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An Examen Based on the Beatitudes
263 Plays2 years ago
Today Gretchen Crowder shares with you the audio of a reflection on the Beatitudes that was originally shared as a video on the Central and Southern Jesuit Province website as part of a Lenten Series for the 2024 Lenten Season.
You can find the video and access the Lenten Series here: https://www.jesuitscentralsouthern.org/spirituality/lent-2024/
You can follow the Central and Southern Jesuit Province and learn more about the Society of Jesus by following @JesuitsUCS (X) or @jesuitscentralsouthern (Instagram)
Much gratitude to the UCS Province communications team for the beautiful artwork for this series!
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If you think you or someone you know has a story that would fit this podcast, please contact Gretchen Crowder at lovedasyouarepod@gmail.com
You can find Gretchen @gdcrowder on social and @lovedasyouarepod on Instagram.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, and welcome back to Loved As You Are, an Ignatian podcast.
The Beatitudes Reflection
00:00:05
Speaker
I wanted to hop on here and share with you the audio of a reflection on the Beatitudes that was originally shared as a video on the Central and Southern Jesuit Province website as a part of the Lenten series for the 2024 Lenten season.
Invitation to Spiritual Intimacy
00:00:20
Speaker
In this, I invite you to reflect on the Beatitudes, the invitation from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew to spiritual intimacy with him.
00:00:28
Speaker
the eightfold invitation of Jesus to release our hearts so that we may be open to the friendship he desires to have with us.
Jesus's Inclusive Friendship
00:00:36
Speaker
I hope it is helpful for you as we continue this Lenten journey together, learning to lean ever more into our belovedness.
Applying Jesus's Model Today
00:01:16
Speaker
Jesus's model of friendship was radically inclusive. It is also incredibly challenging to imitate. It involved a deep sense of poverty, spiritual and otherwise, consolation and comfort, gentleness and humility, a hunger and thirst for justice, an absurd offering of mercy, a consistent recognition in the holiness present all around us, and a constant offering of faith, hope, and love
00:01:46
Speaker
even in the face of persecution. This was the friendship Jesus offered while He walked on the earth to all those He encountered.
Struggles with Inclusive Friendship
00:01:55
Speaker
It is also the type of friendship Jesus offers to us today. In return for this friendship, we are invited to offer radically inclusive friendship to others as well. We are invited to reach beyond the arbitrary circles we have drawn around our lives and our communities and welcome everyone in.
00:02:15
Speaker
This is not an easy ask. At least, I don't think it is.
Imitating Inclusivity through the Beatitudes
00:02:19
Speaker
Often this ask feels too big, particularly in today's world that increases with complexity each day. I find myself struggling to figure out where to begin and demanding Jesus tell me exactly what to do. I want an outline. I want a script. I want a clear and obvious mark on the ground telling me, start here. Perhaps Jesus already provided this for me.
00:02:46
Speaker
In the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus outlines eight ways we can work towards imitating his model of radical inclusivity. Jesuit Greg Boyle in his book, Tattoos on the Heart, explains the Beatitudes in this way. The Beatitudes is not a spirituality. It's a geography. It tells us where to stand. It's the mark I was demanding.
Exploring Spiritual Exercises with Monty Williams
00:03:12
Speaker
So as we begin our examine together, I invite you to consider
00:03:15
Speaker
Where am I standing right now? Is it where Jesus is inviting me to stand? The following examine on the Beatitudes engages the writing of Monty Williams S.J. in his book, The Gift of Spiritual Intimacy, following the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius, where he utilizes the Beatitudes as a prayer exercise connected to the examination of oneself as a loved sinner during the first week of the spiritual exercises.
Understanding Poverty of Spirit
00:03:45
Speaker
So let us begin in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the first beatitude.
00:04:15
Speaker
Poverty of spirit is the radical awareness of our nothingness and of our dependence on divine providence for health, approval, image, identity, friendship, and even life itself. What am I holding onto that threatens to increase the distance between myself and God?
00:04:48
Speaker
What graces do I need to release control so I am free to see every moment as a pure gift from God?
Embracing Mourning and Community
00:05:02
Speaker
In what ways must I increase my poverty so that I may be more present to the kingdom of God here on earth?
00:05:18
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among the poor in spirit so that we may together with you co-create the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the second beatitude.
00:05:48
Speaker
For to mourn is to enter into a community. The comfort offered to those who mourn is the growing realization that the very act of mourning is also the act in which resurrection happens. Mourning creates joy. Mourning transforms grief into hope.
00:06:10
Speaker
In what ways am I afraid to mourn in front of God and others? In what ways am I afraid to mourn with God and others? What graces do I need to release myself from this fear, to allow my mourning to transform myself and my community?
The Power of Gentleness
00:06:40
Speaker
In what ways must I increase in vulnerability for those hurting in the world and let it call me to work for transformation? Lord, help me stand among the grieving of the world and join my grief with theirs so that we may comfort one another in anticipation of the resurrection just ahead.
00:07:13
Speaker
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the third beatitude. To be gentle is, first of all, to face not only our vulnerability, but also the horror, the abject nakedness, and the blind misery that masquerade as the powers of this world.
00:07:41
Speaker
without becoming paralyzed or trapped by fear, our own or others. To be gentle calls us to dance in the flames and in the ashes and in the hard places of this life. In what ways am I resistant to God's invitation to vulnerability?
Justice and Mercy in Action
00:08:23
Speaker
What graces do I need to combat this resistance and allow myself to enter the hard places of this life with the knowledge that I am always held by your gentle embrace?
00:08:40
Speaker
In what ways must I increase in gentleness for others so that I may be willing to walk in their shoes and experience the horrors of their life without giving way to fear?
00:08:57
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among the meek of the world and join my gentleness with theirs so that we may be together increased in empathy for the fullness of human experience upon this earth.
00:09:16
Speaker
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the fourth beatitude. When we hunger and thirst for justice, we live our poverty in a way that allows the mercy of God to be manifest through us.
00:09:39
Speaker
We experience that desire even in our bodies, for our bodies are how we are in the world. Our desires for the community of love that includes all without exception. In what ways do I lack the intensity of passion needed to effectively work for justice in the world today?
00:10:13
Speaker
What graces do I need to intensify my passion against the injustices others face so that I can feel it tangibly in both my body and my soul?
Absurdity of Mercy and Forgiveness
00:10:27
Speaker
In what ways must I increase in hunger and thirst for justice so that the dignity of all may be respected and humankind may flourish?
00:10:42
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among those who hunger and thirst for justice in this world, and join my passion with theirs so that we may together work for the satisfaction of a just and equitable world. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
00:11:06
Speaker
In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the 5th Beatitude. Mercy is absurd. It is neither prudent nor politic. It has no aims, expects no rewards, and is not self-congregulatory. It strives to love its enemies, expecting nothing in return. Yet we cannot do everything.
00:11:32
Speaker
The attempt to do everything denies us mercy. We can only do what we have been gifted to do. In what ways am I resistant to receiving and or offering an absurd amount of mercy?
00:11:58
Speaker
What graces do I need to be open to loving and forgiving everyone, even if I get nothing in return for my efforts?
Seeing Holiness with a Pure Heart
00:12:12
Speaker
In what ways must I increase in absurd mercy, magnanimously offering my unique gifts to others so that I may show God how grateful I am to be loved
00:12:30
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among those who are absurdly merciful and join my offering of mercy with theirs as a sign of our gratitude and our recognition of the love you offer us. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
00:12:56
Speaker
In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the sixth beatitude. What the heart sees is that everything that exists is holy. To be pure in heart is to enter into the struggle of creation, in which everything is involved. It is to realize that call to holiness in all the circumstances of life.
00:13:22
Speaker
In what ways do I fail to see God in all things? What graces do I need to open my eyes to the holiness present in all of creation?
00:13:53
Speaker
In what ways must I increase in purity of heart so that the presence of God becomes more tangible in my daily experience?
Healing through Peace
00:14:08
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among the pure in heart and join my experience of holiness with theirs so that the world may increase in awareness of your continual presence in everything and allow this awareness to unite and heal us. Blessed are the peacemakers.
00:14:34
Speaker
For they shall be called children of God. In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the seventh beatitude. We become peacemakers only as we make peace with ourselves, only as we acknowledge the hurt in our life through a healing of memories and sensibilities within the vision that gifts our life meaning.
00:14:59
Speaker
That vision emerges when we accept that we are held in the compassionate mercy of God and that no one is outside of that mercy. In what ways do my actions contribute to hatred and discord instead of unity and peace?
00:15:25
Speaker
What graces do I need to embrace the peace you offer me and allow it to move me to an offering of peace to others? In what ways must I increase my desire for a peaceful world and allow this desire to move me towards an offering of self in service of this vision?
Persecution for Faith
00:15:55
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among the peacemakers and unite my offering of peace with theirs so that we may be co-creators of a world built upon the transformative love you offer us, your children.
00:16:15
Speaker
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In the gift of spiritual intimacy, Monty Williams writes this about the eighth beatitude. The hunger for God makes us fools for Christ's sake, and lets us share in the passion the Father has for His Son, and in the passion the Son has for the Father.
00:16:42
Speaker
That passion to say yes to life, to make the leap of faith in every moment of life, and to return to the marketplace bearing gifts is the spirit. In what ways am I too pragmatic to be foolish for the sake of God?
00:17:10
Speaker
What graces do I need to embrace the kind of foolishness that allows me to make the leaps of faith God is inviting me to make? In what ways must I increase my desire for a passionate yes to God, even if that yes may result to my own persecution?
Conclusion and Invitation to Future Exploration
00:17:40
Speaker
Lord, help me stand among those persecuted out of love for you and unite my offering of a radical yes with theirs so that we may find strength in one another and together transform the world. I ask all of these things in the name of the Lord, who continuously loves me as I am, no matter what. Amen.
00:18:11
Speaker
Join me next week as we continue this journey to understanding and accepting our belovedness this Lenten season.