I am very happy that the Fraternity's Spiritual Exercises,
Can A Man Be Born Again, Once He Is Old, are now available. The title is taken from a pericope in St. John's Gospel, a dialogue the Lord had with Nicodemus. More specifically, it is Nicodemus' response to something Jesus said:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (
John 3:1-14).
And so it is with the following words that Fr. Carron begins the Exercises:
"We have all arrived here more or less aware of having come out of a desire, an expectation, a longing for something to happen to our lives, which will renew them, which will give them a new start if they have stopped, and overcome the skepticism that worms its way into us and paralyzes us, bringing us a breath of fresh air that will free us from suffocating within our circumstances.
"We know well that the only one who has introduced this novelty into history is Christ. We all come here motivated by the hope that He awakened in us one day, in you, in me, that thrill that we felt that shook us up and that we still feel inside ever since the day it happened to us.
But how many aspects of our personalities, of our lives, are still waiting to be changed by Him!" (underlining and emboldening emphasis mine).
For me, especially right now, many aspects of my personality that have bearing on my personal life and my most important human relationship need to change. I know I need Him in order to change because if I could make these changes on my own, I would have made them already.
