Non-Assignment

Meeting with the retreatant each day, the Spiritual Director may suggest a topic as the basis of prayer over the next 24 hours. These are not assignments, but truly “suggestions” which one may go with, or may go one’s own way, as I may wish or feel led. All of these are being helpful to me, variously, including seeming somehow to open prayer as a two-way street in which I am receptive to whatever comes my way instead of just trying to hear answers to my concerns. It reminds me of Jesus’ “trick” in which a hostile person asks Him a question only to have His response be a rejoinder shifting the focus from what they want answered to what He wants heard. 

“Trick” is the wrong word, maybe the word will come to mind before this morning’s +Time nonsense is signed, maybe not. Anyway, it’s a rhetorical technique, isn’t it. If what I mean isn’t clear, such a case might be the gospel exchange that begins, “Shall we pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” You may get an answer to your own question, or He may answer some other question entirely, or He may turn the tables such that you must answer your own question. And you may feel blessed, or you may slip away with a red face.

Suggested to me yesterday for the 23 hours before today’s meeting is to imagine prayerfully what happened between Jesus and Mary his Mother after the Resurrection. It’s between Jesus and that Mary. We already know what happened between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, don’t we: he said, “Don’t touch me,” didn’t he. But what happened between Jesus and his Mother is not addressed in the gospels.

If anyone is reading my +Time nonsense this morning, and is so inclined, set your own imagination prayerfully free with my non-assignment for today, and see what comes of it.

From the Sodality Chapel, here’s an image to ponder as you pray.

And here’s a blessing for your prayer.

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Tom+