Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
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The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, (written within 1522-1524) are a brief set of meditations, prayers and mental exercises, available in various book formats, designed to be carried out over a period of 28 to 30 days. The book is approximately 200 pages long. They were written with the intention of enhancing and strengthening one's faith-experience in a manner that has distinctly Roman Catholic aspects.
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[edit] Typical methodology and structure of the Exercises
Ideally these Exercises were designed to take place in the setting of a secluded retreat, during which those undergoing the exercises would be focused on nothing other than the Exercises. At the same time, in his introductory notes, Ignatius provides a model for completing the Exercises over a longer period without the need of seclusion. The Exercises were designed to be carried out while under the direction of a spiritual director. The original aim of their authorship appears to have been for use as the key component of the Catholic religious order of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits', novitiate program. As such they are a required component of the Jesuit novitiate training program, that usually takes place during the first year of a two year novitiate. Still, through their history, other Catholic lay people are known to occasionally undergo these Exercises. When lay people undergo the Exercises, this is usually under the guidance of a spiritual director who is a member of the religious order of Jesuits. In contemporary experience, more and more lay people and non-Catholics are becoming both retreatants and directors of the Exercises.
Within the Exercises, 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 the God of Jesus Christ. The Exercises is 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, reports back to the spiritual director of the retreat who helps them to understand what these experiences of prayer might mean to the retreatant. The goal of the Exercises is to reflect upon their experiences and to understand how they might apply to his (or her) life.
[edit] Theological teachings of the Exercises
[edit] Some historically contextual aspects of the Exercises
[edit] Spiritual viewpoint of the Exercises
In Ignatius` Spiritual Exercises, in accordance with the spiritual norms of the time in which Ignatius lived, 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" (discernio), the ability to discern between good and evil spirits (which we might today identify as an ability to discern between good or bad inclinations or directions in life). Discernment is achieved in order to act "with the Grace of God". In other words, to act on the spiritual discernment one has had on what is right. This is the context within which, during the exercises one thinks about humility, selflessness for the sake of the religious life, reflection upon one's tendency to fall into sin. There is an acknowledgement that the human soul is continually drawn in two directions: both drawn towards Godliness, and at the same time tempted towards baseness. Accordingly the Exercises provide several illustrations of how one might best 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. It also needs to be understood that at the heart of Jesuit thought "discernment", while on the one hand being an action of mysticism, can also be understood as a method of subjective ethical thought. The Exercises emphasize the role of ones own "discernment" in deciding what is the path to glorify God (the right path). "Discernment" attempts to make a direct connection between the individual exercisant`s thought and action and the Grace of God. Discernment is thereby an action which potentially emphasizes the mystical experience of the believer independent of church hierarchical authority. This aspect of the spiritual exercises is very much typical of the mysticist trend in Catholic thought and practice which both preceded the reformation and lived on within elements of counter-reformation Catholicism. It also perhaps provides some of the spiritual base for the kind of progressive Jesuit action which has at times in history brought the order into conflict with conservatives in the hierarchy.
[edit] Modern applications of the Exercises
To this day, the Spiritual Exercises remain an integral part of the Novitiate training period of the Roman Catholic religious order of Jesuits. Also, many local Jesuit outreach programs throughout the world offer retreats for the general public in which the Exercises are employed.
Beginning in the 1980s, Protestants have had a growing interest in the Spiritual Exercises. There are recent (2006) adaptations that are specific to Protestants that emphasize the exercises as a school of contemplative prayer.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- George E. Ganss, S.J. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Translation and Commentary. Chicago: Loyola Press, 1992. ISBN 0-829-40728-6.
- Anthony Mottola, Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. Image (1964), ISBN 0-385-02436-3.
