Wednesday 22 April 2026
Acts 8:1-8. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy – Ps 65(66):1-7. John 6:35-40.
Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me
I made the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius for the first time, in Chicago, from 15 December 1980 to 15 January 1981. The enduring grace that stayed with me for years was an awareness that I had a Father who loved me. I was drawn to live for the Father.
Years later, I was making an eight-day directed retreat at Canisius College, Pymble. I remember going out walking. As I climbed the path back to the retreat house, I had a sudden awareness. I said to Jesus, ‘Oh, you know about the Father’. I realised I was being drawn to live with Jesus for the Father.
When in 2001 I made the Exercises again at Loyola House, Guelph, that relationship deepened. Back in Chicago, my director had commented that the graces of the Exercises are given as seeds. Those seeds continue to germinate and grow. It is all gift and grace.
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