For Glory

The phrase “Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand” (Jeremiah 18.1-6 ) from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today evokes the image of Creator who keeps working with His Creature to mold and shape us. Joe Simmons SJ is inspired by the words of the psalmist who warns us not to trust in princes, the sons of men. He has studied two different directions which men can move after a time of solitude and reflection. The phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam AMDG is the motto of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) who commemorate their founder St Ignatius of Loyola today. Fr John Hardon translates the Latin as for the greater glory of God. The Gospel from Matthew offers some parables for the support of living today as “contemplatives in action”, the phrase which Ignatius Loyola used to describe those who would follow the direction of his model of spirituality. The Evangelist writes in presenting Jesus teaching “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matthew 13.53). This model resonates with both the experience of Jeremiah at the potter’s wheel and the call of Ignatius to awaken our lives as disciples through spiritual exercises in contemplation to work for the greater glory of God as we act as agents of the Creator/Potter.