LentenMEDITATIONS

Growing in Friendship with God

WILLIAM A. BARRY, SJ

© 2008, 2015 The Society of Jesus of New EnglandAll rights reserved.

Imprimi potest: Very Rev. Thomas J. Regan, SJ, provincial

With the exception of readings for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, allreadings in this book are adapted from A Friendship Like No Other byWilliam A. Barry (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2008).

Readings for Holy Thursday and Good Friday are adapted from ChangedHeart, Changed Mind by William A. Barry (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2011).

Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised StandardVersion Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1993 and 1989 by theDivision of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churchesof Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotations from the Spiritual Exercises are taken from George E. Ganss,trans., The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Translation andCommentary (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1992). Used withpermission of the Institute of Jesuit Sources.

Cover illustration Betelgejze/Shutterstock, cover texture, tusumaru, iStock,Thinkstock.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8294-4242-7ISBN-10: 0-8294-4242-1Library of Congress Control Number: 2014954342

Printed in the United States of America.

14 15 16 17 18 19 Courier 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

How to Use This Book vi

Ash Wednesday: Friendship with God 1

Thursday: Embracing the Notion of Friendship with God 2

Friday: Overcoming Our Fear of God 3

Saturday: The Beginning of Wisdom 4

First Week of Lent

Sunday: The Meaning of Friendship 6

Monday: Discipleship 7

Tuesday: God’s Desire in Creating Us 8

Wednesday: The Lie at the Heart of Human Sinfulness 9

Thursday: Attraction to God 10

Friday: Disturbances in the Friendship 11

Saturday: Through God’s Eyes 12

Second Week of Lent

Sunday: Welcomed by God 14

Monday: The Heart of God 15

Tuesday: Coming to Know Jesus as a Friend 16

Wednesday: Contemplating the Gospels 17

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Thursday: Jesus as a Difficult Friend 18

Friday: “I Wish I Had Known You Better.” 19

Saturday: My Insignificance and God’s Desire 20

Third Week of Lent

Sunday: God Loves Us First 22

Monday: Growing into Adulthood with God 23

Tuesday: God’s Family Business 24

Wednesday: God’s Vulnerability 25

Thursday: Heart by Heart 26

Friday: A Large-Enough Heart 27

Saturday: How God’s Compassion Works 28

Fourth Week of Lent

Sunday: Compassion in Action 30

Monday: Compassion for God 31

Tuesday: Sharing the Burden 32

Wednesday: Job and the Question of Evil 33

Thursday: God’s Will 34

Friday: Does God Reveal the Divine Inner Life to Us? 35

Saturday: God Revealing God 36

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Fifth Week of Lent

Sunday: Sending His Spirit 38

Monday: Where Do We Experience God? 39

Tuesday: Thin Places 40

Wednesday: Scripture as a Thin Place 41

Thursday: Liturgy as a Thin Place 42

Friday: The Unlikeliest Thin Place 43

Saturday: Spiritual Consolation 44

Holy Week

Palm Sunday: God’s Spirit Moving in You 46

Monday: Contemplating Jesus’ Passion and Death 47

Tuesday: Our Way of Proceeding 48

Wednesday: Accepting the Offer 49

Easter Triduum

Holy Thursday: God Is the Love That Forgives 51

Good Friday: What Faith Makes Possible 52

Holy Saturday: Contemplating the Resurrected Jesus 53

Easter Sunday: Jesus Is Risen! 54

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How to Use This Book

Dear Reader:Thanks for picking up this little booklet. I hope

it leads you into a closer relationship with God.The readings for each day of Lent are taken, forthe most part, from A Friendship Like No Other, inwhich I converse with a reader about God’s desirefor our friendship. I am convinced that God wantsa deep personal relationship with each one of us,and I hope that my book will lead many people toengage in such a personal and intimate relationshipwith God. For each day of Lent you will read acitation adapted from A Friendship Like No Otheralong with a question for prayer and/or reflection.I am delighted with the way Joseph Durepos ofLoyola Press has arranged these citations for ourLenten journey.

Lent is a great time to give God a chance toconvince you of his desire for your friendship.Traditionally Lent has been a time of engaging inpractices of penance or prayer that will ready us

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to experience, more and more deeply, the almostunbelievable love and generosity of God toward uswayward human beings. I hope you will make thereading and prayer of this booklet a part of yourLenten journey this year. The really nice thing aboutthis practice is that it will not take a great dealof time from your busy day. But you will, I hope,find it enriching to spend a few minutes each dayreading the citation and communicating with Godabout your reactions to the day’s reflection. If youdo this regularly, I can promise you that on EasterSunday you will be on more friendly terms withGod—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

William A. Barry, SJ

vii

Ash Wednesday

Friendship with God

I maintain that God—out of the abundance ofdivine relational life, not any need for us—desireshumans into existence for the sake of friendship.This thesis may sound strange, because it runscounter to much teaching about God. To be honest,I questioned it myself when I first began to think itthrough. But over the years, as my own relationshipwith God has deepened and I have listened to peopletalk about how God relates to them, I have becomeconvinced that the best analogy for the relationshipGod wants with us is friendship.

As I begin my Lenten journey, I pray to understandwhat it means for my life that God wants to be

friends with me.

1

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Embracing the Notion of

Friendship with God

This notion of friendship with God seems to havewaxed and waned throughout history. It is possiblethat preachers and teachers of religion fear thatembracing the idea of friendship with God maylead to effacing the mystery and awesomeness ofGod, and so they hesitate to talk about it. But I amconvinced that this is an idea whose time has come,and none too soon for the future of our world. Manypeople I have met seem drawn by the notion offriendship with God. For another, friendship withGod leads to a wider and wider circle of friends aswe realize that God’s desire for friendship includesall people.

How does the idea that God desires to be infriendship with all people change my idea of God?

How does it change the way I interact with thepeople in my life?

2

Friday after Ash Wednesday

Overcoming Our Fear of God

The psalmist writes: “The fear of the Lord is thebeginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10). But the fearof the Lord extolled in the psalm is a far cry fromthe fear instilled by religious teaching, which leadspeople to keep their distance from God. The psalmssurely were not written to keep people far from God,but just as bad news sells better than good, so too,hellfire and brimstone make for more compellingteaching and preaching. But I believe that God isshortchanged by such teaching and preachingtactics, and so are we.

If I’m honest with myself, do I find that I fear God?How does this fear affect my relationship with God?

3

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

The Beginning of Wisdom

The “fear of the Lord” that is the beginning ofwisdom is a healthy realization of God’sawesomeness. God is fascinating and awe-inspiring,even terrifying. But suppose for a moment that God,who is Mystery itself—awesome, terrible, andunknowable—wants our friendship. Then thebeginning of wisdom might be an acceptance ofGod’s offer, even though accepting it proves to bedaunting, challenging, and even a bit frightening.

Am I ready to accept the Divine Mystery’s offerof friendship?

4

First Week of Lent

First Sunday of Lent

The Meaning of Friendship

It might help your reflection on friendship with Godto think about your friendships with others. Whoare your friends? What makes you say that they areyour friends? You tell them things about yourselfthat you would not tell a stranger. You know thatthey will not tell others the secrets you share withthem, that they will not hold against you what youtell them or hold it over your head as a threat. At thedeepest level, you trust that they will remain yourfriends even when they know some of the less savoryaspects of your past life and your character. You alsotrust that they will stick with you through thick andthin, through good times and tough times. And atleast some of these characteristics will also be true ofthe relationship God wants with you.

What is the most important characteristic I look forin a friend? Can I also find this characteristic in my

friendship with God?

6

Monday of the First Week of Lent

Discipleship

Once we get over the fear of God engendered byearly training, we enter something like a honeymoonperiod with God. This is followed by a period ofdistance when we recognize how shamefully shortwe have fallen of God’s hopes for us. The distanceis closed when we realize that God loves us—wartsand sins and all—and the friendship is solidified. Weare able to be ourselves with God. Ultimately, wecan become collaborators with God in God’s familybusiness. For Christians, this stage of collaborationin the family business is called discipleship.

Is there anything else I need to address before I canbecome a disciple of God?

7

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

God’s Desire in Creating Us

When you experience uplifting of the heart—joy,and desire for “you know not what,” as C. S. Lewissays—you are experiencing the deep desire withinthe human heart for friendship with God. Thiscorrelates with God’s desire in creating us.

In my prayer today, I will seek to experience the deepdesire within my heart for friendship with God.

8

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

The Lie at the Heart of

Human Sinfulness

The lie at the heart of human sinfulness is that wecan gain control of our existence by some action ofour own and that God does not want us to havethis power. God creating human beings in God’sown likeness is described in the first creation accountin Genesis. But instead of accepting the friendshipwith God that was offered, human beings chose toenter into rivalry with God. The consequences ofthat disastrous choice plague our world still.

Do I harbor any distrust of God over control andpower in my life? Can I pray the New Testament

prayer “I believe; help my unbelief ”?

9

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Attraction to God

St. Ignatius of Loyola believed that all human beingshave experiences of God’s creative and sustaininglove. If we pay attention to these experiences, we willfind that we desire God with all our heart and, atthe same time, feel an enormous sense of well-being.Caught up in this experience, we feel that everythingelse and everyone else pales in comparison. We wantthis Mystery more than we want anything oranyone else.

God, today I pray to become more aware of yourcreative and sustaining love for me.

10

Friday of the First Week of Lent

Disturbances in the Friendship

At some point in a friendship, one becomes awarethat something is amiss, and the honeymoon is over.In the case of friendship with God, I know at thispoint that God has created me for friendship andwants a world in which human beings liveharmoniously with God, with one another, and withthe environment. But I realize that the world is notlike this, and I have not lived up to God’s dream,either—the world and I have fallen short of whatGod wants. A disturbance has been introduced intomy friendship with God.

How have I not lived up to God’s dream for me?

11

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Through God’s Eyes

As you become aware of where you have failed tolive up to God’s dream for you or where you haveturned away from God’s offer of friendship, speak toGod. Notice how God reacts to your willingness tosee yourself through God’s eyes.

God, help me see myself through your eyes.

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Other Loyola Press Books by

William A. Barry, SJ

A Friendship like No Other

Changed Heart, Changed World

Praying the Truth

God’s Passionate Desire

Here’s My Heart, Here’s My Hand

Letting God Come Close

Other Lenten Books from Loyola Press

A Book of Lenten Prayers by William G. Storey

The Ignatian Workout for Lent by Tim Muldoon

Praying Freedom by Vinita Hampton Wright

Praying Lent: Renewing Our Lives on theLenten Journey by Andy Alexander, SJ, and

Maureen McCann Waldron

Lenten Meditations: Growing in Friendship with Godby William A. Barry, SJ