What is the Unitive Way?

Journal entry
March 3, 2012


I fell the Lord saying to me to trust in him.
Trust in me my child.  I will heal you of this infirmity.


I am still suffering with pain in my lower back.  When I wake it is quite painful.  It is hard to find a comfortable way to lie down, I am still on my back with a pillow under my knees, to prevent me from rolling around, and to lift the pressure from my lower back.  I felt a pain down my leg when I tried to shift this morning.


I was up early, couldn't sleep, so went to lie down reclined again in the chair in the office.  And I did sleep, although fitfully at times.


I do have a great fear, that I will have a herniated disk in the lower back, and I prayed to give this to the Lord.


At one point, I was filled with great joy and the thought came to me that the injury was muscular and would heal.  How joyful I felt!


I found a position sitting as I prayed that was quite comfortable, and I thought I could stay like this and keep praying for a very long time.


My prayer at one point was for those I pray for, and it was then that the Lord said to me that he was pleased because I had prayed for others and not for myself.


Earlier the Lord had said to me that it was in prayer that he would heal me.  And yet I had prayed for others with no thought to myself.  It was then that the Lord said to me that he was pleased with me.


There are so many on our telephone prayer chain who need help and healing.


I thanked the Lord for rescuing me from the threat of a herniated disk.


During the day, my pain is little.  Thank you Lord.  I think it is the fear that is the worst.




Examen Prayer
I saw how I felt sad...I thought of how I was and how I may have to sleep in both rooms, beginning in our bed, and then here alone in the office, if I woke with pain. And I thought of a young man at Church and his wife, and I wondered if he suffered physically from pain.  And I prayed for him and for his wife.  I prayed for his healing, that he would be restored to full health and strength, this young man, and for healing for his wife as well.


And the Lord then spoke to me and reminded me of the words he spoke to me when I asked for Wisdom as in James 1:5 for healing for my back.  He had said to me that I should 'trust in the process' - and I saw how Jesus had entered into a human body with its restrictions of time and space, I saw his suffering and his carrying the Cross.


And I asked the Lord to teach me as I was being healed.


The Lord reminded me of this and showed me that now in my sickness I was praying for others.  And I now see that this is an answer to my prayer:  that I had offered up my pain and suffering, that the Lord would use it as he sees fit for his own purpose.


'This is the unitive way' he said to me, I unite my sufferings to his in prayer for others.


This is what Jesus did:  his suffering and death was for me.


My offering up of prayers in my time of suffering for healing for others, is the unitive way.


Thank you Lord.


And I cried tears of consolation and love.  How blessed am I. Thank you Lord.
Amen.


I have asked the Lord today
to teach me through this suffering.
and I offered it up again,
that he may use it however he likes,
if he would do so.


If there is anyone of you who needs wisdom,
he must ask God,
who gives to all freely and ungrudgingly;
it will be given to him.
James 1:5


Understanding the spiritual journey: from the classical tradition to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, by Jean-Marc Laporte, S.J.