Every January I have the privilege to accompany Jesuit novices on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola.  The Spiritual Exercises is one of the mainstays of modern Catholic spirituality and one of the key drivers behind the revival of individually directed retreats and one on one spiritual direction since the 1960s.  This intense and potentially very fruitful experience takes the retreatant through a series of spiritual exercises designed to uncover unconscious motivations – both negative and positive – that both hinder and help one on her journey to wholeness and ultimately to finding God’s will for her life. 

One could fill a small library with all the books that have been written on the Exercises – their genesis, theology and spirituality, discernment, spiritual direction, psychotherapy – but for me there are two key elements that preclude any commentary: 1. the Exercises need to be experienced and 2. one needs to want to make them.  Without these two key elements one might as well leave the little book on the shelf and tend to a good novel. 

The Exercises need to be experienced

In his book Spiritual Freedom John English likens the Spiritual Exercises to the interpretation of play:  “Like a Shakespearean play it is always being interpreted and then reinterpreted, changing and adjusting to different cultures and times.”  Indeed, the Exercises become something new each time an individual makes the retreat.  At the same time, Ignatius’ little book is more akin to stage directions than to the narrative of great literature, a novel or a play, that can be read and enjoyed without a deep commitment on the part of the individual. 

While the narrative may begin with a Gospel passage the décor, dialogue and action will arise out of the ever evolving experience of the retreatant; to be re-created each time one enters into prayer (repetition is a key Ignatian concept).  The components of the Ignatian prayer – preludes, points and colloquies – provide a framework to the raw experience of the one praying. 

A mere reading or study of the text, while of value, will not be enough.  Experience is key.  For example, the second prelude outlines the particular grace that one is to pray and for much of the middle part of the retreat it is this: I ask for what I desire.  Here it will be to ask for an interior (intimate) knowledge of the Lord (Jesus) who became human so that I might love him more and follow him.  Added to this one is invited to pray with a Gospel passage such as the Nativity or the Sermon on the Mount.  In bringing the desire for an intimate knowledge of Jesus to the scripture passage the retreatant embarks on a series of prayer experiences that become more and more personal and unique as she repeats the prayer up to five times in a single day. 

In so doing the original text becomes a background to the immediate experience of prayer where the nativity scene might begin in 1st century Bethlehem but end up in an inner city seedy hotel surrounded by homeless people instead of shepherds or the Last Supper could take place in a church hall during an AA meeting.   This is not a spectator sport …. the Ignatian contemplations help us to write, with the help of God’s action, the gospel of our very lives.

One needs to want to make them

I have been saying to people lately that if you want a one word descriptor for Ignatian spirituality it would be the word desire.  By this I mean that, for Ignatius, the starting point is id quod volo (this I want or desire).  In this way the individual is mandated from the outset to articulate his desire and to take responsibility for personal agency and engagement in the prayer.  That is, it is important for the one making the Exercises to take her role seriously and to be willing to engage in an experience of transformation and the opening up of new pathways that will inevitably appear. 

The Exercises is certainly not a ‘walk in the park.’  It is an experience that is the antithesis to the classic Christian cop out of ‘offering it up’; which is tantamount to saying to God, ‘’I don’t really want to face the challenges of life and your particular will for me…. if you love me as you say you do, you can do it all.’’  That may sound cynical but I think that Ignatius would say that our human agency itself is key to how God acts in the world.   There is no room for spiritual complacency in Ignatius’ world view.  So, if you have never experienced the full Spiritual Exercises, perhaps it is time to make the leap of faith; and with your desire leading get ready for the experience of a life time. 

Upon completing the Exercises during my first year in the Novitiate I was asked often about the experience with question such as:  Wow, 30 days, how did you cope with the silence?  What was the experience like – must have been difficult? Etc.  But to be honest no one really has the time to listen to an exposé of an experience that is as intense and as challenging as the Exercises.  This, eventually I came up with a simple response that went something like this: “it is the kind of experience that everyone owes to him or herself at least once in a life time.”  That was well over 20 years ago and my response is still the same.