CLC Spirituality

1) Description

What makes CLC different from every other way of following Christ is that CLC is rooted in Ignatian Spirituality, which is based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. This spirituality is a way of living in relationship with God. It is a pathway to God that embraces continual conversion of heart, grows in personal relationship with Christ, and strives to serve others, especially the poor and marginalized in society.

2) Seven characteristics outline this journey

• Finding God in All Things: This favorite phrase of Ignatius points to an ease of finding God in each concrete situation of life. It presupposes openness to God in any experience, dramatic or dull, vital or trivial, such that we are willing to be shaped by God.
• Intimacy with Jesus: The Spiritual Exercises is a “school of the heart” which fosters a personal knowing, loving, and following of Jesus. This intimacy with our Brother and Savior brings us to a greater identification with Christ poor and humbled, crucified and risen.
• Following the Spirit / Tracking interior movements: The desire to become more like Jesus and find God in all things moves us, both as individuals and as a community, to listen and respond creatively to the promptings of the Spirit. This entails attentiveness to the flow of interior moods, desires, feelings, and the thoughts that accompany them.
• Serving Out of Gratitude: The Ignatian imagination sees “all as gift.” Our very existence, our natural (in)abilities, and the people and experiences that shape who we are becoming are all gifts that flow from God’s outpouring love.
• Ordering Relationships: Living and choosing in loving collaboration with Jesus inserts us more deeply into right relationships with others. We are called to foster just and loving relationships: to live with integrity in our calling to be “friends in the Lord,” to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, and to extend charity towards all.
• Living in True Interior Freedom: Integrating the above ideals cultivates an Ignatian way of living rooted in freedom for which we are created and called. Each of us is entrusted with a unique and particular mission in life, loved into us by God. Living out this passion means living in freedom as children of God and collaborators with Christ in building up God's Kingdom.
• Making Regular Retreats: As a retreat experience, the Spiritual Exercises are a “school for conversion of heart.” The experience facilitates a rich and powerful encounter of God through reflection, prayer, and Scripture that leads a person to true spiritual freedom.