Turning Toward God
by Brian Robertson
"Everything that one turns in the direction
of God is a prayer...."St. Ignatius Loyola (1491 - 1556)
It's interesting that some of the great figures in Christian mystic thought and living were beset with sufferings that, rather than destroying them, gave them new life and direction. St. Francis, traumatized by war and illness, came to a great spiritual awakening. St. Ignatius of Loyola, subjected to physical wounds in war, began to read the stories of the saints, of those who had remarkable encounters with God's grace.
The interest led him to make a pilgrimage to the Catalonian shrine of our Lady at Monserrat. Following an all night vigil, he exchanged his very fine clothes with a beggar's and left his sword and dagger on the altar of our Lady.
Following that, he spent quite a bit of time alone in reflection, supported by mystic visions that included seeing blinding light from the Eucharist.
His work is available under the title, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, and offers guidance for one who seeks deeper spiritual relationship with God.
His quote sums up so much of what is right with the mystic's desire to know God's love. When one sits in contemplation in, say, the manner of The Cloud of Unknowing or the Centering Prayer or the Prayer of Jesus, what is it that we direct toward God? It is humble devotion, yes, but love.
Jesus' teachings, notably the parables, were based on surprise and on looking at the world in a topsy-turvy manner. The first will be last? The last first? The poor are blessed? Those whose work begins later are paid the same as those who begin early?
Perhaps the greatest of those is that as weak a signal as our love may be -- covered over by the concerns of life, our anger, our fear and our despair -- even the smallest turn toward God is a prayer that is heard and felt through worlds visible and invisible.
Over and over, the Christian mystic in tradition and today's world is surprised by joy, grateful in love, made strong in grace. At heart, we are not unworthy by our nature to receive these gifts - for we are made in God's image and move to his likeness. If one is too attached to the concept of Original Sin, one can forget that we have, at our center, Original Goodness.
And, as Loyola's quote suggests, this is the key to the traditional request to "Pray ceaselessly." To reach for that lofty goal is to turn toward God, ceaselessly, to move from self-consciousness to Kingdom-consciousness where Original Goodness is restored.
