“Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to seek reward, except that of knowing that I do your will.” St. Ignatius of Loyola
This month we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and we conclude the Ignatian year. The Ignatian year began on May 20, 2021, which marked the 500th anniversary of St. Ignatius cannonball moment. He was a Spanish soldier and he was wounded by a cannonball. This cannonball started a process of conversion which led Ignatius “to see all things new in Christ.”
This was the theme for the Ignatian year: “To see all things new in Christ.” As I meditated on the life of St. Ignatius, I reflected on my own cannonball moment which took place in 2007 when my oldest left to college. The start of his college journey was quite rocky, and it threw my own world upside down. Feeling lost and out of sorts, I signed up to go to a silent retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It was during that weekend of silence that I first heard God’s voice deep within my heart, and I began “to see all things new in Christ.”
My day-to-day life mission had been marked up to that moment to serve my family. I was first and foremost a mother and a wife. When I heard God’s voice, I heard Him asking me to continue serving my family but also to serve Him. He wanted me to reconcile all my responsibilities under His guidance. I was being invited by God to a new life.
Each one of us is unique. Each one of us is born with a special purpose. God wanted me to find a way to make my life meaningful beyond my daily responsibilities of being a wife and mother. He wanted me to contribute to building a better world. He wanted me to share my time, my dreams and my hope, not just with my family, but with the world.
The silent retreat introduced me to a God that I had never met in such a personal way. I began to find God in all things. I realized that everything I had, including my family, was a gift from above, but I had placed my family at the center of my life. Unfortunately, they did not belong at the center because there is only one being that should occupy that central space in my life, and that is God. I was serving my family with my whole heart and I had left God out. My obligations to my family were competing with my obligations to God. I needed to find the balance between the two. I had to make room in my heart for God in order to be able to follow His will and move forward into becoming the person that He wanted me to become.
After that weekend, I have placed my life and my family in the hands of God. It has not always been easy. I’ve had many cannonball moments during my journey. But every cannonball has always been hopeful because God is with me and He is guiding me.
Even though at the time St. Ignatius considered his cannonball moment a complete failure, it was a complete success from God’s eyes. He became a soldier for God, and we are so grateful that he answered God’s call with a resounding yes.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
Copyright © 2022 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.
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