This exercise is to be experienced sometime between November 13 and November 16.
In the first week of our retreat in daily life, we were invited to open ourselves in prayer. The metaphor for prayer that the prophet Isaiah used was water. Water cleans us, renews us, invigorates us. This week, invigorated by the consolation God gave us in prayer, we meditate on our purpose for living. The Buddha referred to the goal of human life as “the sweet joy of living in the way.” St. Ignatius summarized our goal in life in his “First Principle And Foundation.” It is also called “The Fundamentum.”
We will use two versions of the First Principle: the classic, literal translation and a translation by Spiritual Director David Fleming, S.J.
The prayer experience follows the following format:
1. Ask God for the gift of spiritual freedom. According to Fr. Skehan,
Spiritual freedom is mine when I am seized so completely by the love of God that all the desires of my heart and all of the actions, affections, thoughts and decisions which flow from them are directed to God, my Father, and his service and praise. My attitude is that of Samuel, “Here I am Lord, send me” (24).
2. Read through both versions of the First Principle:
The classic text:
The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by doing so, to save his or her soul.
All other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created.
It follows from this that one must use other created things, in so far as they help towards one's end, and free oneself from them, in so far as they are obstacles to one's end.
To do this, we need to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, provided the matter is subject to our free choice and there is no other prohibition.
Thus, as far as we are concerned, we should not want health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one, and similarly for all the rest, but we should desire and choose only what helps us more towards the end for which we are created.
David Fleming’s translation:
The Goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God, who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life
to flow into us without limit.
All the things in this world are gifts from God,
Presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God
Insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
They displace God
And so hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
Before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
And are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
Wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
A deeper response to our life in God.
Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads
To God's deepening [God’s] life in me.
If you prefer one of the translations to the other, then pray with that translation. If you find spiritual benefit to praying/meditating with both of them, then pray/meditate with both. I have Ignatian friends who prefer the classic translation and I have Ignatian friends who prefer Fr. Fleming’s translation.
Over the next months of our prayer in daily life experience, it is beneficial to occasionally read the first principle.
3. Pray with the following questions:
Have I ever been aware of the experience of God creating me?
How have I praised, reverenced and served God? How have I not?
Recall a moment when I felt loved by God. Ignatius encourages us to relish these moments. Whom were you with? What were you doing? Apply all of your senses. What did you see? What were the smells of the experience? Enter back into these sensations. Relish them the way you relish a gift. Let your heart “taste” these experiences again. What did you hear? What did you touch? What did you taste? Let your whole being savor all of the good of that experience. Now say a prayer of thanksgiving to God for that experience.
Consider a gift God has given you. Using the above method relish that gift. Now consider the following: when have you freely enjoyed that gift? Recall Fr. Skehan’s definition of spiritual freedom:
Spiritual freedom is mine when I am seized so completely by the love of God that all the desires of my heart and all of the actions, affections, thoughts and decisions which flow from them are directed to God, my Father, and his service and praise. My attitude is that of Samuel, “Here I am Lord, send me” (24)
Has that gift or any gift displaced God and become the center of my life? What did that feel like? Talk to God in prayer about that experience.
Read through the translations of the first principle again. Let any spontaneous prayer well up in your heart.
Just listen to God. How does he feel toward you? Ask him to understand your deepest, most authentic desires. He knows them better than you do. How do you feel toward God? Why?
4. Close with a spontaneous, authentic prayer asking God that your only desire and your one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads
To God's deepening [God’s] life in me.
5. In your prayer journal record what happened during prayer. What were the most consoling moments of your prayer (which moments gave greatest insight)? Which moments were desolate (full of negative energy)?
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