MQ: Guided Ignatian Reflection
Personal growth through Ignatian Reflection
A significant component of listening to God and growing spiritually is careful reflective thinking. The following guidelines will help you sort out a particular event or a series of events or experiences of your life, as well as the thoughts of your heart, to discover how God is at work in your life. This is a deep process that moves by stages. It will require a quiet place and uninterrupted time to complete. Our hope is that by the end of MQ, you will have moved through all the stages at least once. There are four stages: look back, look through, look forward and look around.
Look Back
Looking back is an act of remembering. Reflect on the past day, week, month or year, looking for God moments. Notice things you might have missed during the course of the day or week. Take note of events, people, thoughts and feelings. You may find it helpful to journal these thoughts and memories. Don’t try to analyze these experiences unless a connection easily comes to you. Write them down in a journal.
Look Through
To look through is to begin more carefully to see connections and meaning in your experiences. You are looking for deeper meaning. Are there connections between the experiences you have identified? If you experienced times of pain, did these lead you to respond? For example, did you experience pain that stirred your compassion or injustice that resulted in action? What challenges do your experiences pose for your life? Is there a theme emerging in your thoughts? Record your insights in your journal.
Look Forward
Looking forward is about imagining future possibilities. What might your life look like if you listened to the still small voice of your heart? Where would it take you? What are the actions that you would engage in? What parts of your life need to change if you are to embrace God’s leading? Make a note of your inspirations in your journal.
Look Around
Your community is a great resource. How does your vision for the future affect your family, friends and church? What support could they lend you to help you accomplish your vision? How could they partner with you in prayer, encouragement and emotional support? Does you vision extend to the larger community? Who would you draw into your plan? Who will hold you accountable for the new convictions, actions or ideas coming out of your time of reflection? Record a plan of action in your journal, then prayerfully pursue your vision.
Adapted from Spiritual Mentoring by Keith R. Anderson & Randy D. Reese, InterVarsity Press, 1999 p. 133-135.
