Facilitators - Week 4

Pentecost retreat 2020: Week 4 - Called and Gifted

Thank you again for all your efforts week after week. We are now in the second part of the Pentecost Retreat and looking towards that great feast.

The grace we are praying for this week is:

“that called by the Risen Lord we will stretch and grow in joy, gratitude and a desire for self-giving”.

At the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius invites those participating to “begin in a magnanimous spirit and with great liberality towards one’s Creator and Lord, offering Him all one’s power of desiring and one’s liberty, so that the Divine Majesty may make use of one’s person and of all that one has according to His most holy will.” (Annotation 5) This is what underpins this week`s theme. Can we find in ourselves and in our group members a renewed sense of God`s call? Can we respond magnanimously? This generosity of response for Ignatius is not more and more activity but living our every day lives with greater and deeper love. James Martin SJ gives the example of changing diapers and trying to do it with more love, for not only the child, but for God.

Praying the Days of this Week

Day 22: Follows the Sunday reading from John 14. Jesus promises we will do even greater works because he will be with the Father. People could use the passage for Lectio Divina and enter into conversation with God about whatever strikes them.

Group Question: What is the place God has prepared for You? What is your room like? What would be important for you to have in your room?

Day 23: This reading from Isaiah is best known to many of us through the song, “Here I am Lord”. Here it is an opportunity for people to look at their own story and how they have been called but also at this point in life, what is alive for them, what is Isaiah`s hot coal?

Group Question: What is the fire God in kindling in you now? What is God bringing alive in you now?

Day 24: It would be useful to share what phrase or image has struck people and to deepen the conversation about the God who has chosen us and the fruit he has appointed us to bear.

Group Question: Who is the God who has chosen you? What is the fruit, how do you know? What do you need for growth?

Day 25: St Paul`s image of the body made up of many parts is familiar, yet powerful. We know better than Paul just how amazing all the different biochemical pathways, genetic blueprints etc are.

Group Question: How does this image work for you? What part of the body are you? What care does your body part need? How could you stretch and grow? What would the greater good be for you?

Day 26: In this passage recounting the call of Moses there are all sorts of images. The most important ones will be the ones that are alive for your group. One emphasis in the passage is that God calls us for others, to liberate others. Ignatius said: “Love ought to show itself in deeds rather than words”. This is quite a good video, https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/what-is-ignatian-spirituality/the-ignatian-way/men-and-women-for-others/. It picks up on Arrupe`s well known saying that the Ignatian way is to be women and men for others.

Day 27: This passage from John 21 has two dimensions. There is the personal conversation each of us might have as we walk along the shore with Jesus and there is also that attentiveness to others, to the lambs and the sheep.

Group Question: How can we live more deeply the grace of this week: that called by the Risen Lord we will stretch and grow in joy, gratitude and a desire for self-giving?

The prayer of this week looking at our calling and our gifts are to get us ready for the next two weeks when we concentrating on mission and being sent out after our Lent and Pentecost journey in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are getting ready for God to fill us and to use us and that is exciting

Reminders for Sharing Personal Prayer/ Stories

• Encourage people only to share what is comfortable for them.

• Encourage them to concentrate on sharing their own prayerful meditation / reflection and what the Spirit is saying to them that is relevant to their lives.

• Ask people to use clear, simple language, and keep to the first person ‘I feel`.

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