“We love because God first loved us.” - 1 Jn 4:19
On Caritas, we’ve experienced some form of God’s love or grace. One of the most helpful habits to build upon grace is prayer. Spend some time in prayer once or twice a week using the following recommendations:
WEEK 3
In his reflection, To Serve God, Fr. Hebert McCabe, OP writes:
“Serving God isn’t doing anything for God, as though God needed our help. It is recognizing God’s gift to us, recognizing ourselves as God’s gift, thanking God.
When, forgetting this, we see our lives simply as what we have done, what we have acquired and achieved (or failed to acquire and achieve), how we have, or have not, power over things and people, then we are giving to money (the power over things) the service of thanksgiving that is due to God.
The attitude that goes with giving to God the service of thanksgiving that belongs to him is joy and peace . . . But if we give this service to money, our attitude oscillates between self-congratulation when we have succeeded and anxious worry that we should fail. For to fail would now be to lose the meaning of our lives; for now, life’s meaning would lie in what power we can exercise.
If we serve God, we are recognizing that what matters first is what we receive and not what we do or make. What matters first is that we are loved. And this we have before anything we deserve or achieve. To understand this is to understand that it is not only our deeds and our works that matter, but that we matter ourselves. We matter, not first because of what we have made of ourselves, but because of what God has made of us. And that includes what we make of ourselves. To serve God is to stop congratulating ourselves and to begin to love ourselves: to love ourselves as God loves us: not for being rich or clever or powerful, but just for being ourselves. And when we know God’s love for us, and when we can love ourselves, then we can share in God’s love for others.”
Fr. McCabe’s sense of serving God is very similar to what Saint Ignatius of Loyola imagines. For Saint Ignatius, service flows out of gratitude, out of a relationship of love. The more we receive God’s love and goodness, the more we can love as we are loved (Jn 13:34). Whatever we do for (and with others) is a response to our loving relationship with God.
Prompting Questions:
1. Based on my investment of time, energy, excitement and worries in the past few months, to what or to whom have I been serving?
2. How am I serving (the people or things I’ve identified in the above question)?
3. Am I invited to greater service of God in the coming month?
Through which small (atomic) habit or shift in attitude?
By letting go of something (other than God) I’m currently serving?
WEEK 2
On Caritas, we chose to build community like no other. What a difference our choices made! Spend to 10-15’ of prayer by:
Reflecting on your experience of community on Caritas as expressed by these phrases some of us wrote: I found a treasure ... given to me by an amazing sense of community … it was like coming home … to a place where I can be seen, connected, feel understood, accepted, and loved. How did you experience God or love through the Caritas 65 community?
Ask this question as you watch the video below: God, how can I choose to build genuine community today?
WEEK 1
Create a prayer center in your room with your Caritas candle, a cross, and anything else that helps you easily connect with God. Treat yourself to 10-15’ of prayer by:
Focusing on your lit candle.
Repeat out loud the mantra on your candle & pay attention to any memories or feelings that surface.
Recall the moment at the Closing Mass when you blew out your candle & received God’s promise to give you the grace you need to live out the retreat.
Have a heart-to-heart with God. Perhaps ask God, “Is there more you want to show me through my mantra?”
Bonus: Take a photo of your candle & post it on the private FB group page.