Jesus and You, Woman

Sergio M. Fita

Jesus and You, Woman

Ignatian Retreat for Women under the guidance of Edith Stein

Copyright © 2022 by Sergio M. Fita

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

First edition

ISBN: 978-1-7374373-0-7

Editing by Stephen Phelan

Translation by Norma Guzman

Translation by Jean Estes-Gonzales

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

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To the holiest and most beautiful of all women, my Mother

Contents

AUTHOR’S PROLOGUE

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

I. MEDITATIONS

1. WIDOW AT THE TEMPLE & QUEEN ESTHER

2. MARTHA AND MARY

3. WOMAN’S EUCHARISTIC LIFE

4. THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

5. JESUS’ LOOK

6. SINFUL WOMAN

7. THE CONSEQUENSES OF SIN

8. THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY

9. MARY AT THE ANNUNCIATION

10. MARY AT THE VISITATION I

11. MARY AT THE VISITATION II

12. MARY AT THE VISITATION III

13. MARY IN THE NATIVITY I

14. MARY IN THE NATIVITY II

15. MARY IN THE NATIVITY III

16. THE HEALING OF THE HEMORRHAGIC WOMAN AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS

17. ENCOUNTER WITH THE CANNANITE WOMAN

18. MARY IN BETHANY

19. THE GRAIN OF WHEAT

20. MARY AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS

21. THE OPEN HEART OF JESUS

22. SAINT MARY MAGDALENE

23. IN ALL THINGS LOVE AND SERVE

II. APPENDICES

24. APPENDIX I

25. APPENDIX II

26. APPENDIX III

27. APPENDIX IV

28. APPENDIX V

29. APPENDIX VI

30. APPENDIX VII

31. APPENDIX VIII

32. APPENDIX IX

33. APPENDIX X

Notes

AUTHOR’S PROLOGUE

1. Let’s travel back in time. In June 2019, Catholics in Action, a young adult ministry, asked me to lead a retreat for women based on St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises. It was to be held at Prince of Peace Benedictine Abbey in California. It seemed appropriate to prepare each of the reflections according to an idea I had been thinking about for a long time: using the Ignatian method based on the encounters of the Lord Jesus with various female figures throughout the New Testament. This effort led to the book that you now hold in your hands.

The unanimous response of the participants in those days of silent prayer was overwhelmingly positive. They were the first to encourage me to share the meditations I had prepared for the retreat; however, it seemed to me at the time that the work was incomplete. The brevity of that retreat meant leaving out some very rich gospel stories, and I had not been able to respect the structure of the Exercises as much as I had wished. It was therefore necessary to fill in these gaps and to revise the work already done to give it better balance as a whole.

This project has taken two long years of my life. As I write these words, I am pastor of a wonderful community in the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona. St. Anne is a huge parish, and thank God, there is always work to be done. In order to complete this task, it was necessary to find time where there was none, to take time away from sleep, and to immerse myself once again in this daunting task during the turbulent circumstances of the Covid pandemic. Added to all this are my own personal limitations, which have been the real battle that I have had to overcome in order to finally offer in these pages the fruit of so many sleepless nights.

2. The two pillars that support this work are the Sacred Scriptures and the Spiritual Exercises of the great Ignatius of Loyola, in that order: first, the Word of God, joyfully understood according to the living interpretation of the Apostolic Tradition; and secondly, the orientation and guidance of the founder of the Society of Jesus. If the Ignatian Exercises were the mold into which the content of the message was poured, the spiritual nourishment comes entirely from the Gospel.

Perhaps a third stream could be pointed out, not as dominant as the previous two, but equally necessary to understand the work as a whole. I am referring to the writings of the saintly German philosopher and religious sister, Edith Stein, on the mystery of woman. Edith, later St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was Jewish, converted to Catholicism, and later died as a Carmelite nun in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in 1942.

I remember reading her essays in their Spanish version while I was studying philosophy in my seminary years. From the first moment, I was overcome by the depth and the wisdom of those reflections. I am still surprised today that more use is not made of her work, which paints, with the brush of her precise language, the fundamental traits of the feminine soul. It is difficult to imagine that one could better express what Edith affirms about women. I have not found anything else comparable to it.

3.The reader should not, however, think that this is an abstract and complex book. It is, in fact, an eminently simple and concrete work. Simply put, it is a book of prayer, which aims to accompany the woman who desires to find Jesus Christ. Its sole purpose is to bring souls to God and to serve the Holy Spirit in touching hearts and drawing them to the Lord. This work is intended to help initiate an interior conversation with the Master who speaks in silence and who has the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68). I must confess that it was born of prayer, it was written in prayer, and that it is intended to lead the reader to a deeper experience of prayer. This is the main reason that led me to maintain the simple dialogue style of the first presentations that can be seen in the pages of this book. In these words, I am speaking to you familiarly, as a friend. I do not intend to give a sterile description of the various Gospel passages. I want, with your permission, to speak to you personally, and from there, to lead you to God.

A note about the personal memories inserted here from time to time: I am well aware that the message, not the messenger, is the only important thing. It is the Word alone that must be received in the soul, while the voice, the envelope that delivers it, fades into silence. I know that he must increase, and I must decrease (Jn. 3:30), but I also believe in the importance of everything that is genuinely human as a vehicle for the transmission of grace. Is this not the very logic of the Incarnation?

An experience that has marked me deeply, and appears frequently throughout, is my pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 2018, the Lord granted me the undeserved grace of walking for three months, backpack over shoulder, throughout the Holy Land. From February to May, I walked the distance between Egypt and Syria, crossed Palestine from top to bottom, walked the wastelands of Jordan and crossed, from south to north, the entire state of Israel.

To date, it has been the only time I have been able to visit the place chosen by God to manifest himself to us in the flesh. More than three years have passed and I still don’t know what happened to me there, but something did happen. Be that as it may, it is evident that in a book that revolves around evangelical scenes, that pilgrimage had to have an impact on my way of contemplating and explaining those events. I hope that bringing up those experiences will not end up becoming a distraction. On the contrary, for me that adventure was the gateway to a better understanding of Sacred Scripture. I trust that for the reader it will also be an opportunity for grace that will give the feeling that in some way she is walking with me, and that the only content of our conversation is, ultimately, Jesus.

4. The book is structured in two sections. The first part is the meditations that constitute the true core of this work; the second is made up of a series of appendices containing complimentary readings for some of the reflections. The book is intended to be used primarily in the context of a silent retreat, and I wanted to offer a kind of all-in-one for anyone undertaking such an experience.

I do not, however, mean to suggest that mine is the only book to have when spending a few days with the Spiritual Exercises. In fact, I wish here and now to recommend three others, of which this one is intended only as an introduction:

First and foremost, the written Word of God is an indispensable stream of clear water and an essential wellspring for those who wish to enter into authentic dialogue with the Lord.

It would also be useful to have at hand the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, so that the reader can turn to them when she wishes to enter more deeply into the truly God-given wisdom of the holy founder.

Finally, Edith Stein’s essays on the mystery of woman, which have been published in English in an extraordinary edition by the Institute of Carmelite Studies under the name The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 2, Essays on Woman (Washington, DC: ICS Publications 2017).

5. Who is this book for? First of all, of course, for women – for women who are thirsty and desire a work that will help them discover who they are and what God wants of them. It is a book for personal prayer, both for use in daily life and to take along on a few days of retreat in solitude and silence.

By extension, it can be equally useful for those who are preparing prayer materials for women, either in the context of spiritual exercises or as a presentation in shorter retreats.

Finally, it goes without saying that much of the content offered here is for absolutely everyone, man or woman. God addresses his Revelation to every person who has ears to hear him.

6. Some practical considerations before beginning. For greater ease in reading, I have chosen to reference in the body of the text only those quotations that come from Sacred Scripture or from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. All other notes can be found at the end of the book, including those that refer to magisterial documents found on the official Vatican website.

I would like to recommend that those who use this book during a silent retreat begin by reading the first of the appendices, which contains some advice to orient the person who is experiencing this type of retreat for the first time to take better advantage of the meditations that are presented.

7. I conclude with the joyful duty of thanks. The first names that come to my mind and heart are those of Norma Guzman and Jean Estes-Gonzales. These women have dedicated hours, effort, and more time than they probably should have to the tasks of translating and proofreading. I have no words to adequately express my admiration for these two women who represent well many of the feminine qualities that this book explores and honors.

My heartfelt thanks also to Steve Phelan who has worked on the editing of the English version. His contribution has been invaluable to the successful completion of this enormous task.

In a special way, I am deeply grateful to the Institute of Carmelite Studies for their generosity in allowing me to use the texts of Edith Stein that appear in this book. With their permission to use the words of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, they have allowed her to be the true traveling companion of all the women who will one day read this book.

My sincere thanks also to Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for granting me the honor of endorsing these simple meditations.

I would like to give infinite thanks to Fathers Valverde and Mendizábal, of the Society of Jesus and both now deceased, for having always guided me in the ways of the Spirit. The reader will find them generously mentioned herein since the best ideas of this book came from them.

Finally, thank you, dear reader, for your trust in me, and for desiring to find in the pages of this book some light for the path of your life.

I was going to end my prologue here, but I beg to be allowed, even at the risk of sounding a bit ridiculous, to thank the work itself, which has filled my solitude and accompanied me in very dark hours for the Church and the world. In a letter to his Salesian sons dated March 19, 1885, St. John Bosco describes a good book as a faithful friend.¹ I must admit that this work has certainly been, in this sense, a friend also to me. When the tumult of recent events pounded at my door and tried to rob me of my peace, this book was the refuge in which I always found shelter and warmth. Working on it has been a great blessing for me, and I am undoubtedly the first beneficiary of its words. In them, the Lord has also spoken to me, and for them, I am also infinitely grateful.

I now offer them to you, my friend, in the hope that they may be useful to you and to others. You can be sure of one thing: they were born and written ad maiorem Dei gloriam—, for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.

May He, Mary, and Joseph bless you,

Father Sergio

Gilbert (Arizona), May 1st, 2021, Memorial of St Joseph the Worker

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

A FEW CONSIDERATIONS ON THE UPCOMING RETREAT²

I would like to start by congratulating you on your decision to participate in this retreat during the last week of June organized by Catholics in Action. I thank Catholics in Action for their effort to promote this initiative, which tries to help women like you to a deeper encounter with the Lord. I also thank each one of you for having given God space and silence so that he can speak to your heart. For a long time, I have been entrusting in my poor prayer the fruit of these Spiritual Exercises and I encourage you to ask for the grace of an intimate and transforming encounter with Christ.

What we are doing with this retreat

As you know, this retreat is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It is important to underline the word inspired. The usual Ignatian experience is four weeks and has characteristics that are simply impossible to adapt to a retreat of five days. We are going to keep in mind the structure that Saint Ignatius proposes and we are going to take from him the advice that he offers in his Exercises.

During this retreat, you will have a generous amount of time to devote to meditation, as I will cover fewer subjects and speak less than would be required if we had covered the full range offered by St. Ignatius. This more leisurely pace allows for greater depth in personal reflection.

Some of the reasons to choose the less ambitious format are the following:

In several places of his Exercises, Saint Ignatius proposes to dedicate four or five hours to personal meditation. It seems to me that this point is important and that we should follow this recommendation because the fruit of these days depends, to a large extent, on that generosity and time for personal and meditative prayer.

In Saint Ignatius’ method, what he calls repetitions are very important: it is about returning to the same meditation to see what the Holy Spirit is inviting us to pay attention to in our spiritual life. In a retreat with too many presentations, it is impossible to return to what has been meditated on previously, because one has the impression that the train is going very fast and if one gets off … maybe when she returns it has already left the station!

In my personal experience, listening to the director speak for a long time ends up becoming a distraction. Instead of helping the union with God, it disperses the mind and the person ends up very tired.

I am also of the opinion that, when time is left for personal prayer and the director speaks little, the emphasis shifts to the action of God and to the personal response of the participant and that is precisely the heart of the Ignatian experience.

Saint Ignatius himself advises in the second annotation of his Exercises the following: The second is that the person who gives to another the way and order in which to meditate or contemplate, ought to relate faithfully the events of such Contemplation or Meditation, going over the points with only a short or summary development. For, if the person who is making the Contemplation, takes the true groundwork of the narrative, and, discussing and considering for himself, finds something which makes the events a little clearer or brings them a little more home to him whether this comes through his own reasoning, or because his intellect is enlightened by the Divine power—he will get more spiritual relish and fruit, than if he who is giving the Exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the events. For it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things inside, that contents and satisfies the soul (SE 2).

In a practical sense, it has to be an authentic purgatory to listen to me speak for a long time in my poor English for five days. Do not worry, I will not subject you to that torture.

With all this in mind, I am going to limit myself to speaking three times: in two daily meditations, one in the morning, another in the afternoon, and during the Holy Mass. Each day you will have four hours in the schedule for personal prayer. You can add if you want one more hour at the end of the day. I will not be tempted to want to say it all because in that too can be a sign (as I see it) of some pride or distrust of God’s work in the soul. We must leave the person who exercises in the hands of God and trust that he or she will respond to what God is communicating.

The official schedule will always end with the prayer of Compline at 8 p.m. After that time, there will be something else that will vary every day and that, in any case, will not be mandatory. The backbone of the Exercises will be the meditations of the morning and afternoon. The last activity of the day is voluntary and is offered for those who wish to participate in it.

In addition, of those four hours of meditation, two hours will be of silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. This also has to do with the proposal of Saint Ignatius: frequently, he concludes the prayer with what he calls colloquy. For St. Ignatius, it is evident that the new life presented to us in the Exercises is impossible without the help of grace. The reason for this conversation with the Lord, or with Mary, or with the guardian angel, is to ask for help to receive from God the strength and love we need to be born again. In that same line of thought, praying for a long time before the Blessed Sacrament is a way of insisting on that aspect: without Me, you can do nothing (Jn 15:5).

Maybe some of you are thinking that four hours is too long to pray—that you have never prayed so much and that you are unlikely to be able to do so. In this regard, I also want to quickly point out several things:

The first is not to exaggerate the difficulty of praying for so long. It is perfectly possible, even easy, to meditate four or five hours during a week. Experience shows that, although challenging, it is possible for everyone.

If it costs us, for whatever reasons, it is worth noting that the Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola are an experience that counts on the effort of the person who makes them. This effort is the expression of the generosity of those who wish to take advantage of these days of retreat and it is already a sign of the action of the Holy Spirit in the soul. As he explains: as strolling, walking, and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise (SE 1).

In fact, the idea of shortening the hour of meditation should be considered as a temptation to be resisted: the enemy is not used to try and make one cut short of the hour of such contemplation, meditation, or prayer (SE 12). Saint Ignatius, who was always a soldier, proposes to overcome the test by striking back: the person who is exercising himself, in order to act against the desolation and conquer the temptations, ought always to stay somewhat more than the full hour; so as to accustom himself not only to resist the adversary, but even to overthrow him (SE 13).

In this sense, I insist with the Spanish Saint that the retreatant take full advantage of the times of prayer. It would not make sense to seek such an encounter with God—which is the reason you wanted to participate in this retreat—only to let ourselves be carried away by fatigue, desolation, or dryness and fail in the fundamental thing—being with Christ.

As an aid to completing the hour of meditation, I advise you to bring your prayer books, those in which the Lord has told you something in the past. I encourage you to use them freely if you need them to find material for your personal prayer. I will also occasionally give you some reading for use during your prayer or during moments of rest. And, of course, you will always have the Holy Scriptures.

During the presentations, do not try to write word for word what I say: limit yourself to writing down what you want to take with you later to your meditation, that toward which you feel that the Holy Spirit is inclining you.

Last days before the exercises

I want to conclude this email by encouraging you to ask for the fruits of it. Actually, five days alone with God can mean the beginning of a new Christian life. You must think that the Lord wants to give you a very important grace and you must dispose yourself from now on, asking for greatness of soul. That attitude of the heart is a grace—we must beg for it in prayer: Lord, make me generous. Jesus, give me the grace to trust you. Mary, help me say yes to God. Touch my heart and change it. I want to love you as you love me. These little prayers or aspirations should be preparing your heart so that God can enter in a new way in your life.

If you are generous, the retreat will be very fruitful. God is not outdone in generosity—indeed, He offers abundant encouragement and joy!

Thank you very much for your patience and your confidence.

I entrust you to the Blessed Virgin Mary and I ask our Mother to grant you the graces you need to receive Jesus in your heart as she welcomed him in her womb and in her soul.

God bless you,

Fr. Sergio

I

MEDITATIONS

1

WIDOW AT THE TEMPLE & QUEEN ESTHER

AN INTRODUCTORY MEDITATION – INITIAL DISPOSITIONS

Merciful Father, fill our hearts with your love and keep us faithful to the gospel of Christ. Give us the grace to rise above our human weakness. (Friday, Third Week of Lent)

I want to begin these Spiritual Exercises by welcoming you all in the name of the Lord. You are here because Jesus has invited you and you have accepted his invitation.

God has brought you here to speak to your heart. As the prophet Hosea says: I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart (Hos. 2:13). In the world, in your daily life, there is a lot of noise and the Lord wanted this week for you to step away from all of that.

There is a verse in the New Testament that I always like to quote at the beginning of a retreat like this. It says: He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat (Mk. 6:31). Such is your life as women, mothers, and daughters. Many times, just as the apostles, you do not have time for yourselves.

The people in your life—your family, your friends, your ministry collaborators, and co-workers—come to you for many things, and it is hard for you to find time for the Lord. So, Jesus invites you to come with Him to a place like this, a deserted place, to rest in Him and with Him.

1.In this first presentation, I want to explain the agenda for the few next days. As you know from the letter that I sent you, in these Spiritual Exercises you will not hear very much talking from me. The emphasis is on your inner conversation with God. You will have the opportunity to talk with Jesus. Above all, you are here to listen, to place yourself in the hands of God. You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay and you are the potter. We are the work of your hands (Is. 64:8).

Along with the prophet Isaiah, I invite you to truly become clay in the hands of the Lord. The Spiritual Exercises are a spiritual journey: there must be a progression, an advancement, a transformation. In The Interior Castle, Saint Teresa of Jesus uses the analogy of the worm that within the silk cocoon becomes a butterfly.³ You must start with that desire, with that intensity: with the determination to take full advantage of these days of retreat.

In the twentieth annotation of his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola describes the correct attitude when he speaks of the person who desires to get all the profit he can. Ask of God—and this is the most important thing of this introduction—that He will give you the attitude of wanting to get all the profit you can from these days. It is the attitude of the widow who, in the temple and in the sight of Jesus, gave everything she had. (Lk. 21:1-4) It would be good to meditate on the example of this woman today and tomorrow in prayer and to ask yourself: Have I come to this retreat with the same attitude? Am I willing to give everything? Ask God for the grace to make a gift of yourself, as this woman did, during these exercises.

As I wrote in the letter, this retreat will be inspired by the spirituality of Saint Ignatius, but we are going to adapt it because we cannot condense a month into a few days. Thinking about how we could organize this spiritual journey, in my private prayer an idea became evident to me that, I must confess, I have had in my heart for many years.

2. The full title of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius is Spiritual Exercises to conquer oneself and regulate one’s life without determining oneself through any tendency that is disordered. Ignatius was a soldier and, in his Spiritual Exercises, he summons us to battle. You’ve come to conquer yourself. You have come to open your heart and let the Will of God, only the Will of God, guide your life.

The Will of God is the most beautiful and wonderful adventure possible. Sometimes we are afraid of God because deep down we think we would be happier if we did what we wanted and not what He wants. It is the old temptation of Adam and Eve in Eden. Rather, we must see in God a friend, and in his loving Will the most wonderful project and the only one that can make us fully happy. He is our Father, Jesus is our Brother, and the Most Holy Trinity loves us and knows us. As a good Father, God invites us to communion with him. In that communion we find life, peace, joy, grace, mercy, and love.

God’s plan for each person is different. You have come to embrace that mission, that vocation that the Lord has given to each one of you.

How does one know the Will of God? The way is always Jesus. This is what Saint Ignatius proposes: from the four weeks of Exercises, the last three are basically dedicated to the contemplation of Jesus Christ. "The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes)" has an affirmation that St. John Paul II often repeated: Only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.⁴ You have to enter into a vital relationship with Christ—only then will you discover who you are and what you are called to.

* * *

In these Spiritual Exercises, we will slowly contemplate scenes from Holy Scripture, especially from the Gospels, in which the Lord interacts with women. In these biblical women, I ask you to see yourself. I am convinced that in them, God has revealed a way of being a woman and a way in which women should relate to God in Christ. In his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, St. John Paul II affirms that:

In the person and mission of Jesus Christ, we also recognize what the reality of the Redemption means for the dignity and the vocation of women. This meaning becomes clearer for us from Christ’s words and from his whole attitude towards women, an attitude which is extremely simple, and for this very reason extraordinary, if seen against the background of his time. It is an attitude marked by great clarity and depth. Various women appear along the path of the mission of Jesus of Nazareth, and his meeting with each of them is a confirmation of the evangelical newness of life already spoken of.⁵

A little later, the Pope continues:

Jesus’ attitude to the women he meets in the course of his Messianic service reflects the eternal plan of God, who, in creating each one of them, chooses her and loves her in Christ. (Eph. 1: 1-5) Each woman is therefore the only creature on earth which God willed for its own sake. Each of them from the beginning inherits as a woman the dignity of personhood. Jesus of Nazareth confirms this dignity, recalls it, renews it, and makes it a part of the Gospel and of the Redemption for which he is sent into the world. Every word and gesture of Christ about women must therefore be brought into the dimension of the Paschal Mystery. In this way everything is completely explained.⁶

In these evangelical women, you will be able to discover yourself, finding what Edith Stein called woman’s soul, that which is genuinely feminine and that therefore forms part of the vocation that God wants for you. Jesus should make you feel like more of a woman, and here in this retreat, He wants to show you the kind of woman He wants you to be in your families and communities, but above all, in your relationship with Him.

I want to put before your eyes Edith Stein’s description of the soul of the woman. I ask you to discover this soul in each woman of the Holy Scripture that we will consider, and that you ask God to discover it perfected by God’s grace. As you know, Edith Stein is the Jewish name of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, martyr of Auschwitz, who was one of the most important philosophers in early twentieth-century Europe. It is a description that I invite you to keep in mind throughout these Spiritual Exercises so that you can see it reflected in the Gospel passages that we are going to consider and so that you try to reflect it yourself in your life and your behavior from now on.

Woman’s nature is determined by her original vocation of spouse and mother. One depends on the other. The body of woman is fashioned to be one flesh with another and to nurse new human life in itself. A well-disciplined body is an accommodating instrument for the mind, which animates it; at the same time, it is a source of power and a habitat for the mind. Just so, woman’s soul is designed to be subordinate to man in obedience and support. It is also fashioned to be a shelter in which other souls may unfold. Both spiritual companionship and spiritual motherliness are not limited to the physical spouse and mother relationships, but they extend to all people with whom woman comes into contact.

The soul of woman must therefore be expansive and open to all human beings; it must be quiet so that no small weak flame will be extinguished by stormy winds; warm so as not to benumb fragile buds; clear, so that no vermin will settle in dark corners and recesses; self-contained, so that no invasions from without imperil the inner life; empty of itself, in order that extraneous life may have room in it; finally, mistress of itself and also of its body, so that the entire person is readily at the disposal of every call.

That is an ideal image of the gestalt of the feminine soul. The soul of the first woman was formed for this purpose, and so, too, was the soul of the Mother of God. In all other women since the Fall, there is an embryo of such development, but it needs particular cultivation if it is not to be suffocated among weeds rankly shooting up around it.⁷

3. At the outset of this retreat, I want to put before your eyes the example of two women, one from the Old Testament and one from the new. Of the latter, we have already spoken: the widow in Luke 21:1-4 who gave everything. As I pointed out in my letter, the Spiritual Exercises do not depend on how beautiful the meditations are or how wise the director is, but on your generosity. God is never outdone in generosity. Imagine that moment when the old woman drops every coin she had into the temple box. Contemplate the widow standing in line, perhaps embarrassed because she had almost nothing to offer and saw others make larger donations by throwing in more money. In your prayer, witness the moment in which she releases the coin before the loving and admiring look of Jesus. I invite you to spend time in that second. If the Lord had not said anything, this act would have been left only between that woman and God. But Jesus wanted us to have it now and to measure ourselves with the generosity of that woman.

You can ask yourself these questions, while still looking at the Gospel scene: Am I giving everything in my Christian life? Have I come here willing to empty myself for Jesus? Or, on the contrary, is there some part of me that does not want to give myself to Jesus? Above all, meditate first on the look of Jesus toward that woman. Contemplate the admiration and love in Jesus’ eyes. Can the Lord look at you in the same way because he finds in you the same generosity and trust? In your personal prayer, offer yourself to Jesus and tell Him: Lord, I also want to put myself completely in your hands. Help me to trust You and give you everything. Help me believe that you want my happiness and know what I need to be happy. Take the reins and lead the way.

4. The second woman we find in the Old Testament: I speak of Queen Esther. She is a very dear character to me because, unlike other women from the Old Testament, Esther is a woman full of sweetness and fear—she feels fragile but overcomes that fragility with the strength of her faith.

You know her story: A Jewish woman who becomes the wife of the King of Persia during the Babylonian exile around the year 586 BC. A family member, Mordecai, had educated her after the death of her parents. She was of extraordinary beauty, so that, when King Ahasuerus repudiates his first wife, Esther is chosen from among all the women of the Kingdom to succeed her as Queen of the entire empire.

The army commander, Haman, began a persecution to kill all the Jewish people. Mordecai asks Esther, who is a queen and whose Jewish origin is unknown in court, to help her persecuted people. Save us from death, says Mordecai in a message to her.

At first, Ester refuses to help her people, replying to Mordecai in a message: All the servants of the king and the people of his provinces know that any man or woman who goes to the king in the inner court without being summoned is subject to the same law—death. Only if the king extends the golden scepter will such a person live. Now as for me, I have not been summoned to the king for thirty days (Est. 4:11).

Mordecai’s response is clear: Do not imagine that you are safe in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews. Even if you now remain silent, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source; but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows—perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen? (v. 13-14)

Esther sent back to Mordecai this response: Go and assemble all the Jews who are in Susa; fast on my behalf, all of you, not eating or drinking, night or day, for three days. I and my maids will also fast in the same way. Thus prepared, I will go to the king, contrary to the law. If I perish, I perish (v. 16).

I invite you to read the beautiful prayer of Queen Esther in the Old Testament. (4:14-30) She confesses several times that she is afraid: deliver me from my fear. The Word of God says: Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, likewise had recourse to the Lord. (4:12). It also states in the next chapter: her heart was shrunk with fear (5:5). Indeed, she fainted out of fear before the King.

She prays and fasts: Taking off her splendid garments, she put on garments of distress and mourning. In place of her precious ointments, she covered her head with dung and ashes. She afflicted her body severely and in place of her festive adornments, her tangled hair covered her. Then she prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel. (4:13-14)

You know the end of the story, which you can find in your Bible: the intercession of the Queen obtains the salvation of her people.

I think there are many similarities between Queen Esther and you as you proceed with the Spiritual Exercises. I will point out only a few:

Just as she was, you are called to make a journey. The woman who appears at the end of the story is different from the one who begins the story. I hope the woman you are at the beginning of this retreat is different from the woman you’ll be at the end of it.

Just as she was aware of her fears, you also have weaknesses, and the Lord wants to take you beyond those limitations, which block you and prevent you from doing the Will of God.

Just as God saved Israel thanks to Esther, the Lord wants to change your hearts to be able to bring eternal life to your family and the people around you.

Just as Esther was led by God’s Providence to be Queen and in this way become an instrument of salvation, the Lord has also been taking you through your life with his Providence and has placed you where you are to be the salvation for your families

Just as Esther prayed and fasted for three days, you are here this week to pray and offer sacrifices for God to transform you and for your salvation to come first to you, and then through you, to other people.

Queen Esther had the generosity of which we spoke earlier that is fundamental to the fruit of this retreat: If I perish, I perish. She was willing to die for her faith and for her people. From her you can learn to have this disposition of the heart. And if you do not have it, imitate the Queen by asking God at the beginning of this retreat to grant you that courage, generosity, and love.

I ask you to take these days with the same seriousness with which Queen Esther took those three days of prayer and fasting. Like Queen Esther, in our Christian life or in a Spiritual Exercises like these, God can ask us for sacrifices, even great sacrifices.

In The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus de Liguori uses the example of Esther to speak of Mary: just as Esther interceded and with her intercession saved her people, so Mary, who is also a beautiful Queen, saves us, her children, with her intercession. As in Cana (Jn 2:5), She tells each of you, in your heart: Do whatever He tells you. Whatever He tells you. That is to say, the premise is that Jesus is going to talk to you. Listen to him.

5. In these days of the retreat, think of Queen Esther, and dedicate yourself to taking advantage of this week as if your lives were at stake. I invite you to turn off your phones and forget everything. I assure you that nothing will happen to your family if they don’t hear from you for a few days. These are days of prayer and silence. You will find God if you focus on the Lord and do not get distracted. Without recollection, you will not find what you are looking for.

My experience on my pilgrimage to the Holy Land made a big impression on me in that sense: I already knew the importance of silence, but there I discovered something new that I cannot express, that I do not know how to describe. Embrace the silence and let God speak to you.

2

MARTHA AND MARY

DAY 1 (MORNING) - SECOND MEDITATION - PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION I

Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Thursday after Ash Wednesday)

Good morning to all. We begin our first day of Spiritual Exercises by placing ourselves in the presence of God. We ask Him to help us obtain an intimate knowledge of our Lord, who has become man for me, that I may love Him more and follow Him more closely (SE 104).

Allow me to remind you again, with Saint Ignatius, that it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things inside, that contents and satisfies the soul (SE 2). St. Teresa of Jesus is of the same opinion: the soul’s progress does not lie in thinking much but in loving much.⁸

So do not try to meditate on everything I say now: let your prayer be gentle, serene, quiet, without hurry. What you do not meditate on here, you can take with you and use it for your prayer when you return to your homes. So, in a way, these days of retreat will be extended and you will continue to receive benefit from these Spiritual Exercises even after we finish in a few days.

The first meditation of the Spiritual Exercises is the Principle and Foundation. On a personal level, it may have been the meditation that has most influenced my entire life. When I did the month of Exercises in 2003, I dedicated nine days to this meditation alone.

It is often said that it is the most important meditation because, as the name suggests, it establishes the foundation of all the Spiritual Exercises and is the gateway to the Ignatian experience. In fact, it establishes the foundation of the whole Christian life. In the Ignatian Exercises, all meditations are related. There is a progression that has been masterfully planned by the rational mind of Saint Ignatius. In a way, it is like a pyramid in which some meditations are built on the previous ones. The meditation that is below and on which all are sustained, is this meditation of Principle and Foundation.

The text of Saint Ignatius says the following:

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created. Hence, man is to make use of them in as far as they help him in the attainment of his end, and he must rid himself of them in as far as they prove a hindrance to him.

Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, as far as we are allowed free choice and are not under any prohibition. Consequently, as far as we are concerned, we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, a long life to a short life. The same holds for all other things. Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created. (SE 23)

Actually, I am tempted to say that I need not add anything more. I could get up and go back to Arizona right here. Everything is really in these words of Saint Ignatius.