How To Use This Guide

Welcome to living a generous life as we reflect on the life stories of Jesus. For the next five days you are asked to read the anchor scripture, put yourself into the story presented, reflect in a quiet place, answer questions, then pray. Our desire is that you experience God, not just know about God. Expect your life to be transformed as you learn and experience through reflection.

There are some fundamental truths that we ask you to keep in mind. GOD LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY….all of who you are, the beautiful you and the acting out you. You are special to Trinity (Father, Son & Spirit) you have dignity and worth. Now, that’s a good place to begin from.

Each day, Monday-Friday, find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Sit comfortably with your Bible, your journal and maybe a cup of coffee …or you may want to hold a small cross in your hands, or you may want to light a candle signaling the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever is comfortable for you. You have been invited into this sacred space by Jesus and Jesus is sitting with you. Completing this reflection is not the goal nor is rushing through it…simply enjoy being with Jesus. Be open, aware and attention to his presence.

Note how you’re feeling as you come to prayer. Are you excited, rested, tired, anxious? Note what you desire to come out of this time with Jesus. It could be that your desire is to live a simple life with great meaning. Ask Jesus what is the desire that he’s put in your heart. St. Ignatius has shared a prayer with us for Generosity that you may pray during this sermon series.

Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve,

To give and not to count the cost,

To fight and not to need the wounds,

To Toil and not seek for rest,

To labor and not to seek reward,

Except that of knowing that I do your will.

Amen.

MONDAY

The day after Pentecost.  Jesus’ promised gift of the Holy Spirit has come.  Today is a great day to reflect on what happened yesterday.  Imagine being with the disciples watching and listening to the sequence of events.  Notice your surroundings.  BE in the room.  Answer the questions feeling free to write in your journal what you notice and anything the Spirit may be saying to you.

This imaginative prayer meditation is based on Acts 2:1–11, the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  From Ignatian Spirituality.  

After Jesus ascended to the Father, all of us who followed him decided to stay together. He told us to wait for the Holy Spirit. We weren’t sure what that meant, really. What would it look like, feel like? The Holy Spirit visited the prophets in strange ways—in visions, with powerful speech, even with great miracles.

In Jesus’ company, we had indeed witnessed miracles. We told stories, often, of when he healed this person or cast out a demon from that one. We recounted the story of Jesus feeding thousands with a few loaves and fishes.

The biggest miracle, of course, was his Resurrection. That was more than a miracle; it changed the world forever. It changed us, down to our very bones and breath.

What do I remember most fondly about traveling with Jesus? Was it his stories? He had a story for just about every situation! Was it the way he looked with great kindness on a person, no matter who that person was or what he’d done?

All we could do now was tell stories of what had already happened—that, and pray. We prayed as Jesus had taught us. And we waited.

What are we waiting for? How will we know that the Advocate has come to us? Will we know for certain, or will it be another one of Jesus’ puzzles or parables?

The Feast of Pentecost arrived, and still we remained gathered like sheep awaiting the shepherd. We observed our Pentecost prayers and rituals, continuing to act like the observant Jews we were. But something was missing, and we didn’t even know how to describe it.

What does a community need, when it has understood a new and revolutionary truth? Do we need better understanding? Do we need a plan? Do we need, more than anything, the courage to keep believing and telling what we know?

On the Feast of Pentecost, while we prayed together, the room suddenly filled with wind that seemed to come from an ocean or a desert. Or a cave or a mountain. It was fresh and cool yet weighted with unnamable fragrance and crackling like fire. The two small windows and the seemingly calm weather outside could not account for this roaring, invisible, electric rush of air.

What is happening? Are we to be taken up in a whirlwind, as Elijah was? Will we go now to be with our Lord, wherever he is?

We prayed louder and with urgency. Surely God would protect us from whatever was happening just now. At one point all of us were saying, together, the prayer Jesus had taught us: “Our Father . . .”

(Explore and pray the prayer in different Bible translations.)

Then our communal prayer burst into a hundred prayers at once. Our words had begun in unison but now reproduced themselves in odd yet fervent lines of syllables. After a few moments, we realized that we were not saying the same words. In fact, we were not even speaking the same language.

What is going on in my mouth? I think a thought, and my tongue and lips form the thought on their own, in words I cannot perceive yet know to be true.

Each one of us was praying in an excited voice, in a distinct language. And we were proclaiming this new story of the risen Christ with eloquence we could not have imagined moments before. With our minds we could not translate, but our hearts knew exactly what we meant.

Who’s knocking on the door? Oh—they’ve pushed it open, and there’s a crowd out there! Who are they, and what do they want? They seem to be foreigners, judging by their clothes.

We stopped praying so that the people out in the street, now in our doorway, could be heard. “How is that you Galileans are speaking all our languages, telling us of God’s mighty works? We’re from a dozen different countries and tongues, and yet you speak to us plainly. What’s going on here?”

Then Peter stood on a table and began to tell the story.

TUESDAY | Read Acts 2:1-11 from The Passion Translation of the Bible. 

• How do you see the Holy Spirit at work in this gathering of disciples?

• What cross-cultural component emerges and what do you think the impact of that will be as the message of Jesus Christ spreads?

• What is the impact of that on your life today?

• Write anything you want to remember in your journal.

WEDNESDAY | Read Acts 2:14-41

• How are you moved by the message that Peter preaches?

• What do you notice about Peter compared to how you’ve experienced him in the past?

• How has the Spirit empowered you as you’ve gone about your life?

• Remember specific examples of experiences in your life?  Reflect on them asking the Holy Spirit to reveal what is important to reflect on.

• Write in your journal what you hear.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY

Today and tomorrow, we will look the mystery surrounding the work of the Holy Spirit…  Meditate on the following passages spreading them out over the two days.  The format is:

Read

Meditate

Ask God what he wants to say to you

Pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray

Write in your journal

• Read Luke 11:35…Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit

• Read Matthew 3:16…The Spirit of the Lord rests upon Jesus

• Read Luke 4:11…Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert

• Read Acts 2:2, 4, 11…The Holy Spirit in the Church

• Read I Corinthians 6:19; I Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 4:30…The Holy Spirit in the souls of the just

This week we invite you to  participate in a guided meditation that John Wimber  (The Vineyard founder)  led a group of retreatants on at a conference some years ago.  The scripture was John 4:4-42 NIV.  But before that, let’s recall Joshua 1:8…

“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Meditation is a form of prayer.  Meditation uses the mind, memory and the will. 

MONDAY | REFLECTION

• Read John 4:4-42
• What words, phrases or images resonates with you?  What makes the water shimmer?  What makes you curious?
• Read the passage a second time. 
• Put yourself in the scene….who are you... A disciple? The Samaritan woman?  A by-stander observing the events of the day?  What stands out to you?  How is Jesus revealing himself to you in the passage?  In what ways to you  default to theological conversations with Jesus to keep from getting to the real issues and particulars of your life? How does this passage give you a sense of your own calling?
• Read the passage a third time.  What is Jesus asking you to pay attention to?  What do you want to say to Jesus?
• Write in your journal what was revealed to you as you meditated on this scripture.
• End by praying….it could be as simple as praying the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray.

Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Slow down, calm your mind, imagine yourself

in the long and loving gaze of Trinity.

Enter each daily time of prayer by answering two questions: (Don’t forget our journal)

1. How do I come to prayer today? How am I feeling? Be free to be honest about what you come to Trinity with this day.

2. What do I desire? What do you most want as you come to be with God? Again, be

honest. God loves to hear our deepest, truest desires.

3. Ask yourself this week, “What is generous love and how is it lived out in a beautiful

community?”

4. Am I modeling generous love like Jesus? Am I modeling generous love in my home, work and in my community?

Monday…Jesus’ Prayer for His Followers

John 17:1-5 The Message Translation

17  1-5  Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said: Father, it’s time. Display the bright splendor of your Son So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. You put him in charge of everything human so he might give real and eternal life to all in his care.

And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do.

And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor, The very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world.

1. Read the passage three times.

2. Imagine you are listening to Jesus as he prays this prayer.

3. “Bright splendor of your Son” What thoughts and feelings does this bring up to

you? The Father unveiled the glory or splendor of his Son on the cross, by the

empty tomb, through his ascension into heaven, and by the mighty outpouring of

the Holy Spirit upon his church.

4. How does this impact how you do church and life?

5. Is there more for you in this passage?

6. Write down what God gave you.

Tuesday…John 17:6-12 Jesus Prays For His Disciples

6-12  I spelled out your character in detail To the men and women you gave me.

They were yours in the first place; Then you gave them to me, And they have now done what you said.

They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,

For the message you gave me, I gave them; And they took it, and were convinced

That I came from you. They believed that you sent me. I pray for them.

I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world but for those you gave me,

For they are yours by right. Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,

And my life is on display in them. For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world;

They’ll continue in the world while I return to you.

Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life That you conferred as a gift through me,

so they can be one heart and mind as we are one heart and mind.

As long as I was with them, I guarded them in the pursuit of the life you gave through me;

I even posted a lookout. And not one of them got away, except for the rebel bent on destruction

(the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

1. Jesus has made Trinity (God the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit) fully and plainly recognizable to us?

What has that meant to you as a disciple of Jesus?

2. What do you think consumed the heart of Jesus as he prayed for his disciples?

3. How can you more generously live as Jesus’ disciple knowing Jesus includes you in this prayer?

4. How is your faith increased by hearing Jesus pray this way?

5. Is there more for you in this passage?

6. Write down what God gave you.

Wednesday John 17:13-19

13-19  Now I’m returning to you. I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing So my people can experience My joy completed in them. I gave them your word; The godless world hated them because of it, Because they didn’t join the world’s ways, Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world Than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

1. What does it feel like to know that Jesus has “joy” in you as he thinks about you?

2. You are in the world but not of the world….how has that played out in your life?

3. What does it mean to you to know that Jesus has prayed that the Father would guard you from the work of the devil? How does that encourage you?

4. Is there more for you in this passage?

5. Write down what God gave you.

Thursday John 17:20-23

20-23  I’m praying not only for them But also for those who will believe in me

Because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, So they’ll be as unified and together as we are— I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, And give the godless world evidence That you’ve sent me and loved them In the same way you’ve loved me.

1. Jesus’ prayer now turns to us, the ones who will believe in him because of the witness of those who he walked among. He thought about us long before we were in this world.

How does it make you feel to be included in Jesus’ prayer?

2. Are you beginning to see unity in a new light?

3. How will that impact how you live generously in your impact in the world?

4. Is there more for you in this passage?

5. Write down what God gave you?

Friday John 17:24-26

24-26  Father, I want those you gave me To be with me, right where I am,

So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, Having loved me

Long before there ever was a world. Righteous Father, the world has never known you,

But I have known you, and these disciples know That you sent me on this mission.

I have made your very being known to them— Who you are and what you do—

And continue to make it known, So that your love for me might be in them Exactly as I am in them.

1. Do you get a glimpse of Jesus’ desire for you? How would you put that into your own words?

Write it in your journal.

2. What are your desires and dreams for yourself as a vital member of Jesus’

generous life that we studied over the last few weeks?

For context, Jesus perhaps prayed this prayer on his last night with his disciples. As he prayed, he gathered up the life they had lived together and drew every parallel into the life the disciples would continue to live, praying his life and work and their life and work into an identity. It was going to be the same life whether people saw and heard Jesus living it or would see and hear us living it. And that’s it. Jesus spent his last evening preparing for his transition from Jesus’ present to Jesus absent. He began by washing the feet of the disciples, down on his knees before each of them, getting his hands dirty with the dirt of their feet. He ended by praying to his Father and Their Father that what they continued to do would be right in line with what Jesus had been doing.

The pattern holds: Whatever we do in Jesus’ name, we begin on our knees before our

friends and neighbors and conclude looking “up to heaven” praying to our Father. What are the bookends of our lives? Generously caring for the widow, the orphan, the single mother, the unwed teen, the homeless, the disabled, the sick, the dying, the lonely and everything in between, praying to the Father for courage, strength, and boldness to bring help to it all. Now, that is living generously!!

3. Is there more in this passage for you?

4. Write down what God gave you.

Justice requires a willingness to see where unjust realities are occuring.

This week is an invitation to see with kingdom eyes. With humility, ask Jesus to help you see.

Monday

Watch Just Mercy…Netflix and Prime Video

Tuesday

What would you like to savor from watching Just Mercy? What is the prayer you would like to write out and pray to God?

Wednesday

Watch God Save Texas

What is the different view of justice you may have after Sunday’s sermon and the two documentaries you viewed?

Thursday

Read Part 1 of Makoto Fijimura’s story

Just enjoy the reading. What do you take away from his story? What is your story?

Friday

Read Part 2 of Makoto Fujimura’s story

Just enjoy the reading. What do you take away from the story? What is your story?

Additional Resource:

Justice: A conversation with Tim Mackie (Bible Project) & Jay Pathak (Vineyard USA)

The Daily Examen is a method of reviewing your day in a peaceful and reflective manner. We do the Examen in the presence of God expecting to find the movement of God in all the people and events of our day. We come

knowing that God is present everywhere. It has five steps and takes 15-20 minutes per day.

The Examen can be done in the morning or in the evening. We will give you an example of a morning Examen and an evening Examen. It is your choice whether you do it in the day or at night, just remember to do it daily.

The Morning Examen | Example

This morning we will pray the morning examen where we’ll assess our desires, feelings, and possible challenges as we face a new day. Take time to sit quietly. Be aware of your breathing, sensing your feet on the floor in front of you. Take 3 deep breaths…. breathing in thru your nose, feeling the cool air in your nostrils, holding for a moment, then breathing out through your mouth, making your exhale longer than your inhale. Do that a couple more times bringing your breathing back to normal in the 3rd deep breath.

Now, check in with yourself. Thank Trinity (God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit) for breath in your lungs, your heart that beats and also allows you to know love, and your brain that thinks. You might become aware of thoughts, or some internal dialogue, or a feeling state that you may be in. Whatever is happening inside, simply bring some awareness to it. Do not judge it or try to change it or fix it. Just try to see it. Put your attention to your breathing and sensing.

Give your attention now to your day ahead. Is your mind calm? Your body relaxed? Are you experiencing any anxiety about work, home, incomplete tasks, unforgiveness, unkind words spoken or unkindness you’ve received? Whatever is going on inside you, this is still a day filled with new opportunities for grace.

Our prayer is:

Good morning God. We come to you as we are now, imperfect, hopeful, or maybe tired or lots of things on our minds. Thanks again for our bodies that have been so faithful to us as we welcome another day in your creation. You may be aware of your desire to carry God’s presence with you as you continue with your schedule for today. As you begin to recognize this Presence, ask yourself, "What are two or three additional desires do I have for today?".

Now take a survey of your feelings right now…How did you sleep? Did you get a chance to eat? Was your meal satisfying? Are you hungry? Have any feelings or excitements or fears spilled over to the morning? Do you feel ready to hear God’s voice for spaces in your life today? God knows your desires and feelings right now. Feelings happen to you; they do not define you. As you begin today, you go forth as God made you, loved, with certain gifts and talents. This is your identity in God. With this in mind, do you anticipate any challenges today, good or bad?

Now, take your desires for today, your feelings right now, and the challenges you anticipate and give them to God. What would be your one-sentence to God right now as you face a new day? Speak it to God right now.

With a spirit of renewal and trust, end with a prayer by Jesuit John Veltri:

O God, I find myself at the beginning of another day.

I do not know what it will bring.

Please help me to be ready for whatever it may be.

If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.

If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.

If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.

If I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.

I pray just for today, for these twenty-four hours,

for the ability to cooperate with others according to the way Jesus taught us to live.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

May these words that he taught us become more than words.

Please free my thinking and feelings and the thinking and feelings of others,

from all forms of self-will, self-centeredness, dishonesty, and deception.

Along with my brothers and sisters,

I need this freedom to make my choices today according to your desires.

Send your Spirit to inspire me in time of doubt and indecision so that, together, we can walk along your path.

Amen.

The Evening Examen | Example

1. Ask God for light. Look at your day with God’s eyes, not merely your own.

2. Give thanks. The day you have just lived is a gift from God. Be grateful for it.

3. Review the day. Carefully look back on the day just completed, being guided by the Holy Spirit.

4. Face your shortcomings. Face up to what’s wrong…in your life and down to your very soul.

5. Look toward tomorrow. Ask where you need God in the day to come.

Simple Steps for Reflection | Examen

1. Become aware of God’s presence.

2. Review the day with gratitude. 

3. Pay attention to your emotions.

4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.

5. Look toward tomorrow.

www.Ignatianspirituality.com for more information on the Examen method of prayer.

We pray that you enjoy this method of prayer as another way to connect

with God seeing his activities in all your day.