Empty nest this week. The young miss is visiting friends in Texas. I feel a bit at a loss. Maybe a bit old too.
I don’t recall Saint Ignatius ever writing of an adult child leaving home. Perhaps he or some other Jesuit actually did it. Or discussed the departure of a beloved brother.
Anyway, this prayer comes to mind. I know I blogged on it once, but here it is in its entirety:
When the signs of age begin to mark my body
(and still more when they touch my mind);
when the ill that is to diminish me or carry me off
strikes from without or is born within me;
When the painful moment comes
in which I suddenly awaken
to the fact that I am ill or growing old;
and above all at that last moment
when I feel I am losing hold of myself
and am absolutely passive within the hands
of the great unknown forces that have formed me;
in all these dark moments, O God,
grant that I may understand that it is You
(provided my faith is strong enough)
who are painfully parting the fibers of my being
in order to penetrate to the very marrow
of my substance and bear me away within Yourself.
As a conclusion to the Ignatian Year, yet another post on some aspect of Jesuit spirituality.
Catholic Sensibility 