Friday, July 31, 2020

Ignatius

Saint Ignatius Loyola reminds spiritual directors that the "Lord wants to deal directly with his creature," meaning that the director must never intrude upon the Lord's relationship with each person.  Ignatius was so certain of the Lord's deep love for each one of us that at the conclusion of his Spiritual Exercises in an ecstatic turn of phrase he invites the retreatant to ponder: quanto el Señor desea dárseme - how much the Lord desires to give himself to me.

Given this endless loving desire of our God and Lord for each of us, our only work then is to be ceaselessly available to him. He only asks us to crack the door open. If we give him even just a little opening, he will enter and love and transform our hearts, our very selves.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1620-22, Norton Simon Art Foundation.