Ignatian Immertion course 2019 Manifesto

We came to Manresa with that mixture of illusion and fear that one usually has when one embarks on a new adventure. We had the intuition that here the Lord had something prepared for us and that he told us "stand up and listen to me." On the other hand, many of us needed, like the air, a time of pause, recovery, resituar and reorder life, of revitalizing “green spaces” to reconnect with the freshness of the Gospel, as we arrived quite tired and with questions and piggyback searches.

Our first surprise was to discover that the courses and topics proposed were not merely theoretical, that what we were really proposing was a long and continuous spiritual experience. Little by little, we felt that what "the Lord leads us to green meadows, makes us rest, repairs our forces, anoints us with perfume ... and invites us to return to the spring of his love".

Today, at the end of the course experience, we are deeply grateful to have been able to “step on, touch and feel” those fontal places of our Ignatian spirituality, those paths traveled by the pilgrim who have returned us to our origins, to realize what It really is important in life and gives it flavor and aroma. In these “sacred” places we could gently do, as a drop of water that falls on sponge, the experience that Ignacio made: to understand that the Lord has always loved us, that we can look at each other with his eyes and feel loved by his love, and discover that he floods us with his gifts so that we can return them in service. It has been like being able to feel the divinity unfolding entirely, embracing everything, loving us in everything. The experience of Ignatius that we have savored in a thousand ways has helped us discover humans in close and humble service to the world and to the Church "with others."

We are also grateful for all who have made this experience possible; for the structure of the course, for the teachers we had and who gave us the best of their knowledge, of their experience, of their passionate love; for the kindness of the house staff. And for the quality and warmth of the group that we have formed here throughout these days; A healthy, spontaneous, respectful, friendly group. We are sorry to have formed during this time a community of brothers and brothers that we share the same mission. On the itinerary, we have progressively discovered members of an apostolic body. And we have been discovering that everything is grace, that it is the Lord who sustains us and that it is ours to let ourselves lead by unexpected paths. Despite our limitations, we are aware that there is much to do and that the Lord continues to ask for our collaboration in his mission.

Throughout this time, our desires to be companions of Jesus as Ignatius have been awakened as Ignatius, humble and simple, contemplative and attentive to the needs of the world, capable of looking at him as God sees him, reconciled and reconciled, servants among the last. Desires to continue deepening the relationship with the Ignatian family in a shared mission from the specific vocation of each one. Also desires to live unarmed and emptied of ourselves to be filled with God, and all this for "the good of the souls." Hopefully, then, we can maintain this disposition to let ourselves be educated by God in this long and never finished march towards Him in all things.

We return to our places of origin with a greater sense of identity and belonging, in love with the Ignatian charism, renewed in courage and generosity, comforted and excited, with a look towards the most loving and merciful world, with the firm desire to be available and joyful in the exercise of the mission, knowing that “we have been put with the Son” to collaborate with his mission, and with enthusiasm to carry it out from the inner fire that burns us and in a permanent attitude of lucid discernment, of careful examination to perceive what that helps us and what separates us from the following of Christ, of prayerful eyes and open eyes, of recognition of the movements of the Spirit. There is a Good News, that of the close love of God, that we cannot stop announcing and bringing closer, especially to those people who need to know they are loved by someone.

We cannot hide that the fact of having to return to our places of origin - many of them so convulsed - scares us a little. But trust tells us that He himself will act through us: if He has been good to us so far, he will continue to accompany us with kindness and carry mercy.

In short: we feel invited to make a pilgrimage in the footsteps of the pilgrim so that, knowing we are inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord, we can love and serve in everything.
                 

Ignatian Immersion Group. Manresa-2019