Meditation Archives - Page 5 of 19

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The story of St. Ignatius of Loyola and how he came to know God on a deeper level fascinates me. It reminds us that God speaks to us through our suffering and that there is such thing as redemptive suffering – Jesus proved it!

I’d like to share a Retreat Guide available through the Regnum Christi Spirituality website. I have included the Introduction below. Should you wish to delve deeper, click here for the remainder of the Retreat Guide. Might I suggest you listen to this guide and imagine yourself in the story in order to truly feel how the Lord works in our lives. God bless you!

Visit rcspirituality.org to view many more powerful retreats.

Trinity

Have you ever struggled with understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity? I know I have. The concept of one thing being three is difficult for a simple human mind to fathom.

Many questions come to mind when I think of the Trinity. How can one person be three? Can the same person be the Father and the Son? As difficult as the Trinity is to understand, this is exactly what faith is all about. Faith is not only believing in something we can’t see. It is also believing in something we may NEVER understand.

I once saw an interview given by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, where he attempted to explain the Holy Trinity. In that interview he compared the different persons of the Trinity to different forms of water in order to illustrate how one thing can take three different forms. His explanation was beautiful. What he said was just like water can become ice and steam, so the Trinity, the one thing, is three. That explanation made sense to me. It provided clarification.

As I continued on my spiritual journey, thirsting for the Lord and seeking true holiness, I began meditating more. I was able to quiet my mind for longer periods of time as I progressed in my practice. As a result, I began to see God in all things. My ability to see Him in the people I meet, in the books that I read, in the movies I watch and in nature itself grew.

I found myself contemplating God’s word, daily routines, relationships and the mysteries of my faith. As I journeyed on, I was no longer looking for others to give me answers. I was seeking to be still long enough to hear the answers directly from God. By the grace of God, one day as I was sitting in stillness, a profound explanation of the Trinity came to me. I hope you find it enlightening and as profound as I did when it came to me. So here it goes:

In the summer of 2014, my husband and I took our niece and nephew to the drive-in for a double feature. One of the movies we saw was Lucy starring Scarlett Johannsen. The movie itself was not one I desired to see but the kids wanted to see it so we obliged. The premise of the movie was scientific and revolved around the fact that human beings use only 10% of their brain capacity. In the movie, the protagonist ingests blue crystals which slowly leak into her bloodstream, increase her brain power and gradually poison her.

By the end of the movie Lucy is able to use 100% brain capacity. The instant this happens she explodes and disappears into thin air. Shortly after her disappearance, another one of the characters receives a text from Lucy which states “I AM EVERYWHERE.” The first thing that came to my mind when I saw that was GOD – but that was the extent of my thought that night.

For some reason I could not get the scene of the movie out of my head for weeks. I began to question the bigger meaning. The Holy Spirit was stirring within me and would not let it go. I couldn’t understand why that movie (that particular part) kept popping into my head when I didn’t even think it was so good.

Then several weeks later, as I sat in my recliner still and contemplative it hit me. God is everywhere. God is omniscient and omnipotent, all-knowing and all-powerful. He is, like Lucy, the only one in the universe that uses 100% brain capacity. God is everywhere because of that.

The more I sat with this idea of God using 100% brain capacity and being everywhere, the more I thought about the Trinity and one thing being three. I realized that we humans (one) are made up of three things – body (flesh), mind (brain) and soul (spirit). Bingo! So it is with God. If we are made in the image and likeness of God, then God must also be made of mind, body and soul. We believe God is everywhere. He is everywhere because He uses 100% brain capacity. So He is the “mind” of the Trinity. We believe Jesus is the Word made flesh so He is the body, the flesh of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Trinity. That is what came to me during contemplation.

Sometimes we ask the same questions that have been asked for centuries. We accept the answers that have been given for centuries without asking God to give us a new set of eyes and ears, to renew the Spirit within us to understand what is before us. We ask how one thing can be three when, in fact, we human beings are three things in one. Scripture says seek and you will find, ask and it will be given, knock and the door will be opened. Keep faith brothers and sisters. Depend on the Lord for guidance. You too have the answers to many of life’s questions. You just have to sit still long enough to hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

I have to say, one of my favorite pieces of advice to give is ‘just go with the flow”. It’s my life’s motto. I see the “flow” as God’s hand guiding me and I know God will never steer me wrong. Looking back on the night I went to the drive-in, it was another one of those times I “went with the flow.” Both movies of the double feature were not movies I would have run to see. As a matter of fact, I remember being torn about staying to see Lucy. It wasn’t a must see for me.