September 2009 Recollection

Guide
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 RECOLLECTION GUIDE
September, 2009

THEME: PRINCIPLE and FOUNDATION

Sub-theme: God’s Loving Presence in my Life;

Being Present to God.
Grace: That I may gain a deep understanding of and be
amazed by how God personally and uniquely relates to
me and thus be able to savor and relish His Loving
Presence in my life.
Opening Prayer: (Pause for a few moments to feel God’s
presence).

Almighty God and Father, present in all the whole

universe, but present also in me and in all creatures, I
worship You from the depths of my being and thank You
with all my heart and soul for creating me to Your image
and likeness thus making Your presence felt wherever I
am. Make me always aware that You are near because
of your LOVE. And this awareness should bring me
closer to you as I continue to praise, reverence and serve
You all the days of my life until I come to my eternal well-
being, my Salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus
Christ Your Son, Mother Mary and Venerable Ignacia del
Espiritu Santo. Amen.

Opening Song: Yahweh You Are Near

Yahweh, I know You are near, Standing always

at my side. You guard me from the foe, and
you lead me in ways everlasting.

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 Lord, You have searched my heart and you know
When I sit and when I stand. Your hand is
upon me Protecting me from death keeping
me from harm. Ref.
Where can I run from Your love? If I climb to the
Heavens you are there; if I fly to the sunrise or
Sail beyond the sea still I’d find you there. Ref.
You know my heart and its ways, You who
formed me Before I was born, In secret of
darkness before I
Saw the sun in my mother’s womb. Ref.
Marvelous to me are Your works, How profound
are your thoughts my Lord, even if I could
count them,
They number as the stars you would still be
there. Ref.

INTRODUCTION
Eph. 3: 14 – 21
This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father,
from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural,
takes its name: Out of his infinite glory, may He give you
the power through His Spirit for your hidden self to grow
strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through
faith, and then planted in love and built on love, you will,
with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and
the
length, the height and the depth; until knowing the love of
Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with
the utter fullness of God.

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 Glory be to Him whose power, working in us, can do
infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory be to
Him from generation to generation in the Church and in
Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
In last month’s recollection guide, we had for our
theme the First Principle and Foundation in which was
explained our purpose in life that is to Praise, Reverence
and Serve God in order to attain our eternal salvation. In
this month’s theme, God’s Loving Presence in Our Life, is
a continuation of that Principle and Foundation which
leads us to deeper spirituality and relationship with God.
Developing the practice of spirituality enables one to
grow in the ability to see God in all things. The Spiritual
Exercises of St. Ignatius is pervaded by the sense of
God’s presence in all creation which means that anything
in human experience can be a source for prayer. People
unfamiliar with prayer tend to think of it as something we
have to do in church , or in some other holy place. On the
contrary if spirituality is about our unique personal
response to our personal experience of God,, then prayer
can take place under any circumstance or in any place. If
we allow God to self-reveal as He wills, then we will begin
to see the hand of God in all things.

Reflect and pray over the letter of Paul to the

Ephesians and feel his desire for us to grow strong, so
that Christ may live in our hearts through faith … and ask
for the grace suggested in the beginning.

First Hour of Prayer: Mystery of God’s Presence in

Us

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 If we contemplate on who we really are, how we have
come to existence, we cannot help but think of who
created us and the totality of His love for us. God is
dwelling in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He
called us by a special vocation at the time of our baptism.
He adopted us as His sons and daughters which gives us
our real dignity as persons and as Christians. The
abiding presence of the Holy Spirit within us, is the
source of our hope and joy for we are never alone. What
a great source of peace and consolation for us.
One of the fruits of prayer is experiencing God as an
integral part of our daily living. The fact that God himself
is present objectively in our world and that he is working
in his creation and in his gifts makes it possible or us to
experience His presence in our lives. In the
Contemplation to Obtain Divine Love, we realize that
everything is gift from Him and how he sustains and
energizes us through them.
In God’s presence let us thank God for all the gifts He
has given us throughout our life and in the spirit of
gratitude ask Him how we may use them for God’s
greater glory: Give thanks for the gift of creation, our
parents, our immediate family, my body and my faculties
even if they are not perfect, my special talents, friends,
loved ones, and time to live no matter how quickly it
seems to pass.

End this first hour with a psalm of thanksgiving: 103; or

psalm 138.

Second Hour of Prayer: The Practice of the Presence

of God

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 According to a holy Carmelite Brother Lawrence of the
Resurrection “the holiest, most ordinary and most
necessary practice of the spiritual life is that of the
presence of God. It is to delight in and become
accustomed to His divine company, speaking humbly and
conversing with him all the time, especially in times of
temptation, suffering, dryness in prayer, weariness and
even in infidelity. What a beautiful thing to do if we could
practice being in God’s presence by turning to him
habitually in our heart.”
Our 1726 rule no. 2 says, “ All should at all times and
in all places be in God’s presence. In order to facilitate
the exercise of this true presence, they should develop
great purity of heart by keeping away from everything that
could endanger it.”
Landas No. 46 also says, “Our inner attention is to be
focused constantly on Jesus. We are sensitive to the
movement of the Spirit within us, in the community and in
the various realities around us.” And no. 43 states, “We
live constantly in the sight of the Lord and strive to be
always aware of His presence.”
You may find other ways to practice the presence of
God: by meditating on some symbol that is meaningful to
you; by remembering a particular event in your life which
you are thankful for. What truly matters is the result in
living in God’s presence, namely, becoming consciously
aware of the God who is always with us, but whom we
often forget. Some short prayers would be appropriate
to recall God’s presence such as, “God, be merciful to
me, a sinner,” or “Lord, I am completely yours,” or any
favorite short prayer that you can say from time to time.

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 What are some other practices that you do
which help you live in God’s presence? It would
be good to reflect on them and share them with
the others..

Third Hour of Prayer: Seeing God’s presence in

Others

Jesus, who is a loving presence of God in the

world, teaches us that God wants to love us and be loved
in return through the way we love other people in our
lives. We ask God to make our hearts pure so that we
may be ready to see opportunities in our experiences to
praise, reverence and serve God in others. Because we
are made to the image and likeness of God, we ask for
the grace to love the people in our lives: our families, our
friends, our neighbors, co-workers, our constituents, the
people we work for, complete strangers and enemies.
We ask for the wisdom to understand the ways our lives
must change in order to become more loving, both on a
personal and social level.
An African proverb states: “Not to aid one in
distress is to kill him in your heart.’ How often we pass
others without even realizing our ability to aid them. We
aid each other by our very presence. No presents are
necessary for it is our presence that counts. Not even
words are always necessary. A gentle touch, an arm
around a shoulder, the gift of listening to a need, a
nonjudgmental response, lending a hand to a project,
sitting in a hospital room with a sick person, - these are
some of the things that keep us alive in each other’s
hearts. When we aid others, we give life to each other
and make God’s presence felt in them and in us.

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 We pray for the grace of contemplative action,
namely, making everything we do arise out of a deep,
daily commitment to make our lives, choices and actions
reflect the abiding presence and love for God and seeing
Him in others.

How am I experiencing God’s presence and how

is God experiencing me at the moment?

We close this third hour of prayer with the song

THOSE WHO SEE LOVE CAN SEE GOD.

Ref. Those who see light can walk in the dark,

Those who see love can see God.
Those who look up will discover God’s face,
Those who look down will uncover God’s path
Those who perceive God is here with us now,
Will see God’s return. Ref.
Those who have witnessed the sun rise and set,
Those who have studied a flower unfold,
Those who have focused on land, sea and sky,
Have seen Jesus Christ. Ref.
Those who see good in each person they meet,
Those who look after their neighbor in need,
Those who believe God’s now living in them,
Will see God’s return. Ref.

Note: You may use the Prayers in Preparation

for Death from last month’s recollection guide or
from other prayers.

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Suggestion: That one of the hours may be prayed
before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in order
to also be in His Sacramental Presence.

To be prayed in common:
Litany of the Saints
Midday Prayer
Prayers in Preparation for a Happy Death
Angelus

References:

Landas/ 1726 Rules

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
The Ignatian Workout by Tim Muldoon
Eight Days of the Spiritual Exercises by Florencio
Segura, S.J.
The Practice of the Presence of God by Salvatore
Sciurba, OCD
Spiritual Freedom by John English, S.J.
Tickle Your Soul by Anne Bryan Smollin

The recollection guides of August and September, 2009

were prepared by S. Maria Rafaela Singzon, RVM and
S. Maria Teresa Valdez, RVM.