Summary of the catechesis
We continue our reflection on discernment, and for this, we can be helped by the concrete example of a saint: Ignatius of Loyola. When Ignatius was convalescing after being wounded in the leg during a battle, he devoted himself to reading. He would have preferred stories of chivalry, but at home, there were only books about saints. However, reading these stories, knowing figures such as St. Francis and St. Dominic, He felt that God’s style was attracting him and inviting him to change his life.
Discernment is the help to recognize the signs with which the Lord makes himself found in unforeseen situations, even unpleasant ones, as was for Ignatius the wound in his leg.
“When he thought of chivalrous things he took great delight; but when he left it, he found himself dry and discontented; and when in doing all the rigors which the saints ought to have done; he not only consoled himself when he was in such thoughts, but even after leaving, he remained happy and joyful” (n. 8), left him a trail of joy.
In this experience, we can notice two aspects in particular.
– the timeI mean, the thoughts of the world are attractive at first, but then they lose luster and leave empty, discontented, they leave you like this, an empty thing. Thoughts of God, on the contrary, arouse at first a certain resistance – “This boring stuff from the saints I won’t read” – but when they are welcomed they bring an unknown peace, which lasts for a long time.
– the point of arrival of thoughts. We understand what is good for us in our life’s journey. The rules of discernment help us to make this journey. There is a history that precedes the discerner, a history that is indispensable to know. We have to learn to listen to our own hearts in order to make good decisions.
God works through the unscheduled events and also in the setbacks. I give you a piece of advice, be on the lookout for the unexpected. The one who says: “But I didn’t expect this by chance”. Is the Lord speaking to you or is the devil speaking to you? Someone. But there is something to discern.
In the life of Mother Candida
We are recalling a moment in Spanish history that made it possible for Juana Josefa and Father Herranz to meet. The revolution of 1968, which brought heavy persecution to the Church in Spain, brought the Sabater family from Burgos to Valladolid, and with them went Juanitatxo to continue caring for the children and taking care of more than a few household chores. Shortly afterward, it was Father Herranz, now a Jesuit, who arrived at his brothers’ house from his assignment in Leon. Mother Candida’s synthesis of our birth is something like this.
An exclaustrated Jesuit saint who conceived the idea of founding a female congregation for education and is waiting, trusting in God, for the right person to carry out this project with her.
This poor servant, almost illiterate, who resolved in her adolescence to be only for God, who kept her desire alive, waiting to know what His will for her was, while she asked for His light through prayer and penance.
God’s response, received by each one of us in a different way, surprising and disconcerting, illogical in human terms, because He wanted faith to be the first support of this risky undertaking.
Finally, that providential meeting, in the church of San Felipe de la Penitencia, of the two instruments whom, without my deserving it, God had chosen to carry out a work that was to be, first and foremost, His.
Pg. 43 of “Donde Dios te llame” by Mª del Carmen de Frías, FI
And you, where has God surprised you lately? What has he said to you in recent unpleasant situations? How has it made itself present to you in objective moments of difficulty or when you would have wished otherwise?
