Ignatian Spirituality

In fidelity to the purpose of our GUIDES collection, we offer in these pages some basic materials for understanding and practicing apostolic discernment in common. The materials include documents of the General Congregations, along with letters and other relevant texts of the Superiors General of the Society of Jesus. This compendium of texts is also an invitation to engage in a practice that will help us to respond in a realistic and relevant way to the challenges of the historical moment in which we live.

Through the writings and the life of St. Ignatius, we will see to what extent the dimensions of accompanying, being accompanied and in companionship with others are fundamental to the process of maturation in our faith, to the pilgrimage of our hope and to the strengthening of our love. So therefore, they are dimensions to keep present before us and to cultivate, not only in our personal lives, but also in the groups and ecclesial communities of which we form a part. They figure as such precisely at a time when narcissism and self-sufficiency are leading us to an individualism from which we seem not to have a way out.

There have been many Christian teachers or mystics who have explained the effects of contemplative prayer, but not how to do it. Fr. Jalics has filled this void with a suggestion that was born through a personal experience of detention and isolation that took place under the Argentine dictatorship. In this Notebook, which begins with a magnificent prologue by Xavier Melloni, he explains how his contemplative “journey” of prayer is tied into the practice of the Ignatian Exercises.

The author, who for many years has been director of the Cave of Manresa, invites us on a geographical and spiritual journey through the life of Saint Ignatius. This pilgrimage, which is interior as well as exterior, can help us, as the saint takes our hand, to discover how God speaks to us through the places and persons of our lives.

The Holy Spirit might seem at first sight absent from the Exercises, but such is not in fact the case. The author of our booklet re-reads the experience of the Exercises, uncovering the Spirit's silent presence there. What might initially have seemed a cerebral, tough, ascetic text is shown to be a source of mystical prayer of profoundly contemporary relevance.

This plan for the Ignatian Exercises is based on the proposal made by Saint Ignatius in Annotation 19, where he speaks of persons whose required activities make it impossible for them to withdraw in solitude for an extended time. The exercises in ordinary life are thus proposed as an adaptation that can help many persons have a profound experience of God at the very heart of their daily activities.

The present booklet does not pretend to be an erudite study of Ignatius of Loyola or his spirituality. Its aim is simply to help individuals or groups to reflect and pray by sharing in the spiritual experience of Ignatius. Our hope is that his exceptional interior pilgrimage will also inspire us in our own efforts to follow Jesus.

The Tenth European Congress of Jesuit Alumni was coming to an end. On the afternoon of August 1, 1973, the closing session was solemnly convened. Then Fr. Arrupe, with his usual energy and enthusiasm and perhaps even more, gave the following conference. Limitations of time did not permit him to read the whole text, but the Acts of the Congress later published it as written. A conference that would change the Society of Jesus.

In this booklet the author explains the various ways in which Ignatius Loyola experienced friendship and promoted it among his companions. He agreed with Aristotle that friendship was “the thing most necessary for life,” but he also realized that friendship was a spiritual gift that needed to be cultivated and nourished with great care.

This booklet aims to present in a simple, practical way some of the most basic features of the way of life that Ignatian spirituality proposes. In this essay the author, while remaining faithful to the basic intuitions of Saint Ignatius Loyola, exercises some freedom with regard to his formulations. As much as possible, he tries to stay close to the daily life of those of us who are caught up in this busy world but who still seek with desire and humility “to love and serve in all we do.”