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CLC Spirituality
Finding God in All Things Saint Ignatius means an openness to God in each concrete situation of our daily life. For St. Ignatius, and for us this is the purpose and central element in our way of life. Following the Spirit In order to find God in all things, a person and the community must be able to hear and respond to the callings of His Spirit. This means attentiveness to the flow of interior moods, desires or feelings and the thoughts that accompany them; there is a need for vigilance because I am being influenced by the power of good and evil both from within and from without, through persons, cultural values, etc. This doesn't, give magic answers but the peace which is God's gift serves as a touchstone within me for choosing and living a more loving response in each and every situation. Collaboration with Jesus Following the Spirit is only possible for a person rooted in the knowledge and love of Jesus. God's Kingdom was established through Christ's victory on the cross and is coming to fullness in the world in each person and situation through the Lordship of Jesus. Collaborating with Jesus in this struggle leads to intimacy with Jesus - poor, rejected, powerless. The peace bought by this enables me to sense where I am unfree, especially with regard to wealth, power, esteem. Ordering Relationships Living and choosing in loving collaboration with Jesus means too, that my life with others will be 'together'. God has created us in relationships: with himself, other persons and the universe. We are to be part of his continuing creation. Where there is alienation we are called to be a force for God's healing, a force for peace, born of justice. Living in True Freedom Gathering all these elements together, a Spiritual Exercises way of living means living in the freedom for which we are created. Part of the gift of creation is that we are free to plot our course, but we are also called to a freedom which is an authentic, living and loving collaboration with Jesus giving freedom from all that threatens Christ's Kingdom in us and in the world, freedom for a response to and in each concrete situation. |
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What
makes CLC different from every other way of following Christ is our
Spirituality, which is according to the way of St Ignatius, especially his
Spiritual Exercises. This doesn't mean just a retreat experience but a whole way
of living in the world which incorporates the spiritual dynamics of the
Exercises. Five points are worth mentioning.