September 12, 2023, Class Update: God in All Things

Greetings everyone!

It was great to gather for our first class session of the new RE year.

After starting with a time of prayer in the Pine Room with all the classes, we went to our room.

We spent time getting to know one another as began our time of swimming on the Ocean of God.  Even though God is sometimes hard to comprehend, as vast as the ocean, He reveals Himself to us so we can have a relationship with Him, which is like getting a floating device so we can swim in the ocean of God.


I shared some photos from my summer as a means to illustrate how God is in all things, which is part of Ignatian spirituality.

Here I am on the observatory level of the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, MN.  A statue with horses painted in gold appears to the left of me, and to the right is the Cathedral of St. Paul.

As a closing prayer in class, we took time to reflect on our day using the Ignatian practice of the Examen.  Here's a link to a webpage that shows the steps of the examen. We did something a little bit different in class, as there are variations to this form of prayer.

Last week Thursday, September 14, was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Everyone left class with an image of a cross on an index card to be used as a reminder about our faith throughout this week.

In our upcoming class, the plan is to look at two important foundation figures of our faith, Saints Peter and Paul.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to share the gift of faith with you in class.  It was shaped in important ways, especially during my college years.  In that spirit, I played this video of the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, "Baba Yetu".



Until we meet again, remember that we are all connected as One Church in one faith:
All my relations.

God's blessings,
Paul

I saw this cross at a World Youth Day event held at Lewis University back at the beginning of August.


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