The Two Camps - St Ignatius Loyola & St Louis deMontfort
April 8th 2009 01:33
It's a long time since I've done an Ignatian retreat but I still remember most of what the retreat was about.
You can do two types of Ignatian retreats - a 7 day one or a 28 day one. These old-fashioned Latin Catholic retreats have one major rule. You don't talk to anyone for the entire period apart from your confessor. Oh, and God and Satan and your own conscience.
St Ignatius was a soldier. He took everything he learned from the battles he fought on earth into his teachings, and then taught people what the supernatural battle was all about by way of analogy.
He's the founder of the Jesuits (The Society of Jesus). They answered to the pope. Obedience is a big thing in religious life. Try explaining obedience today to people and you may as well go and preach to a storm drain.
Anyway, St Ignatius starts off by talking about the two camps. There are God's soldiers and the devil's soldiers, and these two camps will never see eye-to-eye.
I see it on Orble all the time. St Ignatius was a wise man.
You just can't have any dialogue with error. You can't convince stupid people of the truth. It can be fun trying, but it's not really worth it.
When the Cure d'Ars was preaching about God, he used to act like a dolt. And just tell very simple truths. He wasn't dumb. The devil, or Satan, or the Grappin as he used to call him, used to often appear to him. He used to burn his room and make all sorts of strange noises in the night. One day Satan told him to stop preaching like a dolt. The holy Cure knew instantly that the one thing he had to continue doing was speaking simply like a dolt so he could get through to simple people. Because only simple people seek God. Most modern people aren't simple at all. They think humility is a sign of weakness. Everyone wants to be a hero, not live a simple life and go to heaven to see the good God as the Cure used to call him.
I read the life of every saint I could get my hands on a few years ago. I have a lot of information stored in my poor mind.
When I used to pray. A few years ago now, I remember one of my favourite subjects of meditation/mental prayer was the hidden life of Christ. What He did for those 30 years at Nazareth (and in Egypt). Not much is written about His hidden life. His humble life as a tradie. Jesus the tradie.
But, even though he was God made man, he still had to function as a human. One person. Two natures. One divine. One human.
I'd like to have a simple life with Teresa. She's really nice. I'd like to be in love again. Do romantic things. KIng Solomon wrote the Canticle of Canticles and God allowed it to be put in His Bible. And it's very erotic, so I think God wants me be with a really nice woman. And we can have a simple life together with a lot of love and romance.
And some really good meals. I like sitting with a woman over an extended meal. It makes the food taste much better. A pinch of love is what is missing from most modern meals eaten on the run.
Iv'e gone completely off track again. Oh well, it's only a blog.
You can do two types of Ignatian retreats - a 7 day one or a 28 day one. These old-fashioned Latin Catholic retreats have one major rule. You don't talk to anyone for the entire period apart from your confessor. Oh, and God and Satan and your own conscience.
St Ignatius was a soldier. He took everything he learned from the battles he fought on earth into his teachings, and then taught people what the supernatural battle was all about by way of analogy.
He's the founder of the Jesuits (The Society of Jesus). They answered to the pope. Obedience is a big thing in religious life. Try explaining obedience today to people and you may as well go and preach to a storm drain.
Anyway, St Ignatius starts off by talking about the two camps. There are God's soldiers and the devil's soldiers, and these two camps will never see eye-to-eye.
I see it on Orble all the time. St Ignatius was a wise man.
You just can't have any dialogue with error. You can't convince stupid people of the truth. It can be fun trying, but it's not really worth it.
When the Cure d'Ars was preaching about God, he used to act like a dolt. And just tell very simple truths. He wasn't dumb. The devil, or Satan, or the Grappin as he used to call him, used to often appear to him. He used to burn his room and make all sorts of strange noises in the night. One day Satan told him to stop preaching like a dolt. The holy Cure knew instantly that the one thing he had to continue doing was speaking simply like a dolt so he could get through to simple people. Because only simple people seek God. Most modern people aren't simple at all. They think humility is a sign of weakness. Everyone wants to be a hero, not live a simple life and go to heaven to see the good God as the Cure used to call him.
I read the life of every saint I could get my hands on a few years ago. I have a lot of information stored in my poor mind.
When I used to pray. A few years ago now, I remember one of my favourite subjects of meditation/mental prayer was the hidden life of Christ. What He did for those 30 years at Nazareth (and in Egypt). Not much is written about His hidden life. His humble life as a tradie. Jesus the tradie.
But, even though he was God made man, he still had to function as a human. One person. Two natures. One divine. One human.
I'd like to have a simple life with Teresa. She's really nice. I'd like to be in love again. Do romantic things. KIng Solomon wrote the Canticle of Canticles and God allowed it to be put in His Bible. And it's very erotic, so I think God wants me be with a really nice woman. And we can have a simple life together with a lot of love and romance.
And some really good meals. I like sitting with a woman over an extended meal. It makes the food taste much better. A pinch of love is what is missing from most modern meals eaten on the run.
Iv'e gone completely off track again. Oh well, it's only a blog.
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