WHITE HOUSE JESUIT RETREAT

St. Louis, MO 63129

1-800-643-1003

Jesuit retreat center high on the bluffs of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO.  Since 1922, thousands of people from around the world make annual three-day silent, guided retreats here to relax, reconnect with God and strengthen their spirituality.  A true gem in the Midwest!  Call 314-416-6400 or 1-800-643-1003.  Email reservations@whretreat.org  7400 Christopher Rd.  St. Louis, MO 63129

Both men's and women's retreats are offered as well as recovery retreats.

Take Spirituality to the Next Level!

Weekend Reflections for 9/2/16

September 02, 2016  /  Joe Parisi

 

An Ignatian Spirituality of MercyWorks for Labor Day.


Image courtesy of The Catholic Worker

As we move along into Labor Day weekend, when many of us have an extra day off, Sunday's bible readings invite us to reflect back on the gift of the Spiritual Exercises we have experienced at White House and look forward to how we might better collaborate in building on these profound spiritual foundations.  In the Exercises St. Ignatius encourages us to see God at work all around us, to "find God in all things" even, or maybe even especially, in our work. And as always, Ignatius invites us to respond. Sunday's bible readings challenge us to put discipleship at the foundations of all else that we labor for, not as slaves, but as co-workers, partners in building the kingdom.

 

While in times past human labor may have been considered more as a curse (Gen 3:17) than a blessing, Pope John Paul II gives us a profound reflection on the positive Christian meaning of work in his encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work)[i] , developing a spirituality of work and encouraging the same solidarity with labor that his predecessor Pope Leo XIII taught 90 years earlier in his pathfinding Rerum Novarum. Both of these gospel-based church teachings stress the rights of workers and labor organizations and the duties of employers toward their workers, as well as the biblical roots for human rights in the works of mercy. Perhaps this Labor Day "off" can also be a day "on" beyond picnics and parades, a day in which we reflect upon our own works of mercy and the work of so many others around us as contributing to the gift of God's creation, and finding new ways of laboring for God's Greater Glory in the new and challenging situation of work in our interdependent world today. 

-Edward B. "Ted" Arroyo, S.J.