HOME SOME THEMES IN ENGLISH SPIRITUAL
EXERCISES VIA INTERNET
COURSES SIGN IN SOME BASIC KNOWLEDGE MATERIALS SUGGESTED SPIRITUAL COMPANION
SPIRITUAL
COMPANION
Giuse Phạm Thanh Liêm, S.J.
Advice 1:
You pray every day at least 45 minutes. If you are a student and have
tests coming up, you will pray at least 30 minutes a day. After finishing a
prayer, you will do the review of prayer for about 7-10 minutes. You can see
the advice for review of prayer in the web page basic
knowledge. Please remember the grace you received in that prayer, so that
you can share it with others in the email group or through chat room. Please
keep in mind the difficulties you have met with in prayer to ask your spiritual
companion through email or chat room.
Advice 2:
When you pray, please follow strictly 6 steps of praying. All steps are
important, but steps 1, 4, and 6 are extremely vital. Six steps of praying are
also in the web page basic knowledge.
·
The first step
is to be aware of God’s presence. God is present everywhere, beside you and
inside you. God is so intimate to you that nobody can be as close to you as
God. He is in your heart, in your soul. He loves you and wills to talk with
you. Praying is to be present and talk with God, so this step is very
important. There is no conversation if your partner is absent. You should do
this step carefully until being aware of His presence.
·
The fourth
step is to ask God for the grace you desire. Each prayer suggested has its own
grace to ask. Please try to understand the grace and ask God to receive it in
this prayer. In your review of prayer, please check if you got this grace. If
you got this grace, this prayer is very good.
·
The sixth step
is to have conversation with God. It is called “colloquy” as well. Praying is
to talk with God, so this step is essential and indispensable. Saint Ignatius
told us to talk with God as a friend to a friend, as a slave to his master, as
our Lord, as our lover, and as the most intimate person of ours. God loves us
very much, so feel free to talk with God. The fifth step is some points
suggested to help you talk with God, that help you to ask for the grace of this
prayer. Therefore, points suggested are means to help you to talk with God, to
have colloquy with Him. If only one point helps you to have a conversation with
God, then put away the other points. To be with God, to have colloquy with God
is the most important part of the prayer.
Advice 3:
In a prayer, if you feel peaceful, joyful, and profoundly happy, then
rest upon there. It feels like when you are beside your lover, if you feel
happy, you don’t need to talk any more. Enjoy that happy time if you recognize
it.
Advice 4:
Please read carefully the web page BASIC KNOWLEDGE
before doing the Spiritual Exercises. It is very helpful for you.
The following information helps people doing the Spiritual Exercises via
Internet know the way to communicate with their spiritual companion and other
retreatants. It deals with email group address, chat room and time arranged for
chatting.
·
Firstly, the
email group address of this Spiritual Exercises course is [email protected]. The
“spirexer” is the abbreviation of “Spiritual Exercises.” When you send e-mail
to [email protected], all
members of this Spiritual Exercises course receive it.
·
Secondly, our
chat room is on Yahoo; therefore, you must have an ID in Yahoo to chat. Please
create one and send it to me, so that I can add your Yahoo ID in the email
group. At the time arranged, please go to the Internet address http://groups.yahoo.com, sign in, click on
the group “spirexer,” finally click on “chat” to share our spiritual
experiences. I will be there to guide your sharing by putting on some
questions. What time is best for us to chat with one another? For example, you
might leave the following message: I don’t know if it is good for us at
10:00-10:30 PM (eastern time)? Please let me know so that we have one that fit
to all.
·
I have two
email addresses: Giuse Phạm Thanh Liêm, [email protected] and [email protected]. If you have any confidential
stuff to ask your spiritual companion, please send it to me through one of
above two email addresses. Don’t send it through [email protected]. If we need
to talk about this stuff, please inform me by email first, and then we will
arrange time for it. I will give you my telephone number by email. In this case
we will use a phone card that is not expensive, for example, 5 dollars for
about two hours of speaking between Canada and the United States.
HOME SOME THEMES IN ENGLISH SPIRITUAL
EXERCISES VIA INTERNET
COURSES SIGN IN SOME BASIC KNOWLEDGE MATERIALS SUGGESTED SPIRITUAL COMPANION
Best wishes to you!
liempham