Ignatian

Spirituality
Charles J. Jackson, S.J.
 PRAYER FOR GENEROSITY
St. Ignatius Loyola

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not to ask for reward;
Save that of knowing that I do your will.

SUSCIPE
St. Ignatius Loyola

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, understanding, my entire will,
all that I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Do with it as you will.
Give me only your love and your grace:
that is enough for me.

NOTHING IS MORE PRACTICAL...

Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

Nothing is more practical than finding God; that is,

falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are
in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect
everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in
the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you
will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and
gratitude. Fall in love; stay in love, and it will decide
everything.
 SPIRITUALITY

S
pirituality is a word that lacks a concise definition.
Although it includes prayer, piety and the so-called
interior life, it is ultimately a way of living and act-
ing. For the Christian, spirituality can be defined as life in
accord with the Spirit of God, a life that ‘makes us sons
and daughters of God’ (Rom. 8:9,14).

This is not to say, however, that there is but one

Christian spirituality. There are, in fact, many. By way of
example, each of the four Gospels in the New Testament
can be said to reflect a distinct spirituality, each faithful to
the gospel Jesus preached yet viewed through the prism of
its writer. As Christianity developed, however, so too did
other spiritualities, each rooted in a particular historical
and cultural setting and in some manner expressing its
ideals and aspirations. Each was grounded in a specific
understanding about God, about God’s relationship with
the world and about the human person in that world. And
it was from this understanding that the spirituality – a way
of living and acting – developed and grew.

...a spirituality is grounded in a specific under-

standing about God, about God’s relationship
with the world and about the human person in
that world.

A word of caution, however, is in order: a spirituality

is not simply a collection of spiritual ideals and practices,
a smorgasbord – as it were – from which one can pick and
choose. It possesses an internal cohesion. Its elements, in

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fact, display a remarkable interrelatedness in which each
flows from and gives expression to the worldview from
which the spirituality sprang.

Each spirituality is identified by the specific historical,

cultural or religious tradition from which it sprang – 17th-
century French, Pauline, Carmelite, Celtic and Methodist
spiritualities, to name but a few. This brochure will focus
on Ignatian spirituality, the spirituality of the 16th-centu-
ry Basque, St. Ignatius Loyola. It will single out some of
the more important traits of this spirituality, describe each,
underscore their interrelatedness and attempt to show how
each flows from and gives expression to Ignatius’ integral
worldview. In order to do this, however, it seems best to
begin not with the spirituality of St. Ignatius but with the
man himself.

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA

Almost five hundred years ago, Ignatius Loyola, a

Basque courtier-soldier lay on his sickbed recovering from
wounds that had almost ended his life. Looking for some-
thing to help pass the time, he began to read: not the
romantic novels he desired, but the only books available –
a life of Christ and the lives of the saints. From time to
time, he set aside his book and allowed his thoughts to
wander – imagining himself a valiant knight in the service
of a great lady. His thoughts also turned to what he had
read, and he imagined himself imitating the heroic deeds
of the saints in serving God.

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 He began to notice, however, that his thoughts evoked
different reactions in him. Thoughts of himself as a valiant
knight, though delightful while they lasted, ultimately left
him feeling empty and sad. On the other hand, thoughts
of imitating the heroic deeds of the saints brought him a
joy that lasted even after these thoughts had ended. Then,
as he later described it, ‘one day his eyes opened a little,
and he began to wonder at this difference and reflect upon
it.’ It dawned on him that one set of thoughts was direct-
ed toward God and presumably had its origin in God,
whereas the other was not. Two contrary spirits, he sensed,
were actively at work in him: the Spirit of God and the
spirit of evil. He realized that God was communicating not
in mountaintop experiences, but in his affective responses
to the ordinary events of his life.

During the long months of his recuperation, Ignatius

read and re-read the two books, reflected on Jesus’ life and
the examples of the saints, and made more than a few res-
olutions. What was ultimately pivotal, however, was not
anything that he did during this time but rather some-
thing that was happening to him. God, he realized, was
actively at work in him – inviting, directing, guiding and
actively disposing him for the way in which he might best
serve him.

In late February 1522 Ignatius left Loyola. Although

his wounds were not completely healed, he had grown in-
creasingly eager to be on the road. An unfocused desire
beckoned him to Jerusalem where he envisioned spending
his life doing penance. He made his way across Spain to
the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, where he made a
general confession and then an all-night vigil before the
image of the Black Madonna. Sensing a desire to spend a
few days in a hospice recording some reflections, he then
made his way to a nearby town called Manresa. He would
remain there almost eleven months.

In his exuberance he quickly surrendered himself to

hours of prayer and intense bodily penance. Although his
spirituality was well-meaning and generous, it was largely
self-centered and superficial. Yet for about four months he
basked in a tranquility of unceasing joy. In time, however,
he began to experience great changes in his soul. His tran-
quility and joy gave way to aridity and sadness, and he
began to question his new way of life. Ongoing anxiety
about sins he may have failed to confess troubled him
greatly. His penchant for reflection, however, served only
to push him into even deeper introspection, making him a
prisoner of his own self-absorption. He sought for
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help everywhere but could find no relief. Weeks flowed
into months, but his anguish continued unabated.

Suddenly, and in a manner completely unexpected, he

awoke as from a dream. In but the briefest of moments, he
saw his scruples for what they were – simply lies and false-
hood: he was freed from their power. He had been brought
face-to-face with his own poverty and inability to achieve
his own healing and wholeness. Many years later he
observed that during this time ‘God dealt with him just as
a schoolmaster deals with a child.’ God had revealed to
him his human frailty so that ‘the all-surpassing power’ (2
Cor. 4:7) could be seen as residing in God alone.

His spiritual tranquility returned, and he enjoyed

many spiritual consolations. He received great illumina-
tions as well – of the Trinity, the creation of the world,
Eucharistic sacramental presence and Christ’s humanity –
but these illuminations seem almost negligible to one that
occurred on the banks of the river Cardoner.

He sat for a while facing the river which there ran deep.
As he sat, the eyes of his understanding began to be
opened. He saw no vision, but was brought to under-
stand and know many things, spiritual matters as well
as those of faith and learning, and this with so great an
enlightenment that everything seemed new to him.

In a few tersely-written sentences Ignatius described a

spiritual illumination so overwhelming that he seemed ‘a
new man with a new intellect.’ Although his writing may
rarely have projected style or polish, his precision and clar-
ity of thought were always in evidence. On the topic of his
illumination, however, he seemed at a genuine loss
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to communicate his experience in any detail. He could find
no words to describe what was clearly indescribable. The
illumination was not simply an experience of ‘spiritual
matters as well as those of faith and learning.’ It was an
experience of God, one that he could never speak of with-
out overwhelming emotion.

Like Paul on the road to Damascus, Ignatius at the

Cardoner experienced himself ‘grasped by Christ Jesus.’
(Phil. 3:12) He had been graced to discover in God

the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kind-

ly made in Christ from the beginning, to act upon
when the times had run their course to the end: that he
would bring everything together under Christ as head,
everything in the heavens and everything on earth
(Eph. 1:9-10).

The illumination spoke not only of God’s plan; in one

manner or another, it spoke also of God himself. God’s
continued action in his life revealed the very nature of the
Trinitarian God, and of how God wished to act with all his
creation. God, he had been brought to understand, is a
movement beyond itself, goodness overflowing itself. In
experiencing the unity, beauty and all-pervasive love of the
Trinitarian God – Father, Son and Spirit – Ignatius discov-
ered the source and principle to guide all his future action.

It is difficult in this to separate the man from the mys-

tic, nature from grace, Ignatius himself from God’s power
working in him. Yet Ignatius was not simply a passive
recipient of God’s grace. Without overstating the matter,
he fell totally and irrevocably in love with God, and he
would direct everything toward responding to that love.
But we might well ask ourselves: Was there some
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particular quality of his that stood out, one that melded
perfectly with God’s grace, which shaped his response to
God? Some might point to his great strength of soul, his
personal courage, his iron-willed determination. Without
denying the importance of his innate qualities, it seemed
that Ignatius responded generously to God because he
developed the interior freedom that allowed God to teach
him and lead him in his service. This interior freedom,
forged in humility, lay at the root of what he would call
indifference. This was an openness to God, a courage that
was to be found in God alone, a conscious choice for God
in all things that became a seeking for God in all things.
Ignatius would begin his Spiritual Exercises on the theme
of indifference, and conclude it with an offering of oneself
based on this same interior freedom. It was this humble
openness to God that determined his manner of prayer,
gave rise to his frequent examinations of conscience, and
was ultimately the source of his utter confidence in God,
his universal availability, and his generous responsiveness
to God’s direction and guidance.

IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY

We have already observed that a spirituality possesses

an internal cohesion, and this is certainly true for Ignatian
spirituality. But we might well ask ourselves: Just what is
the nature of this internal cohesion? What is the glue or,
more precisely, the understanding or interior vision that
gives Ignatian spirituality its cohesion? Although Ignatius
never spoke in such terms, his realization at Loyola that
God was actively at work in his life and, as his experience
at Manresa revealed, that God was similarly at work in the
lives of all people provided the grounding for what became
his spirituality. This insight became the premise underly-
ing his Spiritual Exercises and found expression in the fif-
teenth of its preliminary notes: ‘it is the nature of
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the Creator to deal directly with the creature, embracing it
with love and praise, and disposing it for how it might
serve him.’ It is this understanding of God – that God is
an ‘active God,’ ever at work in people’s lives, inviting,
directing, guiding, disposing them for how they might
serve him – that animates Ignatian spirituality and gives it
its internal cohesion.

…it is the understanding that God is an ‘active

God,’ ever at work in people’s lives, that
animates Ignatian spirituality and gives it its
internal cohesion.

Ignatian spirituality can thus be described as an active

attentiveness to God joined with a prompt responsiveness
to God, who is ever active in our lives. Although it includes
many forms of prayer, discernment and apostolic service, it
is the interior dispositions of attentiveness and responsive-
ness that are ultimately crucial. The result is that Ignatian
spirituality has a remarkable ‘nowness,’ both in its atten-
tiveness to God and in its desire to respond to what God is
asking of the person now.

Ignatian spirituality can be described as an

active attentiveness to God joined with a prompt
responsiveness to God, who is ever active in our
lives.

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Ignatian spirituality began in the religious experience
of Ignatius Loyola, but it only took shape and form as he
gave it written expression in his Spiritual Exercises. It is
beyond the scope of this brochure to do justice to the rich
complexity of the Spiritual Exercises. A few comments,
however, are in order.

The Spiritual Exercises owes its origin to Ignatius’ re-

flections on his how God had been at work in his own life
and his experiences of guiding others in the spiritual life.
It is not a treatise on the spiritual life nor, for that matter,
is it even meant to be read. It is a set of guidelines, some-
what like a teacher’s notes, intended for a person guiding
another in ‘making’ the Exercises. The Spiritual Exercises
describes a process directed toward developing attentive-
ness to God, openness to God and ultimately responsive-
ness to God. All this is based on the premises (1) that
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God deals directly with the individual person and (2) that
the person can discern to what God is inviting him.

The Spiritual Exercises is meant to draw a person into

a dynamic that progresses from his awareness that he is a
sinner yet forgiven to his free and total offering of himself
to God. Central to this dynamic and acting almost as a
thread running through it is the person of Jesus. Yet Jesus
is not simply a model to be imitated; rather as the glori-
fied Christ, he is always God with us, laboring with us and
for us, drawing us into the Father’s love. At its deepest
level, the Spiritual Exercises is meant to draw the person
into a deep and personal relationship with Jesus.

In one manner or another, all of Ignatian spirituality is

expressed in the Spiritual Exercises. However, since it has
been described as active attentiveness and prompt respon-
siveness to God, it seems appropriate to highlight two
facets that give clear expression of this: discernment and
the examination of consciousness.

DISCERNMENT

Discernment is rooted in the understanding that God is

ever at work in our lives – inviting, directing, guiding and
drawing us into the fullness of life. Its central action is
reflection on the ordinary events of our lives. It seeks to
discover God’s presence in these moments and to follow the
direction and guidance he gives us through his grace. It is
not the events themselves that are of interest, but rather
the affective responses they evoke in us - feelings of joy,
sorrow, peace, anxiety and all the indefinable ‘somethings’
that arise and stir within us. It is precisely here that
through faith we can discover God’s direction and guid-
ance in our lives.

Discernment presupposes an ability to reflect on the

ordinary events of one’s life, a habit of personal prayer,
self-knowledge, knowledge of one’s deepest desires and
openness to God’s direction and guidance. Discernment is
a prayerful ‘pondering’ or ‘mulling over’ the choices a per-
son wishes to consider. In his discernment, the person’s
focus should be on a quiet attentiveness to God and sens-
ing rather than thinking. His goal is to understand the
choices in his heart: to see them, as it were, as God might
see them. In one sense, there is no limit to how long he
might wish to continue in this. Discernment is a repetitive
process, yet as the person continues, some choices should
of their own accord fall by the wayside while others
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should gain clarity and focus. It is a process that should
move inexorably toward a decision.

St. Ignatius observed that the Spirit of God works to

encourage and give joy and inner peace to the person who
is trying to respond generously to God’s love; the spirit of
evil, on the other hand, interjects discouragement, anxiety
and fear. In other words, the person honestly seeking God
can discover God’s direction and guidance by being sensi-
tive to the affective responses his considerations evoke in
him. Does one option evoke a sense of peace? Perhaps
God is affirming it. Does another leave him unsettled?
Then perhaps God is directing him elsewhere. In all this,
he must be sensitive to where he experiences peace and joy,
inspiration and hope. It needs to be pointed out, however,
that his finding himself affirmed or unsettled in his consid-
erations does not necessarily mean that God is affirming or
negating anything. Discernment is a conver-gence of many
factors, all of which need to be weighed and evaluated in
prayer. A person’s mind may offer sage advice, but dis-
cernment ultimately happens in the heart.

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The Examination of Consciousness is a simple form of

prayer directed toward developing a spiritual sensitivity to
the special ways God approaches, invites and calls.

It should be done at the end of each day, though it can

be done more frequently, as the person feels drawn to it.
The more frequently he does it, however, the more natural
9
it becomes for him. Thus it becomes a way of conscious-
ness, a way of growing into an ever-closer relationship
with God. It can take anywhere between five and fifteen
minutes. It really doesn’t matter how long one spends;
the important thing is that he opens himself to recogniz-
ing and responding to God’s movements within him.

St. Ignatius suggests five steps to the Examination of

Consciousness. It is important, however, that the person
feels free to structure the Examination in a way that is
most helpful to him. There is no right way to do it; nor
is there a need to go through all of the five points each
time. A person might, for instance, find himself spend-
ing the entire time on only one or two points. The basic
rule is: Go wherever God draws you. And this touches
upon an important point: the Examination of
Consciousness is primarily a time of prayer; it is a ‘being
with God.’

The five points Ignatius proposes are:

• Recall that you are in the presence of God: You are

before God who loves you and welcomes you, who
enlightens and guides you. Embrace the God who
dwells in you, the God ever at work in you.
• Give thanks to God for his many gifts: Give thanks
to God for what he has allowed you to do this day
and for what you have received this day, the pleas-
ant and the difficult, for the word of encouragement
and the generous gesture, for your family and
friends, for all those who challenge you to grow.
• Examine how you have lived this day: What has
happened to you in your life and relationships? How
has God been at work in you? What has he asked of
you? And how have you responded: with generosity
or self-centeredness, honesty or deceit?
• Ask for forgiveness: Ask pardon for your failures to
understand or respond to others in their difficulties
and pain. Ask pardon for not loving God in every
part of your life.
• Offer a prayer of hope-filled re-commitment: I am
aware of my weakness, yet am confident in God’s
strength. I renew my commitment to follow the path
that God offers me to be a source of light for all cre-
ation. ‘If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation;
the old has passed away. See, everything has
become new.’ (2 Cor. 2:17)

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 SOCIETY OF JESUS: THE SPIRIT EMBODIED
Almost twenty years passed between Ignatius’ experi-
ences at Loyola and Manresa and the foundation of the
Society of Jesus in 1540. What set the fledgling Society of
Jesus apart from pre-existing religious orders was its over-
arching and unrelenting desire ‘to labor with Christ’ in
ministry. Ignatius’ mysticism was one of action, an active
attentiveness and prompt responsiveness to God’s direction
and guidance. The Society of Jesus was under-stood as fol-
lowing this pattern. In fact, Ignatius and his early com-
panions envisioned the Jesuit as being ready to depart ‘on
mission’ at a moment’s notice. This demanded of him the
ability to adapt to changed circumstances, determine the
best course of action and make decisions. The fact that
within a few short years schools were opened and soon
enjoyed great success seemed to call this earlier ideal into
question. The issue, however, was not that a dynamic
movement had become a static one. Rather it was a ques-
tion if the institution could manifest the same responsive-
ness to changing times and needs. Although the individual
Jesuit today may spend many years in the same ministry,
the ideal of active attentiveness and prompt responsiveness
to God’s direction and guidance remains as true for him
today as it was for Ignatius.

Ignatian spirituality has a remarkable ‘now-

ness,’ both in its attentiveness to God and in its
desire to respond to what God is asking of the
person now.

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 ADDITIONAL READING
Ignatian Spirituality: Margaret Silf, Inner Compass: An
Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality (Chicago: Loyola Press,
1999); Ronald Modras, Ignatian Humanism: A Dynamic
Spirituality for the 21st Century (Chicago: Loyola Press,
2004)

St. Ignatius Loyola: A Pilgrim’s Testament: The Memoirs of

St. Ignatius of Loyola (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit
Sources, 1995); José Ignacio Tellechea Idígoras, Ignatius of
Loyola: The Pilgrim Saint (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1994)

Spiritual Exercises: William A. Barry, S.J., Letting God

Come Close: An Approach to the Ignatian Spiritual
Exercises (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2001)

Discernment: Debra Farrington, Hearing with the Heart: A

Gentle Guide to Discerning God’s Will in Your Life (San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003); Thomas Green, S.J., Weeds
Among the Wheat: Discernment: Where Prayer & Action
Meet (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1984); Charles J.
Jackson, S.J., ‘Vocations and Vocation Discernment,’
(http://www.calprov.org/voca-tions/vocationdiscern-
ment.html)

Examination of Consciousness: Phyllis Zagano, ‘Examen

of Consciousness: Finding God in All Things’ (http://-
www.americancatholic.org/newsletters/cu/ac0303.asp)

Society of Jesus: William O’Malley, S.J., The Fifth Week

(Chicago: Loyola Press, 1996); John O’Malley, S.J., The
First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard U. Press, 1993)

Jesuit Spirituality: William A. Barry, S.J., and Robert G.

Doherty, S.J., Contemplatives in Action: The Jesuit Way
(New York: Paulist Press, 2002); Chris Lowney, Heroic
Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company
that Changed the World (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003)

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 WHY BECOME OR REMAIN A JESUIT?

Karl Rahner, S.J.

Many will ask how a modern man can still remain or

become a Jesuit. The reply to such a question can only be
the very personal one of each Jesuit. I would like to give
my own reply to that question in all simplicity even though
it may sound somewhat pious.

I still see around me, living in many of my compa-

nions, a readiness for disinterested service carried out in
silence, a readiness for prayer, for abandonment to the
incomprehensibility of God, for the calm acceptance of
death in whatever form it may come, for total dedication
to the following of Christ crucified.

And so for me, in the final analysis, it is no great mat-

ter what credit in the history of culture or of the Church
goes to a line of men with a spirit like that, nor does it mat-
ter to me if a similar spirit is found in other groups, named
or nameless.

The fact is that the spirit exists here. I think of broth-

ers I myself have known - of my friend Alfred Delp, who
with hands chained signed his declaration of final mem-
bership in the Society; of one who in a village in India that
is unknown to Indian intellectuals helps poor people to dig
their wells; of another who for long hours in the confes-
sional listens to the pain and torment of ordinary people
who are far more complex than they appear on the surface.
I think of one who in Barcelona is beaten by police along
with his students without the satisfaction of actually being
a revolutionary and savoring its glory; of one who assists
daily in the hospital at the bedside of death until that
unique event becomes for him a dull routine; of the one
who in prison must proclaim over and over again the mes-
sage of the Gospel with never a token of gratitude, who is
more appreciated for the handout of cigarettes than for the
words of the Good News he brings; of the one who with dif-
ficulty and without any clear evidence of success plods
away at the task of awakening in just a few men and
women a small spark of faith, of hope and of charity.
 For Further Information:

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