Transcripts

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

​

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.

​

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.

​

St. Ignatius of Loyola: pray for us.

​

Introduction

​

The name of this meditation indicates its essence and structure: “The call of the temporal king… helps to contemplate the life of the King eternal”.

​

The contemplation on the Kingdom of Christ has been accurately called the heart of Ignatian spirituality. It represents two ideals to which the exercitant is invited to aspire and which, if he follows, will bring him to “the peak of perfection in the imitation of Christ.” The first is a willingness to go beyond mediocrity in the service of Christ, the Son of God; the second a projection of personal love into the world outside, so that other souls may also “produce a higher than ordinary service to Christ their King.”

Preparatory prayer ①: “The preparatory prayer is to ask grace of God our Lord that all my intentions, actions and operations may be directed purely to the service and praise of His Divine Majesty”.

​

Composition of ^Place: “It is a composition, seeing the place: it will be here to see with the sight of the imagination, the synagogues, villages and towns through which Christ our Lord preached”.

​

Petition ②: “[It] is to ask God our Lord for what I want and desire. “It will be here to ask grace of our Lord that I may not be deaf to His call, but ready and diligent to fulfill His most Holy Will”.

Corpus of the Meditation

​

FIRST PART

​

First Point. The first point is, to put before me a human king chosen by God our Lord, whom all Christian princes and men reverence and obey.

​

Second Point. The second, to look how this king speaks to all his people, saying: ‘It is my Will to conquer all the land of unbelievers. Therefore, whoever would like to come with me is to be content to eat as I, and also to drink and dress, etc., as I: likewise he is to labour like me in the day and watch in the night, etc., that so afterwards he may have part with me in the victory, as he has had it in the labours’.

​

Third Point. The third, to consider what the good subjects ought to answer to a King so generous and so kind, and hence, if any one did not accept the appeal of such a king, how deserving he would be of being censured by all the world, and held for a mean-spirited knight.

​

SECOND PART

​

The second part of this Exercise consists in applying the above parable of the temporal King to Christ our Lord, conformably to the three Points mentioned.

​

First Point. And as to the first Point, if we consider such a call of the temporal King to his subjects, how much more worthy of consideration is it to see Christ our Lord, King eternal, and before Him all the entire world, which and each one in particular He calls, and says: ‘It is My will to conquer all the world and all enemies and so to enter into the glory of My Father; therefore, whoever would like to come with Me is to labour with Me, that following Me in the pain, he may also follow Me in the glory’.

​

Second Point. The second, to consider that all those who have judgement and reason will offer their entire selves to the labour.

​

Third Point. The third, those who will want to be more devoted and signalise themselves in all service of their King Eternal and universal Lord, not only will offer their persons to the labour, but even, acting against their own sensuality and against their carnal and worldly love, will make offerings of greater value and greater importance, saying:

​

"Eternal Lord of all things, I make my oblation with You favour and help, in presence of Your infinite Goodness and in presence of Your glorious Mother and of all the Saints of the heavenly Court; that I want and desire, and it is my deliberate determination, if only it be Your greater service and praise, to imitate Thee in bearing all injuries and all abuse and all poverty of spirit, and actual poverty, too, if Your most Holy Majesty wants to choose and receive me to such life and state."

I. Gospel Origins and Principles

​

From the opening of His public life when He began to preach repentance, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” to His dying profession before Pilate that: “My kingdom is not of this world... my kingdom is not from here”, Christ used the word “Church” only twice to describe the society He was founding. He spoke of His “kingdom” in almost every chapter of the Gospels. The kingdom must first be implanted in the hearts of individual Christians by their own dedicated love of the Savior.

​

The meditation is directly concerned only with self-conquest and growth in holiness, and indirectly with the apostolate by generating a spirit of zeal for the salvation of others. In other words: to produce high sanctity in the imitation of Christ’s virtues with relation to God, and apostolic zeal by imitating His virtues in the interest of mankind. 

​

As explained by the 16th century Apologia of the Exercises, “St. Ignatius placed this meditation at the beginning of the Second Week as a basis for the subsequent reflections on the life of Christ in order to inspire us to imitate Him.”

​

The imitation of Christ as proposed in the call of Christ the King, forms the foundation of the Spiritual Exercises: “Learn of Me...” and of Ignatius of Antioch: “Be imitators of Jesus Christ, as He is of the Father.”  St. Paul exhorted the Corinthians: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ,” and according to St. Augustine, a man is perfect if he follows Christ perfectly, while to follow perfectly is to imitate.

​

We may legitimately ask why the imitation of Christ should be so essential for Christian perfection. The answer lies in the finality of the Incarnation, since this was one of the reasons why God became man, to be followed by men as a norm of sanctification. St. Augustine says: “The Son of God who in the Father is ever the truth and the life, by taking upon Himself man’s nature became the way… By Him you are going to Him. Seek not to come to Him by any other way than Him.” 

​

With no sign of pressure, the eternal King invites us to follow Him in labour and pain, not for the sake of suffering but as the mysterious means ordained by God for the salvation of a fallen humanity.

​

A logical relation thus arises between Christ’s invitation to “follow Me in pain,” and His promise, “to follow Me in glory.” For if Christ is our model and the way to the Father, then the labour and suffering He underwent are a pattern for us to imitate if we wish to attain eternal happiness in His company.

​

II. Spirit of the Apostolate

​

The apostolic implications of the Kingdom may be concluded from the words of Christ inviting His followers to join in the enterprise of conquering the whole world for His Father at the cost of much suffering and labour. But it more radically appears from the whole purpose of Christ’s life upon earth, which was to save souls.

​

Consequently if we are to follow Christ faithfully, our purpose must be the same as His, namely, not only to develop His Kingdom in ourselves but also cooperate with divine grace to establish the same in others. On the last day, the just will be called to possess the Kingdom because they had loved Christ in His members by serving their bodily and spiritual needs.

​

Why Christ should invite us to imitate His practice of poverty and suffering in order to conquer the world for the glory of His Father? Why not directly invite His followers to join in proclaiming the word of God to the ends of the earth? Why this preoccupation with personal sanctification and the emphasis on mortification of carnal and worldly love?

​

There is need for patience in bearing with weakness and ignorance in oneself and others; courage to overcome difficulties arising from one’s own temperament, from opposition, or natural circumstances; diligence in willingness to sacrifice comfort and ease for the benefit of others; self-control in restraining disorderly affections and repressing unreasonable fears.

​

Without these virtues it is quite impossible to convert people from a life of sin or lead them to spiritual perfection. If nothing else, they need our example to know that what we ask them to do is not impossible and worth the effort of striving for.

​

“To one who wishes to qualify himself for apostolic work,” said Benedict XV, “there is one thing he must acquire before everything else, as being of the highest importance, it is... sanctity of life. Let him therefore be an example of humility, obedience, chastity, chiefly of piety, prayer and constant union with God. The better united he is with God, the greater will be his share of divine grace and assistance. Let him listen to the Apostle’s advise, ‘Put on, therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience’ (Col. 3:12). It is by these virtues that truth finds an easy and straight access to souls, and that all obstacles are removed. There is no obstinacy of will that can resist them.”

​

We may therefore look upon the Kingdom meditation as a call to follow Christ in the conquest of our carnal and worldly desires; the more generous the effort, the more closely we approach to His own divine perfection and become daily more eligible for the glory that awaits us in His company.

​

At the same time, in the very act of following the Master through self-conquest, we are cultivating those virtues which advance the kingdom of God on earth and increase its population in heaven.

​

Colloquy

We may use the prayer “Eternal Lord of all things” [SE 98].

​

Eternal Lord of all things, in the presence of Thy infinite goodness, and of Thy glorious mother, and of all the saints of Thy heavenly court, this is the offering of myself which I make with Thy favour and help. I protest that it is my earnest desire and my deliberate choice, provided only it is for Thy greater service and praise, to imitate Thee in bearing all wrongs and all abuse and all poverty, both actual and spiritual, should Thy most holy majesty deign to choose and admit me to such a state and way of life.

​

​

​

​

Footnotes:

① SE 46.

② SE 48.