The Spiritual Exercises are a profound experience of the love of the God of Jesus wherein one gains sensitivity and disposition to perceive and welcome the Will of God in one’s own life. It is a deep experience of love that prepares us to love.
The Last Probation is a privileged moment in the life of a Daughter of Jesus. Several years of formation have already passed and the experience of the Lord has acquired consistency and realism.
Formation and apostolic life weave experiences of humanity and faith, of exciting and creative challenges, but also of frustrations and limits. In short, to make the 30-day SE during this very important moment, to fix the eyes and the heart on the way of Jesus, is an enormous novelty and enrichment. It has been a grace to be able to look at myself, my story, and discover in it the loving and ever present imprint of a God who loves me.
I began this journey of encounter with many desires, experiencing a lot of confidence; I felt taken by the hand by God, and from the beginning I was invited to let myself be embraced and cared for by God. With great joy I realized that my root, my origin, my foundation is in God; to feel from within how God gives me being, how he has sustained my life, has made me relish internally the great love that God has always had for me.
My deepest truth lies in the founding experience of feeling loved, thought of and cared for by a good Father, who is extremely close and tender, who knows nothing but to love. Of course, as in any truly Christian experience, the encounter with the love of Jesus is also an encounter with one’s ambiguity, my inner distractions and noises. However, there was Jesus always ready to welcome me, as he has always done in my history. The first week was like that, feeling like a daughter who has returned home and is celebrated by the Father. What a joy to have such a Father! How many challenges there are for everyday life!
Forgiven and with that inner joy that feeling loved gives you, I prepared to contemplate the life of Jesus in the Second Week. During this time, I let myself be enveloped by the dynamics of the intimate dialogue with him, without any hurry, slowly, letting myself be confronted by his life (gospel), and I was able to reread my history from his look, his way of accompanying me and being present in these years of journeying; and it is there, in that past history and in the present, where I rediscovered myself called (today and now). His call today is not abstract, it is very concrete; it has faces, names, taste, rhythms. He calls me today to be with him, and to send me to heal by accompanying and to console by listening, whatever and wherever it is needed. The call today has flesh, joy, sorrows, but, above all, hopes. My answer today is more conscious and realistic and from there freer and happier.
Contemplating Jesus, being food, health, reconciliation, encounter, life, relationship, light … moved the deepest parts of me to want to live in its logic. The entire life of Jesus led me to identify with his Kingdom proposal, announcing the generous and overflowing love of a God who invited me to leave everything, to follow him unconditionally, offering with humility and joy my five loaves and two fish and with this, all my life.
The Third Week was an accompaniment of Jesus offering his life for love, in freedom. There were no words; it was the silent contemplation of how the deity hides, it was to accompany the suffering humanity of a man who has given everything. It hurt to see Jesus destroyed, with dread and anguish, opting to reach the end, being faithful to the will of the Father.
But death could not be stronger, it could not have the last word, and of this the women and I are witnesses. The Father’s love was stronger than death. The resurrection brings joy, peace, consolation to my life; all corners are now illuminated. Feeling accompanied by the risen Jesus in every road, the joy of his presence flooded my life; I felt confirmed in the mission and reaffirmed in love. I am called to console, witnessing his love, bringing hope, encouraging life in all its manifestations.
What has been lived, received, has been so much that nothing else springs from my heart but to desire to love and serve with all my person Jesus and those he prefers, giving him my whole life. I tell him with all my being: Lord, whatever you wish, wherever you wish, however you wish, whenever you wish, with whomever you wish, for as long as you wish, that alone do I want, to do your will. “Give me your love and your grace, that is enough for me.”
Arisleida M. Rincón P.
Province of Brazil- Caribe