The following looks at the spirituality of the Review of the Day as it was expressed by St. Ignatius.
Ignatius didn't invent the Review of the Day. However, he did understand it's key points very well and focussed it in a way that had not been part of previous practice - using the review to identify where one could best respond to the call of God in one's life tomorrow. For
Ignatius the Review went from life to life. It was not to be an excuse to escape life but rather a resounding 'Yes' to the life that God was unfolding.
While the Review is a method, and in that sense a discipline, Ignatius was always concerned that the method didn't rule the 'man'.
God sees and knows what is best for each one and, as he knows all, he shows each the road to take. On our part we can with his grace seek and test the way forward in many different fashions, so that a person goes forward by that way which for them is the clearest and happiest and most blessed in this life.
So as you use the process, 'in the way of Mary', remember the wisdom of Ignatius and trust that the Spirit will lead you in ways that are uniquely suited to you. Once you feel you have built a strong foundation by using the standard process, you will change and adapt the process to fit your unfolding sense of how the Spirit is leading you.
Some guideposts that Ignatius offers us:
Keep it concrete and avoid the abstract. Especially be careful of spiritualising life. We don't have to drag- God into our lives, God is powerfully and intimately present.
Become absorbed in the reality of your life. Look, Listen andwonder. Take in all that God is doing in your life and be 'taken over' by God in your life.
How do we know our prayer is 'with God'? By the fruits ofour lives! Are we more open to God? Are we less self focussed, more selfless in service of our brothers and sisters? Are we becoming less pretentious, less rigid, more true? Are our relationships with others becoming more authentic, less role-playing? Are we growing in hope and love?
Be careful of illusion. It is very easy to be building one's own kingdom. The key here is to become more and more 'familiar' with God. This doesn't happen only in prayer. We discover and live out the 'mind of God' in all the aspects of our lives. Live fully, it is enough to be human instruments in God's service. Desire to be used so that God may be God in his world.
Many would connect the concept of discernment with the Review of the Day. Certainly the Review can be a powerful tool in the discernment process. For many though, discernment has become more a methodology for decision making, rather than a way of becoming'more familiar with the mind of God'.
Once it was suggested to me by a Jesuit that discernment is like the smell of an onion. When we first experience an onion close up it leaves an indelible mark upon us. Not only in our mind, but in all our senses. We have had a life-experience of the onion. We know the smell of the onion. So it can be with God.
If we truly enter into our lived experience of God, allow ourselves to know God with all our senses, body, spirit, mind, we can know the smell of God. Then as we live out our lives, no matter where we journey, we will always know when we are in the presence of God because we know God's smell. Discernment becomes the process of being always attentive to the smell of God and then the spiritual life becomes simply a case of following one's nose.
(Audio Available)
