We have a lot to learn from autumn trees. Trees give themselves over to the "letting go" process much more freely than humans. Trees readily allow autumn to take their summer leaves. Trees allow the frost to touch them and the wind to toss them. At their most barren moments, when one can look among the branches and see the scars and knotholes the leaves once hid, the trees already show terminal buds with the secret of next spring's leafing in them.
No one wants to be so surrendered, so vulnerable to winter as the October trees. Yet, each of us, if we are truly open to growth and change, will experience this in our inner selves. Our relationships and our experiences of life will ask us to be open, to be willing to let go in order that new growth can come.
To be vulnerable is to know the paradoxical power in surrendering ourselves to God. It is to allow the power of God's Spirit to take over and to move through our being. With a surrendered heart, we can have the power to do infinitely more than we ask or imagine. Once we have discovered that we possess enough grace to let go, trust begins to form in the center of who we are. Then we can stand empty and vulnerable, eager to receive God's next gift.
John Predmore, S.J., is a USA East Province Jesuit and was the pastor of Jordan's English language parish. He teaches art and directs BC High's adult spiritual formation programs. Formerly a retreat director in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Ignatian Spirituality is given through guided meditations, weekend-, 8-day, and 30-day Retreats based on The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatian Spirituality serves the contemporary world as people strive to develop a friendship with God.
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