Weekend Reflections for 8/7/20

Sunday’s bible readings (1 Kings 19:9-13, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33) seem appropriate for our White House ministry of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Here at White House one of our mottos is “you belong here.” In the readings, however, no one is where they are supposed to be. Elijah was supposed to be doing the Lord’s work in Damascus, but he was running away from God’s calling him. Jesus’ disciples were supposed to be on “the other side” of the sea of Galilee, but they were afraid. And Peter, poor Peter who was supposed to be the leader, abandoned ship. He was less afraid of drowning than of going to the other side where he was missioned.

But they stand as a reminder of the graces of the Spiritual Exercises you have undertaken at White House, exercises which challenge you to continue to:
1. Listen to the still small voice on a daily basis, perhaps using the awareness examen on page 43 of the White House prayer book. 
2. Take the time to go back to the mountain top again and again in your life, even back here to White House again and again.3. When you drive out of White House, you see our sign: “you are now returning to the mission field”, troubled waters and all. Be not afraid as you return to the troubled waters of life. It might be difficult for us too, but the Lord sends each one of us on mission too. Pope Francis puts it this way: “you don’t have a mission, you are a mission.”  And he locates that mission by saying :“The Church must step outside herself, to go where? To go to the outskirts of existence.”
4. Those waters are especially troubled in these ongoing, seemingly endless days, weeks and months of coronavirus. Our Ignatian Solidarity Network’s website provides what you might find helpful in praying with this, an “Examen for Life During COVID-19”.

 https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2020/03/14/examen-covid-19/

-Fr. Ted Arroyo, SJ