Lenten Reflections: Friday Freewrite Fifteen

It was a sort of a holy moment just now. So I thought I would freewrite my Lenten reflections. 

How to you explain those encounters with God? I guess I cannot, but I could just talk about things that I loved about this morning. 

Meditating in the Sermon on the Mount was rich. I am still going through The Reservoir by Renovare.

What I liked most from this morning was going to the Ignatian Spirituality Center Friday Prayer. Many times I am not able to go because I meet with directees on Friday mornings, but I decided that I would not schedule anyone until 7:30 am (usually only one directee on a Friday). Their Lent retreat is on "Lives to Inspire," and this morning was a summary of the first few days. They just happened to be my three favorites: Ignatius, Benedict, Teresa of Avila. It was delightful, and I just listened to John Michael Talbot sing the famous quote by Teresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

I really love this rendition of this quote:

I loved this:

Thought for the Day

Teresa describes prayer as being initially hard work, akin to going back and forth watering a garden from the well. If we persevere prayer becomes a little easier, more like watering the garden with a watering wheel. As we continue to deepen our prayer, the experience flows more easily like a stream providing irrigation. Finally, prayer is understood as God’s gift, it falls freely like rain to water the garden. The initiative is entirely with God. The period when Teresa describes experiencing prayer in this fourth way was the busiest period in her life, founding Carmelite monasteries all over Spain. There is a real link between this prayer and action.

How would you describe your own experience of growing in prayer?

Perhaps you would like today to take a walk with God around your own “well-watered garden” and have a conversation about what you notice there.