Heart to Heart: An Eight-Day Retreat

By Kuenja C. Chung Ph.D. and Rev. Msgr. Richard Mahowald S.T.D.

The title of this book, Heart to Heart, is from the eight-day retreat. On the eighth day of the retreat, Fr. Chris, the retreat director, gave me three scripture passages and the “Contemplation to Attain Love” to pray. The theme of the day was God’s promise of hope. He said that these prayers were “heart to heart” and recommended I pray with my heart rather than with my thoughts. I didn’t understand clearly what that meant, but it became clearer to me when I finished the three scripture prayers. It was a beautiful and perfecting experience, which transformed the troubling prayers in my mind into prayers that were heart to heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665576666

Kuenja C. Chung Ph.D.

Dr. Kuenja Chung was born in Korea and grew up there. She graduated from Seoul National University and received her doctoral degree from Ohio State University. She retired from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after twenty years of service as a research scientist. She has published many research papers in her field. She is also the author of Hundred Days with the Gospel of Mark and Zen and Spiritual Exercises (with her husband, Deacon Moses Chung). She has shared her experience on Ignatian spiritualty, including the 19th Annotation, with individuals and groups over the past thirty years. Rev. Christopher Steck, S.J. is an associate professor at Georgetown University. Fr. Steck received his doctoral degree in Christian Ethics at Yale University. Upon completion of his doctoral degree, Fr. Steck began teaching ethics in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University. Rev. Msgr. Richard Mahowald was ordained to the priesthood at the North American College in Rome and got his doctoral degree in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. Afterward, he completed multiple assignments in Rome, and was conferred the Prelate of Honor by Pope Paul VI in 1972. When returned to US, Monsignor served in multiple teaching and formator assignments including the University of Dallas in Texas. Later, residing near the Broom Tree Retreat Center, he continued to offer retreats and spiritual directions.

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2023 Kuenja C. Chung, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/27/2023

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7667-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7666-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022921831

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

All scripture quotes are from the New American Bible with the Revised Book of Psalms and the Revised New Testament, World Catholic Press, 1991

1. Scriptures quoted in this book are not complete texts; the reader should refer to the bible for the complete text.

2. [SpEx] refers to the annotation number in The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

To Elizabeth, Zachary, Christine, Hannah,

Travis, Madeline, and Emma

Contents

Foreword – by Rev. Msgr. Richard Mahowald, P.A., S.T.D.

Introduction – My First Eight-Day Retreat

PART I

Opening to God: Come and See!

To the Retreat – Aspiration of an Eagle

Day 1: In God’s Presence – Four Baskets

Day 2: The Peace of God – Inner Silence

Day 3: God’s Presence in My Personal History – A Little Bird

Day 4: God’s Merciful Love – The River of Life

PART II

Burning Heart: Do You Love Me?

Day 5: Personal Image of Jesus – Six Empty Jars

Day 6: My Relationship with Jesus – The Storm at Sea

Day 7: My Truest Self-Desire – A Blind Beggar

Day 8: God’s Promise of Hope – The Blessed and Broken

The Final Review – Awakening to Love

PART III

Contemplation to Attain Love: Intimate Dialogue

Four Points – Loving God in All Things

Points 1: God All Source – Gifts upon Gifts

Points 2: God All Present – The Dwelling Place

Points 3: God All Laboring – The Greater Love

Points 4: God the Eternal Truth – A Heart in the World

Appendix: Prayer in Time of Retreat

Bibliography and Sources

Acknowledgements

About the Author and Others

There is a heart in the world, and this heart is the Heart of Christ.

– Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

Foreword

Heart Speaks to Heart.

I first met Dr. Kuenja Chung at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, where, in 1985, I had been invited to develop a graduate program of religious and pastoral studies. Her intellectual curiosity and desire to pursue courses in theology and spirituality have remained with her to this day, as is evident from her narrative of a personal experience of a directed Ignatian retreat of eight days. She possessed then what faculty members called habitus, which is said to be the basis of St. Thomas Aquinas’s anthropology and a reality that lies at the center of the life of the virtues. The exercise of this gift has served her well in her account of the retreat experience.

Readers will recognize the influence of John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801–1890), not only in the title of her book, but throughout the course of her retreat experience, Heart Speaks to Heart, which is Cardinal Newman’s personal motto on his coat of arms. Cardinal Newman had a profound respect for the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. He used the tools of the Spiritual Exercises as the basis for retreats at Littlemore prior to his conversion to Catholicism, and again for his canonical retreat for priestly ordination at S. Eusebio, in Rome, in 1847. Her retreat experience mirrors Newman’s Meditations and Devotions. She brings her considerable gifts of intuition and imagination as her retreat reflections move easily to poetry.

It is clear to me that the foundation of her retreat experience is on an objective basis, i.e., the Self-Revelation of God who entered human history three times: as Creator Word; Torah Word; and definitively as Incarnate Word. On this objective basis, she moves easily from prayer as thinking to prayer of the heart. In describing her experiences during her retreat, she also avoids psychologizing what is spiritual and spiritualizing what is indeed psychological.

An outstanding retreat director helped her navigate challenging waters during the course of her retreat. Indications of her ability to grow in awareness and in acceptance of self and God’s will for her are evident throughout her story. The end result of the grace of her retreat was an increased personal wholeness, which is a secure foundation for a holy life.

Interestingly, Newman’s first published sermon in Parochial and Plain Sermons uses an important theme from his Evangelical period as an Anglican preacher: Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Heb 12:14). Every page of her account of the retreat reflects this theme as well as the graced-goal of her retreat: an increased, inner and personal freedom in discerning God’s will for her in all things. She understood that in making the sacrifice of time, expense, and effort to make a directed retreat of this length, it is important to give God a serious chance without attempting to take over the retreat.

She realized that hers was not an exercise of rolling up her sleeves and doing a great work for God, but rather remaining still and waiting in silence for God to manifest his presence and to do for her what she herself could not accomplish. The fruit of letting go and letting God was to enable her to move from desolation to consolation, according to God’s plan for her retreat. Total trust and surrender to God yield much spiritual fruit. She retains no trump cards.

She employed her faculties well. The spirit of the three parabolic teachings of Week Two of the Spiritual Exercises is evident in the account of her retreat. Her faculties of intellect and will are at work in her retreat experience; the recognition of the movements of the heart helped her move to the colloquies for her deeper experience of prayer and of increasing inner freedom. She is ever at work being actively receptive to the many graces the Lord offered her. I found her exercise of the application of the senses is a model for those who seek to understand how to employ this important Ignatian tool in one’s prayer. Her experience of the repetition of a particular meditation or contemplation is clearly a reminder that contemplations are not linear achievements, but rather a way to appropriate a greater fullness of the meaning and significance of a particular exercise.

It is important to note how she can move from prayer as thinking and discursive meditations to contemplation. Her account of the processing of the movements of the heart under the direction of the Holy Spirit will be a source of encouragement for her readers, who, like her, desire to become contemplative in action—that is, one who discovers and realizes the presence of God in the busyness and in the ordinariness of daily living. A growing sense of the presence of God in one’s personal life and the follow-up exercise of examination of consciousness in order to better grasp the way that God is present to a person, can move a person to grow from grace to grace as a knowing, loving subject summoned daily by divine love.

In my capacity as a spiritual director and retreat director, I have already brought her narrative to the attention of several persons seeking spiritual direction, and I look forward to sharing the fruit of her experience with other exercitants who are scheduled to make either a thirty, eight, five, or even four-day retreat.

She demonstrates to us the importance of showing up for prayer in a consistent manner and learning how, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to pray as best we can and not as we can’t. Readers will be encouraged by her narrative to pray with and according to the Sacred Scriptures. She has made a significant contribution to the retreat literature, and for this we are indeed grateful.

Rev. Msgr. Richard J. Mahowald, P.A., S.T.D.

June 17, 2010

Introduction

My First Eight-Day Retreat

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Nothing was credible to my mind,

but all was credible to my heart.

W hen I entered the retreat director’s office for our final session on the last day of the retreat, I said to him that the Contemplation to Attain Love was like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. ¹ That was the way I felt. Both the Contemplation and the symphony were distant topics to me, and their grand cosmic view was beyond my understanding and expression, yet they both capti vated me.

I had always wanted to sit down and listen to Beethoven’s symphonies, especially the Ninth Symphony, but had never done so. Somehow, I was always busy, always doing something, always worrying about many things. But on the way home from the retreat, I remembered I had bought a complete set of the nine Beethoven symphonies a long time ago, and the first thing I did when I arrived home was to find my compact disks.

Soon I was listening to the Ninth Symphony, which is over an hour long. But I sat and listened to this piece of music for hours, over and over, until very late in the evening. I did not care what my husband thought of me, how much time was passing, or what mail we had received during our ten-day absence at the retreat. Everything else seemed irrelevant and trivial.

After a while, I wondered what Beethoven was thinking and feeling when he composed this great piece of music, and I ordered two books about him. Unfortunately, the books were intended for musicians and were not helpful to me. Finally, my daughter Theresa in Philadelphia ordered a book for me written by her music professor. Theresa once considered pursuing a career in music and had taken music courses in college. She thought the book would be easy for me to read. She was right. First Nights, by Thomas Forrest Kelly, had pictures and was easy for me to understand. I read about the history of the Ninth Symphony and what Beethoven’s life was like when he