De Mello, Ignatius: Consciousness of the Past
“The postulate is that awareness alone will heal, without the need for judgment and resolution. Mere awareness will cause to die whatever is unhealthy and will cause to grow whatever is good and holy.”
—Anthony de Mello in Sadhana: A Way to God (Image Books 1978).
I try not to read too many de Mello exercises a day in his book, Sadhana: A Way to God, but I find myself not being able to wait to read the next installment! As I start to write, I am ending up listing almost all of the exercises as so useful, especially Exercise 30, “Consciousness of the Past,” practiced at night. In it we think of our whole day as a film, unwinding the day as though it were a movie, not approving or condemning what we did—just becoming aware.
This is different from the Ignatian Examen, in which we do examine and make judgments on our day. In the Examen, we review our day; give thanks; determine where we found God and when we ignored God; recall actions we wish we had not done; ask for forgiveness; and pray for grace for the next day. [See: James Martin, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything (HarperOne, 2010), p. 97.]
De Mello believes, on the other hand, that if only we are aware, we will heal without the need for judgment and resolution. The finale of the exercise by de Mello, after we have observed the day as a movie, is noticing where Christ was with us in the day. How did Christ act? De Mello asks us to concentrate on how “Christ” acted in our day more than on how we acted.
We can find similarities between these spiritual exercises, as well as differences. This is just one more small example of the diversity of methods for becoming aware of our connection to God.
My experience is that when I simply am aware and look for Christ through reviewing the movie of my day—God indeed heals—much more slowly than I would like, however. At other times I need the awareness exercises described in the Ignatian Examen to get me back on track.
I am going to have to stop describing all of the de Mello exercises. Otherwise I will be restating his whole book! The miracle of finding and choosing de Mello’s book, as well as discovering the exercises of St. Ignatius, was an answer to prayer—and I now share it with you!
Aside: You may have noticed if you are receiving this by email that yesterday’s post on Dreamwork did not come into your box. it should be below. Occasionally the post is not picked up in the morning by mailchimp but it will almost always be there the next day with two day readings. If the post does not come to your email in box you can always find it on the web site, joannaseibert.com or on my Facebook page or the Facebook page of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Little Rock.
Thank you for following these posts. I am so grateful that we are connected.
joanna . joannaseibert.com