Lately, I have been paying attention to trees. It all started this past July at a staff gathering for my community, Word Made Flesh, when we reflected on the theme of stability. Trees came up quite a bit as an image of stability. More recently, I have been mindful of a question posed by Susan S. Phillips in her book Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction. She asks one of her directees to imagine the tree that she is created to be and has become. (p. 154). Throughout the …

I have now been living and sharing life with the Word Made Flesh community in Buenos Aires for two and a half years. While I consider myself a novice in Ignatian spirituality, I am grateful for how the process and practices continue to shape my posture of observing, listening and learning. Since first being introduced to the practice of examen five years ago, the intentional attentiveness of Ignatian spirituality has significantly influenced my discernment and vocational discovery.

A number of years ago I came to believe in an absolute kind of way that God Is and that all things exist through Him. Prior to this time, I had believed in a God, sort of.  I was somewhat conscientious and observant of my own selective moral code.  That is, while I sometimes did the things that I considered morally relevant in the Church’s teaching, I usually did what I thought I could get away with. I went to Church and I said the words. I knew the prayers …

 
Flesh and bones we are
but there’s also something else
beneath our thin skin
between connective tissue
and molded muscular frames.
We ask, “What is it?”
and join all the old seekers,
but, in truth, we know.
There, under our skin, the world
heaves, conscious, knowing “I AM.”
The universe breathes
as your lungs fill. You exhale
the sun, moon and stars.
Nothing exists, dear, apart
from you, and you are no-thing.
You came from somewhere
and still you exist, to love
to serve and to share;
your heart beats for love of Him,
your mind is moved by Her thoughts.
But how we forget!
Behind our eyes storm winds blow
chaos, …