The Third Week

[Susan Margaret]

St. Ignatius does not write much about the third week, but he does give us plenty of material to meditate upon. This third week is about union with God. The meditations for this week would be good to use during Lent. I had a little trouble understanding Ignatius' rules for eating, but understood that fasting is recommended while meditating on the Passion of Christ.

[Leslie]

Thank you for taking over. I've been sick as a dog!!! Wrapped up the last job and am quickly trying to recover so I can move to another state. You make me feel better as I felt there wasn't much to say about some of these without leading everyone through a daily retreat.

I did want to share two books that I thought might interest the group.

Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius

and Keeping Company with Saint Ignatius: Walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. I have enjoyed both as I've been reading our selection.

[Susan Margaret]

Leslie wrote: "Thank you for taking over. I've been sick as a dog!!! Wrapped up the last job and am quickly trying to recover so I can move to another state. You make me feel better as I felt there wasn't much to..."

Leslie, you are welcome. I hope you are feeling better. You have a lot on your plate right now! I will keep you in my prayers.

I looked over your book suggestions and I bought the kindle version of Keeping Company with Saint Ignatius. I will probably start reading it as soon as I have finished this post. I love to hike and in my younger days I used to backpack often, so reading about walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela is right up my alley.

I was not sure how to approach the reading and discussion of the spiritual exercises also, but I found that listening to Father Gray's lectures helped me to understand them better.

[Leslie]

I have always wanted to hike the Camino. The other book takes place at a Jesuit retreat home on the shore of Massachusetts. It's winter and feels like the perfect place to get away, reflect, and come closer to God.

Ironically, last week I found another book on St. Ignatius's Spiritual exercises and I am looking forward to reading that as well.

My life will be crazy for about two more weeks then it should settle down. :-)

[Galicius]

We have made the election by addressing the question “What is God asking me to do?” If we have already chosen our state in life we probably will decide to deepen our commitment to the way and make it more vitally a Christian experience for ourselves, perhaps our family. As we focus in the third week on the suffering of Jesus and the question why would God will Jesus to suffer all these things we became hopefully more attuned on how we lived our life. Fr. Gray calls it discernment--focus on how I am taking the disposition of Jesus in how I am living my life. These are questions we have to ask ourselves.