Summary of the catechesis
Our life is the most valuable “book” that has been given to us, a book that many unfortunately do not read, or do so too late before they die. And yet, it is precisely in this book that one finds what one seeks uselessly in other ways.
Invitation to cultivate the inner life to find what you are looking for: “Enter into yourself. Read your life. Read yourself inside, how your journey has been. With serenity. Enter into yourself”.
Getting used to rereading one’s own life educates one’s gaze, refines it, and allows us to notice the small miracles that the good God performs for us every day. We may ask ourselves: Have I ever told anyone about my life? Discernment is the narrative reading of the beautiful moments and of the dark moments, of the consolations and of the desolations that we experience in the course of our lives. In discernment, it is the heart that speaks to us of God, and we must learn to understand its language.
In the life of Mother Candida
Faithful to the means that Ignatian spirituality places before us to grow in familiarity with God and to discover Him at work in our own lives, Mother Candida reviews the day each evening. This is what sharpens her senses to discover the hand of God in every event, even in the most painful ones.
We remember Father Herranz’s assignment to Galicia when the Congregation was just a few months old. There was so much to do! They needed his advice and help so badly! Mother Candida, not without expressing her displeasure and regret, writes to him a month after his departure to his new destination and says:
“I tell you again that we are very satisfied and happy. I tell you what I feel. We are looking step by step and we will see the hand of God and we will affirm ourselves more in his divine finger. Yes, it is true that it costs a lot of suffering, but it also has so much merit. We are very happy fulfilling God’s will”.
Letter of M. Candida to Fr. Candida to Fr. Herranz September 22, 1872
How about you?
What does the book of your life say? Do you accept it? Do you welcome it? Are you telling anyone? Are you telling yourself? Do you discover how God has been making you, leading you, taking care of you…? In the present, do you discover his hand in the events? Are you able to accept what life brings and find it encouraging and sustaining? Ask Him to discover Him in your life and to give you a grateful heart.
