Meeting 3 — I Command You, Adam: Wake Up, You Who Sleep! ********************************************************* .. tags:: content|cross|Cross, content|conversion|Conversion, content|time|Time, method|text-work|Text work, method|sharing-questions|Sharing questions, type|prayer-meeting|Prayer meeting Goal ==== The meeting is a safety valve. Today's afternoon abounds in "heavy caliber" – Way of the Cross, examination of conscience, testimony, confession, prayer. Man despite sincere efforts to experience this time well has his ability to concentrate. This meeting is not to introduce new content. **Its goal is to share what we experienced**. It is also a moment to **prepare for the sacrament of penance**. It is a moment in which we fight to approach it as deeply as we can. Prayer ====== I propose rather briefly. One can lead thoughts towards the light, so that at the meeting we speak about what we really experienced, and not about what we would like to experience. Introduction ============ Before us the possibility of confession. Of course one does not have to go.... but one can. We have already wondered today if and how we are going. Now the retreat puts before us a concrete possibility "to go to confession". Do we want to go anywhere at all or are we good here? Way of the Cross ================ .. note:: we concentrate on the **Way** of the Cross * You accompanied Jesus on the way of the cross... what caught Your attention? * How would you describe this joint journey? Not what Jesus was like... what was the **way** like? The way e.g. was long, clearly defined, having a concrete goal. It was chosen by Jesus even though He did not plan every detail of it. It was not free from errors, but they never led to resignation. It was brutal, but not lonely. It led uphill so by nature one could not count on it not costing effort. We will all agree however that it was so filled with unpleasantness and pain that if we only had to think that we ourselves were to undertake it we would consider it madness. Why am I to go? =============== | That's nothing! That's nothing! That's nothing! | As long as strength, | Yet go! After all go! | I will go! | | -- Edward Stachura If undertaking such a way is madness.... Why did He undertake it? The obvious answer comes to mind "because he loved". Well yes... Love is enough to agree to every way. Such a justification comes easily to us when we speak about Jesus, and about us? * When I look at my way is what was Good or what was bad most important to me? * Do I rejoice more in what is good or lament over what didn't work out? We have a tendency to account for evil and to completely overlook good. We ignore it as if it was so natural that it is transparent. We assume that if somewhere there is no "bad deed" then there must be good. Well yes "when we go forward we do not go backward" is true. The sentence "when we go backward we do not go forward" is also true. Where is the problem?... one can neither go forward, nor backward. The state of stagnation, lack of movement, escapes us in this our thinking about the way. And often it fills a huge space of our time. * What is the "state of stillness" for me? * If we are in stillness then our direction is completely undefined (physics). What does this mean for me? Is it also so in spiritual life? This also applies to our examination of conscience. Do we also ask "about this time in the middle", which at first glance we cannot recognize either as a "good deed" or as a "sin"? * Do I treat my free time as potential good that I can waste on something useless? * What percentage of my life is time "impossible to evaluate" i.e. usually ignored during confession? We stand, wait, sleep... ======================== We need someone to come to us and pull us out of our "anyhow time" to tasks that stand before us. Someone who will define our goal and identity. From the state of stagnation one can never get out alone. Life cannot be slept through.... and it comes easily to us. It is Lent, time of preparations. In a dozen or so days the Church from the Liturgy of the Hours will read to us such words of great hope and calling. Once again and as every year.... because we constantly need them. The Lord came to them, holding in his hand the victorious weapon of the cross. Seeing him, the first father Adam, full of amazement, beat his breast and called out to all: "My Lord be with you all!" And Christ answered Adam: "And with your spirit!" And grasping him by the hand, he raised him up saying: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. Behold I, your God, who for your sake became your son. Behold now I speak to you and to all who will be your sons, and by my power I command all who are in bonds: Come out! And to those who are in darkness, I say: Let light shine upon you! And to those who have fallen asleep, I command: Arise! I command you, Adam: Awake, you who sleep! For I did not create you to remain bound in the Abyss. Arise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Arise, you who are the work of my hands. Arise, you who are my image made in my likeness. Arise, let us go hence! For you are in Me, and I in you, as one and undivided person. -- Liturgy of the Hours -- Office of Readings of Holy Saturday Let's read the text calmly using the Västerås method. I propose a version simplified to two markings – what is particularly important and what poses questions to me. .. note:: Each participant must possess their own copy of the text * What did I mark as special for me in this text, why? * What fragment poses some questions to me? What questions? * Have I prepared myself so that after this next Lent in my life I can better answer the call of the Risen One? * "For I did not create you to remain bound in the Abyss" – what am I here on earth for? Do I know this? * Am I sleepy? Do I want to take up the challenge and get out of sleep? Start anew? * **Do I see a place for this during the sacrament of penance and reconciliation?** * Do I have someone around me who does not turn away, despite my failures? Summary and application ======================= Joint prayer for the intention of confessors who will serve at the retreat. Prayer for the intention of all who will approach the sacrament of penance and reconciliation. Tomorrow morning within the first 45 seconds after waking up I will not jump out of bed but only ask myself the question: Why do I want to get out of bed? How do I want to use this day? One can end by reading: | This is | my time. On my measure and scale. | My time. I will not have another. | It is good not to hold a grudge against one's times. | It is good to live in accordance with the idea of the Highest. | He probably does not make a mistake in the assignment of coordinates | and the most appropriate epoch | | How good that we are. | Right now. | We were not yesterday, we will not be tomorrow. | We are today. | This and that is here to be done | | -- Fr. Jerzy Szymik