Suscipe

I know it's easy to scorn the Jesuits for being a bad crew of Marxists and associated evildoers, but Ignatius Loyola was a great saint. Here's one of his prayers, the Suscipe.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding,

and my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

that is enough for me.

Powerful.

God bless,

LSP

Retreat!

We're advancing in a different direction, which means getting on I35E and driving to Montserrat Retreat House for the annual diocesan clergy retreat. You need a retreat after that drive, I tell you.

I was hoping for some quiet fishing off Montserrat's pier but it's underwater. Well, there's no telling where, when and how The Weather will strike in its vicious no-holds-barred war on humanity. Just look at New York, all that tax money and they still got hit by several feet of Climate Change.

So maybe there won't be any fishing, but there will be some Chesterton, The Crimes of England. I'm looking forward to that.

More anon, as the story unfolds.

LSP

Lake Dallas Retreat

Every year the clergy of the Diocese of Fort Worth go on retreat. It's a silent affair, which I like, though there's plenty of opportunity to "frat" with your friends after Compline and I like that too.

Bishop Sutton's our retreat conductor this time around and he's given an excellent series of addresses on the "nuptial nature of the church." All good stuff and it's good to learn something, which isn't always a given on a retreat.

With a view towards learning, I've brought along a few history books. How many worlds have there been before our own? I guess I'll find out when I reach my intended goal of being an expert on ante-diluvia and the forgotten civilizations and races of prehistory.

But now it's time to go to the chapel of this Jesuit retreat house on Lake Dallas and say some prayers, as well as reflecting on the Church as Bride of Christ.

I'll review the above books later, stay tuned.

Atlantis Rising,

LSP

Whassup?

Retreat!

So what's been going on in LSPland? A well-needed diocesan clergy retreat, for a start, led by the new Bishop of San Joaquin, Eric Menees. Menees gave a series of meditations on the duties of clerical life; all good practical stuff, emphasizing the priesthood as a way of life, as opposed to a job that you turn up for and then clock-off from at the end of the day. Sound advice, perhaps especially to those U.S. Anglican clergy who commute from a suburb to their office, stay there till late afternoon and then commute back to their little slice of subdivision heaven. But plastic siding aside, helpful for all of us. Thanks, bishop Menees.

St. Ignatius Loyola

The retreat house, which is run by Jesuits, had a fair amount of Ignatian literature to hand and I read some. Not only was Ignatius a soldier who laid down his arms for the religious life but he also, apparently, believed that everyone has one primary, or foundational "grace", and one correlative sin. Knowing the one can lead to enlightenment and progress in the other. For Loyola, the sin was "vainglory" and triumph at arms, which translated into Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, For the Greater Glory of God.

I like that. Respect to St. Ignatius Loyola.

God bless,

LSP