CowPi
 Journal

The JB posted this prayer by St. Ignatius of Loyola last month:

O Lord, teach me to serve you as you deserve,
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To Labor and not to ask for any reward,
Save knowing that I do your will. Amen.

JB went on to comment:

The biggest enemy is complacency, and the “not to” phrases above are all about complacency. Counting the cost, heeding the wounds, taking a rest: they all ask the same question. “Haven’t I done enough for now, Lord? Don’t I deserve a little break here?” Can’t I just be pleased with what I have done, instead of considering what I haven’t?

I agree completely, except the fourth line of the prayer haunts me. I know how I am. I can go pretty strong on a task and my commitment will not falter. But I also know that I need a break every now and then. Without a break, my motivation and determination tends to dull. The fire in my belly begins to smolder. I need a rest in order to rekindle the fire, to stoke up my motivation and press on with renewed vigor. But that fourth line makes me feel inadequate, as if I am not trying hard enough.

And then there is the first part of today’s gospel reading from Mark 6:30-31:

The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

Aha! Jesus knew that the apostles needed some time to rest. I don’t feel so inadequate now.

BUT WAIT, as Father Ken discussed in his homily last night, there is more to the story. In last week’s reading, Mark 6:7-13, Jesus had commissioned the apostles to go out and preach repentance; “The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them”. This week’s reading is about their return. Imagine how excited they were to report all the miraculous things they had done. Each of them in turn would say “I did this” or I did that”. Each of their reports would begin with “I”. But did they really do all those miraculous things? Jesus knew that they needed some down time to rest, to pray, to meditate and reflect on recent events—a kind of mini attitude adjustment.

This type of rest is not an opportunity to sit back and ask as JB says, “Haven’t I done enough for now, Lord? Don’t I deserve a little break here?” No, this type of rest is what I seek at times, the time to pray, to meditate, and to recharge the batteries. Everybody needs a little attitude adjustment every now and then.

(But the fourth line in St. Ignatius’s prayer still bothers me a little…)

Tagged: Apostles, attitude, Jesus, on prayer, prayer, St. Ignatius of Loyola

§ One Response to “Not to Seek for Rest?”

• Tim Ledgerwood says:

  5 January 2004 at 8 am

  Very good indeed. I come from South Africa, and came across this web site when I googled for the prayer of St Ignatius.
  I was detained for 18 months under the old Apartheid regime in this country, and was tortured very severely. Since then, I have done interesting things and have lived in interesting times.
  I am a member of another web community, where one of the other members asked if I had any regrets. This was his post :
  ————————————————————————-
  quote: (his original question)
  Taking into consideration that some of you have experienced life from it’s highs and lows, then the following.
  If you had to do your life over, would you do it the same or would you do it differently? And if you would do it differently what would you change?
  quote: (His comments on my first reply)
  Personally I find it hard to believe, learning to accept things in our life has nothing to do with wanting to do it differently. More often then not we have to learn to live with the hard knocks of life because if we don’t we, we don’t make it. Also there are the things that happen to us and the things we do ourselves. In that there is also a big difference. I can accept what we’ve done ourselves, however what others have done to us is in my eyes worth changing. Think of it, what type of person might you have become, if others had been lets say little kinder towards you. I agree that the hard knocks give you insight into alot of things that you would otherwise not have, but is that really important? Could we not have lived life to the fullest without those things?
  ————————————————————————-
  And this was my reply :
  ————————————————————————-
  quote: (My reply to his second comment)
  Well, yes, that’s one way of looking at it. But there are other ways of thinking about it, way of thinking that are equally valid.
  I have no regrets. I have lived in interesting times, met interesting people, have done interesting things, and have had interesting things done to me. I don’t think I could have lived life to the fullest without going through what I have gone through.
  I believe that one must take risks. There is a song by Bette Midler, the American singer, from the movie “The Rose”, which is about Janis Joplin, another person who lived in interesting times and did interesting things :
  It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never takes a chance,
  It’s the dream afraid of waking that never learns to dance,
  It’s the one who won’t be taken who cannot seem to give,
  and the soul afraid of dying that never really lives.
  And the prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) is, if anything, my “philosphy of life” :
  O Lord, teach me to serve you as you deserve,
  To give and not to count the cost,
  To fight and not to heed the wounds,
  To toil and not to seek for rest,
  To Labor and not to ask for any reward,
  Save knowing that I do your will. Amen.
  ————————————————————————-
  Truly, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. One never knows what he’s going to ask you to do next …