The Spiritual Exercises
.
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola involve a month-long program of meditations, prayers, considerations, and contemplative practices that help those in Christian faith become more fully alive in their everyday lives. They are set out in a manual that represents a formulation of the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola in a series of prayer exercises designed to help a retreatant, with the aid of a spiritual director, promote an experience of deeper conversion into life with God in Christ.
These Exercises can be made in different ways. The first way, extended over approximately thirty days in a silent retreat away from home. The second way, condensed into a weekend or an eight-day retreat based on Ignatian themes. The third, in the midst of daily life, over a period of a number of months, (usually from eight to nine months). This third way is also known as the “Nineteenth Annotation”. In the Nineteenth Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises, the retreatant commits herself or himself to a daily hour of prayer, to changes in life style needed to maximize the experience of prayer, and to meet weekly with a spiritual director.
The Spiritual Exercises are a Christo-centric program of conversion, or a concrete way of “putting on the mind and heart of Christ.” The Exercises are divided into a preliminary Principle and Foundation, followed by four “weeks” or phases with accompanying prayer exercises for each week. The first week considers God’s generosity and mercy and the complex reality of human sin. The second week focuses on the early life and public ministry of Jesus. The third and fourth, on the passion and resurrection of Jesus.
At the end of the experience , the retreatant is invited to choose a way of life that recapitulates the dynamic of the Exercises, in an exercise called the Contemplation for Divine Love. It is this exercise that is expressed in the book Loved and Loving.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
