We all know the value of retreats—of withdrawing from the world for a short time to focus on our lives in Christ. Iñigo arrived in Manresa and retreated to a cave—for eleven months! It was a difficult but crucial time in which he learned a great deal about himself. He learned to distinguish between the inspirations of the “good spirit”—the Holy Spirit—and the temptations of the “evil spirit”—or Satan. He also learned to recognize how the evil spirit was trying to derail his determination to grow closer to God.
Read moreWaking Up to the Water →
Two young fish were swimming along in the ocean one day when they encountered an older fish, who said to them, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two young fish swam on, and eventually one of them turned to the other and asked, “What the heck is water?”
The point of this story? The most important realities are often the ones that are the hardest for us to see and talk about. For Christians, that means that we can “swim” through life without recognizing the presence of God—and live an unexamined life. But as Socrates once famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
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