How to Give Inner Peace in Friendship with Jesus

Purpose

The purpose of this retreat is to bring your receiver into a working relationship with Jesus and so deepen his or her friendship with him. During it, your receiver will experience how Jesus befriends others in the truest ways, through acceptance, sharing, listening, forgiving, loving and so on. Then, he or she brings someone they know in need of friendship, and is a friend to that person in the same way as Jesus. So the purpose of this retreat is to experience a friendship with Jesus born of two people having the same desires and working together.

Friendship between the Trinity and your receiver is a profound part of creation, incarnation, love, resurrection and eternal life. It underpins the big story of the universe. So the purpose of the first and last week is to help your receiver to enter the big story of creation and discover her or his connections to it. The middle weeks are more intimate, your receiver enters into the close friendship of Jesus as a coworker, the purpose being to deepen that friendship.

The use of a symbol in each exercise gives your receiver a way to hold and touch the heart of each prayer. The symbol suffuses the life of your receiver with the desired aspect of friendship. Some time in this retreat, Jesus will breathe the Spirit into your receiver, to banish fear and break through obstacles, so that he or she may have a vital, peaceful, working friendship with him.

Retreat Map

Week One     Jesus, a friend for creation

Monday         The Spirit hovers over creation.

Tuesday         The Father raises life in the universe.

Wednesday   The Son is born Homo sapiens.

Thursday       I am born in the image of God.

Saturday        Awareness Examen

Sunday          I desire divine relationship.

Week Three  Jesus, a friend for every time

Monday         Jesus shows me how friends listen.

Tuesday         Jesus shows me how friends forgive.

Wednesday   Jesus shows me how friends work.

Thursday       Jesus shows me how friends love.

Saturday        Reconciliation Examen

Sunday          I desire divine intimacy.

New Prayer Method 1

Ex 45 – The Spirit hovers over creation

Preparation
First I take a small hand bowl, fill it with water and put it to hand.

At my prayer place, I consider how the Spirit hovers over me in her work of continuing creation. I make a gesture of reverence and humility.
I read the prayer texts to anchor myself in the power of divine creativity.

Opening Prayer
With simple words, I offer my whole self to the Spirit.

Desire
I desire to know the creative God.

Prayer
With my imagination, I contemplate the creation of the universe.

First, the vision—I imagine the creation of the universe, 13.7 billion years ago. I see the Big Bang and the creation of particles and antiparticles, the fundamental forces of gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces, and the prodigious expansion of everything.

I see, in my own way, protons and neutrons binding in the cooling universe to form hydrogen and helium nuclei, until, at 300,000 years, the first atoms form, and photons of light are released in a sea of radiation. I see the Spirit above and in everything, even in direction itself. I hear, “Let there be light!”

Then, over eons, I see all the elements being progressively created in stars, evermore complex in the burning hearts and explosive deaths.

Second, the relationship—I consider my profound relationship to the beginning of creation. I drink some water from the bowl of water. Now I am drinking the hydrogen created in the first moment of creation—for all hydrogen around and within me was created then and none since. I can say, in a very real way, that part of me was there in the beginning.

Every other element in my body was created in generations of stars. Physically, I carry the story of creation within me.
What difference does this make to the way I relate to universe?

Conversation of the Senses
In reverence, I take my bowl of water, symbol of the waters of creation.

I bless it.

I gently blow over the face of the water, asking myself how I might join in the Spirit’s work of loving creation.

I put my finger in the water and taste the water, the hydrogen created 13.7 billion years ago.

I conclude in conversation, as with a friend, by sharing my thoughts and feelings with the Holy Spirit.

Our Father.

New Prayer Method 2

Ex 50 – Jesus shows me how friends accept.

Preparation  
Immediately on waking, I recall people I know who need acceptance and imagine bringing them to Jesus. I get dressed with thoughts like these.

At my prayer place, I make a gesture of reverence and humility.

Opening Prayer      
I ask the grace to direct my whole self to the Jesus who accepts the burdened.

Desire
I desire to accept with Jesus.

Prayer    
I read the prayer texts to see how Jesus accepts. Then, in three steps I pray.

1. Jesus accepts me. I choose ONE of the accepting relationships in the prayer texts. I use my imagination to enter the scene as the one in need. I fill in the details of people and conversation. I come to Jesus and let the scene unfold.

2. As a friend of Jesus, I accept others. I use my imagination to bring before me a person I know who yearns to be accepted. I imagine a place and what we might say. I let the scene unfold as I befriend and accept like Jesus.

3. I see my part in the great unfolding story of divine friendship, creation, salvation and eternal life. Standing back, I imagine, in detail, the effects of my acceptance of the other radiating forward into the long future. I see more and more people, communities, and even earth and its creatures becoming utterly welcomed, accepted and called into the living realm of God.

Conversation of the Senses
In reverence, I take a jar of ointment as a symbol of acceptance.

I bless it.

Removing my shoes, I anoint and massage my feet with ointment.

Then Jesus and I share how we feel about our friendship. We consider how to bring acceptance to those I have remembered in this prayer.

Our Father.

New Prayer Method 3

Ex 60 – The Father raises my friend to life.

Preparation       
At my prayer place, I consider how the Father raises the dead to life. I make a gesture of reverence and humility.

I read the prayer texts to understand the outcome of divine friendship.

Opening Prayer     
With simple words, I offer my whole self to the Father.

Desire    
I desire living hope from the Father.

Prayer
With my imagination, I see the consequences of friendship with Jesus.

First, a promise fulfilled. I use my imagination to stand in the small tomb of Jesus. It is pitch dark, yet as dawn breaks, beams of dusty, golden light slip past the round stone at my back. Gradually I make out the dead body of Jesus, his wounds are clear, his binding cloths folded at his feet. Suddenly, his whole back arches, ribs stretched, head thrown back, arms pressed to the stone. He takes the first great, shuddering breath of new life. His eyes snap open. He exhales slowly settling down, deeply weighted in the here and now—alive.

He becomes aware of me, turns his head and speaks my name.

I allow the rest of his resurrection to unfold around me.

Second, new friends. Next, I use my imagination to create a place of serenity to abide in—a place of peaceful habitation, a secure dwelling, a quiet resting place (Is 32:18). It may be in a forest, garden, mountain, beach or home. Here I sit with the risen Jesus and his Father. Jesus personally asks the Father to be my friend. The Father, welcomes me with indescribable joy, and fills my heart with laughter. Then, as it is with closest friends, we sit in companionable quiet together, enjoying each other’s presence.

Conversation of the Senses.
In reverence, I take an article of new clothing, symbol of resurrection.

I bless it and put it on.

Then, clothed in Christ, Jesus and I share how we feel about our friendship.

I ask myself how I might join in his work of bringing new life from death.

Our Father.