react to persons and events. Give us the grace to control our tongues and to guard our hearts so we can grow in faith, hope and love so live more fully your
Creation, Presence, Memory, Mercy and Eternity.

Light shines through the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.
Well for the man who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his affairs with justice!

(Psalm 122: 4-5)

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