One of my housemates, Maddie, has fostered an alliance with the neighborhood turkeys. Hollie makes Irish breakfast tea no less than four times a day. More often than not, Sarah packs an uncrustable sandwich and goldfish for lunch.
My housemates and I, all 11 of us, live in an intentional community, breaking bread on the altar and in our dining room, in preparation for ministry in the Church. Every Tuesday, the residents of the Formation House gather for Mass, a shared meal, and an additional opportunity for spiritual formation (e.g., a prayer experience, small group faith sharing, etc.). Amidst the busyness of the week, our community dinners provide an opportunity to pause and reflect, grow individually and together as a community, and, eventually, return to our work, with a deeper posture of prayer and openness to encounter God in all things. In addition, each month, we gather for a “mini-retreat” to learn more about Ignatian spirituality and how to better live out this expression of faith in our daily lives. On these Saturday mornings, we all gather together with a few members of staff who facilitate our learning about the Spiritual Exercises and lead us in various opportunities for prayer and small faith sharing. All of these experiences, our weekly and monthly gatherings, are aimed at more deeply forming us in Ignatian spirituality, in preparation for serving the Church as lay ministers.
Based on the experiences of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Ignatian spirituality is a school of Christian spirituality that emphasizes the integration of the whole person and the call to be “contemplatives in action,” integrating one’s prayer with service to the Church and world. As a graduate student studying theology, St. Ignatius so often reminds me that prayer is an opportunity to present my whole self– joyful, exuberant, tired, or worried– to God, with the knowledge that in every moment, God is eager to be seen and received. St. Ignatius tells us that it is prayer, the opportunity to encounter and receive God’s love, which sends us forth, to serve the world and pursue excellence for the greater glory of God. Conveniently, one of the most delightful lessons of living in an intentional community, grounded in Ignatian spirituality, has been the encouragement to find God in all things, particularly the routine and perhaps mundane moments of everyday life.
As I’ve been formed by this experience in the past year, I’ve been increasingly able to appreciate that despite the busyness of graduate school, living in community continually encourages me to remain attentive to the movement of grace in my life, to see how God’s love is made manifest, and to make my own response of love to God. Regardless of how I’m feeling, living in community presents me with an opportunity to look beyond myself, to serve those around me. Quickly, I learned that asking “how are you?” with sincerity, costs me nothing. As a student preparing for a life of ministry, this is a particularly strong reminder that my ministry does not begin at a distant, future moment, but instead, I am called to attend to God’s presence working and moving in my life right now. Nowadays, when my housemates and I gather for Mass, I understand my call to ministry a little differently. As the Formation House prepares us for a life of ministry, I know that my ministry begins now, finding and loving God in all things, particularly my housemates… and the neighborhood turkeys.