In the Father’s love
with the resurrected Jesus,
“the Head of the body that is the Church”.

First of all, here are a few recommendations St. Ignatius gives us to create the atmosphere of the Fourth Week.

“As soon as I awaken, I shall place before my mind the scene I am about to contemplate; I shall seek to stir up in myself the joy and happiness of Christ our Lord, and I shall endeavor to find enjoyment in thinking about it.”

“I will think about subjects that stimulate happiness, cheerfulness, and spiritual joy, such as the glory of heaven.”

“I shall make use of the sunshine of the day, of the pleasures of the season, etc., insofar as my soul esteems that all of these things may help it rejoice in its Creator and in its Redeemer.”

Place yourself in God’s presence and make the prayer that begins the meditation.

Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the events in this mystery. The exact account of the event itself is found nowhere in the Gospels. Where we have the proof of the Resurrection are in the empty tomb, in the unquestionable testimony of the holy women who went to the sepulchre early in the morning carrying spices, and in the experience of Peter and John. In addition to these there were the apparitions of the risen Christ during the course of the next forty days that would give the Resurrection its true significance (see St. Paul’s stated case in 1 Cor 15:1-11).

Composition of Place

The tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem or before some tomb in the countryside. In front of it there is a massive, heavy, round rock that is used to seal the entrance.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it is the grace of experiencing intense gladness and joy because of the great glory and joy of Christ our Lord.

During the course of the Fourth Week St. Ignatius advises us:

(1) To consider how the Divinity, which seemed to hide itself during the Passion, now appears and reveals itself so wonderfully in the holy Resurrection.

(2) To spend some time admiring the role of consoler that Christ our Lord plays. He acts just like ordinary friends do when they want to console one another: “He loved me.”

First Point: The Empty Tomb

“Jesus of Nazareth is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would” (Matt 28:6).

Let us take our place among the group of apostles and disciples who cluster about our Lady on Easter morning. Most probably they are at John’s house. (We are not going to try to orchestrate the various apparitions according to when and where they took place because the Gospel accounts offer no such arrangement. Rather, what we are going to do for the most part is follow the account found in John’s Gospel [20:1–10], because John is an exact witness, telling us what he saw. His witness is supported by Luke [24:12], who in turn received his account from Peter, another witness to the events.)

In the morning, “while it was still dark”, the women carrying their spices left for the tomb of Christ. They did not perform these burial rites the day before because they observed the sabbath as a day of rest. These women were Mary Magdalen, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. Let us accompany them as they make their way along the road. “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (Mark 16:3). But when they arrive at their destination they find the stone rolled aside and the tomb opened and empty.

Mary Magdalen runs off to alert Peter and “the other disciple (the one Jesus loved)”. She reports, “The Lord has been taken from the tomb! We do not know where they have put him.”

However, the other women, who had stayed close by the sepulchre, entered the tomb, where they saw “a young man” (according to Mark and Matthew, and “two young men”, according to Luke) dressed in white who said to them, “There is no need to be so amazed. . . . Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth; he has been raised up. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee—that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again. . . . See, here is the place where they laid him” (Luke 24:5–7; Mark 16:6). The women made their way out of the tomb bewildered and trembling because “they were frightened out of their wits” (Mark 16:8).

When Peter learns the news from Mary Magdalen, he takes John with him and runs off to the sepulchre. John is the first to arrive but does not enter the tomb. Peter arrives and goes in. There he sees the burial wrappings and the piece of cloth that had covered the face and head of the dead Jesus. He saw “the piece of cloth that had covered the head not lying with the wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself” (John 20:7). Then John enters the tomb: “He saw and believed.” The two disciples return home. Finally, sometime during the day Jesus appears to Peter (Luke 24:34).

Mary Magdalen had remained in the vicinity of the tomb. Now she is crying. Jesus appears to her: “Woman, why are you weeping? Who is it that you are looking for?” She takes him for the gardener and says, “Sir, if you are the one who carried him off, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him” . . . “Maryam” . . . “Rabbouni” (John 20:11–19).

What confusion there is now among his faithful followers in Jerusalem! Joy is mixed with apprehension! What is the meaning of all of this? We get some inkling of the uneasiness in the words of the disciples who were making their way to Emmaus on that Sunday afternoon: “Some of the women of our group have just brought us some astonishing news”, they say. “They were at the tomb before dawn and failed to find his body but returned with the tale that they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our number went to the tomb and found it to be just as the women said, but they did not see him” (Luke 24:22–24).

The confusion becomes more widespread throughout Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin order the men guarding the tomb to get the word around that the disciples have stolen the body.

Relive this Easter morning. Appreciate the fear of Jesus’ friends and their progressive growth in faith, hope, and love.

Second Point: The Resurrection and Christian Faith

Reread St. Paul’s beautiful text in 1 Corinthians 15:12–26.

The totality of our Christian belief rests on our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is void of content, and your faith is empty, too. . . . If our hopes in Christ are limited to this life only, we are the most pitiable of men.”

When the apostles first went out to preach the Gospel message, they made the death and Resurrection of Jesus the pivotal point of their message (the Kerygma). Read Peter’s five discourses (Acts 2, 3, 10, etc.) and Paul’s sermon in Acts 13.

It is in the Resurrection that we find the essence of our Faith, the epicenter of the Creed. One day we too shall rise with a body similar to that of the risen Christ (see 1 Cor 15:35–38).

Third Point: The Resurrection and Christian Life

Reread once more the text describing “the kenosis” (Phil 2:6–11) while keeping in mind the introductory words in verse 5: “Make … your own the mind of Christ Jesus.“ This is what Christian life means (see Eph 5:1-2: imitate God … follow the way of love, that is, live in love, in the same way as Christ who loved us).

This whole process begins with our baptism (Rom 6:1-11), and the rest of our Christian life consists of participating at each moment, each day, in the mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection.

“I am resurrected with Christ.” I must convince myself of that reality. I must place that reality at the heart of my being, at the core of my work, at the center of my relations with all those with whom I come in contact. It must color my vision of the world. What a change in my thinking this way of looking at things will make! What dynamic energy it will give to my life, to how I see myself and others, to what I do, to how I view the world!

It is here that we find “the glorious freedom as children of God”. He liberates us, and with us he liberates all of creation (Rom 8:12-24).

In ending this contemplation I will converse intimately

— with the risen Jesus … reliving with him the marvelous scenes of his apparitions
— with our Lady, asking her for her faith
— with one or another of the apostles: Peter … John …

I will conclude with an Our Father.

Put yourself in the presence of God and make the prayer beginning the exercise.

Ask him to inspire you.

I will call to mind the history of the events. During a period of forty days the resurrected Jesus appeared to his friends. According to the accounts of Paul and Luke it would seem that these apparitions were numerous.

We can classify these apparitions into two categories:

(1) There are the apparitions of “identification and recognition of the resurrected Christ”. These were either to a particular apostle or to individuals who were not apostles. Jesus wanted to establish the fact that he was indeed the same Jesus of Nazareth whom they had known, even though he was now living in a way that was different from before.

(2) There are the apparitions made to a group of apostles. In these Jesus emphasized the new mission he was giving his apostles. These apparitions embody the different steps the resurrected Jesus took in founding the Church.

Composition of Place

No one place; kaleidoscopic, scattered scenes. Perhaps it would be best to live with a group of apostles and to pick up all the news in these wonder-filled days.
I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be the grace to be glad and to rejoice intensely because of the great glory and joy of Christ our Lord.

The retreatant may choose, as he desires, one or another of the scenes found at the end of each of the four Gospel accounts where the appearances of the risen Christ can be found. Or he might be drawn to rereading verses 3 to 9 in chapter 15 of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. What we are going to do here is take the beginning of Acts (1:1–14) and the last part of Luke (24:1–53).

(1) “In the time after his suffering he showed them in many convincing ways that he was alive, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking to them about the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

He did so to persuade them of the fact that he was truly resurrected. This is what he did with the disciples on the way to Emmaus when he performed a particular action. They recognized the risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread. And to the Eleven he said, “Touch me, and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do” (Luke 24:39). “They gave him a piece of cooked fish, which he took and ate in their presence” (Luke 24:42–43). He invites the unbelieving Thomas to “take your finger and examine my hands. Put your hand into my side” (John 20:26–28). “Finally, as they were at table, Jesus was revealed to the Eleven” (Mark 16:14), and then the evangelist continues, “He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.” After these apparitions they believed. “My Lord and my God”, said Thomas. Peter, in the discourse he would later give at Cornelius’ house, would say, “They killed him, finally, hanging him on a tree, only to have God raise him up on the third day and grant that he be seen, not by all, but only by such witnesses as had been chosen beforehand by God—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41).

He did so in order that they would come to understand that all was accomplished “according to the Scriptures”. Consider this beautiful text from Luke (24:44–49): “Then he opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures. And he said to them, ‘Thus it is written that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. . . . You are witnesses of this.’” Reflect as well on what he told the disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:25–27).

And finally he did so in order to give them his joy. The words of the resurrected Lord were: Pax vobis. Peace be with you. He played his part as “consoler”, “comforter”, before sending “the Holy Spirit, the Consoler”.

(2) “He spoke to them about the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

They certainly had need for such words. Recall the “distress” and the “disappointment” of the disciples on their way to Emmaus and the chagrin of all his followers after the Passion. “Sperabamus: We were hoping.” Which is to imply that “we will no longer hope?” (Luke 24:21).

And the Kingdom they were hoping for was still the kingdom of a reconstructed Israel! Jesus told them in a number of ways that his Kingdom was, on the contrary, a Kingdom of salvation: “Go, baptize . . . teach”. They were to preach “in his name, penance for the forgiveness of sins . . . to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).

(3) And he ordered them: “Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Second Point: The Ascension (Acts 1:6–11)

On the Mount of Olives, “a mere sabbath’s journey away” from Jerusalem, facing the city and facing Calvary, up above Gethsemane.
The eyes look down on Palestine. The heart goes beyond the horizons of the whole world and of all times. This is the place, the site for the ceremonious scene where the risen Jesus would bid his earthly farewell.

This is the hour for Jesus, the Word made flesh, to enter in a perceptible way into the glory of his Father … ceremoniously … historically before witnesses, we might say. The scene has its meaning in relation to us. Because the resurrected Jesus is already apud Patrem, in the Father’s presence.

The scene unfolds according to these thematic developments:
Jesus and his disciples, “having met together”, were now assembled.

They were still questioning him: “Lord, are you going to restore the rule to Israel now?” (They had not made much progress as far as that topic was concerned.)

Jesus answered them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you; then you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, yes, even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8; see also Mark 16:15–20; Matt 28:16–20).

Jesus “was taken up to heaven” before his apostles, who “fell down to do him reverence” (Luke 24:51–52).

Two angels proclaimed Christ’s return (Acts 1:11).

The “christic” cycle is thus accomplished. The liturgy of the Mass recalls the mystery of the ascension on two occasions in the canon, both in relation to the death and the Resurrection of Christ. It is as if the ascension were the Father’s perceptible acceptance of the whole redemption of Christ.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians St. Paul speaks of the ascension in chapter 4, beginning with verse 7. He presents it as the inauguration of the body of Christ and the beginning of “that perfect man who is Christ come to full stature”. The scene of the ascension manifests the “recapitulating” role of the risen Christ: “The Head of the body”; “the Head of everything in the heavens and everything on earth” (Col 1; Eph 1; 2; 3).

Third Point: The Return to the Cenacle

The hearts of the apostles are already filled with hope for the coming of the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus. What a difference here from the night of Good Friday! Even though Jesus had left them when he ascended to the Father, “They returned to Jerusalem filled with joy” (Luke 24:52). Savor this difference and contrast it with the attitude of the apostles on Good Friday night.

“So from the Mount of Olives . . . they went back to Jerusalem . . . and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying” (Acts then lists the eleven apostles by name: 1:13). The narrative then continues: “Together they devoted themselves to constant prayer. There were some women in their company, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

Luke adds a nice touch to his account: “There [in Jerusalem] they were to be found in the temple constantly, speaking the praises of God” (Luke 24:53).

It was then, at the initiative of Peter, that the Eleven and “the brothers—there were about 120 people in the congregation”—proceeded to replace Judas. What Peter will say about this should be kept in mind: “Out of the men who have been with us with the whole time that the Lord Jesus was living with us, from the time when John was baptizing until the day when he was taken up from us—one must be appointed to serve with us as a witness to the Resurrection” (Acts 1:21–22). With these words he was defining clearly the identity, the role and the mission of the man who was to become part of the College of the Eleven. Then, “as the lot fell to Matthias, he was listed as one of the twelve apostles”.

I shall talk over these matters in a conversation

— with the risen Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” I will hear at the center of my being his Pax vobis.

— with Mary, the Mother and focal point of the group awaiting the coming of Pentecost.

— with Peter, head of the young Church, before whom Mary acquiesced.
I shall love to repeat, to savor, one or another of the words uttered by one of the fortunate individuals who shared in an apparition of the risen Jesus. I shall choose one of these words that speaks most to my heart, such as “Rabbouni” (Magdalen), “my Lord and my God” (Thomas), etc.

I will end by saying the Our Father.

PENTECOST AND THE CHURCH

St. Ignatius does not include a contemplation on the subject of Pentecost in the Spiritual Exercises, but what he does offer us is a long list of “rules that should be observed to foster the true attitude of mind we ought to have in the Church militant”. It has seemed to me that in order to give these rules their broadest sense, it would be helpful to put them into the context of a Gospel contemplation on the mystery of Pentecost. From this list of his eighteen rules we cite here the three principal ones:

(1) “Leaving aside every judgment of our own, we ought to keep our minds inclined to obeying promptly in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother the hierarchical Church.” 11

(2) “To deal rightly in all matters, I must be ever ready to believe that what I see before me as white is black, if the hierarchical Church clearly teaches it as such. We must be really convinced that between Christ our Lord, who is the Bridegroom, and the Church, his Bride, there is the same Spirit, which governs us and directs us for the good of our souls. The reason is that it is the same Spirit and Lord who has given us the Ten Commandments who governs and directs our holy Mother the Church.” 12

(3) “If it is true we must esteem above all the zealous service of God our Lord through love, then we should also praise with great conviction the fear of his Divine Majesty. Not only is filial fear a good and a very holy thing, but, when it is not present, servile fear is a powerful help to keep us from mortal sin; and once one extricates himself from such sin, he very easily advances in filial fear, which is wholly agreeable to God our Lord because it is not attained except by divine love.”

Place yourself in God’s presence and make the prayer beginning the contemplation.
Ask him to inspire you.

I will recall the history of this mystery as it is presented in Acts 2:104.

Composition of Place

The Cenacle, that is, “the upstairs room where they [the twelve apostles and Mary] were staying”.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here it will be to have the true sense of the Church and to experience great joy and happiness for having been called to be one of her members through faith and baptism, through penance and the Eucharist.

First Point: Pentecost

(1) Before the actual event takes place:

At the place where they were accustomed to meet, the apostles gathered together with Mary to pray.

(2) The event itself:

Here is what we learn from the account in the Acts of the Apostles: “When the day of Pentecost came it found them gathered in one place. Suddenly from up in the sky there came a noise like a strong, driving wind that was heard all through the house where they were seated. Tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to rest on each of them. All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamations as the Spirit prompted them.”
(3) After the event:

The gift of tongues: indeed, this was needed because the apostles would go to preach the Gospel “to the ends of the earth”: “Go, teach . . .”

Transformation of the apostles: “There were a few who remarked with a sneer, ‘They have had too much new wine!’ And Peter responded, ‘You must realize that these men are not drunk, as you seem to think. It is only nine in the morning! No.’” But they are drunk with the rapture of the Spirit.

And thus was born the first of the Christian “communities”. These communities were so admirable (Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–35), in spite of the inevitable “miseries” — wonderful because of prayer, poverty, sharing of goods, simplicity. The dynamism of these young Christians! Such is always the case whenever the Church is “planted”.

Second Point: Who Is the Holy Spirit?

(1) According to the Bible he is the Principle of all life (see Gen 1:2; 2:7; Ezek 37, particularly verses 5, 9, 14):

He is the one who makes his presence known at the Annunciation and at the baptism of our Lord. St. Paul attributes Christ’s Resurrection and our own to him (Rom 8:9–11).

It is because of these activities that the Holy Spirit is described in the Bible as fire, living water, storm, light, blood . . . effusion, expansion, union: “When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30).

(2) He is the Spirit of love that unites the Father and Son in the Trinity:

He proceeds from the Father and is the Spirit of the Son. He is the Spirit, the great Principle of unity between the Father and Son and between the Son and ourselves (see Jesus’ last discourse: John 14:1 to 17:26).

Through him “we participate in divine nature”. See St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians (5:23): “May the God of peace make …you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”; or St. Augustine: “Man is composed of a body, a soul . . . and the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit dwells through this mysterious habitation in me:

• Spirit of life: Through him, I am a branch of Christ the vine.
• Spirit of truth: doctrinal and mystical.
• Spirit of strength and courage: “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17).
• Spirit of joy.
• Spirit of piety and faith: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (I Cor 12:3). It is the Spirit who “prays in me” (Rom 8:14–17, 26–27; Gal 4:6).
• Spirit of unity and charity; the fruits of the Spirit according to St. Paul (Gal 5:22).
• See the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit according to Isaiah (11:2).
• In the framework of this meditation reread St. Paul’s magnificent Hymn of Charity (1 Cor 13:1 to 14:40).
• He is Love.
• He is the divine reality of Love.
• He is the gift of Love.
• He is the genuineness of Love.
• He is the productivity of Love.

Deus caritas: God is Love.

Third Point: The Holy Spirit Is All of This for Me Only because He Is the Soul of the Mystical Body, Which Is the Church

The Church is Jesus Christ continued on to this very day for me. The Church is:

• my principle of life. It is through her, in her, that I have been baptized, pardoned, fed with the Eucharist, sanctified.

— the place of my prayer. She organizes my liturgical prayer and safeguards my mystical prayer. The Mass is the center of my prayer, the memorial of the “mystery of Christ”.

— the principle of unity and charity with my brothers and sisters, baptized and nonbaptized alike.

— the vitalizing and directing principle of what I do, of my apostolate as someone who has been baptized, confirmed, and, if I am an ordained priest, of my priestly functions (see 1 Cor 13).

In return, the most personal gifts that the Holy Spirit gives me are for the Church, and I received them in the Church (see Eph 4:11-13; 1 Pet 4:10-11).

We can apply a most beautiful Psalm, Psalm 87, to the Church:

Of Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia,
“Here so and so was born”, men say.
But all call Zion “Mother”,
since all were born in her.
It is he who makes her what she is,
he, the Most High, Yahweh . . .
And there will be princes dancing there.
All find their home in you.

Pentecost — it is realized every day . . . Veni Creator Spiritus. Here the plan of God is at last realized, the veritable “foundation”, the movement in which I must insert myself. The movement that is historical and at the same time eternal, personal and communitarian, temporal and eschatological.

I will talk over these things in conversation with the Holy Spirit. Ever since the day I was baptized, he has made his dwelling in my soul, along with the Father and the Son. He is, in the words of St. Francis de Sales, “the heart of my heart”. I shall say over slowly the hymn of Pentecost: “Veni, sancte Spiritus”, with Christ, “the Head of the Mystical Body”, with the Virgin Mary of the Cenacle.

I will end with the Our Father.

This contemplation summarizes, as it were, the whole of the Spiritual Exercises. It provides the retreatant, who will shortly be going back to his regular schedule, with a basically spiritual way of looking at things, a vision of the world, a solid, simple spirituality that he can implement each day at his work or in dealing with the problems of life he has to face. The permanent setting of the “celestial court” where St. Ignatius now situates the retreatant; the simple yet demanding law of “love for love” that now supersedes the “praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord” of the Foundation; the most humble and filial concept of “abandonment”, which now takes the place of difficult concepts contained in the Exercises, like indifference and election; all this realism of faith and nature, this fusion of spirit and action in the same movement of life—all of these features make the Contemplation to Attain Love of God the synthesis of Christian life. It is the Foundation all over again, if one wishes to put it that way, but now it is the Foundation lived out in every phase of one’s life, from the most common-place to the most adventuresome. Christian life is a relationship of permanent love between the Father, who is in heaven, and his Son, who lives on earth in men and in creation. “In him we live and move and have our being . . . for we too are his offspring” (Acts 17:28).

St. Ignatius recommended that before beginning this exercise, it would be good to call attention to these two points:

(1) Love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words.
(2) Love consists in a mutual sharing of goods. The person who loves communicates to his beloved all or part of what he has, and likewise the beloved with the lover. Hence, if one has knowledge, he shares it with the one who does not have it; the same goes for honors or riches. And thus there are always a mutual giving and receiving.

Such are the fundamental laws of love or of true friendship.

Place yourself in the presence of God and the whole celestial court, the angels and saints, just as in the Preface of the Mass when we are invited to do so by “joining with the choirs of heaven to sing, Holy, Holy, Holy.”

And this is not a simple composition of place; this is a permanent reality.

Make the prayer beginning the contemplation and ask God to inspire you.

I will ask for what I want and desire. Here this will be an intimate knowledge of the many and wonderful gifts I have received from God, so that in return, filled with gratitude, I may love and serve his Divine Majesty in all things.

“Lord, give me new eyes, a new heart, so that henceforth I shall be able to see the heavens and earth as the new heavens and the new earth, as was promised by your Word to those in whom your Spirit of love would dwell.”

First Point: Love Is a Gift, a Continuous Mutual Exchange of All That One Has and Is

God has given to me all that I possess: the gift of creation, redemption, and my particular personal gifts.
With much love I shall take into account how much our Lord has done for me, how much he has given me of what he has: “O Divine Goodness”.

Through his grace, he has even given me what he is. According to his divine plan, he gives himself to me as much as he possibly can.

I will reflect now for a moment on myself. According to all reason and justice, I for my part ought to offer his Divine Majesty all the good things that I have and myself along with them. And this I ought to do as one moved by an outburst of great love. For this reason I ought to say to him:

Take, Lord, and receive
all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
All is yours:
Dispose of it wholly according to your will.
Give me your love and your grace:
this is sufficient for me.

Second Point: Love Is a Reciprocal Being Present to the Other at Each Moment

I will look at how God dwells in his creatures, in material beings, giving them existence; in plants, giving them life; in animals, giving them sensation; in men, giving them understanding through their intellect.

So he dwells in me, giving me existence, life, sensation, intelligence.

More than this, he has made me his temple, first of all by creating me “in his image and likeness” but especially by dwelling within me through the grace of my baptism.

Then I will reflect on myself. According to all reason and justice I ought on my part to endeavor to live in God (“to live in”: an expression dear to the Apostle St. John), to make my dwelling place in him, to make him present to me at every moment and me present to him, so that I belong to him completely. And I will then renew my offering as one who would make an offering moved by an outburst of great love: “Take, Lord, and receive.”

Third Point: Love Is a Total Sharing in Every Activity

I will consider how God works and labors for me and for all creatures on the face of the earth. He conducts himself as one who prepares and disposes everything for the one he loves.

More than this, he works and labors in me by giving me everything that I have so that I myself can work and labor — and especially he works in me through his grace, giving my work an infinite effectiveness. The result is that in some way my life is divinized.

I will then reflect on myself. According to all reason and justice, I for my part ought to work and labor for God, giving myself entirely to his service and his glory and showing his Divine Majesty all the good and helpful things I do in the place here on earth where his Providence has placed me. And I will renew my offering as one would do moved by an outburst of great love: “Take, Lord, and receive . . .”

Fourth Point: In Love We Belong to Each Other, We Partake of What Is Ours

Just as all rays shine forth from the sun, as waters gush from the spring, so do all that is good and every gift I have come from God: my limited power from his infinite and sovereign power, my limited goodness from his goodness; my piety from his holiness, my compassion from his compassion, etc.

Especially, the grace in me comes to me as a gratuitous gift from his divine life.

I shall reflect on myself. According to all reason and justice, I for my part ought to attach myself to the Source and open myself completely to Divine Influence so that there is nothing that …encumbers or dilutes his radiant activity in me. And I shall repeat once again my offering, as someone who makes an offering moved by an outburst of great love: “Take, Lord, and receive…”

What a transformation this makes of my whole life here below! I can at last realize this wonderful ideal that God from the very beginning proposed to man: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words that I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them onto your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on your houses and on your gates” (Deut 6:4-9). Better yet: I can say to God: Abba! Father; because I am his true son in Jesus Christ. I am, I ought in truth to be, “the image and likeness” of God, who is Love.

I shall talk these things over in a colloquy:

With the Father “from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name” (Eph 3:15). I shall recall these words from the Epistle to the Romans (12:1): “And now, brothers, I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.” I shall humbly ask him for this “love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge”, so that I “may attain to the fulness of God himself” (Eph 3:19).

With Christ our Lord. I shall speak to his heart. Once again I will tell him, “You have loved me, and you have delivered yourself for me.” What should I do for Christ in return?

With our Lady, our “Mother of Divine Love”.

And I shall complete this contemplation with the Our Father. In order to say it well, I shall lose myself in this overwhelming current of love within the Trinity, which goes between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and then diffuses itself within the heart of every man and finally returns to the Father through Jesus Christ, now resurrected and exalted. Indeed: Our Father!