October 2005 Christian Spirituality By George A Lane SJ

IGNATIAN PRAYER: FINDING GOD IN ALL THINGS Continue from ...... IIgnatius here recommends a simpler kind of prayer which focuses upon the omnipresence of God with special emphasis upon His immanence in things, persons, situations, and experiences. If Nadal's phrase, "contemplation in action" is used, the contemplation idea must be purged of all Neo-Platonic overtones which suggest an interior exercise carried on in solitude and silence. It is rather a wide-awake, eyes-open sort of thing that seeks to find God who is present and active in the world, in history, in the activities of men. In the midst of activity, the apostle may sense that what he is doing is God's work, that God is present and active in him and in the siutation. It is some sort of an on-going sense or awareness that God is active here. Fr Jean Danielou says that the Ignatian man ought to be a saint and he ought to live in complete activity. Previous spirituality opposed these two aspects. Activity seemed to be an obstacle to holiness which was conceived as contemplation. The revolution accomplished by St Ignatius showed that that which appeared to be an obstacle could become a means. To the heart filled with God, all things speak of Him. And it is not a question merely of an orientation of the will, but of a spiritual experience where God is 'tasted' in everything. The language of sense experience keeps recurring in the description of this kind of prayer, and along with it the indication that there are many different degrees of this finding God in all things. At one end there is the basic union of will with the simple conviction and satisfaction that "I am doing what God wants me to do." At the other extreme is great mystical experience, a constant awareness of the presence of God in all things, the highest perfection of the virtue of faith. It would be imprudent to believe that one could go very quickly to God through creatures . . . St Francis of Assisi chanted the Canticle of the Sun, but only after having been the stigmatist of Alverno. What St Ignatius describes to us then is an idea of consummated perfection, of a soul so totally filled with God that everything leads to God. Thus, the spiritual itinerary takes place completely between the moment when creatures are obstacles and the moment they become means. The Contemplatio ad Amorem . . . describes for us that state of a man who has arrived at this perfection. According to the words of St Ignatius, "He loves God in all creatures and all creatures in God"

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2005. All rights reserved.