Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

Catholic Ignatian Marian Spirituality

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES: TIPS ON DOING THEM WELL

st_ignatius_of_loyola_1491-1556_founder_of_the_jesuits

1.   MAGNANIMITY.    In Annotation # 5 in the text of the
Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius emphasizes the capital importance of being truly generous with God.  God rejoices
heartily in a generous soul; He shuns and holds back graces to a lazy soul.  Indeed, God cannot be outdone in
generosity.  God takes more pleasure in one soul who wants to become a saint than in thousands of mediocre souls. May our Lady’s Fiat/her “Yes” to God through the Archangel Gabriel be our motivating principle!
2.   TIME AND PLACE. Once again we remind and
encourage our retreatants to find a time and
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TEN HOLY REMINDERS TO GROW IN HOLINESS

1. HEROIC MOMENT AND MORNING OFFERING.      The founder of Opus Dei, St. Jose Maria Escriva Balaguer warns us not do open the door to the devil of laziness, from the start.  He who begins well ends well! As soon as the alarm clock rings, out of bed and up and at em’ (Military motto).  For many, this is a “Heroic moment” because the devil of laziness  is there to glue you to the bed covers from the  take off!  “Agere contra”—do the opposite!  On your knees, the sign of the cross and Act of Consecration of the day to Jesus

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SAINTS: OUR FAITHFUL FRIENDS

Feeling lonely, abandoned, forsaken, forgotten by all, at times even miserable—these are all clear manifestations of what St. Ignatius describes as  a state of desolation.

Nobody escapes it in some form or other— this dreary, cloudy, misty, depressing, dark and often scary state of desolation.  Often “the enemy of our human nature” (the devil), as Ignatius calls him, even convinces us to believe that this state is permanent. We are stuck forever in it like a dark, endless tunnel in which no light can be peered in any direction.
Not true! Desolation will evaporate and give rise to consolation; the
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EASTER GIVES TRUE MEANING TO LIFE & DEATH!

The winter snows melt and spring flowers blossom and emanate their beautiful fragrance. The sharp thorns  fade and the pink glowing rose sprouts and adorns the colorful meadow.  An ugly caterpillar  passes through the transformation of a beautiful gliding monarch butterfly.  The dark stormy sky fades and out bursts forth an awesome  rainbow.  Coal being black, hard, dirty, pressurized transforms into a precious diamond, of the best quality.  All of these are mere natural analogies of the greatest of all events: the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 

 A  hardened sinner moved by grace, renouncing his sin, reforming
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Freedom that comes from forgiveness

Divine Mercy Sunday highlights the sublime virtue in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His mercy.  Mercy is God’s love forgiving the sinner.  His mercy is infinite and the greatest of all of His  virtues.

What pains the Heart of Jesus most, even more than sin itself, is the lack of trust in His boundless mercy.  The greatest sinners can be the greatest saints if they simply place their trust in His mercy.
St. Paul summarizes it in these few words: “Where sin abounds the mercy of God abounds all the more.”  St Augustine adds his theological insight:  “God allows evil
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