Reservoir 3: A Prayer of Grief and Hope

Reservoir 3

You meet me at your reservoir

Ocean of love

Deep within you

Filling you, overflowing you

Where it flows

New life springs up

Light shines forth

Life spreads with every touch

Alas the turning

Despise the reservoir

Lies, hate, cruel rejection

Thrown back upon you

Absorbing it all

Suffer thorns and barbs

Deep enough to puncture

Your reservoir

All these wounds

Lifeblood draining

And so you pour out

All your love

Until it is finished

Your body broken

Your reservoir empty

Hardened

A cold tomb they lay you in

Waiting

© Dale Gish 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Reservoir 2: A Prayer of Grief and Hope

Reservoir 2

You meet me at the reservoir,

Once again together

Overlooking the pain. 

So much held back.

We behold the sources

The tributaries that fill it

Which one will we navigate,

Held in your love?

Diving deep into troubled waters.

With you

Needing you

Memories wash over me

Feelings, fears, and frames

Looking together,

Seeing each wound

You are here beside me

But also there

Revealed in every frame

You

Affected

Moved to sorrow

Compassion

There with me in it all

You speak

And

Mighty waters flow

Rushing away

Down and to the right

Draining away sorrows

Revealing solid land before us

Drying out

And you

gently planting seeds

That in love will grow

And fill this reservoir within me

© Dale Gish 2023. All Rights Reserved.

Reservoir: A Prayer of Grief and Hope

Reservoir

River of pain

Dammed up, contained, stored

What can I do about this reservoir?

Nothing 

And yet, that is where you meet me

You say, “I forgive you.”

And offer healing

I see you have already started

Irrigating desserts brings the water levels down

So much life you give with your love

You give redemption

And I know your embrace

With me always

So I will say yes

And receive the fullness

Of all you are giving to me

© Dale Gish 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Treasure All This: An Ignatian Christmas Prayer

Here is a Christmas prayer I wrote for the Spiritual Exercises rewrite I am working on.
It's entitled: Treasure All This

Jesus, you have taken this stable of my heart, my mind, my imagination,
Full of stubble and dust, and filled it with joy and wonder.

Mary and Joseph arrive, exhausted from their journey
In the throes of childbirth.
You are born a helpless, fragile, little baby
Needing so much, but offering even more.
When I hold you, I feel how much love flows through you
And into me, and out of me, towards you.

I get to proclaim good news with the angels,
Be amazed with the shepherds and run to adore you,
Journey with the Magi and bring my gifts to you.
In whatever way I come to you, you welcome me.
And so, I welcome you into this world, into my life.
I want to know you, love you, serve you.

Like Mary I treasure all this in my heart
My heart, so full of you.

Your Gaze

This prayer/poem is inspired by the Ignatian practice of beginning each prayer time by receiving God’s loving gaze. For God is always looking upon you with a gaze of love. -Ignatius of Loyola

Your Gaze

Lord, you look upon me with a gaze of love

Consistent, unwavering

Constantly new

Whether I return the look or hide my face

Awake or asleep

Aware or unaware

Anywhere and everywhere

You invite me to meet your gaze

Look into your eyes

So you can fill my heart with love

Till it becomes too much for me

And I turn my eyes away 

But you patiently wait till I glance your way again

So you can offer me just a little bit more

Your loving gaze takes many forms

Sometimes I sense your joy

Other times I’m struck by your delight

Or catch you showing favor

And notice when you revel

So each day I will open my eyes

Let your smile shine upon me

Warmed by your love

Surrounded with your care

Upheld with your compassion

Drawn deep into the heart of your love

The Eyes Of Love -Anne-Marie Forest 2014

© Dale Gish 2020. All Rights Reserved.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Prayer: Cross So Costly, Cross Victorious

Lord Jesus

The way of the cross is so costly

we can barely face it

Shame, sorrow, suffering

Your life poured out

You the Passover lamb sacrificed.

Lord, we shudder at this way you have chosen

And yet we acknowledge our great need

We are so broken, so frail, so surrounded by sin

That we cannot stand

We cannot save ourselves

We are in desperate need

We need a savior

We need you

And in our time of greatest need

Your love came to us

Your love gave yourself

Your love emptied itself

Losing everything

And in this overwhelming defeat 

You claimed victory

You were victorious

You accomplished salvation

And so we honor you

And so we give ourselves to you

And so we find our life in you

Lord Jesus Christ, savior of the world

We come to worship you

Amen and amen

Lorenzo Monaco -Crucifixion

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© Dale Gish 2021. All Rights Reserved.

To The Table: A Prayer/Poem

To The Table

Jesus, you eagerly long 

To spend this time

With your friends.

To eat this meal, wash these feet

Share body, blood, communing

No matter the coming betrayal

Or denial, or scattering

Your longing is for your friends

The ones that you choose

Frail, broken, but fully beloved

They all go to the table

But I hang back

I’m not sure I am welcomed

One such as me, come so late

Joining this moment through feeble imagination

But you turn to me with that welcoming smile

“Come sit beside me. 

I’ve eagerly longed for this too

Here, eat this bread

Drink this cup

Here, with me 

and in the coming sorrow

I join you to me by this.”

“Lay your head upon my chest

With me, all is well

The dark night comes

But till then

Be together 

Stay close and laugh with me

There is so much more of my love to share

You are welcome

Always welcome

Here 

With me”

The Last Supper by John August Swanson

© Dale Gish 2021. All Rights Reserved.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

The Grace of Palm Sunday

Egyptian Coptic painting, artist unknown

Over the years, I’ve had a profound ambivalence to the Palm Sunday Story. On one hand, it is so profoundly significant that Jesus seems to go out of his way to signal that his power is not power as commonly wielded in this world (Oh that we, the church, would come to our senses!) On the other hand, these crowds that shout “Hosanna” will soon be shouting “Crucify Him.” Even his disciples will soon betray, let down, and deny him. 

If we are honest, we acknowledge that we would have been no different. We would have betrayed, denied, and abandoned him also. Additionally, we confess that we are often double-minded, half or hard-hearted, that we are sinners, frail, so often miss the mark. How is it that we can rejoice and shout “Hosanna” without being confronted with ourselves, hypocrites that we are?

This year the Lord has opened my eyes in a new way to see the grace of Palm Sunday. Jesus sees the crowds that come out to welcome him. He sees them and loves them and knows them. He knows how shallow their adulation is. He sees knows that they will soon fall away. He sees how the evil one is at work sifting them, distracting them, tempting them. And yet he loves them and receives them. He receives their worship. Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Holy and Anointed One, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and so on and so forth.  It is only right that our praise and worship be directed to him.

Here is the grace: Jesus receives us; Jesus receives our worship, no matter that we are double-minded, no matter how meager and half-hearted it is. Our praise and worship cannot stand on its own. On its own, it comes to nothing. But Jesus welcomes it, receives it, and that is grace. And in this grace, we are invited to give ourselves more and more, in joy, in love, because his desire is for his people.

This grace, revealed to us on Palm Sunday, is the same grace that makes our life in him possible. This same grace welcomes us to the table each week, welcomes us into prayer each day, welcomes us to live our life in him, each moment, each minute an opportunity for communion.

So let us rejoice, come as we are, join the parade. We are welcomed; we are received; we are loved. That is grace. That is the grace of Palm Sunday. This is the grace of our life.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

An Ignatian Prayer For Freedom

A Prayer For Freedom

God of all goodness

You created me for freedom

An abundant life, united with you

Filled with your love

Overflowed by joy

Truly myself in you

And yet there is so much that is broken

Bound up, even resistant towards you

I find myself enslaved by sin

Filled with false illusions

Tempted at every turn

Distracted, disconnected, despairing

But that is where you come to find me

Just as you came to so many

Offering freedom

You called Lazarus from the tomb

Healed the woman with a hemorrhage

Gave sight to blind Bartimaeus

Brought the demoniac back to sanity

Restored Mary Magdalene to wholeness

Free me from my bondage just as you freed them

Expand my terrain of freedom

Remove anything that stands in the way

Never let anything separate me from you, my Lord

I choose freedom

I choose you

This day and every day

For this is the deep desire you have implanted within me

Amen

© Dale Gish 2020. All Rights Reserved.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Ignatian Discernment with Mandy Smith

Ignatian Discernment: A few thoughts on Christendom and a wonderful video.

There may have been a time when what it means to be a faithful Christian was set in stone, clear, and unshakable. In a time of Christendom, our faith, discipleship, even scripture was unambiguous, abundantly clear, locked down, and completely figured out. This clarity and confidence was likely a lie, a temptation the church has given into for far too long.

Now that Christendom is shattering, we can discover the joy of discernment. When everything is not pinned down and codified, we have the opportunity to discern, to say that we don’t know, that we need God to lead us. We have the opportunity to depend upon God, seek the Father, and discern our loving creator’s will. We may get to rediscover the Holy Spirit, or count on Jesus resurrected and present with us on a daily basis.

As a spiritual director trained in Ignatian discernment I get to walk with people as they ask the real questions of their life, help them notice God’s work and movement in their lives, and discover the joy of a life lived in radical dependence on God, one that is always needing to discern.

In the coming months, you will be hearing more from me about Ignatian discernment as go through the Ignatian Exercises again, and I dive deeper into this theme for myself and in my spiritual direction practice. But for now, I want to share with you this video created by Mandy Smith. This is not overtly Ignatian, but I think you will find it provocative as you consider discernment and seeking the Lord. I’d love to hear any thoughts or responses you may have to this video, the theme of Ignatian discernment or my reflections above.

Enacting Discernment with Mandy Smith

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.