Setting the Stage
Become at home again in your prayer space with your candle lit. It might be helpful to read over the reflections you have written thus far as well as your retreat director's responses and feedback. Is there a common thread? Is there anything that God is calling you to do as you continue your journey through this retreat?
Prayer
Jesus, I come to this time with you with a heart open and longing. Quiet my mind. Direct my heart to your heat's desire for me. Speak to my in your word and in your silence of the invitation you have for me to live a life of wholeness, of holiness and of service. You have placed your gifts in my hands so that I can extend them to others. May this prayer be a time of clarity and conviction about how and where you call me.
Reading: Isaiah 58: 1-9
Cry out full-throated and unsparingly, lift up your voice like a trumpet blast:
Tell my people their wickedness, and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just and not abandoned the law of God;
They asked me to declare what is due them, pleased to gain access to God.
"Why do we fast and you do not see it, afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?"
See, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers.
Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw.
Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!
Is this the manner of fasting that I wish, of keeping a day of penance:
That a man bow his head like a reed, and lie in sack cloth and ashes?
Do you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
This, rather is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, and you shall cry for help,
and he will say, "Here I am!"
Reflection
Our family of origin, our education, our culture and even our Church, draw boxes for us, place us in the middle and say, "See, this is the way we do things." The prophet Isaiah sees the box drawn for the Israelites, the box labeled sacrifice to God, containing the traditional way of fasting. Isaiah sees the limitations and narrowness of this box and asks his people to 'think outside of the box.'
Fasting was and remains a traditional spiritual practice. However it is only one box, one type of container for sacrifice in honor of God. Isaiah asks that we see beyond the walls of our various boxes; to see the sacrifices called for beyond our limited view; to honor God by freeing the oppressed, releasing the captive, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and not turning our back on our own.
Clearly Jesus thought outside the box of his own time. To live in relationship to him is to be just as purpose driven; to look beyond ourselves in response to the call to love.
Reflection Questions
As you slowly read this passage again, pay attention to those words which may be extending a particular invitation to you.
- What does the box of my way of honoring God look like?
- If I look outside the box, beyond the traditions like fasting, what needs do I see around me.
- Do I feel called in a particular direction of service? How will I make a commitment to this new form of penance or sacrifice?
- If you are ready, say to God: "Here I am Lord, I am ready to do your will."
GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR RETREAT DIRECTOR
E-mail your director and share your reflection
