Christ Has No Voice But Yours - Ripples of Grace

Ripples of Grace

I just came home from my father’s 99th Birthday celebration. Dubbed the Papapalooza, he was surrounded by as many of his eight children and their families as could get there from around the country. Perfect attendance would have amounted to 89 people. Papapalooza indeed! There were countless stories, one leading to another, recalling a life well lived.

My own 75th birthday last month has offered me an invitation to look back and rediscover my stories, many long forgotten, the memories of my heart. Isn’t our heart the place where all meaningful stories begin? I can see that while my own family is small by Papapalooza standards, numbering only 11, my “adopted” family of friends and children through the years and over continents numbers countless more. These are the siblings and children of my heart whom I hold dear. I came by this tendency naturally. My parents “collected” such family members all my life. While not our biological family, they were our “aunts” and “uncles”, and they always had a place at our table and in our hearts.

It is easy to take someone in your life for granted when that person has always been there even if only in the background. I had to laugh in wonder when he came forward the other day while I was praying. The random, grace-full pieces of my spiritual life fell into place. He taught me the word “memory” when I was a child. Later, when my longing for more had me on my knees in the adoration chapel, he taught me how to pray. Ignatius of Loyola quietly recruited me long ago, and I have come to realize how deeply woven he has always been in my life.

How did this happen? When? Ignatius gave me the Suscipe and the Anima Christi when I was a child. These prayers were in the back of a little, white prayer book I received on my First Communion Day. I didn’t know the meanings of all the words then, but they drew me to Jesus in my gratitude for the sacrament. Decades before I ever knew who St. Ignatius was or discovered the wealth of Ignatian Spirituality, the Suscipe and the Anima Christi became my grounding.

About 15 years ago, St. Ignatius stepped into my life again. The internet caught up to rural Vermont, and I discovered spiritual writers who shared their work on social media and websites. Vinita Hampton Wright, Fr. James Martin, and Becky Eldredge entered my life on my iPad, and they offered me the richness of Ignatian Spirituality. While I was cautiously curious at first, in time I saw my path.

Ignatius became my Patron Saint of “Wait! It’s not supposed to be like this! I had a plan!” It would be safe to say that he also became my Patron Saint of, “Help! I have no idea what to do now!” Five years ago, I was happily retired, quilting, cooking, reading, and beginning a daily practice of prayer. Sounds normal, doesn’t it?

The world was soon shut down by COVID, and we all wondered if normal would ever be normal again. The family of ministries founded in the spirit of St. Ignatius became my community, my inspiration, my spiritual home.

“Mary Ann, have you ever considered praying the Spiritual Exercises?” That question from my Spiritual Director was my Cannonball moment. I knew the moment I heard it that I was being called to follow the Lord of my longing. I began the Exercises on his feast day, July 31, 2019. Led by the Holy Spirit, my heart was brought to rest in the heart of Christ. Like Ignatius, I know who I live and work for. My Spiritual Director has a plaque in her home which says, “Who I am in Christ is who I am.” I had no idea what that meant when she first said it. In the following months of prayer shaped by the wisdom of Ignatius and God’s grace, I learned … all because 500 years ago a wounded soldier, out of a job and longing for purpose said “Yes” to a call from his Lord. My own longing, a grace filled gift of the Holy Spirit, gave me the courage to say yes, too.

While his story is the stuff of legends, Ignatius’ greatest contribution to the world which has touched and transformed me and millions of others is The Spiritual Exercises and his 14 Rules of Discernment in Daily Life. Ignatius, the soldier, knew what his fellow soldiers throughout time would need to faithfully follow their Lord. He knew that in battle, vigilance was essential, and information had to be simple and clear. In life, nothing is a straight line, and different challenges require different approaches. To survive, it is as important to know the enemy as it is to know who you serve. The Spiritual Exercises were a source of healing and discovery for me,and the Rules of Discernment have been my guide ever since. God calls in whispers, and Ignatius taught me how to listen.

The world has changed dramatically in the past 500 years, yet God’s desire to share love and friendship with each soul created by that Love is constant. I know that the Suscipe and Anima Christi were God’s gift to a little girl who would one day come to know and love the soldier who wrote them.

Ignatian Spirituality is as timeless as God’s love and mercy. It continues to hold and inspire the work of Ignatian Ministries with ripples of grace through the Into the Deep Blog posts, in preached and online retreats, prayer groups, book clubs, spiritual direction, pastoral care and every other way each of us responds to the grace God offers us. Here we have a home.

Happy Feast Day, St. Ignatius…and thank you.

Going Deeper:

• Read Gretchen Crowder’s poem, I’m All In.
• Listen to Dan Schutte’s song, These Alone Are Enough.
• Read David Fleming’s translation of the Anima Christi prayer, available in Hearts on Fire; Praying with the Jesuits.

Jesus, may all that is in you flow into me.

May your body and blood be my food and drink.

May your passion and death be my strength and life.

Jesus, with you by my side enough has been given.

May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your cross.

Let me not run from the love which you offer.

But hold me safe from the forces of evil.

On each of my dyings shed your light and your love.

Keep calling to me until that day comes.

When with our saints, I may praise you forever.

Amen

    \- David Fleming, S.J.

Photo by Eugene on Unsplash

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Mary Ann Gessner

Mary Ann Gessner has worked with all generations as an art teacher, in Nursing Homes as Recreation Director, Social Services and Admissions Director and Administrator. She was the Director of Admission with a focus on international student recruitment for St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont and holds a BA in Studio Art and Art Education from the University of Bridgeport, CT and a M.S.A. from St. Michael’s College in VT. Since retiring in 2015, Mary Ann has enjoyed the gift of time to nest, quilt, and cook. This gift of time led to Ignatian Spirituality in the Inner Chapel and Becky’s Overwhelmed No More retreat and the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises. Mary Ann is an Ignatian trained spiritual director in private practice, an Interfaith Chaplain and is applying her love of storytelling as a writer. Her two sons have moved gracefully into their adult lives with their families. Mary Ann and her husband still live in the log home they built almost 50 years ago in the woods of Sheffield, Vermont.