SPIRITUAL
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SPIRITUAL
selection and co-ordination of his material. To select
some of the great truths of religion, to drive them
deeply into the heart, until man t hornunlily impressofl
falls at the Lord's feet, crying out like aiiol her Saul
"Domine, quid mc visfacere?", such is I lie genius, the
ascetic character, of St. Ignatius. Hut to bring about
this result it was necessary for the .selected truths to
be United together in a logical series and animated by a
progressive movement. The methodic order and ir-
resistible deduction of the "Exercises" distinguish
them from a large number of spiritual works. Above
all the originality of St. Ignatius is displayed in the
care with which he combines the subjects of medi-
tation and a.scctic principles, and the minute ad-
vice that guides and moderates, when necessary, the
application of the "Exercises". We find in the an-
notations at the beginning, in the notes strewn here
and there, in the rules for the discernment of spirits a
real system of spiritual training, that makes adequate
provision for the different states of soul of the exerci-
tant, and warns him, or rather his director, of what is
most fitting, according to the circumstances of the
case'. Nothing is left to chance. One sees how to
adapt the general progress of the retreat to different
persons, according to their occupation" the degree of
their fervour, and the advantage they derive from the
"Exercises". This art of proportioning spiritual in-
struction to the powers of the soul and to Di\-ine
grace was entirely new, at least under the precise and
methodic form given to it by St. Ignatius.
Doctrine of the book. — The two words that form the general title of St. Ignatius's book bespeak at once the .soul's action and labour, and the interior struggle. The still more explicit title which we find immediately after the annotations leaves one no doubt: "Spiritual Exercises to conquer oneself and regulate one's life, and to avoid coming to a deter- mination through any inordinate affection". A method is here offered, which with God's grace teaches and helps one to overcome oneself, that is to say one's unruly passions, and by gaining control over every conscious act, to acquire inward peace — a method of self-conquest and self-governent. A general idea of the "Exercises" may best be gained from Diertins's summary: After setting forth the end for which God created man and all otlier things, the book, ever con- sidering this truth as the first foundation, leads us in a short time by the way known as the purgative way to acknowledge the ugliness of the sins which have caused us to stray shamefully from the end, and to cleanse our souls from sin. Setting before us the ex- ample of Christ, oiu- King and Leader, the author then invites us, in what is termed the illuminative life, to avoid the devil's standard and to follow the standard of this very good and wise Chief, and to imitate His vir- tues; indeed he almost forces us to do so by the medi- tation of the three cla.sses, or grades, of men (the first of which is reluctant to follow Christ, the second eager to do so, but with limitations, and the last bent on fol- lowing Him at once, wholly, and always) . These reso- lutions are strengthened more and more in the third week, at the sight of Jesus Chri.st walking before us with His cross. Lastly, in the unitive way, which comprises the fourth week, he enkindles in our hearts a desire for the glory of Jesus risen, and for His purest love. To this are joined annotations, additions, pre- ludes, colloquies, examinations, modes of election, rules for rightly regulating one's food, for discerning spirits, for the scrupulous, for thinking with the Ortho- dox Church, etc. The whole, if .ippliod in the pre- scribed order, possesses the incredible strength of lead- ing one to solid virtue and to eternal salvation. The four weeks have be(>n summed up still more briefly in as many sentences: (1) deformata rcformare; (2) re- formata conformare; (.3) conformata confirmare; (4) confirmata tr.ansformare; that is: (1) to reform what has been deformed by sin; (2) to make what is
thus reformed conform to the Divine model, Jesus;
(3) to strengthen what thus conforms; (4) to trans-
form by love the already strengthened resolutions.
This method of spiritual progress had already been traced by St. Paul (Hebr., xii, 1-2). It camiot be re- peated too often that, if St. Ignatius displayed his originality in uniting and co-ordinating the materials of his book, he did not compose the matter itself. He derived it from the ever open treasury of the Catholic Church, from Scripture and Tradition, from the Bible and the Fathers. The Gospel is the marrow of the "Exercises". The spirituality of St. Ignatius is in constant harmony with the teachings of Clu-ist and His Apostles. What is the "homo vincat seipsum", but an echo of the "abneget semstip.sum"? And whence came Loyola's idea of giving us the soldier's theory, a warHke book which contains all the plan of a campaign of man's struggle against himself, if not from the Saviour's words, which are a declaration of war: "Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword" (Matt., X, 34). The spirituahty of the "Exercises" belongs, therefore, to the active and mihtant kind. We must also remark that the work is not a mere book for reading or a mere manual of devotion ; it gives us in the high sense of the word a psychological and ped- agogic method. Mr. Orby Shipley, a convert from Protestantism to Catholicism, judged them rightly, when he said in the preface of his edition (London, 1S70): "This treatise is not so much a manual as a method — and a method the value, the extraordinary power, of which does not appear at first sight. One of its great marvels consists in the fact that it has done so very much by such very simple means . . . They are no mere theoretical compositions, but they have been framed upon the closest study of the hu- man mind ; . . . they enter into its several emo- tions, encounter its numberless difficulties, and probe to their very depths its several springs of thought and action".
To obtain the desired result St. Ignatius uses only a few words, but these are so selected as to make a deep impression on the mind and, if seriously medi- tated on by the exercitant and fostered in his soul, will soon develop into powerful thoughts and become a source of great spiritual enlightenment and conse- quently of earnest energetic resolutions. However, though the method of St. Ignatius leaves the exerci- tant to think for himself, the author does not intend that the latter should use it without guidance. He places the " Book of Exercises " in the hands of a di- rector, and entrusts him with applying it to the exerci- tant. He teaches him how to guide a soul in the choice of a state of hfe and in the work of self-reform. The annotations, which provide a key to the "Exer- cises", are intended more especially for the director. The greater part of them — the second, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, a total of twelve out of twenty — is written for "el que da los Exerci- cios" (the person who gives the exercises). The fif- teenth advises him to proceed with great discretion, so as not to interfere between the Creator and the creature, and to abstain especially in the case of a re- treat of election, from any suggestion regarding the determination to be taken, even should it be, strictly speaking, for the very best. This advice shows how falsely some critics of the ExercLses represent them as bringing undue influence to bear on the will, with a view to enslaving or paralyzing it. From this also appears the absurditj' of Muller's thesis in "Les ori- gincs de la Compagnie de Jdsus" (Paris, 1898), in which he strives to show the Mohammedan origin of the Exercises and of the Society of Jesus. In this way, therefore, the director in compliance with the author's desire respects the soul's freedom, a freedom already regulated by the authority of the Church, of
