The Society of Jesus
in Belize
The Invitation of the Incarnation
Preparing to Pray
1. Take three deep breaths, allowing yourself to be fully present.
2. Speak to the Lord, telling him that you are dedicating the next fifteen minutes to be with Him.
3. Ask for the grace you desire:
I pray to hear the call of Christ clearly in your life, and to be able to let go of whatever keeps you from responding with complete openness and generosity.
4. Consider the following points:
God responds to our sin and suffering with the ultimate act of mercy: he becomes one of us. He looks at all of creation, in all its beauty and all its pain, and he speaks a word of peace. Jesus is that word. He is God’s response to the sin and suffering of the world. God did not ignore our suffering, nor did he destroy the earth as a result of it. He chose mercy. This is what we celebrate at Christmas. We call it the Incarnation. It is a celebration of the fact that God loved us so much that he chose to enter fully into our human condition.
This is great news for us, but there is a challenge for each of us underneath it all: will you and I choose to enter into the suffering of the world, just as God did? The Incarnation challenges us to a new way of life. It challenges us to see both the beauty and the ugliness of the world, and it calls us to respond with compassion and mercy.
Jesus came to enter into our suffering, but he also came to show us a different way of living that doesn’t lead to so much pain and hurt. He called it the Kingdom of God. It is the path that will lead us out of our shame and selfishness, which, as we have seen, threaten to destroy us.
The Kingdom of God is a new way of living in which:
faith replaces fear,
forgiveness replaces revenge,
mercy replaces alienation,
generosity replaces greed,
and compassion replaces indifference.
To live in the Kingdom of God in the here and now is to follow this path, which Jesus showed us in his words and deeds. This is the life that Jesus came to call us to.
Prayer
Scripture:
Mark 1:14-22 “Immediately the abandoned their nets and followed Him.”
Review your prayer
Take a few minutes to reflect on and journal about the following:
• The Gospel of Mark emphasizes that the Simon, Andrew, James, and John abandoned their nets immediately to follow Jesus. Why do you think they were so quick to drop everything to follow Jesus? What was it about Jesus?
• We know from the Gospels that Jesus didn’t call the best and the brightest to follow him! Why might Jesus have chosen the 12 that he did. What did he see in them?
• What does Jesus see in you? Why did Jesus invite you to join him on this retreat?
... or else write down any moments of consolation or desolation you encountered in your prayer.
Speak with the Lord, as one friend to another, about whatever came up in your prayer.
End with an Our Father or a Hail Mary.