Fulfill Your Potential

In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential... ~ Suze Orman

Tonight I taught for the first time in the Spiritual Exercises preparatory sessions. We are losing our spiritual guru to a new posting in the East and thus the lay collaborators are being thrust into the role of teacher. My topic was Contemplation. I did so well that they asked me to do next week too but the topic is way more challenging—the Two Standards. I feel those limits stretching. Yikes!!

During the small group sessions, the directors met and the guru priest spoke about how St. Ignatius “stalked” people he thought should do the Exercises because they would be better able to give back to the world once they had completed them. Our coordinator said that sounded just like Fr. English, the Jesuit who did a lot of training of directors before he died a number of years ago. I concurred with laughter because he chased me for a long time before I finally caved in and took the training to be a director.

What I did not know at the time was that becoming a spiritual director for the 19th Annotation would help me fulfill my potential and express my power, although I would not call it that….I would use spiritual gifts—which are full of power. I think I can guide people to God and they can have a profound encounter. I can help them discern what happened and help them to see God’s love and mercy.

With the teaching aspect, I was surprised tonight by my own ability to incorporate the feedback and revamp the talk relatively immediately. The coordinator wondered if I was a teacher. I am not but I certainly do a lot of teaching or instructing so handling the questions came easier to me than others. I think that is the part that scares people. As a bonus, I finished 20 minutes earlier than the guru does. That made people happy.

Two standards…I am going to stand under Christ’s flagpole and stretch my limits, express my spiritual gifts, and fulfill my potential. Scary stuff but I am ready to try it out.

Peace,

Suzanne