Contemplating the Incarnation & Nativity

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1 Transformation Intensive Week 2 Part 3 Contemplating the Incarnation & Nativity The graces we are seeking To feel the compassion of the Trinity toward humanity An interior knowledge of the infant Jesus who became human for us This week we begin our formal contemplation on the life and ministry of Jesus by imagining that moment in salvation history when the Trinity decided that the Incarnation was the solution to all that had gone wrong in the world. This is one of the few times that Ignatius suggests a scenario that is implied by Scripture but not explicitly described. Building on the prayer practice Looking at God Looking at Me, Ignatius now asks us to use our imaginations to look at our Triune God looking at the whole world with love; to imagine a conversation between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as they decide to redeem all of creation, and most especially human beings, through the Incarnation. Then we will slowly and carefully pray with the gospel accounts of the Nativity using imaginative contemplative prayer. Begin each prayer period by quieting your mind and body and telling the Lord what you want and desire. Reading o Ignatian Contemplation of the Gospels, by William Barry. (Chapter 6, Finding God in All Things.) o Contemplating the Incarnation, Joseph Tetlow, Choosing Christ in the World, (St. Louis, MO: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1999), 51. o Lauren Gasque, The Holy Trinity: Invitation to Community (2010), ArtWay, o Poetry of Advent and the Nativity Prayer exercises on the Incarnation o Use the prayer guide, Contemplating the Incarnation, by Joseph Tetlow to imagine the Trinity in council before the Incarnation. Focus your imagination on what life was like in the first century. Listen in on the conversation between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as they discuss what is happening on earth and what they plan to do about it. When you finish the imaginative prayer session, make a few notes in your journal about what you imagined. Then talk to one or more persons of the Trinity about it. o Pray with the Andrej Rublev The Holy Trinity/Hospitality of Abraham icon o Pray with the Advent Poetry 2017 Valerie McIntyre 68

2 Scripture for the next two weeks Pray through the following narratives using imaginative contemplation. At first, it may be helpful to follow an Imaginative Contemplation Guide. Let these familiar stories serve as a springboard for your imagination. Beyond the simple action of the stories, allow your imagination freedom to explore what the characters might have been feeling and experiencing. Write yourself into the cast of characters or assume the role of a person you feel drawn to in the stories. Make careful notes about your prayer experiences, including high points and low points, so that you can talk about your prayer in your listening group or with your spiritual director. Keep in mind that imaginative contemplation is an acquired skill. It takes time and patience and gets easier with practice. o Luke 1:26-38 o Matthew 2:1-12 End of the day o Luke 2:1-7 o Luke 2:8-2 o Pray the Thoughts, Words and Deeds Examen or the Gratitude Examen o Plan ahead for the next day of prayer: choose the passage of scripture that you will pray with tomorrow and read it once Optional prayer exercises o Practice Looking at God Looking at Me o Practice Immanuel Journaling o Repetition: It is helpful and important to repeat some or all the gospel contemplations. Even the richest experiences of contemplation can be deepened and expanded by repetition. When a contemplation is difficult or wooden, sometimes it helps to repeat it from a different perspective. Try writing yourself into the story, so to speak, as a different character. o Review: Regularly review your week of prayer. Write a paragraph or two in your journal. Summarize what has happened for you spiritually. When did you feel the presence of God or closeness with Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit or a person in a gospel story? What are you longing for as you move forward? Additional Resources Recording: Symbol, Sacrament and Imagination by Valerie McIntyre: Poems by Killian McDonnell, OSB: Valerie McIntyre 69

The Hospitality of Abraham, Andrei Rublev The leap of divine joy: God knows that the time has come when the mystery of salvation, hidden from the beginning of the world, will shine into human

3 The Hospitality of Abraham, Andrei Rublev The leap of divine joy: God knows that the time has come when the mystery of salvation, hidden from the beginning of the world, will shine into human darkness and confusion. It is as if I can hear the Divine Persons saying, Let us work the redemption of the whole human race; let us respond to the groaning of all creation. David Fleming, SJ, Draw Me into Your Friendship, p Spiritual Exercises, Valerie McIntyre 70

4 How to Pray with an Icon Eyes: The first place to look in an icon is at the eyes. As you sit down with a particular icon, ask yourself the question, Where is the icon s gaze drawing me? What s the focus of the eyes in the icon? Are the eyes looking straight out at you? What do they ask you to consider? Are they looking beyond you? Might there be something outside of you or in your past that you need to consider through the eyes of the figure in the icon? What is the expression within them? What emotion does the gaze raise in you? In some icons, you re invited simply to share a gaze with the icon just as two lovers would: Each looks at the other. Gazing and being gazed at in return can be an experience of being loved. Hands: The other place that I suggest people begin is to look at the hands, because the hands also will lead you. Are the hands pointing to something? Often it appears in icons of the Virgin that she is pointing to or offering her Son to you. In icons of Jesus he is sometimes pointing to a text of Scripture or his hand is raised in blessing or teaching. If his hand is raised in blessing, receive the blessing. If his hand is raised to teach, ask what he might want or need to teach you. Dialogue: Remember, you re not praying to an icon. Rather, you re praying with and through an icon. Say, for example, that you sit down to pray with an icon of the Beloved Disciple. You re not praying to the Beloved Disciple, you are entering into a conversation with the Beloved Disciple and asking him, What can you tell me? What can you teach me about being a Disciple of Jesus? What can you tell me about being beloved by Jesus? What was it like to be leaning on the breast of Jesus at the Last Supper? How can that be for me? How can I become a beloved disciple? The icon becomes a chance for contact and conversation; it invites us into relationship. The icon of the Beloved Disciple isn t simply a picture of John leaning on Jesus shoulder. It s a representation of the real love that these two people had for each other. So praying with an icon of the Beloved Disciple is really praying about that kind of love, using it to help us pray for that kind of relationship with the Lord. Society of Saint John the Evangelist By Curator October 25, Valerie McIntyre 71

5 The Holy Trinity: Invitation to Community by Laurel Gasque An interest in icons from the tradition of eastern Orthodoxy has swept across nearly all denominations in the past two decades. Andrei Rublev s visual interpretation of The Holy Trinity (between 1408 and 1425) is arguably the most renowned icon of all, certainly in the West. An icon of an icon! While old, it seems new. Rublev ( ) stands as an exception to the general anonymity of Orthodox iconographers. Yet he is only a dimly known personality. The facts of his life are fragmentary. Many know of his life from Andrei Tarkovsky s epic film, Andrei Rublev (1966) a great work of art in its own right. More visual poetry than precise biography, this episodic portrayal, however, is faithful to the message at the heart of Rublev s monastic service of creating icons, namely community and love. The allusive nature of Rublev s Trinity icon is the source of its wonder. Its grace of lightness, clarity, harmony and elegance enthrall while compelling us to penetrate the mystery it imparts. Accounting for the details of this deceptively simple work soon accumulates a bounty of observations and even more wonder. Three figures with wings (presumably angels) are seated at what appears to be a stone table. Could it not also be a sarcophagus or altar? The figures at either side sit oddly on angles on both sides of the table as well as on chairs, even thrones of a sort, while the middle figure sits upon the background of earth itself. All hold staffs in their hands. Delicately their wings touch each other. Beneath the feet of the figures to left and right are rectangular slabs reminding one of a key element in representing the Resurrection in Orthodox iconography the Doors of Hell smashed open when Christ trampled on death and delivered humanity from its dire dominion once and forever. Above and behind the three figures, from right to left, we find a mount, a tree, and a building with two clear openings. Their garments (right to left) modulate from the colours of green and blue, earth and sky, to the redemptive colours of red and blue and gold. The three figures point with distinct gestures toward a filled chalice at the centre of the table. In the attempt to identify the particular persons of the Holy Trinity from these figures, many readings abound, attesting to the profundity of Rublev s pictorial theology in aiding us to contemplate the truth of the Trinity. The most frequent approach seems to be to read from the left to the right, seeing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in that progression. Counter intuitively from a Western perspective, this icon can also be considered from the right to the left, possibly encompassing more details and biblical reference. No matter which way one meditates on this icon it drives the beholder back to the Bible. Scripture is written all over it. Although ancient exegetes saw the Trinity in the three men visiting Abraham (and Sarah!) in the text from Genesis 18, it took an iconographer like Rublev 2017 Valerie McIntyre 72

6 centuries later to make this exegesis visual, transforming an icon of the Hospitality of Abraham into one of the Holy Trinity. If we read the icon from right to left, there is the possibility of seeing the Father seated at the right, clothed in the creation colours of blue and green with the mount behind him, suggesting not only the primordial, but the place where Abraham took his son Isaac, as well as the mount on which the Law was given and the Son spoke his famous sermon. In the centre, we see the Son. His gesture of two fingers to the fore and three fingers folded under his palm suggest the two natures of Jesus Christ in one person and the hidden mystery of the Trinity. The blue and red of his garment intimate his royalty and sacrifice while the gold sash suggests the government will be upon his shoulder. His throne is the earth. Above him is a tree. Does it refer to the Oaks of Mamre, the Root out of Jesse, the Cross our Saviour hung on? Or all three? Finally at the left we ponder the Holy Spirit. In many ways here is the most ambiguous and curious figure of all three. Does a light shine through his garments making them more transparent than those of the other two? The configuration of either hand, even the left one holding a staff, is difficult to discern. Could the right hand gesture possibly be a variant of the formula signified by the Son of the two natures in one person and the Trinity? The building with two portals above on the left may allude to the Father s house prepared for by the Son as well as the New Jerusalem indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Son sits at the right hand of the Father who nods toward him. The Son inclines his head to the Holy Spirit. The movement of the mount as in a wave to the left and the tree bending to the left indicate a movement to the left toward the destination to the house of the Lord where we shall dwell forever to behold his beauty. Their disk-like haloes add to a sense of rotation. All of this curves in a circular visual movement around a cup with a residual calf s head from the Hospitality of Abraham standing in for the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, reminding us of our participation in the Eucharist. In this crescendo our eyes drop below and see the slabs of the Doors of Hell, slanted with precision by an expert understanding of perspective that extends behind, rather than before the viewer and includes us. Through these angels/men Rublev helps us see the pervasive presence of the Holy Trinity, even in the tomb (Luke 24:4; John 20:12). We are drawn into an utmost intimacy of being, an embracing fellowship of eternal love. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. 2 Corinthians 13:14 NRSV The icon of the Holy Trinity is located in the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow. ArtWay Visual Meditation Trinity Sunday, Valerie McIntyre 73

7 Advent Poetry IN THE KITCHEN ('In the sixth month the angel Gabriel...' Luke 1:26) Bellini has it wrong, I was not kneeling on my satin cushion, in a beam of light, head slightly bent. Painters always skew the scene, as though my life were wrapped in silks, in temple smells. Actually, I had just come back from the well, placing the pitcher on the table I bumped against the edge, spilling water on the floor. As I bent to wipe it up, there was a light against the kitchen wall, as though someone had opened the door to the sun. Rag in hand, hair across my face, I turned to see who was entering, unannounced, unasked. All I saw was light white against the timbers. A voice I've never heard greeted me, said I was elected, would bear a son who'd reign forever. The spirit would overshadow me. I stood afraid. Someone closed the door and I dropped the rag. - Killian McDonnall (2003) AN OLD WOMAN REMEMBERS I THE ANGEL COMES Ignorant, scarcely thirteen when the speaking light catches me barefoot in the kitchen, soiled torn apron, hair undone, garbage crock almost full. Splendor breaks into the room without a warning, says I m chosen, places a bundle of hard wood upon a reed, waits for my yes. - Killian McDonnall (2003) 2017 Valerie McIntyre 74

8 AN OLD WOMAN REMEMBERS II SHAME Pregnant before the bridal bed, child carrying child. Knowing nods as the village women see me pass down the back alley, whispers, sudden silences at market as I reach across the leeks for fresh hard cucumbers from the country, - every choice signs away tomorrow teenage sideway glances and giggles. Secret awe at the unwed mother. (How long had this been going on?) No one sits beside me on the bench in synagogue. I see bags under Joseph s dark eyes. I m alone. - Killian McDonnall (2003) AN OLD WOMAN REMEMBERS III BETHLEHEM Eight months gone, I ride donkey, Joseph walks ninety miles to Bethlehem. Our cave is cold and damp, oxen stamp their feet at the invasion, two nervous doves shuffle back and forth on the rafters as though knowing my water had burst on the back of the donkey, which looked around to see whence the warm June shower in December. The unappeasable pain on spikey schedule, while Joseph cobbles dirty straw from the stable corners to make a bed; my birth stool a broken feed box. I push the child into his knobby hands as the stable door creaks and three oriental potentates kneel before the bawling baby -- the placenta on the ground.-- They bring gifts on dromedaries over Arabian sands, laying gold, frankincense and myrrh at our feet, while I need a basin of hot water, clean towels, and piles of diapers. - Killian McDonnall (2003) 2017 Valerie McIntyre 75

9 ADVENT The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander, 1944 Advent is the season of the seed: Christ loved this symbol of the seed. The seed, He said, is the Word of God sown in the human heart. The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the earth. Even his own life-blood: Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. The Advent, the seed of the world s life, was hidden in Our Lady. Like the wheat seed in the earth, the seed of the Bread of Life was in her. Like the golden harvest in the darkness of the earth, the Glory of God was shrined in her darkness. Advent is the season of the secret, the secret of the growth of Christ, of Divine Love growing in silence. It is the season of humility, silence, and growth. For nine months Christ grew in His Mother s body. By His own will she formed Him from herself, from the simplicity of her daily life. She had nothing to give Him but herself. He asked for nothing else. She gave Him herself. Working, eating, sleeping, she was forming His body from hers. His flesh and blood. From her humanity she gave Him His humanity. Walking in the streets of Nazareth to do her shopping, to visit her friends, she set His feet on the path to Jerusalem. Washing, weaving, kneading, sweeping, her hands prepared His hands for the nails. Every beat of her heart gave Him His heart to love with, His heart to be broken by love. All her experience of the world about her was gathered to Christ growing in her. Looking upon the flowers, she gave Him human sight. Talking with her neighbors, she gave Him a human voice. The voice we still hear in the silence of souls saying: Consider the lilies of the field. Sleeping in her still room, she gave Him the sleep of the child in the cradle, the sleep of the young man rocked in the storm-tossed boat. Breaking and eating the bread, drinking the wine of the country, she gave Him His flesh and blood; she prepared the Host for the Mass. This time of Advent is absolutely essential to our contemplation too. If we have truly given our humanity to be changed into Christ, it is essential to us that we do not disturb this time of growth. It is a time of darkness, of faith. We shall not see Christ s radiance in our lives yet; it is still hidden in our darkness; Nevertheless, we must believe that He is growing in our lives; We must believe it so firmly that we cannot help relating everything, literally everything, to this almost incredible reality. This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer Valerie McIntyre 76

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11 Imaginative Contemplation Guide The Visitation Luke 1:24-25, Come into God s presence and feel his loving gaze. Then offer to God your imagination, thoughts, feelings and intentions during this time of prayer. 2. Briefly recall some of the details about the particular part of sacred history you are going to pray about. 3. Compose yourself in the Gospel scene. Imagine what you might be experiencing if you were present in the scene, either as one of the characters or as an observer. What would you see? Hear? Smell? Feel with your body? 4. Ask for what you want from God during this time of prayer. For example, to experience something of what it was like for Mary to receive strength and affirmation from her aunt, Elizabeth. Or to experience with Elizabeth what it was like to realize that God was healing her barrenness and making her fruitful late in life. 5. Enter into the event. Beyond the simple action of the stories, allow your imagination liberty to explore what the characters might have been feeling and experiencing. Write yourself into the cast of characters or assume the role of one of the people that you are drawn to in the story. What was this like from Zachariah s perspective, for example? It might help to imagine writing a scene for a play. How would you instruct the actors? What are they doing, saying and feeling? a. Notice movement (Mary s, Elizabeth s, your own) b. Notice emotions (Mary s, Elizabeth s, your own) c. Notice conversation (Mary s, Elizabeth s, your own) d. Notice anything your imagination invents. 6. Write down a few sentences about what you imagined during this contemplation. 7. Talk to the Lord about what came up in your contemplation. Listen to anything the Holy Spirit might be whispering to you Valerie McIntyre 78

Experience Jesus birth for us

The graces we are seeking Transformation Intensive Week 11 Second Movement Experience Jesus birth for us To attain an interior knowledge of our Lord who became human for us. This week we continue our contemplation