The Spiritual Exercises (Charles Tembo)

CHARLES TEMBO 10038T

TITLE: The Spiritual Exercises – St. Ignatius Loyola (1491 – 1556)

My previous experience of the 30 days retreat
 calls me to deepen my understanding!

Ignatius had a profound influence on Catholic life. He was born at Loyola in Spain in 1491. He became a soldier and was wounded in battle. During his long recovery, he turned to Christ and his life changed dramatically. Ignatius later became a priest and founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1534. He exercised a very fruitful apostolate by his preaching and writing. One of the most important works that he wrote was the “Spiritual Exercises” which were based on his lived experience. Since then, his classical work has made a profound contribution to the Spirituality of the Church and many other Religious Congregations. The Spiritual Exercises are still being used today as they are an excellent tool towards conversion and growth in discipleship. Ignatius died in Rome in 1556 and he is one of the highly celebrated Saints in the Catholic Church.

MOTIVATION:

I have decided to Read this Spiritual Classic because I had a chance of doing these Spiritual Exercises on my 30 days retreat and I had a great experience that I would like to share; through my new discovery which is appealing to my senses and imagination and understanding of God’s love in me. I have a strong motivation on these Spiritual Exercises as Ignatius in his insight states: “The shortest and almost the only way to reach holiness is to hold in horror all that world loves and holds on to God by letting him work in you; welcome thoughts that raise your heart to him and open wide the windows of your soul.” It is from this that I would like to deepen my imagination and contemplation of my daily life through prayer and reflection. The life of St Ignatius and his spirituality resonate with my life. Through my 30 days retreat on his Spiritual Exercises, I discovered that I have a strong imaginative mind. I believe this work will help me to be more aware of God’s love in me. It will help me to rich heritage that will nourish and encourage my vocation and discernment.

NB: I will be using a Book called “The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius” A Literal Translation and A Contemporary Reading. By DAVID L. FLEMING, S.J.

Summary and Reflection

1.0 INTRODUCTION

St. Ignatius Loyola (1491 – 1556) had a profound influence on Catholic life. He was born at Loyola in Spain in 1491. He became a soldier and was wounded in battle. During his long recovery, he turned to Christ and his life changed dramatically. Ignatius later became a priest and founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1534.[1] He exercised a very fruitful apostolate by his preaching and writing. One of the most important works that he wrote was the “Spiritual Exercises” which were based on his lived experience. Since then, his classical work has made a profound contribution to the Spirituality of the Church and many other Religious Congregations. “The Spiritual Exercises are still being used today as they are an excellent tool towards conversion and growth in discipleship”.[2] Ignatius died in Rome in 1556 and he is one of the highly celebrated Saints in the Catholic Church. In this work I would like to present the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius in a summary form and how it has touched and changed my life during and after my 30 days retreat. I will first give a short summary of the exercises and I will finally give my personal reflection on the exercises. 

2.0 THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

The Spiritual Exercises, (written during 1522-1524), grew out of Ignatius’ personal experience as a man seeking to grow in union with God and to discern God’s will. He kept a journal as he gained spiritual insight and deepened his spiritual experience. He added to these notes as he directed other people and discovered what ‘worked’. Eventually, Ignatius gathered these prayers, meditations, reflections, and directions into a carefully designed framework of a retreat, which he called “spiritual exercises”.[3] He wrote that the Exercises “have as their purpose the conquest of self and the regulation of one’s life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment”.[4]

The Exercises are designed for Christians to prayerfully reflect upon their lives as followers of Jesus Christ. The ultimate purpose of the Spiritual Exercises is for the individual to free oneself from earthly, temporal, and material attachments so that one might know more clearly how the Will of God is calling them to live.[5] The idea is that praying in this way will lead to a deeper relationship between an individual and God, which will manifest itself through that individual’s living a more Christian life. St. Ignatius notes in his writings that just as walking and running are exercises for the body, so this series of prayers and meditations are exercises for the soul.[6] The Exercises can be practiced by lay people and members of religious communities, and they serve as the foundation of prayer for St. Ignatius’ order of Catholic priests and brothers, the Society of Jesus.

Ideally, these Exercises were designed to take place in the setting of a 30 day secluded retreat, during which those undergoing the Exercises would be focused on nothing other than the Exercises, which are the cornerstone of Ignatian Spirituality.[7] The Exercises were designed to be carried out with the guidance of a spiritual director, and there are notes at the beginning of the Exercises explaining how a spiritual director can best guide the retreatant. The director of the Exercises is always meant to be someone who has previously completed the Exercises and who is able to be attentive to retreatants in the way that St. Ignatius outlines in the annotations accompanying the Exercises.[8]

2.1 The Structure of the Exercises

The Spiritual Exercises are divided into a series of four stages, which can be structured to be completed in four weeks, completing roughly one stage during each week. Daily instructions include various meditations and contemplations on the nature of the world, of human psychology as Ignatius understood it, and of man’s relationship to God through Jesus Christ.[9] Each week has accompanying prayers, visualizations, and reflections. The Exercises are divided into ‘four weeks’ of varying lengths with four major themes: sin, the life of Jesus, the Passion of Jesus and the Resurrection of Jesus. During each day of the Exercises, a typical retreatant prays with a particular exercise, as assigned by the director, reviews each prayer, and, following four or five periods of prayer, converses with the spiritual director of the retreat who helps the retreatant to understand what these experiences of prayer might mean. The goal of the Exercises is a deeper intimacy in one’s relationship with God, so that one may live their life more closely aligned with God’s Will for them.[10]

The primary goal of the first week of the Exercises is to identify, and rid oneself from what Ignatius calls ‘disordered affections’, or anything that hinders an individual from doing God’s will. The intention is to purify the soul so that God may more directly speak to each human heart.[11] St. Ignatius calls an individual to contemplate the greatness of the love of God for each human being. In understanding the greatness of that love, the hope is that one will realize how they have not been fully open to that love and will feel sorrowful for that. In that sorrow, one is consoled by the mercy and love of God. It is at this point that the Exercises challenge the retreatant “to ask God for the grace to be free from disordered attachments so that one might whole heartedly respond to God’s Will”.[12]

The focus of the second week is a contemplation on the life of Christ. In reading the scripture passages relating to the mysteries of the life of Christ, Ignatius invites the retreatant to place themselves within the scripture passage and move beyond observing the action to actually participating in the scripture. This will allow the retreatant to respond uniquely and to come alive within the scripture. Ignatius’ hope is that in this form of prayer, an entire event of Jesus’ life will come alive to the retreatant, and in this way the retreatant will be more able to choose to follow Christ.[13]

The third week of the Spiritual Exercises calls the retreatant to suffer alongside with Jesus. It is the intent that before the beginning of this week, one will desire to be by the side of the suffering Jesus, just as one would want to be by the side of a suffering friend. Ignatius asks the retreatant to pray for sorrow and shame because Jesus is suffering as a result of the sins of the humans. Nevertheless, the focus in this week is to ponder the intensity of Jesus’ love for humanity, a love so intense that he suffered and died for the sins of humanity.[14]

The fourth week is the briefest of the series, and it is an invitation to share in the immense joy that Christ has through His resurrection. The hope is that the retreatant is willing to die in ‘individual and communal sinfulness’ in hope of rising to a new life with Christ. The ‘contemplation to attain love’ is the culmination of the Exercises, and at this point, one should have a realization of the joyful love that God has for humanity and the retreatant should be inspired by that love to glorify God and to love others.[15]

3.0 MY REFLECTION ON THE EXERCISES

The two main primary forms of prayer that I was taught during my 30days retreat are meditation and contemplation. In the meditation I found myself using more of my mind. I had to ponder the basic principles that guided my life. I prayed through the use of words, images and ideas. Also I came to understand that contemplation is more about feeling than thinking. Contemplation often stirs the emotions and enkindles deep desires. In contemplation, I found myself relying on my imaginations to place myself in a setting from the Gospels or in a scene proposed by Ignatius as praying with Scripture. I have a strong motivation on these Spiritual Exercises as Ignatius in his insight states that the shortest and almost the only way to reach holiness is to hold in horror all that world loves and holds on to God by letting him work in you; welcome thoughts that raise your heart to him and open wide the windows of your soul.[16] It is from this that I started to deepen my imagination and contemplation of my daily life through prayer and reflection.  

I have found in Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises that God and the Devil are presented as active players in the world and in the human psyche. The main aim of the Exercises is the development within the human psyche of “discernment”, the ability to distinguish good and evil spirits. Discernment is achieved in order to act “with the Grace of God”. In other words, with discernment, one can determine right and wrong, and one can also determine the better of two goods. This is the context within which, during the exercises one thinks about humility, selflessness for the sake of the religious life, reflection upon natural sin. The exercises have opened other areas in my life including self-knowledge and humility. Self-knowledge is necessary for authentic growth in prayer life. Socrates once said that “an unreflected life is not worth living”. The search for God must start from within. According to Ignatius, self-knowledge helps the soul to distinguish between the beauty of the soul in grace and the hideousness of the soul in mortal sin. This awareness enables one to stay on the path of grace. Humility is an important quality or sign of spiritual growth. Christ himself is our model of humility (Cf. Phil 2:6-8).

 There is an acknowledgment that the human soul is continually drawn in two directions, represented by the meditation on the Two Standards - of Satan and of Jesus - in the Second Week. Accordingly, the Exercises provide several illustrations of how best one might be able to refrain from satiating one’s lower desires and instead how one might find a means to redirect one’s energies towards the fulfillment of one’s higher purpose in life. These Exercises are important elements that are necessary for spiritual growth.

4.0 CONCLUSION

The language and tone are those of a sixteenth century writer, but the content of Ignatius’ words resonates with our contemporary experience of struggling with decision making. The Spiritual Exercises continue to offer us a way forward, to help us grow into freedom as mature Christian disciples, and to use this freedom in the service of God and of God’s people.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fleming, D. L., The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Literal Translation and A Contemporary

 Reading, St Louis: The institute of Jesuit Sources 1978.

O’leary, B., Ignatius Spirituality, Dublin: Messenger Publications 2009

---

[1] Cf. B. O’leary, Ignatius Spirituality, 15-16.

[2] B. O’leary, Ignatius Spirituality, 16.

[3] Cf. B. O’leary, Ignatius Spirituality, 47.

[4] D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius 23.

[5] D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius 5.

[6] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 4-5.

[7] Cf. B. O’leary, Ignatius Spirituality, 47.

[8] Cf. B. O’leary, Ignatius Spirituality, 47.

[9] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 7.

[10] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 4-9.

[11] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 23.

[12] D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 61.

[13] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 103-108.

[14] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 117-127.

[15] Cf. D. L. Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 135-141.

[16] Cf. B. O’leary, Ignatius Spirituality, 41.