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The Exercises of Ignatius Loyola in the Western Tradition by Javier Melloni, SJ

About the author

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Melloni

• The Mystical Experience - Interview with Javier Melloni

• Cave of St Ignatius, Manresa

Introduction

Tradition

• links in a chain, each with a 'before' and an 'after'

• a new historical development is set in relation as a

• recipient from previous generations

• source for generations to come

• not repetition but successively enriching developments

The Exercises

• resulting from

• contact with the preceding spiritual tradition AND

• the fruit of Ignatius' personal experience

• the Spirit acts both in

• interior ways: manifesting Itself and bringing abut change in the heart of each individual AND

• external ways: various contacts with persons and writings by which the the manifestations and changes, brought about by God in every individual and in every epoch in history, are mediated

• their character

• inherited: situating The Exercises within the great tradition of the West AND

• original: specific features that constitute Ignatius' contribution to this tradition

1 Ignatius' Direct Contact with the Tradition

Four key works:

1. Ludolph of Saxony: ex-Dominican Carthusian, (c. 1295–1378), Vita Christi

• wide in its scope, it covers the life, passion, and resurrection of Christ with erudition and devotion

• Ignatius filled 300 pages of excerpts with the words of Christ in red and Mary in blue

• Ignatius conceived the desire to live and die in the Holy Land

• "with great desires to serve God"

2. James of Voragine (c. 1230–1298), Flos Sanctorum

• Ignatius experienced the impact of various lives of the saints

• He shifts his chivalrous ideal towards the imitation of the imitators of Christ

3. Garciá de Cisneros (1455–1510), Montserrat (Abbott 1493–1510), Ejercitatorio de la vida espiritual

• Ignatius spent a year at Montserrat (22/03/1522) at which he received the teaching of this spiritual school

• Ignatius starts with a general confession (to Don Jean Chanon), the first exercise recommended by Cisneros for getting started on the way of the Spirit

4. Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471), The Imitation of Christ

2 The Spiritual School of Fray Garciá de Cisneros

Ejercitatorio de la vida espiritual & Directorio de las Horas Canónicas:

• skilful compilations from authors from the Middle ages and the Devotio Moderna (from the late 1300s)

• St Bonaventure (1218–1274) & Hugh of Balma, (second half of 13th Century)

• classic scheme of the three ways (purgative, illuminative, unitive)

• John Gerson (1363–1429)

• counsels and considerations on prayer and the contemplative life

• Gerard of Zutphen (1367–1398) & John Mombaer (1460–1501)

• methodical presentation of the spiritual life characteristic of the Devotio Moderna

• the ascent of the three ways that lead from meditation to prayer (in the sense of colloquy) to contemplation

• distinctive feature is that the object of contemplation is the Life of Christ (not elevated speculation)

• cf. the Franciscan spirituality of the time, and

• the Devotio Moderna, especially Gerard of Zutphen & John Mombaer, Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium: an overwhelmingly profuse encyclopaedic catalogue of methods of prayer

• his insistence knowing, in theory and practice, the Rule of St Benedict, the three ways, and the various spiritual exercises before studying anything else

2.1 The Compendio Breve de Ejercicios Espirituales

Tradition inherited

• résumés of Cisneros' dense and complex books to facilitate memorisation

• hypothesis is that the influence of Cisneros reached Ignatius through this Compendio & then into The Exercises

• time-schedule for the office

• replacement of psalms with mental prayer

• points for meditation

• meditation on the life and passion of Christ is divided into weeks

• various counsels on prayer

• the résumé of the twelve grades of humility from the Rule of St Benedict

• providential that in the early stages of his conversion Ignatius came across the work of Cisneros containing a synthesis of the best of the spiritual tradition of the West:

• the Benedictine tradition with its liturgical ordering of time

• the Carthusian tradition, source of the ascending sequence lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio

• the Franciscan tradition with its devotion to the humanity of Christ

• the Devotio Moderna with its methods for interiorising prayer

• the mystical tradition of the three ways, which goes back to Denys the Areopagite

Specific original features of The Exercises not found in Cisneros:

• The First Principle and Foundation

• Call of the King

• Two Standards

• Three Classes

• Rules for the discernment of spirits

2.2 Genealogical Tree of The Exercises

3 Features Inherited from the Tradition

The vocabulary of life in the spirit is not the creation of one person but fruit of a succession of witnesses by which it is progressively enriched and developed.

• In the East, witness transformed by the experience of God are called theoforoi ('God-bearers').

• The writings of God-bearers are inspired and are therefore 'mystagogic': they meditate the experience of God which they have known.

• Vocabulary and methods intended to transmit the experience of God belong to a common patrimony. Individuals, on the base of their particular experiences, adopt the terms with which they identify more readily in order to express this.

Three central aspects integral of The Exercises:

1. devotion to the humanity of Christ

2. pedagogy of prayer

3. progression of the spirit life on the basis of the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways

Ignatius radically transforms these by his specific mystagogy in which following Jesus and transforming union with Him

• take on the form of a continuous act of election

• are a permanent search for the will of God

• entail a continuous discernment and

• a permanent disposition of listening

• change the world into a theophany – a space of God's revelation

3.1 Devotion to the Humanity of Christ

Ignatius' devotion has many derivations:

• it is present in the Franciscan characteristics by which his family and the piety of the age were impregnated

• his conversation was strongly marked by his reading of the Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony

• he encountered the life of Jesus is work of Cisneros: the Ejercitatorio and Compendio:

• in two weeks: the life of Christ up to the Passion; the Passion

• in which the monk is given points for meditation during the canonical hours (reminiscent of the Mysteries of the Life of Christ our Lord [261–362])

• these can be made in a gradation of consideration: only humanity; humanity and divinity; only divinity

• like The Exercises, some weeks are consecrated to contemplation of the life, passion, and resurrection; then the Fourth Week underlines the way in which "the divinity appears" [223]

• he came to know the Imitation of Christ: "he has no further wish to read any other book of devotion"

The great reforms of the church have arisen from this return to the direct reading of the Gospel:

• e.g. St Francis the Alter Christus, the poor man of Assisi

• popular devotion. iconography, and literature became permeated by a new tenderness in relation to t humanity of Christ

• Meditations on the Life of Christ by John de Caulibus: the first life of Christ

• these lie behind the Vita Christiof Ludolph of Saxony

• in these in various places we find the invitation to be "as if I were present" cf [114]

Devotion to the humanity of Christ

• implies rootedness in the mystery of the incarnation

• the messiahship of Jesus passed through a life of difficulty and conflict

• resurrection is the transformation of the flesh of the world which, in order to be transformed, had first to be assumed

• the mode of assuming is, paradoxically, that of humiliation

• the mode of elevation (anabasis) is precisely incarnation, i.e. descent (katabasis)

• "to ask for interior knowledge of the Lord, who became human for me …" [104]

• in contemplating Christ, this descent is carried into "interior knowledge" and thence into a person's loving and serving

3.2 The Method of Prayer

Some of the 'modes of access' to this transfigured humanity of Christ (the contemplation of which transforms the one who contemplates) that Ignatius found in the Tradition.

a. Diversity of 'spiritual exercises'

The practice of 'spiritual exercises' is ancient in the Church

• Origen (185–235) and Evagrius Ponticus (345–399): speak of the active life in dominion over the passions

• John Cassian (360–435): "exercises of the virtues

• from 12th Century: exercitia spiritualia

• Devotio Moderna: "spiritual exercises"

The custom of withdrawing for a period to dedicate oneself to the life of prayer and penance

• goes back to the 1st centuries of Christianity

• a tradition of withdrawal for forty days in imitation of Jesus' sojourn in the desert

• 7th & 8th centuries: hermitages in the proximity of large abbeys, together with caves for this purpose

• late 13th and 14th centuries: the establishment of 'deserts' – convents dedicated to greater penance and isolation, which were part of the movements of reform of the older orders, especially Dominicans and Franciscans

• 15th & 16th centuries, Devotio Moderna: the popularity increased widely in Northern Europe and Spain

Spiritual exercises have two elements/aspects:

• ascetical (askêsis (gr) = exercise)

• mystical (pneumatikos = spiritual = proceeding from the Holy Spirit: distinguished not from the bodily but psyche i.e. what is open to the action of the Spirit, what does not come from oneself but is received)

• bring about mastery over self [21] to receive the spiritual = "seeking and finding the divine will." [1]

Ignatius did not invent a method of prayer, but

• received it from the tradition that preceded him,

• was able to assimilate it,

• synthesise and expound this tradition with great pedagogical skill, and

• redirected all this material in a particular and distinct direction

• e.g. much of the Annotations and Additions can be found in the Compendio

The contribution of Ignatius:

• integrated the elements from tradition

• to accentuate the personal (mental (interior and silent) as opposed to choral) prayer

• propose as their objective to "seek and find" the will of God for each one [1]

• This search for the will of God as the final end of all the prayers is the feature that gives The Exercises as a mystagogy their specific character. This radically transforms the legacy received.

• The Exercises shift from monastic framework to intensive practice for 30 days for anyone.

b. The ladder of prayer

3.3 The Three Ways and the Progress of the Spiritual Life

Generally, the movement of The Exercises corresponds to the ascending scheme of the Three Ways, i.e. purgative (First Week), illuminative (Second Week), unitive [10] and Contemplatio.

a. Denys the Areopagite (Pseudo-Dionysius) (5th-6th Century)

• the scheme of the three ways goes back to Denys

• influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy

• the celestial hierarchy is conceived in the basis of a threefold function: to purify, enlighten, and make perfect

• a process of initiation into the Mystery

• a mystagogy that has as its purpose "to confer upon creatures the divine resemblance and to unite them to God"

• not so much stages as hierarchical functions (e.g. catechumens, the faithful, and monks)

• a person who is initiated and exercises a function is also an initiator of others

St Bonaventure and Hugh of Balma

• take up the Dionysian triad explicitly

• divest it of its hieratic character

• conceive it as a spirit progression accessible to all

• through this Cisneros made his own contribution, strongly influences by Bonaventure

b. St Bonaventure (1221–1274)

The three ways conceived more as

• three types of exercises to be put into practice

• as ways of access to the experience of God

• rather than three successive stages of the spiritual life

• they are present through the entire course of the spiritual journey

Attain

• the repose of peace (meditation)

• the splendour of truth (prayer=colloquy)

• the sweetness of love (contemplation): a mysticism of love (rather than knowledge): union is unknowing

through the three grades, following the three ways:

• purgative: the expulsion of sin

• illuminative: imitation of Christ

• unitive: reception of the Spouse

Even in the final (contemplative/unitive/perfect) state, one must continue with the purgative and illuminative exercises. With repetition, these exercises are made ever more profoundly.

c. Hugh of Balma (12th–13th Century?)

The three ways conceived more as

• three successive stages of the spiritual life (as does the later mystical tradition including John of the Cross)

• one moves on only when consolidated in the preceding stage

• the initial stage of purification prepares the soul to know (illuminative) and then to love (unitive)

• exercises create habits; habits bring about states; states result in the transformation of the whole person, "until one is transformed by love in one's Creator"

Ignatius:

• [10] talks about purgative and illuminative 'life' not 'ways' (and doesn't mention unitive at all, since a month isn't long enough to attain this): this suggests Ignatius is closer to Hugh

• if we consider the Weeks not a spiritual stages but as theme-exercises, we are closer to Bonaventure and Cisneros

d. The three ways in Garciá de Cisneros: similarities and differences in the Exercises

e. The desire for union in the mystical tradition

4 The Specificity of the Ignatian Exercises

• Ignatius received traditional material at Montserrat and Manresa that became incorporated into The Exercises

• He also lived through a personal experience of God that transformed this material

The salient themes of The Exercises:

• union with God comes about in the world through the continuous discernment of the will of God

• the shape of a personal vocation specific to each individual emerges from this discernment

• the will of God can be found through discernment when someone puts themselves wholly in a position to welcome it

This attention to, and respect for, every individual's unique and non-interchangeable route, gives to Ignatius' Exercises a distinctive and original feature with respect to the preceding Tradition:

• the book of the Exercises is conceived as 'the book of the master, not intended for the direct use of the exercitant

• a guide for the giver; not a text-book for the receiver

• what the giver proposes, the exercitant has to recreate out of their own experience and with their own words

4.1 The Process of Mystagogy

The paradox of Ignatian mystagogy:

• no access to the personal experience of The Exercises without accompaniment

• the object of The Exercises is a personal and intimate meeting with God [15]

• this meeting is tested in the Church through the companion who guides the exercitant's steps

The key to understanding the specific dynamic of the mystical union proper to Ignatian mystagogy:

• a path that enters into the Mystery of union with God through the relinquishment of self in the act of election, a putting-off that is the path to fullness

• the end is the search for the will of God in relation to one's life to offer oneself to that will with all one's being

The Ignatian name for union with God is Election:

• the act and art of choosing in each moment in terms of God's will,

• which declares itself in history for the transformation of the world;

• the more profoundly they are exercised, the more they become the act and art of 'allowing' oneself to be chosen

• union is always a quest and a tendency, never a definitive state

Ultimately, discernment is about

• allowing oneself to be taken by God

• allowing God to act through oneself in every event of history

The contribution of The Exercises to the mystical tradition of the West:

• the movement of union is incarnation not elevation: the form of elevation is descent

• search for union with God come about through the kenotic movement of incarnation in the world and for the world (not through the flight from the world (fuga mundi) of the monastic tradition)

• this 'in' and 'for' the world are contained in every act of choice: the will of God is nothing other than the recapitulation of all things in Christ, and Christ in the Father, so that God comes to be all in all

• the will of God is the divinisation of every creature

The Ignatian Exercises are the mystagogy that leads into this dynamic in two simultaneous ways:

1. through the contemplation of Christ's life, passion, and resurrection, which imprints the image of Christ on the heart of the exercitant

2. by discerning the concrete form of this Christic configuration in one's own life (i.e. the election and continuous choices) through the interior movements aroused by contemplation

4.2 The Mystical Act of Election, Way of Union and of Unification

Election is the most characteristic feature of The Exercises

• election and the consequent discernment of the will of God in history is specific to the Ignatian approach.

• the discernment of spirits is present in the tradition from the Desert Fathers on, but his is not oriented towards a search for the will of God that converts human existence into a permanent election

Election is precisely the unitive and mystical way proposed by Ignatius

• the act of election is an act of freedom because it is a mystical act

• 'act': election is a movement that has to become concrete in time and space

• 'mystical': election is the origin and source of all acts insofar as it proceeds from the life of God in the person

• the Exercises are made to prepare for and introduce this 'act'

• that develops into a continuous attitude of receptivity and self-giving

• that, located at a point in time, is also a continuous development, a way of living

This way of life centred on the election is a that of offering

• hence concluding with the "Take, Lord, and receive" [234]

• the response of all one had received, i.e. life itself and the very capacity to offer

• the exchange between Lover and Beloved [234]

• one empties oneself (kenôsis)

• receiving and welcoming the life of God

• comes to share in God's nature, to be divinised (theôsis)

• The nature of God is love = the capacity to give and offer oneself and welcome without limits

• to be 'divinised' = to participate ever more profoundly in the act of giving

• the capacity of self-gift is the participation in the divine life

• election is the historico-kenotic dimension of the unitive way of the preceding tradition

Election is kenotic

• like the life of Christ with the Father

• in the space left by His self-emptying, the world is incorporated into Him to be transfigured

• we see this in the whole course of The Exercises e.g. "poor and humble Lord"

• the more Jesus relinquished Himself, the more He discovered the will of the Father

• the will of God is only love, and love is the gift of self without measure

• the 'more' (más)

• a movement of steady descent: Christ the King; Two Standards; third mode of humility

• unitive dimension begins with incorporation into this descent of Christ, which turns into exaltation only in its lowest depths of abasement

• the mystical way of The Exercises consists in the grasp of these paradoxes

• hence, "I ask for interior knowledge of the Lord who became human for me so that I may better love and follow Him' [104]

'Interior knowledge' is one of the keys of Ignatian mystagogy

• both cognitive and affective dimensions of the person

• mobilised and worked on from the beginning of The Exercises

• converging upon the act of election where knowledge of the will of God is converted into a volitional impulse of the exercitant to commit to it

• hence, union with the will of God implies a simultaneous, progressive unifying of the whole person

This makes life a call to continuous discernment

• the Ignatian ideal of being a 'contemplative in action'

• knowledge leads to love=will, the dynamism of self-giving

• The Exercises constitute a way of living in God for the world and in the world for God