The Absolute

Introduction

I’d like to do a couple of exercises from someone that I have come to really enjoy as a writer but more importantly as a person who has helped me to be present to the work of God in my life. He is a Jesuit by the name of Anthony DeMello, he wrote a book of spiritual exercises that he called Wellsprings – A Book of Spiritual Exercises. Here’s something that he says in the very beginning that I want to use to orient us. 

He says – These exercises have a power that will not be experienced if they are merely read, they must be done. This is true of almost every sentence in the exercise. Often, what seems to be an uninspiring set of words when read may prove to be a surprising gateway.  

So this is an exercise called – The Absolute. 

God says – Give me your heart. 

And then in answer to my puzzlement I hear him say – Your heart is where your treasure is. 

My treasures – Here they are:

Persons I know. 

Places I’ve gone.  

Occupations I’ve had. 

Things I possess.

Experiences of the past. 

The future’s hopes and dreams. 

I pick each treasure up, saying something to it, and place it in the presence of the Lord.  

How shall I give these treasures to him?  

In the measure that my heart is in past treasures, I am fossilized and dead. For life is only in the present. So to each of these past treasures, those golden yesterdays, I say goodbye. 

To each I speak, explaining that,  grateful though I am that they came into my life, it must move out, or my heart will never learn to love the present. 

My heart is in the future too. It’s anxious fears of what will be tomorrow leave little energy to fully live what is today. I list my fears, and I say to each – Let the will of God be done…observing what effect this has on me, knowing in my heart, that God can only will my good. 

My heart is in dreams, ideals, hopes, which make me live in the future fiction. To each of these I say – Let the will of God be done. Let him dispose of you as he sees fit. 

Having reclaimed the portion of my heart that was captured by the future and the past I now survey the present treasures. To each beloved person I say with tenderness – You are so precious to me, but you are not my life. I have a life to live, a destiny to meet that is separate from you. I say to places, things I’m attached to – Precious you are, but you are not my life. My life and destiny are separate from you. 

I say this to the things that seem to constitute my very being – my health, my ideologies, my good name, reputation, and I say it to my life, which must succumb someday to death – You are desirable and precious, but you are not my life. My life and destiny are separate from you. 

At last I stand alone before the Lord. 

To him I give my heart. 

I say – You Lord are my life. You are my destiny.