St. Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises

The primary mission of the two Jesuit retreat centers in Grand Coteau is the giving and making of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a form of contemplative prayer designed to bring a person into closer communion with God.

The preached retreats at Our Lady of the Oaks and the guided retreats at St. Charles College both are based on the Spiritual Exercises, which were written in the sixteenth century by St. Ignatius Loyola.

St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Society of Jesus, dedicated all that he did “to the greater glory of God” (Ad majorem
Dei gloriam) and spent much of his
life leading others to the Spiritual Exercises. These same Exercises are the foundation of the retreats offered at both retreat houses in Grand Coteau today.

The founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius spent much of his life helping others to pray with faith and perseverance, using the Spiritual Exercises.

The giving of Spiritual Exercises retreats by Jesuits continues today not only at Grand Coteau but all over the world. The Exercises can fairly be thought of as Ignatius’ gift to the world, or, perhaps more accurately, a gift from God, received by Ignatius and passed on to people of faith in his generation and every generation since.

Now, St. Ignatius was no saint at all when he was a young man. Born into Spanish nobility, the last of thirteen children, he was quite fond of drinking, gambling, dueling, soldiering and the chasing of women. He is said to have been enthusiastic toward all of these pursuits. He was a man of the world, a soldier who craved recognition for his valor, and he relished his role in life.

His pursuit of honor and glory was cut short, however, when he was severely injured during a military encounter with the French. He and a few hundred Spaniards were defending Pamplona when shrapnel from a cannonball struck him in the legs, causing serious injury. He was returned to his family’s castle at Loyola, where he began a long period of recuperation. To pass the time, he wanted to read books about chivalry and romance, but none could be found in the castle. What was available were books on the life of Christ and of the saints, including St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic. So, he read these books and pondered their mysteries.

As he read and reflected on the content of the books he began to see the folly of the ways of the world. He began changing his mind about what mattered most in life. He was experiencing a change of heart as he considered the heroic virtue of the likes of Francis and Dominic.

It was the first time Ignatius had read the stories of these two saints, and he was moved by their profound love of God. He admired their prayerful, disciplined lives, their charity toward their neighbor, their respect for the Church’s authority, and their untiring work to create religious orders whose purpose ultimately was to praise God and to teach others to live in accordance with the Two Great Commandments.

Ignatius saw that Francis and Dominic were soldiers, too, but for a cause more worthy than the killing of one’s neighbor in the name of an earthly king. How much more noble would it be to help another toward eternal salvation rather than to take his life on the field of battle? Ignatius began to wonder whether he too could make a meaningful contribution to the building of the Kingdom of God, and the thought of it filled him with joy. The idea of working for the greater glory of God, rather than for his own glory, brought him a deep and lasting sense of consolation.

Ignatius read the life of Christ carefully and slowly, and at some point it started to sink in that Christ had died for him, personally, so that he could enjoy eternal life. If that were not enough to bring about a complete change of mind and heart, Ignatius had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the child Jesus, images epitomizing the virtues of purity, innocence and holiness.

During this period of conversion he developed a great revulsion for sin, particularly sins of the flesh, which had been one of his specialties. He became disgusted at the thought of the unholy, materialistic, self-serving life he had led. It was now time to do penance, and he resolved to make a penitential journey to the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, which was not far away.

He arrived at the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat in March of 1522 after exchanging his fancy, expensive clothing for beggar’s garb, such as was commonly worn by those doing penance. He purchased a piece of brown sack cloth, which a tailor fashioned into an ankle-length garment; he also acquired sandals, a pilgrim’s staff and a canteen for water. He gave up his sword and dagger for good, leaving them before the Shrine of the Black Madonna. He remained at the monastery for a few days, confessed his sins to a priest, and spent most of the night on his knees in prayer.

From Montserrat he went to nearby Manresa, where he took up residence at a hospice for the poor, doing what he could to help others less fortunate than himself. By day, he attended Mass at the local Dominican priory and begged on the streets for his daily bread. Some weeks after his arrival, he was invited to stay in the monastery, in a small room, an offer which he accepted. Soon after moving into the monastery he discovered a cozy little cave in the hills on the outskirts of town. It became his second home; he spent countless hours and even days at a time, withdrawn, secluded, praying. Near the cave was a swift-flowing stream called the River Cardoner. He would spend hours by the water, observing nature and starting to see God’s creative hand in everything around him.

Ignatius of Loyola had several mystical experiences as his prayer life deepened
and as he moved toward the founding of the Society of Jesus. At Manresa, Spain, on the
bank of the River Cardoner, Ignatius experienced the very presence of God and gained insights into supernatural mysteries.

On some days Ignatius, the hermit, could be seen limping into town to beg for food. His hair, beard and fingernails had grown to a length that seemed unreasonable to some of the townspeople. His clothing was dirty and needed to be washed in the worst sort of way. But Ignatius was in the process of becoming a true contemplative, with matters of profound importance on his mind, and he certainly was not concerned with anything so frivolous as what people might think of him or his appearance.

Though he was indifferent to the stares of his well-groomed neighbors, Ignatius was still heavily burdened by a guilty conscience. He was living through “the dark night of the soul.” He prayed with great resolve, but nothing seemed to be happening in his heart, mind or soul. It seemed that God wasn’t listening.

Deeply remorseful over the life he had led, Ignatius fell into depression and despair, going so far as to think about suicide. But he persisted in prayer, begging the Lord for his help and his mercy.

Ignatius carried with him a little notebook, frequently making notes of his attempts to reach God through prayer and contemplation. He meditated on the nativity and on the crucifixion and on the resurrection, keeping Jesus always on his mind. He continued to immerse himself in prayers of gratitude for graces received and to ponder the events of Christ’s passion. He prayed and wrote and prayed and wrote and prayed some more.

So deep and earnest was his prayer that at some point, somehow, he experienced the very presence of God. It was in September of 1522 on the bank of the River Cardoner outside his cave. The experience was utterly indescribable, unimaginable, unlike anything Ignatius ever thought possible. In that special  moment of grace, that brief direct encounter with God, Ignatius received divine inspiration, a privileged insight into and understanding of supernatural mysteries that cannot be fathomed by mortal man through any natural means.

It was as though he was now imbued with a new intellect, a mind different than the one he possessed when he arrived at Manresa. In this visionary experience he came to a new understanding of the creation of the world; from now on he would find God in all things.

In Rome, while he was establishing the Jesuit order, he had a vision of Christ and God the Father.

On another occasion, while praying on the steps of the monastery in Manresa, he was divinely inspired in his understanding of the Holy Trinity. Once during Mass in the monastery Ignatius had a vision of Christ as the priest elevated the host during the consecration, leading him to a clear understanding of the dual nature of Christ, both human and divine.

These mystical experiences unleashed an even greater fervor for prayer and a boundless energy for writing about what he was experiencing when he prayed. So, he continued making notes and writing, and writing, and writing. And thus was born the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the product of persistent prayer and divine inspiration.

After more than a year living in Manresa, Ignatius made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, longing to see and touch the sacred ground upon which Jesus had walked. From there he returned to his native Spain, to Barcelona, where he spent a couple of years in the classroom to bolster his very limited education, including the study of basic Latin. In his early thirties at the time, Ignatius was in class with boys twenty years or more his junior. He was keenly aware of the inadequacy of his schooling, and he knew that a solid education would make him better equipped to go forth into the world and contribute to the building of the Kingdom of God. He may have felt a bit awkward and somewhat humbled to be in the classroom with children, but this was a price he was willing to pay to reach his goal.

From Barcelona, he moved on to the universities in Alcala and Salamanca, but he spent practically as much time in jail as he did in class. His enthusiasm for preaching and interpreting the Gospels and for sharing the Spiritual Exercises with others got him in trouble with the Spanish Inquisition. Inasmuch as Ignatius was not an ordained priest at the time, he was charged, in essence, with preaching and teaching without a license. Representatives of the Inquisition were always nervous about the theological utterings of free-lancers, regardless of what they were saying. Concerned with even the possibility of the spreading of heresies, they tended to lock up anyone whose authority to preach was in question. Not one to be locked away quietly, the divinely inspired prisoner continued to preach from behind bars, and groups of people stood outside the jail to hear what he had to say.

Ignatius moved on to the University of Paris in 1528 and settled down for seven years to study theology, philosophy, literature and Latin grammar. It was here, in Paris, that he attracted and won over his first six companions, including Peter Faber, Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Lainez, Nicholas Bobadilla, and Simon Rodrigues. These men played a major role in the establishment of the Jesuit order.

Most of the companions, including Ignatius, were ordained in 1537. Ignatius said his first Mass about a year later, on Christmas Day of 1538, in Rome in the Church of St. Mary Major in the Chapel of the Manger.

The order was formally approved by Pope Paul III and begun in 1540; Ignatius was elected as its first Superior General the following year. It was a job to which he was completely devoted, laboring from sunup to sundown, and then some. He oversaw the drafting and perfecting of the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, directed Jesuit priests to every corner of the earth, and stayed connected with them by the writing of thousands upon thousands of letters. The early Jesuits established schools, built churches, founded parishes and did every manner of mission work on every continent. Their teachings and preachings were rooted in the Spiritual Exercises, just as they are today. All of their work, ultimately, had a single purpose and was dedicated ad majorem Dei gloriam, “to the greater glory of God,” just as it is today.

Ignatius was never happier and more fulfilled than when he was giving the Exercises, or “helping souls,” as he liked to say. Though his days were more than filled with the responsibilities of overseeing a rapidly growing religious order, Ignatius made the time to continue giving the Exercises until shortly before his death in 1556.

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The Spiritual Exercises are a collection of spiritual activities including prayer, meditation, scriptural readings, examination of conscience, and acts of self-denial, all designed to strengthen one’s spiritual health, thus drawing the person closer to God. Just as physical exercise will strengthen the muscles of the body, so too will spiritual exercise strengthen the person’s spiritual life and health.

The Spiritual Exercises originally were designed by Ignatius to be given by a director, usually a priest, to one other person over a period of thirty days. This one-on-one style is used today at St. Charles College and other spirituality centers around the world; it is referred to as a directed retreat. These retreats may go for three, five, eight or thirty days. (Another form of directed retreat is referred to as the Nineteenth Annotation retreat, wherein the retreatant makes the Exercises not at a retreat house but at home or elsewhere, meeting with a director weekly to discuss the spiritual movements and growth he/she is experiencing.)

A second style of Ignatian retreat, referred to as a preached retreat, is given to a group of as many as fifty or even more persons by a priest or other retreat director. This is the type of retreat that is given at Our Lady of the Oaks, as well as other retreat houses around the world. These usually last for three days. Several talks, grounded in the Spiritual Exercises, are given by the retreat director; afterward the retreatants spend time reflecting on the essence of the talks, usually with the aid of related scriptural readings.

In any case, the substance of the Spiritual Exercises retreat today is essentially the same as Ignatius outlined it in the sixteenth century. It begins with The First Principle and Foundation:

The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God gave us life because he loves us. 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 him more easily and make a return of love to him more readily.

As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts becomes the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.

In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. 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 deeper response to our life in God.

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

In all, there are more than two hundred specific exercises grouped into four sections, or “weeks,” so-named because the Exercises were originally given and made over a four-week period. The sections can be summarized as follows:

Week One: A prayerful study of who God is and how special the individual human being is in God’s eyes, the goal being to come to know God more intimately and to appreciate him more fully. This phase includes reflection on how people throughout history, ourselves included, have failed to respond to God’s love in a positive way, i.e., the committing of sin. The object here is not only to understand but to feel God’s love for us – in spite of the fact that we are sinners.

Week Two: Prayer and meditation on the life of Jesus, from his infancy through his public life, the goal being to enter into a deeper relationship with him as we come to know him better, love him more, and grow in our desire to serve him and to follow him more closely.

Week Three: Contemplation and prayer on Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion and death, for our sake.

Week Four: Prayer and reflection on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and his appearance to people afterward as he returns to console and encourage his followers. This final exercise is intended to bring us to a state of gratitude for all that Jesus and God the Father have done for us.

So, here it is, half a millennium after Ignatius wrote the Spiritual Exercises, and this form of prayer is still being shared with people on every continent on the face of the earth. The Exercises continue to have the power to change the hearts and strengthen the spirits of men and women who approach them with a modicum of faith and perseverance. They are shared in Paris, Manresa, Barcelona and Rome; they are made in Dallas, San Francisco, New Orleans and Grand Coteau.

Ignatius’ fondest wish was that others could experience the presence of God as he did for much of his life following his conversion. Ignatius must be smiling. He is getting his wish as people of generation after generation have continued to search for and to find the Holy One through the Spiritual Exercises.