5 Prayer Resources from the Ignatian Exercises

Since doing the Ignatian Exercises a couple of years ago, Ignatian prayer continues to be central to my relationship with God. There are so many resources that are now available to me, that draw me close to the heart of God.  I'll name 5.

1. I know that God is always looking at me with a gaze of love and I get to look at him and receive it. This can take 2 seconds, or I could spend 20 minutes, and it doesn’t need to happen in my devotional time.  It can happen throughout the day.

2. I am always welcomed to have a heart to heart with Jesus. I can speak to Jesus as a friend, and tell him what is on my heart and mind and spirit.  Jesus listens with compassion. I can listen to what he may say to me in return

3. There is great value in stopping periodically in and at the end of each day (Examen) to remember God, to see God’s work and my openness to it, and to discern the spirits at work in and through me. This allows me to recognize what God is doing and is the beginning of discernment.

4. Having experienced some of how Jesus sees and responds to others I am invited to see others through Jesus' eyes. This changes how I see and how I relate to people. It also turns relationships with others into a way to connect with Jesus, as together with him, I see through his eyes.

5. The closing prayer of the Exercises (the Suscipe) is an opportunity to offer myself completely to God. I am welcomed to offer all of myself, even those parts I am not proud of. Giving myself completely to God makes me more open to his work and increases the terrain of freedom in my life. It allows me to be more dependent upon him and receive everything as gift, sustained by his love and grace.

I’m grateful for the gift of life that Jesus offers us.  Let us receive it with joy.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

These reflections were inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Prayer for an Easter Potluck Feast

Jesus, the sky went dark when you died

And the world grew cold

What joy could the world have without you

True source of love

We felt the emptiness, the hopelessness, the despair

When you died the best part of us died as well

And then this morning you rose from the dead

With joy in your heart

Blood pumping through your veins

Eyes opened to the light once again

Death defeated

Satan conquered

Sins atoned

Forgiveness won

We are untied with you once more

We rejoice with you

overflowing with new life

Super bloom of all super blooms

Spectacular redemption

Torrent of hope

Jesus, you are alive and at work among us

We are filled with your presence

Our hearts break out into song

Rejoicing in your victory

And did you say you wanted something to eat?

You’ve come to the right place, Jesus

We welcome you to this feast

We eat it with you

Jesus Christ, living one, firstborn from the dead

We celebrate your resurrection

Amen and Amen

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.
This prayer was inspired by the Ignatian Exercises.

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

Resurrection: An Ignatian Meditation

Resurrection: an Ignatian meditation by Dale Gish

Easter Sunday morning. The Father and the Spirit come to the tomb, to raise you from the dead. They experience great loss. An angel rolls away the stone and they enter the tomb.

The Father proclaims, “Death you are defeated. Death you are broken. Death release your prey.” The Spirit breathes life into your body. They unwrap the grave clothes from your body. You open your eyes. You sit up. You feel new life in your veins. Death leaves your body. You are filled with Joy. The Trinity embraces with joy, together again, separated no more. The world is right again. All the pain and suffering and injury are healed in you, leaving only scars. And you are filled with love, love for your people, love everywhere. You have conquered death. You have won the victory.

Jesus, you turn to me and say, “you have accompanied me in my passion and death. You died with me, now receive new life with me.” I run to you and we embrace. Jesus, I love you. It is so good to see you alive. I can hardly believe it. We are together again.

And you say, “It’s good to be alive. My dying was terrible. I was abandoned and forsaken. The whole world turned against me and crushed me. Evil triumphed and destroyed me. See I still have the marks. Bitter death overcame me, but now I am raised in power to new life.”

Oh, Jesus, it has been so hard to see you suffer and walk this path. There is an ocean of grief in me. It’s hard to even take in that you are alive. Part of me still suffers with you in your passion. I begin to weep. You embrace me again and you say, “I give you my joy.”

Suddenly I am filled with and overwhelmed with joy. Your joy fills and overflows me. Everything is good; everything is right. We stand there a long time, just being together. My heart is filled with peace. Reunited with you.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Ignatian Exercises. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Forever Imprinted By You

Your shaking hands touched me

Grasping my rough imperfections

Taking my burden upon you

I am what you came here for

You are what I’ve been fashioned for

I can tell that still you love me

Carried until you stumble

Then hauled by another to the place

where we lay defenseless

Your hands pressed against me

The spikes that pierce you

pierce me also

Driven through you

Deep into me.

Your blood spills over me

Soaking into my grain

Like a Passover door post

Forever marked before the Lord

We are lifted up

And I can provide little comfort to you

in your time of trial

You are abandoned

And I alone am left to embrace you

Let this last embrace be one of love

I give what I have to you

You who have absorbed such bitter hate

To be so close to the one I love

These terrible, holy moments

Now in your hour of death

I chant a blessing for your dying

“Receive your servant

His trials done

Let not death hold him

Your beloved Son”

Then you breathe your last

And your spirit departs

I shudder along with all creation

At the emptiness that descends upon us.

I hold your body till you are taken down

Then I am empty, but not barren

Never the same

Forever imprinted by you

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Poem: By Your Wounds

By Your Wounds

There you are, wounded in your person

Drawing me close to you

To join myself with you

You open my heart and I weep

To see you afflicted, mortal, suffering

I am stricken

Then I am on fire

All my wounds blazing

Burning, overwhelming my senses

I did not come here for this

I came for you, not my woundedness

Jesus, you can’t help it, can you

Always there for me

Seeking my good, even in your time of trial

“Come closer,” you say

Bring my wounds close to yours

uniting them together

Sorrow and love flow mingled down all around me

And you say this is the beginning of my restoration

Mending what’s broken

Redeeming the losses

Making things right

Such blessed suffering you give me

That by your wounds I am healed

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Dutiful Faith Versus Joyful Faith

I’ve been a very dutiful person. I have wanted to know what is right and true and to live it out. And there’s a real value in this kind of serious discipleship and faithfulness. But I think there is a downside. Have I and have we become dutiful Christians versus joyful Christians?

Let’s explore this in the context of prayer. What kind of prayer does God really want from us? Well, God, of course, wants us to spend time with Him, but it also matters the spirit in which we spend that time. I think that God longs for us to have our hearts in it.

While we all have times where we have to make ourselves pray, ultimately God wants us to want to spend time with Him and enjoy spending time with Him. Do you like spending time with people who are making themselves spend time with you? I don’t, and I think it isn’t God’s favorite either.

The Ignatian Exercises rocked my world in this. I as I prayed and encountered Jesus I discovered that I wanted to be with Jesus. I loved Him and loved being loved by Him. I wanted to care about the things he cares about, and love the people he loves. I found my experience of God transformed from a demanding taskmaster to a God that I wanted to be with and who met me daily with comfort, challenge, encouragement and joy. I would hear Jesus asking me “What do you want?” and I found myself answering that what I most wanted was Him and to give myself to Him.

I am blessed to be surrounded by Christians and be a spiritual director to Christians who take discipleship seriously and have attempted to make their lives about following Jesus and give their lives to the body of Christ. I am truly grateful for that. However, sometimes I see much more duty and obligation than I see joy in the Lord.

One of the biggest things I do in spiritual direction is to walk with dutiful Christians as they grow in having desire and joy become more their motivation. I don’t want them to throw out serious discipleship, but instead want to help them find a new motivation for their serious discipleship, desire and joy. The Ignatian Exercises are designed to do this and Jesus Himself always seems to call people to deep desire and joy as they pray through his life. Maybe that is why I love the exercises so much.

I have a long way to go in having desire and joy be my motivation. But it is a journey I am glad to be on with the Lord. It is easy to fall back into duty, but Jesus loves it when I step into desire and joy.

“Dale what do you want?” “I want you, Jesus.”

“Give me only your love and your grace. That’s enough for me.” -Ignatius of Loyola

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This reflection was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Poem: The One That I Love (Jesus)

The One That I Love (Jesus)

I watch You with the intent to know

What motivates You

What is that inner passion that stirs in You?

Spirit blessed and directed

You look at me with eyes that are full

Of laughter, joy and longing

But what I notice most is Your eyes for others

You see, know and love

Love, for the good

Love for the weak

Love in brokenness

Love in the very heart of God

Your heart which overflows

You overflow me

Let me watch the One I love

Loving that I may love

Seeing with Your eyes

Your compassion flowing through my heart

Speaking words of freedom

United

At home with You.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Thoughts on the Exercises: A Generous Heart

I'm always encouraged when people connect deeply with Jesus and find that He's given them a generous heart. In Scripture, we see it in the story of Zacchaeus. He encounters Jesus and suddenly his life is transformed and he starts thinking of others.

Sometimes in the Ignatian Exercises, or when a directee encounters Jesus, they discover generosity welling up within them, looking for a place to flow out to others.

Has God ever given you a generous heart? Would you like to have a generous heart? It's a wonderful gift to be given.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This reflection was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me. You can also read more here.