IN IGNATIUS’ STEPS

( An initiation to Ignatian spirituality )

by

Fr. lorenzo carraro, mccj

1
 table of contents

THE PILGRIM’S JOURNEY

An aged Ignatius dictated the memories of his youth and conversion story to his secretary
Fr. Louis: they are an astonishing map of his spirituality as fruit of his personal experience.

GOD’S CHAMPIONSHIP

The book of the Spiritual Exercises is a manual for Directors who guide people in the
exciting discovery of their true selves in the light of God’s will as it emerges in prayer
during a desert period in which they choose to be alone with God.

AN ORIGINAL POINT OF DEPARTURE

The universal salvation history as it emerges from the Bible is fulfilled in each person’s
discovery of God’s personal love expressed in his Law. This is Ignatius’ Principle and
Foundation which makes us heed the Call of the King.

THE PERSON’S PROGRESS WITH GOD

Mapping the person’s progress in the individual journey to God is the purpose of the
original way Saint Ignatius used the traditional spiritual tool: the Examination of
Conscience.

ESSENTIAL OPENING TO LOVE

The fruit of the first week of the Spiritual Exercises is named by Ignatius as Indifference.
The meaning is not lack of interest but inner spiritual freedom.

THE WAY OF DISCERMENT

Discernment aims at giving a direction to the journey of the soul searching for God’s will.
The doctrine of the Discernment of Spirits is a precious legacy of the Ignatian spirituality.

A PRACTICAL APPROACH

In the text of the Spiritual Exercises we have “Annotations” and “Additions”. The key rule is
that “it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things interiorly that contents and
satisfies the soul”.

2
STEPPING STONES

The second week brings the typical Ignatian meditations: The Call of the King, the Two
Standards and the Three Types of Persons: they are stepping stones for the soul to face
the planning of the future in God’s sight.

THE POWER OF IMAGINATION

Saint Ignatius exhorts the people in the retreat to use their imagination in order to stand
inside the Gospel narratives of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

SEEING GOD IN EVERYTHING

At the end of his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius invites us to ask God the grace of love
and contemplation. It is a call to grow in contemplating God present in all things. It is
contemplation in action.

PERSONAL LOVE FOR CHRIST

The heart of the Spiritual Exercises is the love for the Blessed Humanity of Christ. Jesus
is the Great King who calls us at his service, for the salvation of sinners. Everything
happens between two key-prayers.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

3
THE PILGRIM’S JOURNEY
An aged Ignatius dictated the memories of his youth and
conversion story to his secretary Fr. Louis: they are an astonishing
map of his spirituality as fruit of his personal experience.

St. Ignatius was a man of action, not an intellectual. His writings are few and marked
by practical purposes. Only the book of the Spiritual Exercises which is actually a
handbook for directors, his many letters to his Jesuits sons scattered in the whole
world, and certainly much in the Jesuit Constitutions make up his whole production.

That is why it is of utmost importance what is commonly called his autobiography,

which is made up of the memories the aged Ignatius shared with his secretary Fr.
Louis Gonzalez. This short collection of reminiscences of his youth and conversion
story contains the seminal pattern of the whole Ignatian spirituality.

For the glory of God

The origin of the prolonged interview which lasted, off and on, for about two years, is
explained by Fr. Louis in the preface of the Autobiography: “In the year 1553, one
Friday morning, August 4, the eve of the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, while St.
Ignatius was in the garden, I began to give him an account of my soul, and, among
other things, I spoke to him of how I was tempted by vain glory.

The spiritual advice he gave me was this: “Refer everything that you do to God and
thank Him for it.” The advice given to me on this occasion was so consoling to me
that I could not refrain from tears. St. Ignatius then related to me that for two years he
had struggled against vain glory.

An hour or two later we went to dinner, and, while Master Polancus and I were dining
with him, St. Ignatius said that many of the Society had often asked him to give a
narrative of his life, but he had never as yet decided to do so. On this occasion,
however, after I had spoken to him, he reflected upon it alone. He was favorably
inclined toward it. From the way he spoke, it was evident God had enlightened him to
apply to himself the advice he had given to me and to give glory to God.

At that time St. Ignatius was in very feeble health. Fr. Luis jotted down the
conversations in Spanish and then produced a fair copy in Latin. It is titled: “The

4
Pilgrim’s Journey”. It gives an insight into the spiritual life of Saint Ignatius. Few
works in ascetical literature, except the writing of Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint
Augustine, impart such a knowledge of the soul. The following year 1556, Saint
Ignatius died.

A practical man

Saint Ignatius of Loyola was a man who saw above and beyond his century, a man of
vision and calm hope, who could step comfortably into our era and the Church of our
time and show us how to draw closer to Christ. Ignatius’ autobiography span eighteen
very important years of this saint’s 65-years life, from his conversion to his university
studies and his journey to Rome in order to place his followers and himself at the
disposal of the Pope.

These critical years reveal the incredible transformation and spiritual growth in the
soul of a great saint and the events that helped to bring about that change in his life.
Saint Ignatius was a pragmatic man in all things and initially steeped in his own
desire for vainglory. His quest for success and personal glory led to his near fatal
injury at the battle of Pamplona (1521) which in turn led to his conversion and then
his setting aside his quest of glory in order to seek the greater glory of God.

During his convalescence he received the gift of discernment and developed his
ability to understand the value and core of his thoughts and desires, to distinguish the
“goodness” or “badness” of any impulse or action. His gift of discernment let him
garner a direction from God and the resulting Spiritual Exercises became a catalyst
for driving faith home for countless numbers of souls over the next five hundred
years.

Experiential Knowledge

After discerning God’s will for himself, he resolutely set out to do it. He amended his
life. Left his military career. Returned to school. Gathered his friends together. Put
himself at the disposal of God and the Pope. He organized, led and inspired what he
called his “least” society of Jesus.

Even though it was often interpreted in rigid ways, authentic Ignatian spirituality is
marked by his typical reference for flexibility. His is a spirituality of discernment of
choices, both everyday and lifelong. His advice is to find “whatever is most helpful
and fruitful”. In our response lies our growth and freedom.

5
We always think of the saints as “perfect people” but really their stories tell us how
they struggled with their imperfections to follow their faith. We all have that
opportunity and Saint Ignatius worked hard to share ways we can follow in bringing
our own faith to fulfillment.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

GOD’S CHAMPIONSHIP
The book of the Spiritual Exercises is a manual for Directors who
guide people in the exciting discovery of their true selves in the light
of God’s will as it emerges in prayer during a desert period in which
they choose to be alone with God.
The Spiritual Exercises are a compilation of meditations, prayers, and contemplative
practices developed by St. Ignatius Loyola to help people deepen their relationship
with God. They were composed with the intention of helping participants in
religious retreats to discern the will of God in their lives, leading to a personal
commitment to follow Jesus whatever the cost.

For centuries the Exercises were most commonly given as a “long retreat” of about
30 days in solitude and silence. The most common beneficiaries were clergy and
religious, although it was not so in origin. Although the Exercises were designed to be
carried out while under the guidance of a spiritual director, they were never meant
only for monks or priests.

Ignatius gave the Exercises for 15 years before he was ordained, and years before the
Society of Jesus was founded. He saw them as an instrument for bringing about a
conversion or change of heart, in the Reformation times in which he lived. After the
Society of Jesus was formed, the Exercises became the central component of its
training program.

6
In recent years, there has been a renewed emphasis on the Spiritual Exercises as a
program for laypeople. The most common way of going through the Exercises now
is a “retreat in daily life,” which involves a program of daily prayer and meetings
with a spiritual director which lasts for several months.

Personal Experience

After recovering from a leg wound incurred during the Siege of Pamplona in 1521,
Ignatius made a retreat with the Benedictine monks at their abbey high
on Montserrat in Catalonia, northern Spain, where he hung up his sword before the
statue of the Virgin of Montserrat. From Montserrat, he left for Barcelona but took a
detour through the town of Manresa, where he eventually remained for several
months, continuing his convalescence at a local hospital.

He also spent much of his time praying in a cave nearby, where he practiced rigorous
asceticism. During this time Ignatius experienced a series of visions, and formulated
the fundamentals of his Spiritual Exercises. He would later refine and complete
the Exercises when he was a student in Paris. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint
Ignatius form the cornerstone of Ignatian Spirituality.

Stages of Spiritual Life

The original, complete form of the Exercises is a retreat of about 30 days in silence
and solitude. The Exercises are divided into four "weeks" of varying length with four
major themes: sin and God's mercy, episodes in the life of Jesus, the passion of Jesus,
and the resurrection of Jesus together with a contemplation on God's love.

This last is often seen as the goal of Ignatian spirituality, to find God in all
things. The "weeks" represent stages in a process of wholehearted commitment to the
service of God.

Ignatius identified the various motives that lead a person to choose one course of
action over another as "spirits". A major aim of the Exercises is the development
of discernment (discretio), the ability to discern between good and evil spirits. A good
"spirit" can bring love, joy, peace, but also desolation, to bring one to re-examine
one's life.

An evil spirit usually brings confusion and doubt, but may also prompt contentment

7
to discourage change. The human soul is continually drawn in two directions:
towards goodness but at the same time towards sinfulness.

"Discernment" is very important to Ignatian thought. Through the process of

discernment, the believer is led toward a direct connection between one's thought and
action and the grace of God. As such, discernment can be considered a movement
toward mystical union with God, and it emphasizes the mystical experience of the
believer.

This aspect of the Spiritual Exercises reflects the trend toward mysticism in
Catholic thought which flourished during the time of the counter-reformation (e.g.,
with Teresa of Ávila, John of the Cross and Francis de Sales).

Prayer Periods

Ignatius' book is not meant to be used by the retreatant but by a director or spiritual
guide. Each day the exercitant uses the material proposed by the director for four or
five hour-long periods, each followed by a review of how the period went.

The exercitant reports back to the spiritual director who helps interpret the
exercitant's experiences and proposes material for the next day. Ignatius observes that
God "deals directly" with the well-disposed person and the director should not give
advice to the retreatant that might interfere with God's workings.

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola are considered a classic work of

spiritual formation. Most retreat centers offer shorter retreats with some of the
elements of the Spiritual Exercises. Retreats have been developed for specific groups
of people, such as those who are married or engaged. Self-guided forms of
the Exercises are also available, including online programs.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

8
AN ORIGINAL POINT OF DEPARTURE
The universal salvation history as it emerges from the Bible is
fulfilled in each person’s discovery of God’s personal love
expressed in his Law. This is Ignatius’ Principle and Foundation
which makes us heed the Call of the King.

The conclusion of the first week of Spiritual Exercises and its main fruit is The
Principle and Foundation. The resulting attitude is “indifference”, but it is important
to notice that Ignatian indifference is more a point of departure for new horizons than
the target of a process already undergone.

What precedes is the patrimony of the Old Testament: the heritage of the Law as the
content of the covenant with God. The acquisitions of the Jewish Spirituality
displayed in the Old Testament are the foundations of the First Week of the Spiritual
Exercises.

The biblical concept of God who is good and the origin of all that is good, as in the
account of creation in the book of Genesis, is the beginning of the very concrete
experience of God in the Ignatian approach to prayer. The optimism of this concept of
God, his personal call for relationship and encounter doesn’t diminish the
transcendence and mystery of the one whom Ignatius calls “His Majesty”.

Not negotiable

The strong, positive sense of God goes together with a lively sense of sin, nourished
by the contemplation of Jesus on the cross. The Ten Commandments, in their
negative formulation as prohibitions, embody and imply the victory over the
inordinate attachments which results in the inner freedom (“indifference”) necessary
for the spiritual progress ahead.

The Ignatian indifference doesn’t apply to God’s Law which demands to be embraced
passionately. The commandments are meant to be kept according to the teaching of
Moral Theology. Saint Ignatius writes in the Principle and Foundation : “It is
necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to
the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it”.

This makes it clear that the Ten Commandments of God are essential and not
negotiable in their denial of the inordinate attachments that enslave the soul and put

9
in danger our final salvation.
This explains the setup of the meditations for the First Week of the Exercises that
Saint Ignatius shows in the book itself: the meditation on sin and that on hell as well
as the introduction of the General and Particular Examination of Conscience in view
of a general Confession and the reception of the Holy Communion.

The goal of our life

It is only then that the full impact of the Principle and Foundation is understood with
the attitude of indifference or inner freedom to heed the Call of the King. The
complete journey of the people of God in the Old Testament becomes the foundation
and the stepping stone of each person’s individual call to holiness.

“God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to
save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the earth to help fulfill
this purpose. From this it follows that we are to use the things of this world only to
the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of
this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end”, writes Saint Ignatius.

The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our
own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit. All the things in
this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and
make a return of love more readily. As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts
of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. Our “indifference” (inner
freedom) is availability to love.
A Call to Love
The Principle and Foundation can be also seen as diagnostic. It explores whether a
person has truly grasped at an interior level the experience of God’s creative and
sustaining love. Until people can claim that gift of God’s love on a personal level,
they cannot hear God’s words of forgiveness or the call in freedom in the rest of the
Exercises.
Put another way, the Principle and Foundation explores a person’s operative image of
God. Just by being on the earth, then, each of us has a unique original purpose. We
each have a personal vocation from God. The Principle and Foundation invites us to
see the world as a product of love.

We have to affirm the goodness of the world. The first grace is to know that each one
of us is a product of God’s love. The Contemplation to Gain Divine Love which is the
point of arrival of Saint Ignatius’ spirituality starts already in what is presupposed in
the beginning of the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises. &&&&&&&&&&

10
THE PERSON’S PROGRESS WITH GOD
Mapping the person’s progress in the individual journey to God is
the purpose of the original way Saint Ignatius used the traditional
spiritual tool: the Examination of Conscience.

Examination of conscience is a review of one's past thoughts, words, actions, and

omissions for the purpose of ascertaining their conformity with, or deviation from,
the moral law. Among Christians, this is generally a private review.

In the Catholic Church, penitents who wish to receive the sacrament of

Reconciliation are encouraged to examine their conscience using the Ten
Commandments as a guide, or the Beatitudes, or the virtues and vices.

Examination of conscience was commanded by the Apostle St. Paul to be performed

by the faithful each time they received Holy Communion: "But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he who eats and
drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself.... For if we would judge
ourselves, we should not be judged." (1 Corinthians 11:28–31).

And, as the early Christians used to receive communion frequently, examination of

conscience became a familiar exercise in their spiritual life. In many cases, it became
a daily practice in the life of early members of the clergy and those living a monastic
life. Saint Bernard wrote: “As a searching investigator of the integrity of your own
conduct, submit your life to a daily examination”.

"The excellence of this practice and its fruitfulness for Christian virtue," wrote
Pope Pius X, "are clearly established by the teaching of the great masters of the
spiritual life." St. Ignatius of Loyola considered the examination of conscience as the
single most important spiritual exercise. In his Spiritual Exercises he presents
different forms of it in the particular and general examination .
St. Ignatius of Loyola describes a five-point devotional examination method. In the
first point, followers thank God for the benefits received; in the second, they ask
grace to know and correct their faults; in the third, they pass in review the successive
hours of the day, noting what faults they have committed in deed, word, thought, or
omission; in the fourth, they ask God's pardon; in the fifth, they consider amendment.

11
Conscience and Consciousness

Of the general examination Saint Ignatius writes: "The first point is to give thanks to
God our Lord for the favors received". This point has become a highly developed part
of Ignatian spirituality in modern times, and has led to many more positive practices,
generally called examen of consciousness.

In it one might review the ways God has been present through one to others, and to
oneself through others, and how one has responded, and to proceed in one's day with
gratitude, more aware of the presence of God in one's life.

In general, there is a distinction between the particular examen, which aims to change
one particular feature or defect in one's behavior, and the examen of consciousness,
which is a more nuanced reflection, and the general examination of conscience as
used before the sacrament of penance.
Discernment as a way of life is the fruitful encounter between two very original
elements of Ignatian spirituality: the attitude of discernment and the examination of
consciousness. Discernment as a way of life is the process of listening attentively to
myself, others, the world, Scripture, to all created realities so that I can catch the
voice of God calling me to him.

Every circumstance of our life is an opportunity to meet the Lord. Discernment as a

way of life is the fruit of a deeper yes to God in the here and now; it helps to find
God’s word for me here and now and to say yes. It embraces not only the present, but
also the past, the healing of memories, and aims at acquiring the same feeling of
Jesus in all circumstances according to the Latin motto: “Sentire cum Jesu”.
An application of our willpower
Mapping the person’s progress in the individual journey to God is the purpose of the
original way Saint Ignatius uses the traditional spiritual tool: the Examination of
Conscience. The spiritual battle engages the most central energy of the person: one’s
will power.

Ignatius doesn’t stand cowardice or fear: his military mentality challenges the person
to apply the will power to vigilance negatively against sin and inordinate affections
and positively in the practice of the Christian virtues.
At the same time, the importance Ignatius gives to our feelings justifies the
development of what we call examination of consciousness that we have mentioned
above.

Looking daily into the refined conscience gives concrete efficiency to Christian
asceticism. More deeply, it becomes a search for the signs of the presence of God in

12
the emotional movements and nuances of feelings in our consciousness: a constant,
loving search for God’s loving presence to console us and attract us into the depths of
his life. It is the call to contemplate God in everything.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

ESSENTIAL OPENING TO LOVE

The fruit of the first week of the Spiritual Exercises is named by
Ignatius as Indifference. The meaning is not lack of interest but
inner spiritual freedom.

The outcome of the first week of the Spiritual Exercises, which embraces the Old
Testament spirituality of the faithfulness to the Covenant with God, expressed by the
purification from sin, is named by Ignatius as Indifference. The meaning is not lack
of interest but inner spiritual freedom.

It can also be identified with the Gospel poverty of spirit or childlike attitude which
Jesus tells us that it makes us enter the kingdom of God. It is because of this inner
spiritual freedom that the personal encounter with the Christian Mystery in the
remaining three weeks of the Spiritual Exercises becomes possible and fruitful.
Ignatius urges us to seek the freedom of detachment or indifference. Neither of these
words carries weight in today’s language or culture. Both sound cold and uncaring,
which is far from the spirit in which Ignatius used them. A better word might be inner
freedom

Bees and flowers

In his First Principle and Foundation, Ignatius talks about “making use of those
things that help to bring us closer to God and leaving aside those things that don’t.”
We can visualize the wisdom of this attitude if we observe the bees going from flower
to flower and selecting the pollen they need for their purpose.

Although the bees choose some flowers and disregard other plants growing in the
courtyard, other insects seek their nourishment from different sources. In choosing

13
what is exactly right for them, they are not only receiving their own nourishment but
are also playing an essential role in the fruitfulness of their environment.

And in choosing one plant rather than another, they are in no way rejecting or
denigrating the others. The secret of this harmonious, cooperative life seems to lie in
each creature’s being true to its own essential nature. Each gains what it needed for
survival and growth from the source that is right for it, and it does so without harm
either to itself or to the flowers. In fact, after each encounter, both insect and flower
are left in a richer state than before: the insect has been nourished and the flower has
been pollinated.

This picture is a very vivid illustration of what it might mean to “make use of what
leads to life” and to leave aside what, for each individual, does not lead to life. It is a
truly creative kind of “detachment.” It helps us to understand what God might be
calling us to when he asks us to let go of our attachments. The bees make no attempt
to “possess” the flowers, nor do the flowers attempt to trap and hold the bees. This is
a free interchange, perfectly fulfilling the needs of the bees, the flowers, and the
wider circle of creation around them.

Poverty of spirit

The evangelical counsels or imperatives are conditions that Jesus puts to those who
want to be in his following. Jesus chose not to marry and he praised the eunuchs for
the Kingdom of God. He loved single mindedly and with undivided heart his Father
and us, his brethren.

Jesus emptied himself in order to share our condition and chose to be poor to make
us rich. He came to accomplish the Father’s will : his food and his drink was to do the
will of his Father. This will was for Jesus to save us from everlasting death, to redeem
us from the slavery of sin and to unite us with God, sharing God’s life as adopted
sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus and temple of the Holy
Spirit.

Jesus’ example is the only real reason of the existence of every vocation. Poverty is
the door to the radical following of Jesus. This is why Saint Francis of Assisi took
“Lady Poverty” as his lover and wife. This is the poetical interpretation of the
exemplary vocation of Saint Francis of Assisi in the famous literary masterpiece “The
Divine Comedy” of Dante Alighieri.

Lady Poverty was on the Cross with Jesus. But after Jesus, Lady Poverty was
neglected and nobody took a real interest in her until Francis came and fell in love

14
with her. He wanted to fulfill the Gospel “sine glossa” (without comment or
compromise), the pure Gospel. He wanted to follow Jesus in a radical way. And
“poverty of spirit”, the first of the Beatitudes, is the door to it: an essential opening to
love.

Poverty proclaims that God is our only treasure. Poverty states that being is more
important than having, people are more important than things and whatever we have
is not ours. Poverty means to want less and to thank more. Poverty is availability to
love. This is the Indifference that Saint Ignatius requires from those who are
preparing to follow Jesus in prayer along the mysteries of his life and death out of
love in the following weeks of the Spiritual Exercises.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

THE WAY OF DISCERMENT

Discernment aims at giving a direction to the journey of the soul
searching for God’s will. The doctrine of the Discernment of Spirits
is a precious legacy of the Ignatian spirituality.

The military will power of the young Ignatius needed to find its object in order not to
fight in vain. To this purpose Ignatius has developed what was already present in the
Bible: the principle of the discernment of spirits: “Beloved, do not believe every
spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God, for many false prophets have gone
out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

This is how Ignatius tells us of his great discovery in the Autobiography: “As Ignatius
had a love for fiction, when he found himself out of danger he asked for some
romances to pass away the time. In that house there was no book of the kind. They
gave him, instead, “The Life of Christ,” by Rudolph, the Carthusian, and another
book called the “Flowers of the Saints,” both in Spanish.

“By frequent reading of these books he began to get some love for spiritual things.

15
This reading led his mind to meditate on holy things, yet sometimes it wandered to
thoughts which he had been accustomed to dwell upon before, like he pictured to
himself what he should do in honor of an illustrious lady, and what manner of
exploits he should perform to please her.

“In the meantime the divine mercy was at work substituting for these thoughts others
suggested by his recent readings. While perusing the life of Our Lord and the saints,
he began to reflect, saying to himself: “What if I should do what St. Francis did?”
“What if I should act like St. Dominic?”

“This succession of thoughts occupied him for a long while, those about God
alternating with those about the world. But in these thoughts there was this
difference. When he thought of worldly things it gave him great pleasure, but
afterward he found himself dry and sad. But when he thought of journeying to
Jerusalem, and of living only on herbs, and practicing austerities, he found pleasure
not only while thinking of them, but also when he had ceased”.

Understanding the difference

“This difference he did not notice or value, until one day the eyes of his soul were
opened and he began to inquire the reason of the difference. He learned by experience
that one train of thought left him sad, the other joyful. This was his first reasoning on
spiritual matters.

Gradually he recognized the different spirits by which he was moved, one, the spirit
of God, the other, the devil. Afterward, when he began the Spiritual Exercises, he was
enlightened, and understood what he afterward taught his children about the
discernment of spirits”.

We human beings are moved by a complexity of motives, both in the things we do

from day to day and in our big decisions. Master Ignatius learned to think about those
dense complexes of motives—images, ideas, attractions, revulsions—as “spirits.”

He noted that these motives and energies take on two configurations, which he
identified with consolation and desolation. He discovered that both consolation and
desolation can move you toward God or pull you away from God. Then he noted that
sometimes consolation comes from a good spirit and sometimes from a bad spirit,
and he noted the same thing about desolation.

16
Deliberation and way of life

The attitude of discernment helps us to distinguish the spirits, to follow the good
spirits and to avoid falling in the clutches of the evil spirit. The doctrine of the
Discernment of Spirits is now a precious legacy of the Ignatian spirituality.
Discernment aims at giving a direction to the attitude of inner freedom or indifference
so that the journey of the soul searching for God’s will may start and be on the way.

The method of discernment which is more renown is aimed at reaching a decision on

one’s state in life. It is a process of deliberation and it comes once in life. The most
momentous choice requires a valid and sure method so that the important choice of a
lifetime may be successful.

But there is also a type of discernment which enlightens the way already chosen, a
discernment which becomes a way of life. Although not present in its formality in the
book of the Exercises it is a welcomed development which greatly enriches the
pursue of daily holiness and perfection of love.

There is a good deal more to Ignatian discernment. It is not, however, a merely

human discipline. “Now instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit
that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts that he has given us” (1
Corinthians 2:12). Serious disciples cherish this gift and put it to good use.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

A PRACTICAL APPROACH
In the text of the Spiritual Exercises we have “Annotations” and
“Additions”. The key rule is that “it is not knowing much, but
realizing and relishing things interiorly that contents and satisfies
the soul”.

Relying on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the journey of prayer doesn’t mean for
Saint Ignatius to ignore the practical approach, fruit of Ignatius’ very experience and
sign of ingenuity and serious commitment. This is why in the text of the Spiritual
Exercises we have “Annotations”: “ to give some understanding of the Spiritual

17
Exercises and enable the director and the retreatant to help themselves”. They deal
mainly with the very Ignatian concepts of consolation and desolation.

The Annotations are twenty and each is the result of the experience of giving the
exercises to people. The key rule is that “it is no knowing much, but realizing and
relishing things interiorly that contents and satisfy the soul”.

The “Fundamental Option”

In Ignatius’s rules for the discernment of spirits, his first piece of advice is to
ascertain the orientation of one’s life: Am I straying from the right path, or am I
trying to live a decent Christian life? It is what is known as the “fundamental option”.
To this concept, Saint Ignatius links the play of spiritual attitudes which he calls
consolation and desolation.

What, exactly, is consolation? Consolation refers to any experience of desire for God,
of distaste for one’s past sins, or of sympathy for Jesus or any other suffering person.
It refers, in other words, to “every increase in hope, faith, and charity, and every
interior joy which calls and attracts one toward heavenly things and to the salvation
of one’s soul, by bringing it tranquility and peace in its Creator and Lord” (The
Spiritual Exercises, n. 316).

Paul’s letter to the Galatians lists the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (5:22-23). When you
experience one or more of these movements in your being, you can be relatively sure
that God’s Spirit is moving you.

Consolation and Desolation

Ignatius believed that God wants us to be happy and fulfilled and that the way to be
happy and fulfilled is to be in tune with God’s dream for the world and for us. The
way to be happy and fulfilled is to accept God’s offer of friendship and to live in
accordance with that friendship. If we are trying to do this, according to Ignatius,
“consolation” is the order of the day. This does not mean that life will be without pain
and suffering; it means that God wants to be a consoling presence to us even in the
inevitable pains and sufferings of life.

Desolation is the opposite of consolation. Ignatius gives these examples: Obtuseness

of soul, turmoil within it, an impulsive motion toward low and earthly things, or

18
disquiet from various agitations and temptations. These move one toward lack of
faith and leave one without hope and without love. One is completely listless, tepid,
and unhappy, and feels separated from our Creator and Lord.

Provided that we are trying to live as friends of God, feeling out of sorts, ill at ease,
anxious, unhappy, listless, and so on are experiences of desolation. They do not come
from God.

Dynamics of consolation and desolation

Just to be complete, let me explain what Ignatius says about the different ways God’s
Spirit and the evil spirit operate with those who have deliberately and seriously
turned away from God. The evil spirit tries to get such people to rationalize their
behavior and attitudes. This sense of self approval may appear as consolation, but it is
a trick of the evil spirit. In this case, the good Spirit will cause unhappiness and stir
the sense of guilt in the person. It appears as desolation but it is meant to heal and
restore the person to full joy in the Lord.

Now let’s take up the orientation of most people, who are trying to live honestly and
uprightly to the best of their ability. The bad spirit raises doubts and questions that
cause inner turmoil and self-absorption.

Ignatius provides a good example of how the bad spirit works with someone on the
right road. At one point he had the thought “And how are you going to be able to
stand this life of prayer and penance the seventy years you’re meant to live?” Ignatius
quite rightly answered, “Can you promise me one hour of life?”

If we are trying to live as friends of God, we can trust that our experience is of God’s
Spirit when we find ourselves more alive, more peaceful, more energized, and also
more concerned about others than about ourselves as a result of the experience.

These simple rules of thumb are not absolute guarantees that we are right or that our
way of proceeding will succeed, but they give us some assurance that we are on the
right path. If we follow the impulses of such experiences, we can move forward with
confidence, trusting that God will continue to show us the way.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

19
STEPPING STONES
The second week brings the typical Ignatian meditations: The Call
of the King, the Two Standards and the Three Types of Persons:
they are stepping stones for the soul to face the planning of the
future in God’s sight.

At the beginning of the second week comes the meditation: the Call of the King and
in the middle of the second week, that of the Two Standards and the Three Types of
Persons. In prayer, the imagination brings the soul under the standard of Jesus to ask
the grace to choose what is more pleasing to his Divine Majesty, what is more to his
glory and our personal salvation.

These contemplations are meant to understand what God wants from us in terms of in
what life or state of life his Divine majesty wants to be served by us. Following the
example of the teenager Jesus who not only obeyed his parents in Nazareth (soul who
is happy in keeping the commandments), but disobeyed and left the adopted father
and natural mother to attend to the pure service of his Eternal Father.

Jesus contrasted his way to the way of the world quite emphatically: “He who is not
with me is against me” (Luke 11:23). Master Ignatius helps us apply this to ourselves
in the key meditation called “The Two Standards”—a “standard” meaning a flag.

Under Jesus’ banner

As his disciples we have to choose where we are going to stand—with Jesus or with
the world. No matter what life the Spirit has drawn us to, once we are baptized and
confirmed we are called to stand in Jesus’ company under his flag.

We begin to move under Jesus’ standard when we join him in the lively conviction
that everything we have and are is God’s gift. However much or little we have, we
say gratefully, “Look at all God has given me.” Then through a life of love and
service, the Spirit leads us to live as meekly and humbly as the Lord lived.

So, the imagination brings us under the standard of Jesus, our King, and to which
ideal Jesus calls his apostles and to which category of men do we belong: to see

20
ourselves as we stand before God, our Lord, and all his Saints and to desire and know
what is more pleasing to his Divine Goodness. We are invited to ask for what we
want: the grace to choose what is more pleasing to God, what is more to the glory of
his divine Majesty and the salvation of our soul.

At the command of Jesus, our King

A true turning around of the heart is necessary in order to give ourselves to Jesus
Christ as he is. It is a matter of losing one’s life in order to save it, sacrificing oneself
entirely through total self-giving. This is the paradoxical condition for the
achievement of the Kingdom.

In the Bible, the Kingdom is neither a people nor a place but an event: the presence of
the Holy One in our very midst in this world, in history, in people. The Kingdom has
been won already through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom is
within all human beings: the presence of the Spirit of the Risen Jesus.

To achieve the Kingdom is to labor with Christ, to bring all people to embrace the
presence of Christ within them, in their behavior- in the way the relate to themselves,
to the other persons, to the world, and to God.

That is why faith in the Kingdom cannot be separated from its behavioral expression
in the life of individuals and communities and in the organization of social, political
and economic structures and in the way we treat the world.

Saint Paul perfectly describes the mission to bring the Kingdom to be: “It is now my
happiness to suffer for you... to deliver his message in full; to announce the secret
hidden for long generations. The secret is this: Christ in you, the hope of the glory to
come” (Col. 1:24-27).

What kind of person am I?

The ideal is clear in front of us: to heed the call Of Christ, our King, and to stand
under his banner. It is now question of choosing our own stance. This is when our
true nature will reveal itself and show to which category of people we belong. There
are those who talk a lot about being with Jesus but take no action. Life runs out
swiftly without them taking a decision.
There are others who busy themselves in doing every single detail but not the
essential one. And then there are the doers of the word. We must pray that the grace
of the Holy Spirit draws us to that type of choice. To choose Jesus and to stick to our
choice.

21
To choose Jesus is to choose poverty, contempt and suffering with Christ rather than
being well off, honored and respected. This is the third degree of humility, after the
decision to avoid what is forbidden: mortal and venial sin. It is the way of holiness,
the Christian way.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

THE POWER OF IMAGINATION

Saint Ignatius exhorts the people in the retreat to use their
imagination in order to stand inside the Gospel narratives of Jesus’
life, death and resurrection.

Second, third and fourth week: it is a call to meditate the life, death and Resurrection
of Jesus: as somebody aptly said, “standing inside the mystery”. The more concrete,
personal and emotional the encounter with Jesus is, the better will be the
transforming power of our prayer.

The grace of the Holy Spirit wants to meet with our personal engagement. Saint
Ignatius teaches us how to obtain that by means of his Ignatian Contemplation.
Saint Ignatius speak very briefly and soberly of what has become his famous
“Contemplation”. We find it in the preludes of the meditation about the Nativity,
during the second week.

After mentioning the trip of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the census, this is
how he describes the “composition of place”: “It will be here to see with the sight of
the imagination, the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem; considering the length and the
breath, and whether such road is level or through valleys and over hills, Likewise,
looking at place or cave of the Nativity, how large, how small, how low, how high
and how it was prepared”.

Then we are invited to see the Persons, the actors of the scene, and making ourselves

22
part of the scene, “imagining ourselves present”: “looking at them and serving them
in their needs with all possible respect and reverence”. Noticing what they are saying
and what they are doing…. And from this exercise draw some spiritual profit. The
contemplation is concluded with a colloquy so much spontaneous and lively the more
the imagination with its power has made us stand inside the mystery that we
contemplate.

Let us lose ourselves in the stor

Ignatius was convinced that God can speak to us as surely through our imagination as
through our thoughts and memories. In the Saint’s tradition, praying with the
imagination is called contemplation. In the Exercises, contemplation is a very active
way of praying that engages the mind and heart and stirs up thoughts and emotions.

Ignatian contemplation is suited especially for the Gospels. Let us visualize the
Gospel events as if we were making a movie. Let us pay attention to the details:
sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings of the event. Let us lose ourselves in the
story. At some point, let us place ourselves in the scene.

Contemplating a Gospel scene is not simply remembering it or going back in time.

Through the act of contemplation, the Holy Spirit makes present a mystery of Jesus’
life in a way that is meaningful for us now. Let us use our imagination to dig deeper
into the story so that God may communicate with us in a personal, evocative way.

Some people find imaginative prayer difficult. They may not be able to picture the
scene easily, yet they may have some intuition or gut reaction to the story. Or they
may hear or feel the story more than visualize it. In a spirit of generosity, let us pray
as we are able; let us not try to force it. Let us rest assured that God will speak to us,
whether through our memory, understanding, intellect, emotions, or imagination.

A colloquy is an intimate conversation between us and God the Father, between us

and Jesus, or between us and Mary or one of the saints. It often occurs at the end of a
prayer period, but it can take place at any time. Let this conversation naturally
develop in our prayer.

Prayer as Colloquy

In the colloquy, we speak and listen as the Spirit moves us: expressing ourselves, for
example, as a friend speaks to a friend, or as a person speaks to one whom he or she

23
has offended, or as a child speaks to a parent or mentor, or as a lover speaks to his or
her beloved.

Whatever the context, we must be “real,” speaking from the heart. As in any
meaningful conversation, we must make sure to leave times of silence for listening.
In the meditations on sin, Ignatius suggests that we place ourselves before the cross
and consider three questions that echo throughout the Exercises: What have I done
for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ?

We must return to these questions throughout the retreat. In one sense, they are not
completely answerable during the retreat itself; we often lean into the answers as we
continue our normal routines. By considering the questions, we realize how practical
the Exercises are.

Just as our sin is reflected in concrete decisions and actions, so, too, does grace come
to life in choices and deeds for the love of Christ and others. We encounter Christ not
only in our prayer and in the sacraments but also in our relationships with the Body
of Christ, living now as the church, the people of God, within that people and for
them. Here is where prayer flows into life.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

SEEING GOD IN EVERYTHING

At the end of his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius invites us to ask
God the grace of love and contemplation. It is a call to grow in
contemplating God present in all things. It is contemplation in
action.

Saint Ignatius’ spirituality is very much a journey to God through his creatures:
places, objects, happenings and people. It is a way to God by affirmation, a positive

24
way. We have seen this in the way Ignatius charges of meaning the different
happenings of his existence, reading in them God’s messages and making them
stepping stones in the understanding of the way to God of our individual souls.

This affirmative, positive approach is evident in the way he teaches us to take to heart
the mysteries of Christ’s life through our imagination. At the end of his Spiritual
Exercises, he exhorts us to pray for the grace of love and contemplation. His genius
makes the Saint’s most personal and deep experience of God become a simple but
very concrete meditation.

For him, in his vision, God is like the sun which rises slowly over the hills and
inundates the valleys with its rays. The rays of the rising sun rest in all objects:
stones, flowers, animals and people. They draw them out of darkness, they give them
their form, they are simply inducing them to existence. The rays of the sun symbolize
the energies of the love of God, the Creator.

St. Ignatius invites us to the meditation to gain divine love, which is a call to grow in
contemplating God present in all things. It is a vision of God’s immanent and loving
presence in all realities so that we may always live “planted in love and built on
love”.

God is in his gifts

These are the degrees of God’s presence and our response in St. Ignatius’ teaching.
God is love. He is movement of self-communication. His creative and self-
communicating action is expressed in several levels of self-giving or being present to
us whom He loves.

First, God wishes to be present to us in the created gifts that he gives us. God is in his
gifts. Our very life, our family, the talents God has graced on us, the places, times,
relationships which make up our life : all are gift from God. Therefore, let us not take
life for granted; let us not take anything for granted…Let our growing in age and
maturity become an always greater awareness and appreciation of God’s gifts. Let our
response be gratitude and thanksgiving. The fruit of this gratefulness is joy and
humility: nobody can be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

God is within his gifts

Moreover, God wishes to be even more present to us by being inside each gift. God’s
own presence in each gift is revealed by the fact that the creature’s limited perfections
reflect God’s infinite perfection and flow from the goodness of God. This is what we
read in the Bible: “God saw that everything was good” (Genesis 1). The response is
reverence. Let us not rape the world!

25
Let us have the attitude which was proper of St. Francis of Assisi (“Brother Sun,
Sister Moon”) who felt and expressed the sense of belonging to the same family with
all the creatures…This will become ecological sensitivity and spirituality… Respect
for creation. Let our virtue of sobriety or our vow of poverty be expressed in this
way: to want less and to thank more.

God is in the heart of the world

God wishes still more to be present in us in his self-giving love. He is working

constantly in each moment and in each creature to make us happy, to make us partake
in the blessedness of his plan of salvation. “My Father goes on working and so do I”,
says Jesus(John 5:17).

Our response should be: let us work ourselves and serve his holy will in all that we
do. Praise, reverence and service to God constitute a continuous gift of ourselves in
loving surrender back to God who gives himself so completely to us at all times. This
is where love becomes contemplation. It will affect our every initiative and activity.
Every vocation is a call to work for the building of the Kingdom of God.

Ordinary life, marriage and the family, economy, science and technology, visual arts
and literature: everything will be like the stage on which the drama of our existence
joins the immense creativity of God. Even politics has been defined as “the most
sublime form of charity”.

Contemplation is therefore a state of being present to God in self-giving so that our

whole being is constantly offering itself in love as a pleasing sacrifice to him. “In fact
he is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live, and move, and have our
existence” (Acts 17:28).

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

26
PERSONAL LOVE FOR CHRIST
The heart of the Spiritual Exercises is the love for the Blessed
Humanity of Christ. Jesus is the Great King who calls us at his
service, for the salvation of sinners. Everything happens between
two key-prayers.

What is presented as point of arrival of the Spiritual Exercises is already present in

the very first page of the book: it is in the traditional, devotional prayer of “Anima
Christi” which saint Ignatius puts in the beginning of his book. In that prayer, the
soul desires to assume the sentiments of Christ and his love to the point of sacrifice. It
is an identification with Jesus our ideal.
For Jesus’ greater glory, we struggle and give ourselves always more to people for the
love of him. That is the yearning which is included in the only prayer the Saint
composed and remains as his summing up of the whole one full month of retreat:
“Suscipe: Take, Lord, and receive”. It is Ignatius’ concluding prayer.

The Suscipe is not found in any of the four weeks of the Spiritual Exercises, but
rather was included by Ignatius as additional material with the “contemplation for
attaining love” at the end of the Exercises. In this section, Ignatius speaks of the
immeasurable love of God that is bestowed upon all of creation, and then asks that he
might offer himself to such a loving God.

The Blessed Humanity of Jesus

The object of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius to be attained by means of an

imaginative and affectionate contemplation, is the life, passion, death and
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: The Christian Mystery. That is what makes the
Spiritual Exercises so central and effective: it is the contemplation of the Incarnation,
of the Blessed Humanity of Jesus.

The heart of the Spiritual Exercises is the love for the Blessed Humanity of Christ.
Jesus is the Great King who calls us at his service, for the salvation of sinners. For his
greater glory, we struggle and give ourselves always more for the love of him.
The only prayer that Ignatius composed is an act of surrendering self: freedom, mind
and will and everything in the awareness that all we have is a gift of God: what we
ask is only God’s love and his grace: in this the soul finds its fulfillment and
satisfaction and that is enough and more than enough.

27
Jesus is the bridegroom of the soul. This is why throughout the history of Christian
spirituality the Saints have focused their attention on the Blessed Humanity of Jesus.
In the Bible, the Risen Christ teaches the Apostles to understand him as the hinge
keeping together the two Testaments, the hub or center of the Holy Scriptures. The
preaching and mission comes as result of the experience of Jesus. This experience is
meant to become our experience under the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Peter and Paul
The most wonderful example in the Gospels is that of the encounter/relationship of
Jesus with Peter. Another beautiful example in the New Testament is that of Saint
Paul. He did not know Jesus during Jesus’ time on earth, but he was changed and
transformed by his encounter with the Risen Christ on the way to Damascus, in the
grace of the Holy Spirit.
So Jesus’ story and mystery became his story and the depth of his personality: “I have
been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and
the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20. Cf. Philippians 3:7-16).
The deep consciousness of Jesus as Savior/Mediator out of love is transmitted to the
Apostles by the sign of the washing of the feet (John 13:1-17). The deepest statement
of the need of this personal encounter with Jesus as point of arrival has its perfect
expression in the sentence: “Abide with me/make your home in me” (John 15:4).
The Sacred Heart of Jesus
Throughout the centuries, this is the witness of the Saints: The Blessed Humanity of
Jesus is the place where God meets with Humanity; the sacrament of our salvation;
the model of our perfection and therefore it should be the object of our love and
contemplation. The last expression of it is the image of the Divine Mercy that we find
nowadays in almost all our churches. I like the beautiful figure of Jesus in his
appealing humanity and the red and white rays that come from his chest.
“The Bridegroom’s chest gives joy to her spouse”, Saint Bernard tells us. The
chest/bosom/heart signifies love and tenderness. The theme of the open side of the
Crucified was introduced into this context. With his lance, the soldier opened the
ineffable riches of glory and revealed the heart, the cleft in the rock where humanity
finds its refuge. For the mystical writer, Saint Gertrude the Great, the transfixed Heart
is the Ark of the Godhead, the place where the divine treasures are kept, and by that
very fact, the place where we experience the secrets of God.

28
To this very heart of Jesus Saint Ignatius takes us with his Spiritual Exercises and
with his whole spiritual approach and nothing will please him more than to see that
we find in it our permanent abode.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

29