St Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises

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St Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises

Introduction

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of realized this fundamental Christian principle of God's love. This experience overwhelmed him that he committed his experiences to writing that culminated in a book known as the spiritual Exercises. In what follows, the paper examines and share some reflections on the “Principle and Foundation” contained in the Spiritual Exercises.

The Spiritual Exercises at St. Ignatius were published at Rome in the year 1545. Though the saint was at that time unacquainted with learning any farther than barely to read and write, yet; this book is so fall of excellent maxims anti instructions, that it is most clear that the Holy Ghost supplied abundantly what was wanting in him of human learning (O'Malley 1993 25). The Meditations of St. Ignatius are altogether new, and written upon a different plan from writers who preceded him (George 1992 64). He appoints, for the foundation of these exercises, a morning meditation on the end for which we are created, that we fully convince ourselves that nothing is to be valued or sought after save as it conduces to the honour and service of God, degrees of humility, by meditating on the mysteries of Christ's life.

In order that both he who is giving the Spritua1 Exercises, and he who is receiving them, may more help and benefit themselves, let it be presupposed that every good Christian is to be more ready to save his neighbor's proposition than to condemn it. If he cannot save it, let him inquire how he means it; and if he means it badly, let him correct him with charity. If that is not enough, let him seek all the suitable means to bring him to mean it well, and save himself (Society of Jesus n.d).

Discussion

The purpose of exercises is to refer the person making them to God, his Creator and Lord. Paris Ignatius himself says, when recalling his encounter with Francis Xavier and Pierre Favre in Paris , he admits to having "earned in the service of God through the years." Focus on the person of Jesus, while retaining its own personality, as will the experience of founding the Society of Jesus (George 1992).Ignatius and his Companions taught these exercises, with great spiritual benefit. But because of this, San Ignacio had already spent in jail twice in Alcalá and Salamanca, plagued by suspicions of the Inquisition, which, at the time of the Reformation, looked with suspicion the new spiritual movements.

The Spiritual Exercises are divided into a series of four "weeks"—not literally seven 24-hour-day weeks, but "movements" or “stages”—with accompanying prayer, visualizations, reflections, and spiritual exercises for each week (David 1978 33). These four movements include consideration of God's generosity and mercy and the complex reality of human sin; an imagining of the life and public ministry of Jesus, his proclamation of the gospel, his sayings and parables, his teachings and his miracles; and of Jesus' last days, his arrest and interrogation, ...