Today we reach a halfway point in our ISP Easter reflection series. It seems appropriate to take some time to look back at your Easter experience so far. We invite you to take a few moments today prayerfully to review what has been happening in your spirit since Easter Day, to look back and reflect on where God has still been speaking with you.
Perhaps you can set aside some quiet and reflective time now. Maybe you have a prayerful song you want to play in the background. (One we suggest was a favorite of this year’s cohort of Ambassadors of Hope – “Plowshare Prayer” by Spencer LaJoye. You can look it up on your music source or YouTube.)
When you have taken some time to slow down and quiet your spirit with a few deep breaths, perhaps some of these prompts and points can guide your reflection.
- Take a moment to offer gratitude to your Higher Power for the surprises and graces of this Easter.
- Ignatius encourages those in the discipline of the Spiritual Exercises to spend time in prayerful repetition. What he meant by that was not simply to go back to a previous point and redo it but to look back to a previous prayer experience and ask God again for an encounter and to seek again where God wants to speak more deeply. Has there been a prayer or reflection so far this Easter season, maybe in this ISP series, where you feel called to go deeper? Go there and invite a deeper encounter with God.
- What points of joy and hope have you experienced so far this Easter time? Have you embraced them? Have you rejected them or hidden from them? Why?
- What has challenged you this Easter season? Was there a reflection in the ISP series that caused you to take a step back and reevaluate? Has God continued to speak with you in any surprising ways?
- What do you desire for the rest of this Easter time? What experience of resurrection and hope do you want? How can the next few weeks of Easter be even better than the first? Ask the God of your understanding for that.
After you have taken some time to reflect on these questions, don’t forget to thank God for this time and for all of your experiences this Easter! Hope and joy are all around, if we are willing to look and be open to how God continues to speak! Amen!
At this halfway point, we are all thankful for those who have opened themselves and shared in this reflection series. We have heard the authentic voices of lived experience, from those who have struggled, from those who have been on ISP retreats, from those who work to support and execute ISP programs, from men and women, from different generations, from people of varied faiths. You may have noticed the variety of spiritual voices – some Catholic, some Protestant, some Pentecostal, some Seekers. Some of our scriptures have followed the Roman Catholic calendar, some have been from different inspirations. There has been a variety of scriptural translations and language familiar and surprising. That is part of the beauty of the multifaceted ISP experience. We hope that all of these different voices continue to inspire, challenge, and feed you for the rest of this Easter season. Thanks for joining us on this journey so far — and stay with us for the rest!