+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

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O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

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St. Ignatius of Loyola: pray for us.

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Introduction

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St. Ignatius was a Basque soldier, born in a northern town of Spain (Loyola) in 1491. He was fighting a battle in order to defend Pamplona when he got shot. For that reason he had to undergo many operations. At that time he didn’t care that much about God.

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What happened to him is what happens today to many men and women of these times: occupied in thousands of superficial things, completely ignoring the hidden richness of God, the beauty of what is truly necessary.

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He liked reading books about knights and soldiers. But during his recovery, he had nothing to read, except books about other soldiers, other heroes: the saints.

 

This reading, along God’s grace, made him understand that the battle the saints fought required more courage than that of a common soldier. This was the beginning of his the conversion of Don Iñigo de Loyola (this was his secular name): “if they could do it, can I not do the same?” -St. Ignatius asked himself-.

 

He decided to make a pilgrimage to Holy Land. On the way, he stopped at a cave (Manresa grotto) with the intention of staying there a few days. At the end, he stayed there for a year, and there he received the inspiration of writing down the general outline of the Spiritual Exercises. He tried first. After him, for more than four centuries, millions of catholics participated in his Spiritual Exercises. With God’s grace, we are going to participate in this same Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.

 

The length of an Ignatian Spiritual Exercises is one month, divided into four parts or “weeks”, which not necessarily last seven days.

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Objective and method

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What the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are not:

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The Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are not a “retreat”, the “retreat” is just one aspect of the Spiritual Exercises. It is not a series of homilies, we have homilies during Mass. It is not a catechism class or a lecture about theology. It is not a series of conferences or talks that we just listen. It is not about what the Spiritual Exercise director or preacher may say or help with, but about what the exercitant and God alone may do. Lastly, it is not about learning new things, but about deepening what we already know.

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What the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are:

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The Spiritual Exercises are called “exercises” since there is similarity to physical exercise. That’s what St. Ignatius says: “by this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant every way of examining one’s conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions, as will be said later. For as strolling, walking and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise” (1st Annotation).

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What is the objective of the Spiritual Exercises?

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“To conquer oneself”, St. Ignatius says. This idea is inspired in the Gospel, and was said by Our Lord with other words: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16, 24).

 

Why is it necessary to conquer oneself? Is it not enough to just correct a few things? Conquering oneself is necessary in view of our fallen human nature. After original sin, human nature got harmed, disorderly inclined to creatures and to himself, separated from God, unable to reestablish communion with Him… so conquering oneself is necessary.

 

“Spiritual Exercises to conquer oneself and regulate one's life without determining oneself through any tendency that is disordered”. Sin, disorderly tendencies, and disorderly affections, uncontrolled passions have destroyed the equilibrium within man: about his intelligence, will and affections. And also destroy the harmony between God and man. It affected, too, our relation with others and the whole creation.

 

Thru the Spiritual Exercises, we want to conquer ourselves, to recover harmony and equilibrium, to follow God’s will without determining oneself by any disordered tendency.

 

Spiritual Exercises “to regulate one’s life”, this regulating aspect comprises a negative and a positive aspect. The negative aspect refers to getting rid of what in our life has of evil, mortal sin, venial sin, but also all what without being sin, defective, excessive, or not conformed with reason. The positive aspect refers to doing all seeking holiness, perfection of virtues, God’s will, according to one’s vocation and state of life.

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Required disposition

 

What are the required dispositions for a fruitful Spiritual Exercises? St. Ignatius makes it clear in the 5th Annotation: “It is very helpful to him who is receiving the Exercises to enter into them with great courage and generosity towards his Creator and Lord, offering Him all his will and liberty, that His Divine Majesty may make use of his person and of all he has according to His most Holy Will”.

 

- Great courage is necessary to overcome obstacles that may appear on the way. God is ready to give us a lot of graces during these days, so we need a proper preparation, that is, courage to overcome all obstacles, so that He may do great things in our souls.

 

- Generosity is also important, since God is first generous toward us, it requires from us generosity during prayer, giving God all the time established for prayer, generosity that will be translated into love, patience, confidence, interior silence, penance…

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The goal of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises is refocus our lives on what is most important, first by correcting our sinful inclinations, and then by pointing us toward the final goal of our lives, which is the glory and praise and service of God, our Creator and Redeemer. Therefore, St. Ignatius' four-fold plan for the Spiritual

 

Exercises is simple:

• To reform what is deformed (in the soul).

• To conform (to Christ) what is reformed.

• To confirm what is conformed.

• To transform what is confirmed.

 

Let us entrust the fruits of this Spiritual Exercises to Our Lady.