Gifts and graces

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in the middle of eternity

HLow

Welcome to the Saturday Examen.

This week we have been sitting with some of the most searching and most beautiful passages in all of scripture – the Beatitudes, the call to be salt and light, the law fulfilled not abolished, the mission of Barnabas and Saul, and the astonishing declaration that God is love. Today, the feast of St Anthony of Padua, patron of lost things, is perhaps an opportunity to reflect on what we may have lost or mislaid in our spiritual lives, and to let God find it again for us.

The Beatitudes describe a way of being in the world that is wholly dependent on God. They are not achievements but gifts. As you look back over this week, have you been aware of any particular Beatitude at work in your life – any moment of poverty of spirit, of mourning, of mercy given or received, of peace-making? What gifts and graces do you wish to thank God for?

Jesus calls his followers to be salt and light in the world – to have a distinctive quality about them that nourishes and illuminates rather than blending invisibly into their surroundings. As you look back at this week, have you been aware of living that call? Have there been moments when you felt your light dim or your saltiness fade? How do you find yourself responding to that awareness?

The feast of Barnabas reminded us of the Spirit’s power to call and send us on mission, often through times of prayer and discernment. Today’s feast of Anthony of Padua reminds us that God is always at work seeking and restoring what is lost within us and within our world Is there a sense in which you feel called, sent or lost at this time in your life? How are you responding to that feeling?

The reading from John’s Letter proclaimed that God is love, and that those who abide in love abide in God. As we end this week’s examen, what desires and graces do you wish to bring before this God who is love itself? What do you need, for yourself and for the world? Take all the time you need to share what’s in your heart.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

World without end

Amen