THURSDAY, January 5

John 11:17-27, 38-44. [Jesus] cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

The first time I went on an Ignatian retreat, my spiritual director gave me this story about the raising of Lazarus to take into my prayer. Ignatian contemplation, following the practice of Ignatius of Loyola, invites the participant to enter and to imagine one’s self as a character or onlooker in a story from the gospels and to allow the story to unfold.

I’ll admit I’m not very good at this form of prayer. But this experience was a powerful one. I imagined myself as Lazarus, my life restored but still bound in strips of cloth and lying in the tomb. I imagined hearing Jesus say to me, “Come out!” As Jesus said these words, I became aware of all the things that held me back in the tomb, keeping me from living the fullness of life that Christ intends for all of us. Slowly, I tried to imagine my anxieties, my resentments, and my fear falling away like the strips of cloth that bound Lazarus’s body. By the end of the prayer period, in my mind’s eye, I was able to walk more lightly and freely out of the tomb.

God intends new life for all of us. What keeps you in the tomb?

PRAY for the Diocese of Abuja (Province of Abuja, Nigeria)

Ps 2, 110:1-5(6-7) * 29, 98; Jonah 2:2-9; Ephesians 6:10-20

View the daily Lectionary Readings at http://satucket.com/lectionary/

Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com or Oremus Bible browser.

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