Revisiting Repetition

Elizabeth Reardon considers the essentialness of Ignatian repetition as a tool in our prayer life for spiritual growth.

Recently, my youngest was home visiting from college, and I can say that I truly cherish our time together. Homemade breakfasts and family dinners, Mass and family prayer at night, these are like painted memories that I hope that he carries with him. Perhaps because I know how fleeting this time is before he starts a life apart from us, and still somehow, I hope to better prepare him. As we began talking about next steps that he might take prior to his senior year, I broached that third rail of parenting when I asked, “Have you given any more thought about internships?”

“I have and am interested, but you know I have my summer ROTC obligation. That has to take priority, and I don’t have the selection date yet.”

“Well, you might want to brush up your resume and look at what is out there anyway. Paid internships go fast, and there is no harm reaching out to start going through the process. Maybe you should —”

“Mom, I got it, but you aren’t listening. You don’t have to repeat the question, because I can’t answer what I don’t know.”

At that moment, his words felt hard. In seeking to have him broaden his opportunities, I was stepping in and assuming I knew best. Somehow during this discussion as a mom, I had forgotten the importance of his own pursuit and thought that if I asked the question again I could elicit a different answer.

While it is true that we need to prepare the soil, a key part of discernment is reflecting on our own desires in determining where we are to prepare. As parents, we may have specific desires for our children as they grow into adulthood. However, it is never too early to encourage our children to consider their own desires and to explore God’s will for their lives.

God in the Experience

If you think back to your own childhood, there may have been someone who fostered in you a specific desire, which you shared with others, especially God. In that sharing, there were people, even unrelated, who supported you in that journey. Looking back, you may even be able to see the connectedness and the importance in realizing or abandoning a desire. In returning to this history, the repetition may indeed reveal something about yourself and God.

Repetition in this sense is revisiting with God a moment of experience. Sometimes, these are smaller instances where a desire of our heart is new or burgeoning. Here you are invited to look inside your heart, and with God explore what stirs and ignites your soul. And in contrast, are we experiencing sadness and confusion? We may not have all of the details yet, because we are in the process of living it. This is why it is so important to bring it immediately to God, to include Him in the journey.

What Repetition is Not

Repetition is not, as my conversation with my son illustrated, doing the same thing over again to learn something new or achieve a different result. It is always, as Saint Ignatius would assert, with the desire to “find God in all things” in lessons past, today’s present, or one’s future dreams. In prayer, repetition can provide depth to a situation or question unexplored and insight into what it is that we really desire and perhaps what God’s will is too.

Thus, repetition can be a very useful tool in our spiritual growth. Rather than the “bump and move” approach, repetition invites us to consider the experience in prayer to seek and discover the Giver of all gifts. God, in return, delights in us and may even surprise us with a confirmation that we are on the right track.

Repetition Glimpsed

Not long ago, I was mulling over with God a situation that I had brought to Him earlier. Walking over the ins and outs, the questions I had previously, I noticed that the feelings that once were had changed. Upon suddenly seeing the connections that He had revealed, I could not help but exclaim aloud, “God you are just so faithful!”

Still in the glow of that place of awe and praise, I got in my car and made my way to Mass. This is when God genuinely surprised me. For, in front of me was not one, but two, landscaping trucks with my words, returned to me, in bold capital letters GOD IS FAITHFUL. As if, to let me know that not only did He hear me but to underscore the importance of repetition.

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Copyright 2026 Elizabeth Reardon
Images: (top, center) Canva; (bottom) copyright 2026 Elizabeth Reardon, all rights reserved.