In God's Hands

I'd like to begin our sixth session by reading just a few sentences from a description of Saint Ignatius at prayer, written by one of his early Jesuit companions.

Ignatius loved the sky and the stars, and he would often go up on the terrace on the roof of their house in Rome just to be there, just to experience that. I lived in Rome myself for a number of years, and we had a five-story building. And Rome, if you know it, like most big cities, is pretty noisy with traffic and bustle. It was always very welcome to go up on the terrace on that upper floor and kind of get away from that, or above that, into a more peaceful space where you could pray.

So this Jesuit describes what happens. Ignatius walks up onto the terrace and the following takes place. He would stand there and take off his hat. Without stirring, he would fix his eyes on the heavens for a short while. Then, sinking to his knees, he would make a lowly gesture of reverence to God, some kind of a bow or genuflection.

After that, he would sit on a bench, for his body's weakness did not permit him to do otherwise. He was too weak at this stage to spend the time of prayer kneeling, for example. There he was, head uncovered, tears trickling drop by drop, in such sweetness and silence that no sob, no sigh, no noise, no movement of the body was noticed.

I don't know if we'll ever find a more lovely description of the transition from what precedes the time of prayer into the time of prayer itself. And Ignatius passed this on to us. It's this brief pause. It's not very long, but you can see what he's doing there. He's pausing before he enters into what is, at this point in his life, very deep recollection in prayer. He is pausing to become aware of God's presence, and as we've been saying, the look of love of God upon him. So the prayer immediately becomes relationship for Ignatius.

If you do this, you'll find—you know that sense we sometimes have when we start prayer? I just can't get into it today. I just can't get started. This is Ignatius' counsel on how to enter the transition into prayer in a way that very often will resolve that for us.

Now, this is how Ignatius describes this practice in his Spiritual Exercises.

A step or two before the place, so you can see the threshold quality even physically here, a step or two before the place where I am to contemplate or meditate, I will stand for the space of an Our Father. As I said earlier, that might be half a minute. No, it's not all that long. And what am I doing during that space of an Our Father? Space of an Our Father, because in Ignatius' day there were no watches, was a way to give an indication of time. What am I doing during that space of an Our Father? I will stand for the space of an Our Father with my understanding, my mind, my heart raised on high, considering how God our Lord looks upon me. So that's what I'm doing during that space, considering how God our Lord looks upon me. God is always present to me.

What do I see in the eyes of God as He looks upon me? And then another way to rephrase that question is: What did people in the Gospel, when they came with goodwill, with moral struggles and weaknesses, sinful lives, broken bodies, but they came with goodwill—what did they see in the eyes of Jesus that so fascinated them to follow Him? And Ignatius says, begin your prayer that way. Begin your prayer by becoming aware, for the space of an Our Father, of the love in the gaze of Jesus upon you.

Now, our passage this time is Jeremiah 18:1–6, and this is the image of the potter and the clay.

Having seen what God's plan is for us, now Ignatius invites us to pray with our response. So as you pray now again, let your heart be quieted. Let peace come. Lay aside the burdens, at least for a short time. Just open your heart to receive and hear the Word of the Lord.

And begin, as Ignatius counsels us, by seeing the look of love in the Lord's eyes as He is about to say these words to your heart.

So the prophet says, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Arise and go down to the potter's house. There you will hear My word." I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, working at the wheel.

Whenever the vessel of clay he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making another vessel of whatever sort he pleased. Then the word of the Lord came to me: "Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? Oracle of the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel."

So we have heard in preceding sessions of the Lord's faithful love for us, calling us into being, giving us a purpose in our life.

And now, at this point in the Exercises, Ignatius invites us to pray with our response: to be as available to God as the clay is to the potter, who shapes and fashions it into something that is beautiful and of great service.

So maybe, if you want, in the imaginative approach, go and see. Watch. Watch the potter taking the lump of clay, shaping it on the wheel. If it doesn't turn out exactly as he wants, he redoes that part to get it the way that he wants it to be.

So I see him mold the clay, shape it, and reshape it. And I see the total availability of the clay in his hands, ready to be shaped as he chooses. "Behold, like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand." Just watch the image, think about it, see it, and see the application to our lives. And ask for the grace to be completely available to God's action, to place no obstacles, to be ready to be shaped in the way that the Lord chooses.

I think of those times in my life when God's call has taken me away from things that I loved—not occupations, for example—and into places that I would never have chosen to be. And I can look back now, years later, and see the wisdom that I did not see at the time. "Behold, like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand." The prayer is to be available to God's loving providence, to say yes. And I've mentioned other biblical figures, but above all, we can enter deeply here into the Heart of Jesus.

And we have this beautiful passage in Hebrews 10:5–7, which gives us the sentiments in the Heart of Jesus as He enters into the world in the Incarnation.

"Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me." That's the Incarnation. "Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God," and this governs everything in Jesus' life. The constant yes to His Father—that is the golden thread that gives meaning to all the different twists and turns of His hidden life, His public life, and then the culminating death and Resurrection. "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God."

Maybe say these words more than once to the Lord. Ask for the grace to really mean them, and ask for the grace to experience the joy of them.

We have in Dante's Divine Comedy these lovely words which really summarize all of this: "In your will is our peace." It's a beautiful thing to know that we are where God wants us to be, doing what God has called us to do, that we've said yes, and with all of our fragilities are doing our best to live this well. "In Your will is our peace." So as you conclude, ask which word in this Scripture or image has most spoken to you. What stirred in your heart? What is the Lord saying to you?

And I'll conclude with this. One of our priests, now with the Lord—he died when he was 59—was Father Greg Staab, who was really a saintly man. And I think those who knew him—the kind of man whose cause for canonization really could be introduced. He contracted multiple system atrophy, and normally the life expectancy from contraction to death is about six to eight years; it was eight or nine years in his case.

The last four of those years he spent in a hospital bed, and it was a remarkable thing to visit him. You know, you hear of saints who just never complain. I always wondered if that could really be true. I saw it in this case. There were visitors in his room all day long. He would say a Mass as best he was able as he got weaker, maybe just finally just touching an iPad.

After the Mass, he would leave the Blessed Sacrament exposed for an hour. People were always there for that Holy Hour.

But what I'm remembering is when I first learned that he had this illness, I met him once in the corridors of our house. And I realized then how serious this was. I just tried to say something to him about it, and he answered with Ignatius—Ignatius' Principle and Foundation that we've been exploring and basically what we've just seen.

And he said, well, Ignatius says if God wants us to have a long life or a short life, that's in God's hands. To be rich or to be poor, to be held in honor or to be held in low esteem, that's completely in God's hands. I've never forgotten that moment—a man who was really living that complete availability, like clay in the Potter's hands, and a beautiful life that really touched many hearts.

God's blessings now, this day, and as we continue our journey through the Exercises. Amen.