Creatures Within and Without

At a silent directed retreat one is assigned a spiritual director, with whom one has a regular daily meeting of forty minutes to an hour. The spiritual director largely listens -- so, obviously it’s a psychological process of sorts -- and responds with observations and guidance about the retreat, suggesting tasks for the period until the next session, including Scripture for reading, contemplation, and prayer. There may be three bits of Scripture, each to deal with individually in separate segments of quiet time. For example, I may have had a Genesis reading, a reading from Matthew, and a reading from Kings.

In both retreats, spiritual directors assigned bits from Isaiah, especially oracles in which God speaks to Israel through the prophet. One was from Isaiah 43, Hashem telling his people he’s doing a new thing for them, leading them through the wilderness and bringing them out into a marvelous new place, and how great it’s going to be. My spiritual director pointed out the ostriches and jackals in Isaiah 43:20, with the thought for me to notice them, and that they might be part of our next day’s chat. As it happened, the next day’s session was so busy that I forgot to bring them up, but they were in my mind, and still are this morning.

In the Isaiah 43 selection, jackals and ostriches are wild creatures of chaos working to frustrate God’s plan; but even they will be brought to submission and praise. My assignment included prayerfully contemplating who and what they might be, both within me and around me. I’m thinking first of my character -- is flaw the word? -- that gets me into this cyclic mess of overloading myself so that every few years it’s vital for me to shrive and begin anew. The ostriches and jackals may be needs of others and my joyful eagerness to respond, as for example adding more and more to my schedule such that eventually, cyclically, I must withdraw to the Silence.

My Summer is still a work in process.

TW+