Week Six, Exercise Two: The Three Types of Persons

This exercise should be experienced between January 25 and January 28.

It is meant to help towards my freedom of choice in relation to God's call to me.

I have borrowed the following from David Fleming's translation of the Exercises (except for the Colloquy which I have adapted myself).

Ask for the grace that I may be free enough to choose to follow wherever God may be inviting me.

The Setting: This prayer period is devoted to a consideration of three types of persons. Each of them has come to have quite a few possessions--not always acquired in the most honest way or with the best of motives. In general, each one is a good person who would like to serve God, even to the extent that if these possessions were to come in the way of being open to God's invitation, each type of person would like to be free of them.

The first type--"a lot of talk but no action.". This person keeps saying: "I would like to stop being so dependent on all the things which I possess and which seem to get in the way of my giving my life unreservedly to God."
This type of person has all kinds of good intentions, but always remains so busy about all the "things" that fill up life that death finds such a one still thinking about making a bigger place for God in life.

The second type--"To do everything but the one thing necessary." This person says: "I certainly would like to be free of all attachments which get in the way of relating to God. I think maybe if I just work harder or I say more prayers or give more money to charity that would do it."
This type of person will just about do anything but face the block that hinders an availability to God's gracious invitation. It is as if this person is negotiating with God, trying to buy God off. So this type may do a number of good things during life, all the time avoiding the honest way of facing the real issue.

The third type--"to do God's will is my desire." This person says: "I would like to be rid of any attachment which gets in the way of God's invitation to a more abundant life. I am not sure what God is asking of me, but I want to be at a point of balance so that I can more easily move in the direction of God's call. My whole effort is to be sensitive to the movements of God's grace in my life and to be ready and willing to follow God's lead."
This type of person makes efforts neither to want to retain possessions nor to want to give them away unless the service and praise of God our Lord is the God given motivation for action. As a result, the graced desire to be better able to serve God becomes clearly the motivating factor for accepting or letting go of anything.


Colloquy: I ask Mary to pray for me, that I might be drawn to spiritual poverty so that I might freely follow God's lead in my life. Another way of saying this is that I am asking for spiritual freedom. Then I speak with Jesus, asking for the same grace.

I reflect and ask myself: what is my most significant attachment? Which type of person do I identify with? I speak honestly to Jesus about my attachments.

Then I turn to God the Father/Mother and speak honestly with God about my attachments. I ask for the grace I need.

I close with a prayer of gratitude for the insight I am gaining.