18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parish Family & Friends,

This past week, on the 31st, we celebrated the Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. I have written about him in this column before, but he is worth coming back to, because the spirituality he developed is so conducive to the spiritual growth of the active person. In light of one line from the gospel from this Sunday, I would like to highlight a particular way of praying daily that can help us to find the Lord in the various moments of a certain set of time.

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus describes a hypothetical conversation between a rich man and God, the father. The rich man has stored up for himself much treasure in this world, to the point of having to build extra buildings to hold all of it. But God says to him, “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?” In this case, the preparation of the rich man has been for the fulfillment and enjoyment of his earthly life with material possessions. But I think we can expand this line to include the whole of our lives, not just the acquisition of goods; have we been living lives pleasing to the Lord?

The particular way of praying that can help us to see whether or not we are living according to the Lord’s will, is by praying a daily examen. This is not an examination of conscience, although an aspect of the prayer includes looking at our fault; this is more of a “consciousness” examination, meaning, were we aware of God’s presence and his voice throughout the day, and did we follow it? I encourage you to look up this way of praying online. There are many resources out there to teach somebody how to do this.

Through consistency in praying this way, one can begin to see patterns in their life, come to know more how the Lord is trying to speak to them, and also help to see pitfalls one regularly drops into. Through it all, we can gain a better understanding of how we may be living our lives for the Lord or not. If our lives are demanded of us at any moment, we can be “prepared” because we have been living in a way that pleases God because we have come to know His promptings through examination, and we have responded well.

Peace.

-Fr. Kennell