Young Adult Spirituality: Help Is On the Way!!!!

I am so excited to announce that my friend Fr. Mark Mossa SJ has a book on spirituality for young adults that he has been working on for a long time that is available for pre-order from Amazon.   I can assure you that this book will be worth the cost, and a great help to any young adult and anyone who works with young adults. I read a few of the chapters very early in the process and was very impressed.

Please consider placing your pre-order now for delivery in August for all the young adults and young adults ministers you know.

While you are waiting for the book to arrive, Fr. Mark has a website set up:

Spoiler Alert  filled with fun posts and extra links that you can use while you are waiting.  btw: I added the website to my blogroll on my sidebar.

Pax

GO:Theology Thursday: What I'm Reading

I picked up a little book at a Red Cross Book Fair for no better reasons and than:

1) it was dollar-a-bag day

& 2) I could fit it into my bag

& 3) it was written by a Jesuit

Seriously, one should never need more compelling reasons to purchase a book, don't you think? It sat on my shelf for months unread as I completed my Gradual School finals. Then just as I was entering the Season of Lent this year and looking for something new to read my eye landed on this little blue volume with the interesting title:

The Three Keys to Heaven

by Moritz Meschler, S.J.

I had all but forgotten about slipping it into the crevice at the side of my "dollar-a-bag" day haul. Seeing no other title that really sparked my interest, I picked up this little volume and decided to give it a read as my Lenten Study. The author chose a very old style of flowery language (and gender exclusive pronouns ) and because of those facts I assumed it had been written a very long time ago, but the copyright date is 1981-- so go figure. Part of the language difficulty might be that the author first wrote in German and this was a translation from German, so I give him some leeway that the stiffness comes from translational difficulty.

Having said that, I LOVE THIS BOOK. The wisdom of the message is not lost in the odd language choices. In fact not long after my first quick read through I began to re-read it and underline passages I wanted to remember (as if I were studying again).

The "keys to heaven" or fundamental principals of the spiritual life as the author sees them are: prayer, self denial, and love of the Divine Saviour. Each of the three is taken in great detail from a basic definition to stumbling blocks, to graces received. My greatest struggle with the language was in the section on self denial because the author uses the language of mortification and I struggle to understand that type of language completely, but even so there is so much to be gained from the wisdom of those pages. One of my favorite passages from this section (it became my lectio divina for that day in fact) was:

Too much food overburdens the stomach, too much knowledge
puffs up the mind. Knowledge is not the highest good, truth stands
higher. Without truth, knowledge is mere deceit and falsehood.
Therefore, study and inquiry must follow a certain order: we must learn first what is necessary, then what is useful, then what is pleasant.

(The Three Keys to Heaven M. Meschler S.J. 100)

Anyway, I just wanted to share a wonderful little book that I found by God-incidence at a Red Cross book fair and have become so attached to because it is teaching me volumes about the spiritual life. I am continuing to study and underline passages to use as Lectio.

I hope you can find a copy somewhere (although I doubt you will find one for the same price I paid for my copy) and reap the same benefit.

Pax

Happy Feast Day

Today is the feast day of one of my favorite saints. I used to think I was Franciscan in spirituality at my core, until someone invited me to share in a small group that used an Ignatian focus which centers on "finding God in all things". I was totally amazed at how well suited I was to Ignatian spirituality and have kept up with many of the practices that I learned in that group.

Over the years I have used Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises in different formats in different settings and each time I am brought to a new and deeper relationship with God and a more clear understanding of myself as a child of God.

If you are interested in finding out more about Ignatian Spirituality I would suggest you begin at this wonderful sight that was started by Karen Hall. She calls it A Little Battalion. From there you can find links to just about everything Jesuit on the web.

Pax

Hapenstance, Good/Bad Fortune or the Touch of God?

How do you know when your life is actually touched by God or you are just having a run of really good luck?

We had this discussion in the middle of Ancient Philosophy Class last weekend. My professor began by saying that he had personally never experienced what he could call a miracle, meaning an occurrence that had no earthy explanation and therefore must be attributed to the intervention of God or angels or some other "higher power".

He then said that he wasn't looking down on those who felt that they attributed every ounce of good fortune that came their way as God's intervention in their lives. But, he went on to posit, if they attributed the good fortune to God, then didn't they have to also ascribe the bad fortune to God as well? If these people only felt that God intervened only to give them good outcome, what was that saying about God and how God moved in their lives.

I am of a mind, (because of the Jesuit influence I suppose) that God is in all moments -- good, bad and indifferent -- in my life. My task is to discern what God is trying to teach me in those moments because I am aware of the movement. I am supposed to be aware of the movement in all things, and I am striving to that goal but I am far from that as yet. I do know that when my day doesn't quite go as I had planned I try to take stock as quickly as possible and see if I can discern what I am supposed to be learning in the moment and repair whatever damage there is.

I am also grateful for the good and the bad both because they are all moments of growth. Don't get me wrong, I am not yet so evolved that I can praise God for the bad fortune that I am living through, but I can, in hindsight, when I can clearly see what I was learning in the bad times be grateful that I did learn.

I can also be grateful that I was not left alone in the spiritual sense because I am never alone when I am aware that God is in all thing.

I also experience God in the sense of my Christian community because they share those times with me, both good and bad. When I am rejoicing they rejoice with me, when I am in pain or suffering they are there to grant aide in physical and spiritual ways.

I suppose my professor wouldn't see the movement of my Christian community as an action of God per se, but in my eyes, what else could it be? I think the Jesuit training has really opened me up to a deeper understanding of how God acts and moves.

What do you think? How do you experience God in your life? Would you like to move from a God who is far away and indifferent to a God who is in all things? I can help you find your way.

Pax

Proof

A Franciscan, a Benedictine, and a Dominican were discussing which Order God loved best. The debate was becoming very, very heated. They each had extremely valid points in their favor, and they decided that there was only one way that they could ever get a definitive answer. They would write a letter to God, and let Him decide which Order was the one He preferred above all others in the world.

A few days after they sent their letter they received a reply on beautiful vellum stationary. It was written in the most majestic script any of them had ever beheld and this is what it read:

My Dear Children,

You are all cherished members of my
household, and I love each and every one of you equally. Please stop your
petty bickering and get back to the good work that you should be
doing.

Your All Forgiving Father

God SJ

Pax