The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
“Be holy as your Heavenly Father is holy.” These words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ command us with an imperious obligation to become saints. Becoming a saint is another way of interpreting the words— “Be holy…”
Now if Our Lord commands us to do anything, then He will definitely supply us with sufficient grace to carry out His command. God will never command that which is impossible, that goes beyond our capacity. With the order and command come commensurate and corresponding graces.
As Paul complained three times about a thorn in his side that he desired to be rid of, the Lord responded that His grace would be sufficient.
Therefore, in our pursuit of attaining holiness of life, of becoming the saint that the Lord has destined for us to become, we should seek out the means to attain this command and goal that the Lord has set out for us.
For close to over 500 years, a Spiritual Program has proven to be most efficacious in forging, forming, and molding sinners into saints, and some are even great saints. This is a program that the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, inspired in the person of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
These are the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It is our firm belief that if you are willing to undertake with Magnanimity to do the Spiritual Exercises, with skilled and fervent spiritual direction, the fruits will be abundant, and the pathway to the pursuit of holiness will not be simply whimsical and wishful thinking, but a concrete reality.
One of the most superlative examples of a person who engaged in doing the Spiritual Exercises with Magnanimity—great generosity of soul, mind, heart and spirit—is Saint Francis Xavier. His proud, arrogant, self-willed spirit was broken, and he was transformed into a humble, prayerful, and most zealous soldier in the army of Christ the King. Indeed, abundant fruits follow when souls do the Spiritual Exercises with Magnanimity! These are ten most exquisite fruits that blossom from the healthy tree of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Our hope is that all will accept the challenge to do these Spiritual Exercises. Furthermore, it is our hope that those who have already accepted the challenge will strive to go even deeper on a daily basis in living out the whole thrust and plan of this sure plan and pathway to true and authentic holiness.
1. KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST. One of the principal reasons for a lack of holiness of life is ignorance of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. At the very heart of the Spiritual Exercises is the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the source and summit of all holiness of life.
2. LOVE FOR CHRIST. Once we get to know who Jesus Christ really is by an assiduous and frequent contemplation of His life, there comes a transformation of really loving Christ. How true the saying: you cannot love someone whom you really do not know.
3. FOLLOWING OF CHRIST. Jesus said to the first Apostles: “Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Lk. 5: 1-11) Indeed, there is a logical sequence here. If we know Christ, we fall in love with Him. Then it necessarily follows that we want to follow in His footsteps and to be with Him, spend time with Him, spend our lives with Him, and expend all of our energy in pursuing what He wills and desires.
4. BRINGING OTHERS TO CHRIST AND CHRIST TO OTHERS. Once we have known Him profoundly, loved Him ardently, and decided to throw in our lot with Him and follow Him, we cannot stop there. We want to do all that is within our power to bring others to Christ and Christ to others. In other words, what Christ really desires most becomes the very desire of our hearts.
5. SALVATION OF SOULS. Put into concrete language, the most ardent desire of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus is to save souls for all eternity. In fact, the purpose of the Incarnation, Life, Passion, Suffering, Death and eventual Resurrection of Christ was to accomplish the will of the Eternal Father and to save immortal souls for all eternity. Jesus Christ is the Eternal King and He most ardently desires that His crown be adorned with the most precious jewels. What are these jewels, these precious stones? These resplendent, glittering, shiny jewels are immortal souls who have lived out an authentic sanctity of life.
6. GUIDED BY FAITH AND REASON AND NOT BY FEELINGS. Another most exquisite fruit of doing the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola is the guiding principles of our lives. No longer will we be tossed and turned by the tempestuous and uncertain quality of our feelings and unruly passions. (How dangerous this style of life that so many have embraced!) On the contrary, the motivating action in our life will be that of having faith as our Lighthouse and reason as our guiding principle.
7. DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS. Most certainly, part and parcel of the rich inheritance of the Spiritual Exercises is that of acquiring the art of Spiritual Discernment. Remember the acronym B.U.T.—Be aware, Understand, Take Action. In concrete, this means that by doing the Spiritual Exercises we learn the reality of the different spirits that are working on us. There is the bad spirit (the devil); then there is the good spirit (the good angels). Both are in mortal combat and are diametrically opposed. As good soldiers of Christ, we should learn to open our hearts and follow the good spirit’s action; then, once we are aware of the bad spirit working on us, tempting us to offend the Lord, quickly, manfully and forcefully we must reject his ugly insinuations.
8. A.M.D.G. This is the motto of Saint Ignatius, the propelling force of his life. These letters in Latin can be translated into English as the following: “Do all in our lives for the greater honor and glory of God.” By doing the Spiritual Exercises well, our motivation and well-spring for action will be to do all within our power, not only to work for the salvation of souls, but also to glorify, magnify, and exalt the Presence of God in the world!
9. DEEP PRAYER, DEEP CONVERSION. Father Thomas Dubay, S.M., has written a masterpiece in spirituality with the title, DEEP PRAYER, DEEP CONVERSION. This is exactly one of the most sublime fruits of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola: to arrive at a daily deeper conversion of life by pursuing a deeper immersion in prayer. Deep, contemplative prayer can be compared to the immense and almost infinite abyss of ocean waters. The farther and deeper one sails out, the more difficult it is for the anchors to reach the bottom. So it is in our relationship with God in prayer—there are no limits to our love relationship with God in prayer.
10. MARY: STAR OF THE SEA/OUR LADY OF THE WAY. The conversion of Saint Ignatius resulted in him traveling to Our Lady of Montserrat where this soldier placed his sword—after an all-night vigil—at the feet of Our Lady. He now became a soldier in the army of Christ the King, with Mary as His Queen. According to tradition, also in the cave of Manresa, Our Lady dictated the start of the Spiritual Exercises to Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Mary is the Star of the Sea leading us safely to the shore of salvation and she is THE WAY—that takes us to Jesus who is truly THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.
