The Spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius (Henri Wasato)

Henri LIKINGI WASATO (11120T).

The title of my book is “The Spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius”.

To understand more deeply

The author of the spiritual classic is Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). He was born in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, Spain. Ignatius of Loyola is one of the most influential figures in the Catholic Reformation of the 16th century. In his early life he entered diplomatic and military service. While defending the citadel of Pamplona against the French, Ignatius was hit by cannonballs which left a bad fracture of his right leg and damage his left. Undergoing a deep religious conversion during his convalescence, he came across with a book on the life of the Saints. He now sought to soldier for God, in the battle for minds and hearts. After various searchings, he discerned his vocation to found a new, active religious society of a non-monastic kind, prepared to work for the church especially in counteracting the schismatic effects of Protestantism. Along with his companions, they founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Paris in 1534. In 1539 he and his companions took a vow of obedience to a superior elected by themselves, alongside the vow of obedience to the Roman pontiff. In 1540 Pope Paul III approved the new order, and Ignatius of Loyola became the first superior general. His most widespread legacy, however, is these spiritual exercises that he developed, as a way towards greater self-knowledge and more authentic conversion.

I have decided to study this book with the intention to understand more deeply the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius which are helpful for the salvation of the souls and spiritual profit. By discernment and examination of conscience through meditation, contemplation and prayer, One can understand God`s will and find God in everything. Therefore, the spiritual exercises encourage re-reading of the history of our life in the light Jesus `mysteries, in order to come to the knowledge and love of the person of Jesus and to adapt our life to him as the model then performing our spiritual actions.

Reflection 1 (22nd September)

MEDITATION ON THE SIN

The Ignatius` exercises are divided into four weeks. This reflection will be based on the first week of the exercise, which is a meditation on our sins. I really found this exercise very interesting.  From the very beginning of our existence, we do understand what sin is itself and the consequences that follow, generally, sin separate us from God, from his goodness and bounty, it breaks relationship with the almighty father. Thus in this first week, Ignatius proposed to anyone whishes to do theses spiritual exercises to focus on his or her own sins, to recall to the memory first of all the sin of the angels, their disobedience to God which led them to be cut off from God, and from the sin of the angels to our own sins which can be even more ashamed and confounded comparing to the one of the angel.  By reflecting on this exercise, I felt confused, by getting to know first of all my own sins, then, I felt guilty, I realize how disorder I am within myself, disorder of my actions. Secondly I came to notice how many are the sins that I committed and I am committing every day, and to realize that from the sin of the angel and that of our ancestors Adam and Eve, sometimes our sins can have consequences to others or  to cause harm the whole society. Because of pride, the angels fell from grace into sin and were cast from heaven into hell, because of the sin of Adam and Eve corruption fell upon the whole human race and causing to many people nowadays to separate themselves from heavenly father. Lastly the question that still hanging in my mind is to try to understand he, who died on the cross for my sins, he submitted to temporal death to die for our sins, now the question that is asked to each of us looking at our actions is this: “What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I to do for Christ? As I see him in this condition, hanging upon the cross. No doubt, from these questions, there are so many thoughts that come in mind. In short, each of us has to conquer himself or herself, to fight against sins in order to regulate our life, to come back to God, to do this, we can`t trust on our own effort, daily we need the providential assistance of God to help us to be aware of the malice of Satan, by knowing that, we need God to grant us the grace to overcome evil as well.

    Summary and Reflection

Introduction

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius are divided into four parts equivalent to four weeks, hence, before that, the importance of the “Spiritual Exercises” stands on the fact that it is a good method of examination of conscience, it helps for meditation, contemplation, vocal and mental prayer as well as other spiritual activity like discernment of the will, in order to seek and discover the Divine will of God in one`s life for the sake of the salvation of soul. These exercises aim to help people to regulate their life to the life to the ultimate goal of their life.”¹

2.      Summary of the Spiritual exercises

The first week introduces to the consideration and contemplation of sin; however the second week is concentrated on the life of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity up to Palm Sunday and the third week stresses on the passion of Jesus, lastly the fourth week is centered on the resurrection and Ascension of Jesus. As matter of fact there is a link between different weeks, by moving on, one should always evaluate, compare and exanimate the preceding day or week in order to see the daily improvement. In the first week, the mediation on the sin draws the attention to be aware of the reality of sin and the consequences that follow.

The second week, is concentrated on Jesus` life, the exercise consists on the contemplation of the incarnation, the one doing this exercise is called to recall in mind the history of Jesus` life, how he became man in order to save the human race, in fact this exercise require a deep dialogue, an intimate knowledge of Jesus who became flesh in order to exalt our humanity. However, this dimension of Incarnation leads to look at the realities around us on the face of the earth whereby there are different people, different realities, some are in peace, laughing, well being while others at war, weeping, sick and dying. Jesus indeed resembles to our humanity and makes us the truly adoptive sons of God, therefore in Christ there is no distinction, partiality and rejection, we should promote Justice, peace and unity by contemplating Jesus` life and at the same time, to investigate and ask in what kind of life or state His Divine Majesty wishes to make use of us.²

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¹A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 48.

² A. MOTTOLA, The spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 75.

Indeed, we have to consider the example that he gave to us, that is the evangelical perfection, observance of the commandments, in the meditation on his obedience to his parents and his self dedication to the service of others and of his heavenly Father.

To opt for Jesus is to accept his way, his stand and accept to become his disciple by renouncing to everything that can be obstacle to the fulfillment of the vocation, knowing for example that “poverty opposed to riches, scorn or contempt opposed to worldly honor, and humility opposed to pride”³ so poverty freely accepted and contempt as well as humility lead to the virtue. It is an invitation by imitating Jesus, to free ourselves from some useless attachments in order to  act only as God our Lord inspire us, because more often, our heart is broken and alienated to things rather than to the service of God. That is why it is required to ask God to help us in making wise and good choice of life through discernment of diverse spirits.

The third week, gives a meditation on the passion of our Lord Jesus starting from the last supper. The grace to ask through the passion of Christ is to ask for sorrow, affliction, and confusion because the Lord is going to his passion on account of my sins.⁴ As God, Jesus could avoid this humiliation, the death on the cross, by looking at his passion, Ignatius calls us to see, to consider how the Divinity hides itself. That is to say, how it could destroy its enemies and does not do so, how it leaves the most sacred humanity to suffer so cruelly.⁵ The meditation on Jesus` passion cannot leave anyone indifferent, to make it present in our present situation, we are called to accompany Jesus, to suffer with him, to let our hear to be broken, full of tears and deep suffering because of the great suffering that Our Lord endured for us. Nowadays, Christ still suffers in many ways, in the street children, in the most abandoned poor, in the life of people living under pressure, injustice and extreme poverty etc. The question still what do I ought to do and suffer for Christ?

Lastly, the fourth week leads to the contemplation of the Resurrection, this seems to be more suitable than the other three weeks, more attention and time is to be given, to contemplate this

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³ A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 77.

⁴ A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 91.

 ⁵ A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 92.

great mystery and basic foundation of our faith. There is no more sadness, instead joy and gladness, we must occupy the thoughts and mind with things that cause pleasure, happiness and spiritual joy. Death has no power over Jesus, he has overcome hatred, jealousy by love, therefore his cross has gain a new meaning, a new way of looking at, and it became sign of our salvation and no longer instrument of punishment or the rejection or curse by God. By this meditation, we should be grateful to God for adopting us through his son, who broke the wall that was separating us from God.

3.      My reflection

The reflection about sins is really very interesting.  From the very beginning of our existence, we do understand what sin is itself and the consequences that follow, generally, sin separate us from God, from his goodness and bounty, it breaks relationship with the almighty father. Thus in the first week, Ignatius proposed to anyone whishes to do theses spiritual exercises to focus on his or her own sins, to recall to the memory first of all the sin of the angels, their disobedience to God which led them to be cut off from God, and afterward from the sin of the angels to our own sins which can be even more ashamed and confounded comparing to the sin of the angel. From the sin of the angels and that of our ancestors Adam and Eve, it shows that sometimes our sins can have consequences to others or can cause harm to the whole society. Because of pride, the angels fell from grace into sin and were cast from heaven into hell, because of the sin of Adam and Eve corruption fell upon the whole human race and causing to many people nowadays to separate themselves from heavenly father. Moreover the question still in my mind, to understand Jesus` death on the cross for my sins, he submitted to temporal death to die for our sins, now the question that each of us should ask is: “What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I to do for Christ? As I see him in this condition, hanging on the cross. Obviously there is need to regulate our life, to come back to God.  One`s personal sin can bring disaster upon other innocent people, sin by itself is something against God`s nature that is the reason it separates us from the free love of God.

Concerning the Mystery of Incarnation, The word made flesh for us, this mystery of salvation takes into consideration the whole life of human being, it acquires standing on the side of Christ, following his footsteps and desire what is most pleasing to his divine goodness. This means, to free ourselves from useless things or inclinations and attach to Jesus who comes to us in order to serve God our Lord. However, to make this exercise possible one needs humility for eternal salvation. This requires that I humble and abase myself as much as is possible for me, in order that I may obey in all things the law of God our Lord.⁶ The choice should be made in the time of tranquility when the soul is not agitated, guided by discernment of the diverse spirits.

In connection with the mystery of Incarnation, the contemplation of Jesus` passion is offered in order to consider all Jesus` sufferings for our sins; he suffers in his humility while he could avoid that. By contemplating the entire passion of Jesus, the pure sacrifice of our Lord for us impels to accept our daily suffering even martyrdom for the sake of Christ. However, to suffer for Christ is not an easy option, more often we suffer for our own problems. There is a strong feeling, temptation, appetite to self-satisfaction of our desire which are actually disorderly appetite and temptation that we can overcome while remaining close and eyes fixed on him in the cross.

The divinity which seems to hide itself in the passion, now appears and manifests itself so miraculously in the most holy Resurrection by its true and most holy effects.⁷ Looking at the passion in the human perspective, it was a sad event that can happen to any human being, such humiliation and mistreatment gives way to ponder, and then, the resurrection comes as a consolation, it is exciting, it is really the love of God manifested in deeds. To be aware of many blessings we receive will make us to be grateful to God. Therefore, with the Resurrection, one is invited to call to mind the benefits that he or she received from creation, redemption and any particular gifts received. The lord our God gave himself to us according to his divine decrees. And considering all that, “I, for my part, with great reason and Justice, should offer and give to his Divine Majesty, all that I possess and myself with it, as one who makes an offering with deep affection, saying: Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You has given all to me, to you o Lord, I return it. All is yours, dispose of it according to your will. Give me your love and your grace, for this is enough for me”.⁸

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⁶ A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 81.

⁷ A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 102.

 ⁸ A. MOTTOLA, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 104.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 MOTTOLA, A., The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Garden City, New York, 1964.