Walsingham Associates – January 2016

Friends:

For the past several months I have been using “An Ignatian Book of Days” as source material for my daily meditations made each morning at the time I recite the office of Morning Prayer. It is a book of daily reflections from the spiritual wisdom of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. I mention this to you today at the start of 2016, a time we make resolutions to keep during the new year and to encourage you to take the time, no matter how brief each day, to spend with God in the silence of a meditation. Trust me; such time spent is never wasted. January 1st is also the titular feast of the Jesuits, the feast that celebrates the order’s name, the Society of Jesus. January 1st, eight days after His birth when “it was time to circumcise the child, and He was called JESUS.” The day of Jesus’ Naming suggests for us as His disciples our living in a relationship with Him of very close friendship and of total affection for Him in whose footsteps we would follow. Seek Jesus in the silence of meditation that He may teach us how to live well, how to live a life given profound meaning when lived in union with Him; a life that imparts enthusiasm, joy and hope. May Jesus be for each of us a great teacher of such a life and a model for us of the way we are called to live as He daily calls us in His words “Follow Me.”

I recently came across a small publication, “Fathers of the Church on Mary” published by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishop. It is a wonderful source of materials for meditation, 31 in all taken from the writings of the early Church Fathers, and suitable for a monthly cycle of meditations, one for each day. Contained as well in this publication are a selection of Marian devotions received from the tradition of both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches as used by the faithful.

The cost per copy is $5.00 and I would attempt to get a copy for those Walsingham Associates who might desire to have one of their own. Please let me know if that is your desire.

Might I suggest the following prayer as suitable for use in the New Year:

O BLESSED LORD, grant that in union with Thy Sacred Heart the GLORY of God might be the chief end of our lives, the WILL of God be the law of our conduct, the LOVE of God be the motive of our actions, and Thy LIFE be the model and mode of our own; for Thine own Merits sake, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest ever one God, world without end. Amen.

May you have a Joyful and Blessed New Year filled with the Peace and Love of Jesus.

Fr. Lutz

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