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The Second Journey
A Program Developed by Fr. Ed Zogby, SJ
by Dawn Lipthrott

Interruptions and Crises are Gifts in Disguise

Father Ed Zogby, SJ shared with us a program he is developing to help people recognize, name, embrace, and emerge transformed from 'interruptions' in their lives that are gifts in disguise to help them reclaim their authenticity. Sometimes those interruptions come in the form of job loss, divorce, aging, betrayal, financial set-back, health crisis, a nagging sense of emptiness or hopelessness. They are moments when we come to realize that something we took for granted no longer works for us. Something that helped hold our life together, has disappeared. They are frequently moments in which we experience disempowerment, a loss of freedom, and what seems to be a loss of choice. We may feel victimized. They are moments similar to what C.S. Lewis referred to as 'reluctant conversion.'

Five Basic Steps to this Process of Conversion:

1) Interruption -- a declarative moment in which life changed for you. It has a 'before' and 'after' quality to it.

2) Shattering of icon -- our experience no longer fits the usual context. We experience a sense of disorientation. We may experience a loss of meaning and coherence. We begin to distill our authentic self from the identity we and others have created for ourselves.

3) Eucatastrophe -- a 'good catastrophe' like ones in a fairytale that grab you so that you have to know how it will turn out. This is the moment where we experience a glimmer of hope of something new and better than what was is in the past.

4) Ascent to the universal -- climbing the mountain of faith, moving into a new understanding and agreement. The true self begins to emerge within the context of the image of God that is the essence of every person.

5) Flow into action -- new direction based on what you have discovered during this process.

We Are Co-creators, not Victims of Life

Based on the premise that we are made for relationship with God, this work is about becoming aware that each of us is a word that God has spoken. It is about recovering our sense of being in the likeness of God. And as we realize that, we see that all of life is a total gift to us, no matter how things first appear. We move from the smallness of our usual 'identity' to the bigness of our possibility and of who we are meant to be. Fr. Ed pointed out that frequently we are stuck in our own 'story' of memory and interpretation. We are challenged to step out of that old story into the new moment. And in doing that, we reclaim our power to be co-creators with God instead of victims of life.

Hidden in our pain, frustration, confusion, our questions about ourselves and life and the Divine, is our essential freedom and power, waiting to unfold in bigger ways. Fr. Ed said that the deep mystery is not that these moments are a gift, but that we cannot see that!

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"Many grownups are still fetuses -- they haven't

reached the point of being born yet in their life."

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson

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No matter what one's religious tradition, or whether you even consider yourself on a spiritual path, you can benefit from this process of transformation. The work is about becoming fully human.

Fr. Ed has combined the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) of Catholic tradition, insights from Jewish tradition, and transformational technology into a process that culminates in prayer and contemplation of the Divine, an awareness of one's intimate connection with God that transcends differences in religious traditions.

Pain and dissatisfaction in our soul is a call to move forward, to step into our authenticity and bigness, to realize our connection to the Divine and our purpose to co-create the world for the benefit of all people.

Fr. Ed stirred us by his questions to the self, to life, and to God. He empowered by challenging us to remember who we are and who we are called to become.

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