Ignatian principle and foundation

This week i had a small taste of what it might be like to really live into the Ignatian "Principle and Foundation" that we pray at the start of the Spiritual Exercises. I reviewed my journal and reread what my responses had been during that prayer time a few weeks ago. This week after the results of a blood test, my "yes" to the "Principle and Foundation" was 'tested'. The test results show that a cancer marker is raised even more than it has been before. It's been raised for a few years but never to this level. So of course i spent some time in anxious thoughts, particularly recalling that recently i have been hearing about several people who have cancer of the pancreas! Well, i decided to have a scan but the radiologist at the usual hospital i go to was on leave......after some thought, i decided i would wait until next week, rather than rush somewhere else, also given that my schedule was tight this week.

As i review my week now, i notice that peace settled in after a couple of days, and i am thankful for the friends who keep me in prayer. I am also grateful to notice that fear of illness has less of a hold on my life now. Of course i would be quite sad if told that i have cancer - and i'm sure all the ' grief reactions' will emerge.......yet i also know that deep down i hear and want to respond to the invitation to connect to a desire that undergirds every other desire - our longing for God as God - the creature's full dependence upon the Creator.

"God freely created us so that we might know, love and serve him in this life and be happy with him forever. .......All things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully. ....... In everyday life then, we should keep ourselves indifferent or undecided in the face of all created gifts when we have an option and we do not have the clarity of what would be a better choice......We ought not to be led on by our natural likes and dislikes, even in matters such as health or sickness, wealth or poverty......

Rather our only desire and our one choice should be that option which better leads us to the goal for which God created us."

(Principle and Foundation Spiritual Exercises)