January 21, 2010

 
Me and you are going to get to know each other real well.

At Mars Hill, you are not only a reader but are being read. A book you pick up, peruse and put down may seem like only an object, but your interaction with it gives it freedom to interact with you. Sacred Listening is one of the texts for Theology of Spiritual Formation. It has four "movements" composed of units and each unit has 7 exercises for 7 days of the week. Each movement has a different number of units, but the first has eight, the second has eleven, the third has two and the fourth has four. We are only required to complete the first movement but that alone is eight weeks, one exercise each day, each exercise an hour to an hour and a half. Then we write a paper on it. So, needless to say, I will be spending a lot of time with this book in hand.

The spiritual exercises are a modified (for Protestants) version of Ignatius Loyola's, the founder of the Jesuits, alive in the 16th century. The first four chapters introduce you to Ignatius and also to the content of the book and how to "make the exercises". As I read through them I caught glimpses of therapy and theology mingled together. They require deep introspection and prayer. You also journal the experience, tracking your thoughts, emotions, and responses. And then once a week you meet with a partner to listen and hear from each other what you've discovered.

An hour a day for eight weeks is a huge time commitment. To complete the exercises I would have to commit another 17 weeks to the process. But I'm optimistic. What I've read so far has been enlightening; not because of the content but because of the process the exercises require you to go through. It looks promising. In eight weeks I could be finishing up a paper and looking back on these two months as some of the more formative in my life.