St. Ignatius’s prayer is a liturgical practice that prompts a meditation of reflection. In a watered down synopsis, it encompasses a daily step-by-step prayer, which mandates believers to consciously examine each day and note the moments in which God’s presence felt nearest, and, on the contrary, when His presence went unnoticed. Aka: Today, when did you feel closest to the Creator? When did you feel farthest? How can you increase the former, and decrease the latter?
Through devotion and discipline, this reflective prayer offers opportunity to grow in intimacy with God and cultivate a perceptiveness to His presence in all things.
….We wandered an estimation of 11 miles on foot yesterday, circling through the major sites of Roma. We embarked at metro stop “Ottaviano” near the Vatican, moved on to The Pantheon, marched to Termini Train Station and completed our tour-de-piede voyage at the Spanish Steps. Of course we found a few bookshops, bathroom stops and dead-ends to sprinkle in-between. (If you charted this on a map, you’d cry.)
After pausing for a short pizza dinner, we submitted to another three-hour jaunt with a friend named Dani, followed by a wisely considered decision to view the breathe-taking Colosseum, AGAIN. This time by moonlight.
We finally made it home by 3 a.m. via isolated, underground metro changes and accompanied by creepy men.
Clearly we are very savvy travelers and racked up about 16 hours of almost non-stop motion. Sick.
In light of St. Ignatius, however, I need to recount the thinnest moment we experienced in our chaos-packed adventure day...
While resting on the magnificent Spanish Steps, Maeg and I followed wise-advice to read aloud the book of Romans.
This audible truth created a rich silence in itself, but I got chills as watched literal Roman locals walk down the steps before our eyes. He spoke in silence at that moment to me, to Maeg and to them…
“And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints…” Romans 1:6-7
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