Who are the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises for and am I ready for them?

The 'person-centred' genius of the exercises

When I undertook the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, I knew enough about them to know what I might be getting into. But I did not want to read ahead to find out too much of what I would be exploring. Indeed Ignatius noted that for those taking the exercises, it was better just to experience them as they unfold and not look ahead.

#11

While the exercitant is engaged in the First Week of the Exercises, it will be helpful if he knows nothing of what is to be done in the Second Week. Rather, let him labor to attain what he is seeking in the First Week as if he hoped to find no good in the Second.*

One of the wonderful things about the exercises is that undertaking them requires no specialist knowledge of what they are or qualifications for them. They are something to be guided through by a trained spiritual director. It was only after my encounters with the Lord in the exercises that I wanted to know more about them and how I might help others undertake them.

To do the exercises is to begin to understand them.

In other words, they are inductive, where the doing of them draws you into and orients you to them. But they are also abductive, where you are caught up in an encounter with the Lord through them, where who you are and what you are doing adapts to your encounters with God.

What is required, however, for entry is discernment at the start to see if you are ready to undertake them.

I had thought about taking the Exercises for some time but knew I did not have the kind of prayer life I wanted and needed to undertake them and receive what the Lord might have for me through them.

The Principle and Foundation of the Exercises

The Spiritual Exercises begin with the 'Principle and Foundation', which was incorporated much later by Ignatius as an introduction to the exercises.

God who loves us creates us and wants to share life with us forever. Our love response takes shape in our praise and honor and service of the God of our life.

All the things in this world are also created because of God’s love and they become a context of gifts, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.

As a result, we show reverence for all the gifts of creation and collaborate with God in using them so that by being good stewards we develop as loving persons in our care of God’s world and its development. But if we abuse any of these gifts of creation or, on the contrary, take them as the center of our lives, we break our relationship with God and hinder our growth as loving persons.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some responsibility. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a more loving response to our life forever with God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me. †

We do not have to be this kind of person already, but we do need to ‘want to want to’ be like this to enter the exercises.

To start the Spiritual Exercises is to spend time exploring before God if we really want more of him and to review what our relationship is and has been with him.

Or, as Anthony De Melo puts it:

The “First Principle and Foundation” is a beautiful statement: “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.” Where will you find people who have incorporated it into their lives? If a retreatant said: “I would like to be this kind of person,” Ignatius would reply, “Let us begin so that by the end of the second week you will be this kind of person.”‡

Built into the Spiritual Exercises is such a wonderful 'person-centred' approach. To dwell and pause where we need to and only move on when we are ready with the Lord to do so. It is enough to undertake the initial meditations and prayers around the Principle and Foundation and stay there for some time. Or to then go away and attend to who we are with the Lord before returning to the Exercises.

The heart of the Spiritual Exercises is to know and experience God's love for us and explore how our desire and love for him might be kindled in return.

If you want that or want to want that, the exercises might be something to explore.

In my next article, I’ll unpack more of the Principle and Foundation and my experiences of it.

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* Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Translated and edited by Louis J. Puhl

† Taken from David Fleming's modern translation of the Spiritual Exercises.

‡ Seek God Everywhere: Reflections on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius