"I am created to praise, love, and serve God."
In the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius invites us to pray over the 1st Principle and Foundation. He presents us with a road map for life, of who we are, our purpose and destiny, and how best to live our lives to achieve that end.
In this prayer exercise, we reflect on our fundamental vocation of being a person created by God, made in His Image and Likeness, created with particular gifts and aptitudes to use for giving glory to God, as we co-labor with Him in building the Kingdom.
Begin Each Prayer period:
A. Beginning your prayer time: At the beginning each prayer period, offering yourself to the Lord. Prayer of “Take and Receive”
Take Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
Take Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
Thou hast given all to me.
To Thee, O Lord, I return it.
All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will.
Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.
Amen
B. I pray for the following graces: a deepening awareness of my fundamental vocation to praise, love, and serve God and others; a desire for greater indifference in my life; a willingness to embrace who I am before our loving God.
Three Prayer Periods
First Prayer Period: Understanding
Prayerfully read the traditional translation of the Principle & Foundation. Ask God to help you to understand.
Read a second time. Notice which words draw and repel you.
Read a third time. Reflection on the following questions
What is our purpose?
What are we created for?
How are we called to live with creation?
What ought our deepest desire be?
4. Review your Prayer experience. Write down notes about how you felt before, during
and after your prayer.
Second Prayer Period: Relating
Prayerfully read the contemporary translation of the P&F that follows. Ask God to help you to understand.
Read a second time. Notice your response to the words..
Read a third time. Reflection Questions
How do I react to God's call to me?
What is my heartfelt response to being called to be a "good steward".
What attachments (habits, addictions, lesser desires) hinder me from responding fully to God?
4. Review your Prayer experience. Write down notes about how you felt before, during and after your prayer.
Third Prayer Period: Respond
Prayerfully read the traditional translation of the Principle & Foundation. Recall moments in your life when you felt in balance and times when you felt out of balance. (We call these moments of spiritual freedom and spiritual chaos)
Prayerfully read the contemporary translation of the Principle & Foundation. Note the disordered attachments or "unfreedom" in your life that are roadblocks in your spiritual journey.
In the light of your previous prayer periods, write out the Principle and Foundation in your own words–that is, write out the mission statement that you want to govern your life.
Principle and Foundation (SE:23)
by St. Ignatius of Loyola
Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save their souls. The other things on the face of the earth are created for the human beings, to help them in the pursuit of the end for which they are created.
From this it follows that we ought to use these things to the extent that they help us toward our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it.
To attain this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to our free will and is not forbidden. Consequently, on our own part we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so in all other matters.
Rather, we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created.
Principle and Foundation Contemporary Version
by David Fleming, SJ
The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit.
All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better leads to God deepening his life in me.
This is our true calling and vocation. When we live out of this vocation, we are truly happy and fulfilled. When we allow disordered loves and self-preoccupations to clutter our lives, we find ourselves out of balance, unhappy, and discontented.
St. Ignatius Pray For Us!
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