I recommend the book The Ignatian Spirituality Reader. A friend loaned it to me last summer when I was on retreat and at Creighton studies. From it, here’s a brief summary of the six characteristics of Ignatian spirituality, courtesy of George Traub, SJ. The first one struck me:
It sees life and the whole universe as a gift calling forth wonder and gratefulness.
I was thinking how that aligned with two events of this summer. The excitement over the discoveries of the New Horizon probe at Pluto. Also, how aligned Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ is with this principle.
Do human beings embrace life and express the basic “thank you” to God for it? Or are we concerned more for getting rescued from our own misadventures?
Instead, what if we took a moment to recollect our day, and pause to recall one aspect of our life for which we can give thanks. Could we do that every day?
