Earlier this summer, I saw an item in our church’s bulletin about The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It read something along the lines: “If interested, call…” Even though I had no idea what it was, and even though the deadline was past for when I was supposed to call, I called…and lo and behold, long story short, here three months later I am in the midst of “going through” The Spiritual Exercises or Ignatian Exercises.
So what are The Spiritual Exercises? The Society of Jesus in the United States website explains them thusly:
St. Ignatius of Loyola recorded his spiritual experiences during a year of prayer at Manresa, Spain (34 miles north of Barcelona) from March of 1522 to February of 1523. The Spiritual Exercises were to form the basis of many retreats given to priests, religious, and lay people. They are offered in closed sessions of a weekend, five, eight or the full thirty days at retreat houses as well as retreats in everyday life made at home over the course of about nine months (technically referred to as a 19th Annotation retreat).
The book of The Spiritual Exercises is not a text to be read as a work of non-fiction, but exercises to be prayed usually under the guidance of a trained spiritual director. The original Spanish text of the Exercises was translated into two Latin versions (the Versio Prima and the Vulgate) which were approved by Pope Paul III in 1548.”
It is this last way described “in everyday life at home over the course of nine months” in which I am “going through” The Spiritual Exercises.
So while that explanation is a nice scholarly explanation of the text, a lot of other questions remain, like:
- How does it work?
- What is required of a retreatant or one “going through” the Exercises?
- What will I gain from this?
My spiritual director gave me a couple of handouts that helped answer those questions, which I will adapt here.
- St. Ignatius himself suggests in the Nineteenth Annotation that a retreatant should try to commit an hour a day. Myself, I’ve been maxing at about 50 minutes and then 10 minutes for reflection.
- St. Ignatius divides the Exercises into Weeks with a capital W. It is a designation made up of many calendar weeks. While the First Week, for example, spans four calendar weeks, the Second Week spans 10 calendar weeks. He also begins with Preparation Days which are over six calendar weeks to prepare the retreatant to be grounded in God’s grace. The Weeks are as follow: First Week, sin; Second-discipleship of Jesus Christ; Third-Jesus’ passion and death; and Fourth-Joy of the Risen Lord. Suggested readings for prayer in the Exercises match the liturgical calendar.
- What you will need: a Bible, notebook or journal and a commitment of time to prayer daily. Also it is best to have a space and time set aside for prayer. No textbook. Handouts are provided by a spiritual director — which, oh, yeah, you will need. He/she will meet with you on a weekly basis.
- The main thing to remember is that the Exercises are not an end in themselves and don’t end with the 30 weeks. They are meant to continue on in daily life and hopefully will continue to bear fruit as you remain open to the Holy Spirit.
- What you will gain: Who knows at this point? It might be realizing to live more mindful of God constantly creating you, continually drawing you out of darkness and out of the chaos that wracks our human nature; or learning to allow the necessities in your own self and in your own life world to give the basic shape to your life, a mindset once called patience or resignation and considered holy; or coming to be a friend of Jesus Christ or deepening in that friendship.
Or as the one handout summarizes nicely:
The Spiritual Exercises are structured to help me find what God hopes for me, and to determine that with the least amount of distortion from yearnings and actions which prove not to be beneficial. They help me find my own original purpose, which God the Lord raises in me to bring me to my own salvation and to draw out of human chaos the Reign of God.”
(For more on the life of Ignatius, see the brief bio of him in the sidebar at right.)
1 Comment
May 2, 2008 at 5:44 am
[...] When I began the Spiritual Exercises back at the end of September, I was given a handout by my spiritual director about the Spiritual Exercises. Above are two of the things said about the Exercises, and something about which I posted when I first began this blog back in December here. [...]