Bless and Break

Let's begin by looking at Ignatius' Rule Eight, and again, Ignatius is giving a further tool for the person who is experiencing the discouragement of desolation, which, as I said earlier—and I believe it's true—is the main problem for most dedicated people on the spiritual journey. I'm speaking to everyone who has followed along with us through these prayers. I've come to love this rule in my own life, and year by year it means more and more to me. When you are in spiritual desolation, be patient, Ignatius says. That is to say, stay the course. Patient, from the Latin verb, which means to endure, to stay the course, to bear up, not to give in.

Be patient. Lord, I promised You thirty minutes of prayer. I'm not going to give You twenty-nine, and this is in a time of desolation. When you are in spiritual desolation, be patient, stay the course, and here is something that will help you do it: remember that consolation will return much sooner than the desolation is telling you.

Desolation—that is the liar. The enemy will always try to claim power over the future and will always try to tell you that the discouragement you're feeling now, the heaviness, is just going to go on and on and on. If you believe that lie, then the desolation gets very heavy. So Ignatius says, remember the truth. When you are in spiritual desolation, remember that this desolation is going to pass, that consolation is going to return, and this is going to happen a lot sooner than the desolation wants you to believe. You know that feeling when sometimes you get up in the morning and maybe you didn't sleep well, or the preceding day was difficult, or some things lie ahead in the day that you don't look forward to, and you have that global sense that this whole day is just going to be hard.

And then I remember Rule Eight. This desolation is going to pass, and it's going to pass a lot sooner than this desolation wants me to believe—and it always does. Maybe just an hour or two later, already the day looks very different than it did in that moment. Remember, when you are in desolation, that it will not last forever. Consolation will return, and that surety will strengthen you greatly to get through the desolation.

Our next Scripture now is the institution of the Eucharist. So we are again at the Last Supper, and this time we are looking at the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, verses 7 through 30. And this is Jesus’ gift of His Body and Blood to us. And so again, we pray as Ignatius invites us. We pray to share with the Lord in the pain and the sorrow of His Passion and be strengthened as we do it.

And here to experience the gift—well, the greatest gift of all those that Jesus gives us—because it is the gift of His Body and Blood itself. I see the love in the Lord’s eyes as He looks upon me as I begin this prayer. And suffused with that sense of love, now I enter the Upper Room again with Jesus and the disciples. When the day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread arrived, the day for sacrificing the Passover lamb, He sent out Peter and John, instructing them, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” They asked Him, “Where do You want us to make the preparations?”

And He answered them, “When you go into the city, a man will meet you carrying a jar of water. Follow him into the house that he enters and say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room that is furnished. Make the preparations there.” Then they went off and found everything exactly as He had told them, and there they prepared the Passover.

Truly beautiful to see how prepared the Eucharist is. When the hour came, He took His place at table with the Apostles. He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the Kingdom of God." Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and said, "Take this and share it among yourselves."

For I tell you that from this time on, I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes. Then He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My Body, which will be given for you. Do this in memory of Me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My Blood, which will be shed for you.” Jesus tells Peter and John to go into the city and prepare the Passover meal.

And I'm often struck as I read this by how carefully prepared the Eucharist is. Nothing happens by chance. And I watch Peter and John as they go into the city, and as they follow Jesus' instructions, they make preparations for the meal. Spiritually, I prepare with them for what is about to happen. And now the hour of Jesus has arrived.

Evening falls, and He is there with the disciples in the Upper Room. I see the table, the dishes, the wine, the Passover lamb. I gather with the disciples, and our hearts sense that something profound, some great mystery, is about to take place. I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you. As I hear Jesus say these words, something of the depths of Jesus’ heart is revealed to me.

I have earnestly desired this meal. And I linger here in my prayer. I sense the great desire in Jesus to give the gift of His Eucharistic Body and Blood to His disciples and to me. I speak to Him of the desire in His Heart and in mine. And I am there.

I watch each detail, each gesture, with profound reverence. I see Jesus take the bread, break it, and give it to His disciples and to me. And I hear His words: This is My Body. And I realize, just a little at least, the magnitude of the gift—what this gift means in my life: the gift of the Eucharist, Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Holy Communion. He takes the cup.

This cup is the new covenant in my Blood. And again, I sense the richness, the fullness, the greatness of the gift that is given—the gift of His Body and His Blood, of His whole being given to the Church and to me. I pause now, and my heart speaks in response to Him. And the disciples, and we with them, struggle to grasp and to accept the gift. Luke tells us of the betrayer, of the dispute that arises among the disciples as to who is the greatest among them.

And Jesus, who is with them as one who gives Himself, tells them, which is greater, one who sits at table or one who serves? But I am among you as one who serves. Now my heart becomes quiet. My soul is stilled. I turn toward the Lord, aware of the gift of His presence, of His Body, His Blood.

I simply gaze upon Him. I simply receive, and silently, I give my own heart. And I bless the Lord for the gift of all that the Eucharist is in my life. The words of the Psalm come to my heart: O God, You are my God.

For you, my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you, and your Body and Blood are there. Nourish, feed, and strengthen me. What speaks to my heart as I pray with the gift of the Eucharist? What is the Lord saying to me?

Where is He leading me? What newness is He inviting me to in my spiritual life? And once more in this session, I'll share a further experience of a person who prays with Scripture. And this is Monica. Monica has been praying with Scripture for many years, and you'll see the maturity that has developed as she's been doing this over the years.

And she says, I follow the Lectionary in choosing my Scripture for daily prayer. The Lectionary, that's the book with the readings for the daily Mass. Every so often, I may use a different passage if one suggests itself, and this is the way to proceed well with daily prayer with Scripture: structure used with flexibility. Without structure, things just won't continue.

We can't sustain creativity every day that way. But structure without flexibility asphyxiates prayer. And so Monica has done this perfectly. She has a basic structure, so she's never casting about, but she also has the flexibility when her heart is drawn to a different passage.

It is not always easy for me to find a place to pray. I work three nights a week, and it's often hard to get up even in time to help the children. So I can't get a consistent time for prayer in the morning. I look at my agenda and set a time. I can look ahead and set a time for the next day.

Wonderful practice in a very busy and shifting schedule. Sometimes when I take the children to soccer practice or karate, I can sit for forty-five minutes and do it. So as you can see, Monica has grown, and her prayer is maturing. She makes wonderful choices here in a way that allows her to pray daily with Scripture even in a very busy and constantly changing schedule day by day. Again, it's my prayer that as we've gone through these Ignatian spiritual exercises and continue to go through them, that the question may arise in your heart as to whether God might be inviting you to continue this kind of prayer in the way that we see people like Charles and Kathy and Monica doing, and in a way that so blesses them and, through them, the people in their lives.

May God grant that grace. Amen.