And Now We Wait for the Sequel
The Final Chapter: The Ignatian Myth & Narrative Project
We’ve come to the part of the story where our protagonist returns home, sets down the sword and picks up the rake, hugs some kids and pats a dog on the head, settles into an old wooden rocking chair and pulls out a pipe, watching the sunset with a mixture of nostalgia and relief and curiosity about the future.
What am saying is, we’ve come to the end.
Stories wrap up, right? A good movie or novel or comic or video game is going to leave us—the readers, the viewers, the gamers—feeling satisfied, like the time we invested in the story itself was time well-spent. Character arcs come to necessary conclusions; villains are defeated—or, at least sent spiraling of into space in their TIE Advanced x1 starfighters. A lesson is learned and the payoff is clear and our protagonist returns home to live out said lesson in community.
That is, until the sequel.
In our current age of sequels and spinoffs and reboots and adaptions, it’s tempting to shake our fist: Oh, so you want MORE money out of the Frozen franchise, eh?
But as we’ve been reflecting on our own journey through Ignatian myth and narrative, I hope one thing (at least!) has become clear: Our story doesn’t actually end. God continues to be intimately present in our lives, whispering in our ears, urging us onward. The call continues, and our vocation unfolds so long as we remain alive and attentive.
There is no neat and tidy bow on our story. In fact, we’re likely already living into the sequel—if not the fifth reboot.
The Spiritual Exercises are themselves a set series of meditations that a person proceeds through in a retreat-like setting. But those meditations and the various spiritual practices they inspire can be prayed with and reflected upon in any order, at any time. If you’re familiar with my writing, you know I often reach for the Two Standards, even though that meditation shows up but once in the Second Week the Exercises.
So, I think it’s fair to look at our own lives, our own stories in a similar way. Don’t get frustrated if it feels like story threads are still unraveling! We are constantly entering into a new storyline; we are constantly reflecting upon an old one. And indeed I could probably keep writing about these ideas for a very long time.
But, there’s also value in finding an endpoint. And this is it for this series.
I want to leave you with two things:
1. Think about the four weeks of the Spiritual Exercises as four key elements of your own story: The Catalyst, The Call, The Dark Night and The Return.
What in your life now is grating on you, is stirring you to take action or make a new decision? (Catalyst!)
Where are you being invited into something new, a world that is markedly different than the one you inhabit today—and who is doing the inviting? (Call!)
Where are you being challenged to look squarely at suffering and hardship—in your own life or in that of another—and what are you being invited to learn as a result? (Dark Night!)
What are the little returns that you make each day—big and small—and how might those resets, those re-encounters with others, invite you to become more curious, more generous, more authentically you? (Return!)
2. Finally, did you like this series? Would you be interested in more stuff like it? What other questions or ideas do you have that you might be interested in hearing me pontificate on? (Oh—what’s that? Just Star Wars? Well, okay…did I mention I wrote a book…?)
This is the final part of a limited series I’m calling The Ignatian Myth & Narrative Project. If you want to relive the magic, read:
And Another Thing:
My friend
of wrote an Easter essay for our campaign over at Jesuits.org about rolling away the stone and embracing the vocation to be a writer and it really struck me. I think you’ll like it, too. Give it a read.Congratulations to my friend
of for signing a deal with Eerdmans Publishing for her next book, The Sacraments of Paying Attention: Contemplative Practices for Restoring Sacred Human Communion. Check it out!I was on the U.S.-Mexico border the week before Holy Week and shared a bit about my experience for this week’s “Now Discern This.” Check it out.
I liked it, and would have liked it even more if it was more in depth! And more please!
This was a great series! The mashup of Ignatian spirituality with the topic and with daily life made it unique, along with your voice and perspective.