Earlier this year, Mother Ashton introduced the staff to a website and app called Pray as You Go(PAYG). It has been a real gift for me to include this in my daily routine almost every day since. PAYG is a ministry coming out of the Jesuit order in Britain. Each day, they offer a meditation that runs from nine to thirteen minutes. Each meditation contains music, scripture, invitations to mediation, and prayer. They are simple and typically very beautiful. PAYG has been one of the best sources of stillness and reflection for me in this season, in part because they are focusing on Advent themes.
Jesuit spirituality is based on that of St. Ignatius of Loyola (not OUR St. Ignatius, but still a good guy). Ignatius wanted people to experience God in such a way that God would become central to their lives. One of his frequent tools for encountering and experiencing God is to invite persons to imagine themselves in the midst of biblical stories and events. Placing ourselves deep into these experiences is one of the best ways we can encounter God. There is a name for this holy kind of remembering: anamnesis. Anamnesis is at work every time we celebrate the Eucharist. It’s why we echo the words of scripture, which, in turn, echo the words of Jesus at the Last Supper. When we do that, placing ourselves in that place, time and space collapse on one another as the Spirit moves among us. We find that we ARE there, and that Christ is HERE, too.
Jesuits also typically seek out ways to discern how God is active in the individual life and in the world around them. Having discovered that reality, it is easy to join God in what is already in progress, streamlining our ability to be faithful disciples of Jesus. In this season of Advent, what remains of it anyway, this is a process we can benefit from. We can and should try to carve out some time to reflect on the sense of hopeful expectation that drives our final days of preparation. We can stay awake, as one Advent theme suggests, to the deep needs of the world and the ways God is already at work to address them. That way we won’t be as likely to miss an opportunity to serve where needed. It will also, undoubtedly, become a source of light in the darkness for us.
In these days as we remember Gabriel’s announcement and the songs of Mary and Elizabeth, it is worth reflection on what promise and expectation meant for them; about what it means to sense the pregnancy of a world waiting for new birth and new life and how we feel about that today. It is easy to let the final rush of Christmas preparations push along in the crowded bustle of the season, forgetting, not remembering, what the gift of these days can be. I pray you find a few minutes of peace and stillness for contemplation and prayer between now and Christmas Eve. I am treasuring mine, and I suspect you’ll treasure yours too.
Tom+
Almighty God, from whom all good things come: You called Ignatius of Loyola to the service of your Divine Majesty and to find you in all things. Inspired by his example and strengthened by his companionship, may we labor without counting the cost and seek no reward other than knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.