The Roots of Christian Mysticism Session 17
Summary of Sister Winifred
Morley's "Ignatius of Loyola" talk, The London Christian Meditation
Centre, St Mark's, Clerkenwell, 28 February 2006
IGNATIUS’ LIFE
He was born in 1491 in Loyola in the Basque region. He was one
of about ten children. His mother died shortly after he was born
and he was brought up by a nurse in the village whose name was Maria.
Later when an elder brother married his wife brought up Ignatius.
She was also called Maria. And later still Mary the mother of Jesus
became very important to Ignatius. When he grew up he became a soldier.
He may have had leanings towards the Church but it is not clear.
He delighted in nice things. He was proud of his appearance and
he enjoyed wearing fancy boots (see portraits of Henry V111 born
the same year for what these may have looked like.)
In 1521 there was a great change in Ignatius’ life. He was
fighting at Pamplona against the French. The Spanish were losing.
The officer in charge wanted to retreat but Ignatius said, “let’s
go on.” The Spanish did not go on to win and Ignatius received
serious injuries. Both legs were shattered and so he was taken back
to Loyola. As his legs were beginning to heal he noticed a bone
was sticking out so he couldn’t wear his fancy boots. He decided
to go through the pain of having his legs reset (without anaesthetic
of course.)
While he was convalescing at home God managed to get in to his
life. Ignatius was reading a lot. He started with a novel and then
read the lives of the Saints and then the bible. He decided to copy
out the bible writing the words of Jesus in red and the words of
Mary in blue (not many of those). He began to daydream about Francis,
Dominic and Humphrey (a local hermit). As he pondered what they
had done for God he began to think he could do better. One of his
hallmarks is “one step more”. He always tried to do
that bit extra. As well as his daydreams about what to do for God
he also had daydreams about a certain lady at court. He dreamed
about how life would be if they married and he was a courtier. He
began to notice what was happening in him when he daydreamed. When
he daydreamed about God he had a feeling of being in the right place
at the right time whereas his daydreams about the lady at court
left him feeling restless. He didn’t understand what was happening
but he was learning how to be discerning: what was moving him away
from God and what was moving him to God.
It took him a long time to realise what God was asking. He had
lots of false starts. He thought perhaps God was asking him to go
and live in Jerusalem but the Franciscans turned him out. Then he
thought he should be a beggar so he accosted a beggar on the roadside
and exchanged clothes with him. But the beggar got arrested and
Ignatius was forced to bail him out and change clothes back again.
One day he even left his donkey to determine which way to go. Eventually
he realised God was calling him to the priesthood. So he went back
to school and learnt Latin. He went to Paris and eventually founded
the Society of Jesus. He and others who gathered around him like
Francois Xavier dedicated their lives to helping other people in
their spiritual journey.
Jesuits take a fourth vow of obedience to the pope. Eventually
he arrived in Rome and remained there until his death. Between his
ordination and moving to Rome he had a few run-ins with the Inquisition.
When they closely examined him they realised he wasn’t preaching
heresy. The thrust of Ignatius’ life was to seek and find
God in all things mainly through the use of the Spiritual Exercises.
Under duress from the brothers he wrote these down towards the end
of his life.
THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
This is a manual about prayer for the retreat-giver not the retreatant
to help them to guide others through the process of a 30 day retreat.
Ignatius saw this as a pilgrimage and himself as a pilgrim. A retreat
may be thought of as going on holiday with God. The exercises are
like physical exercises. There needs to be a discipline so that
we get into a habit of praying. He saw discipline as important for
enabling freedom. It is freeing to know the boundaries one is working
within. You need to be generous and open on retreat in giving time
to prayer and follow where God is leading. As a spiritual director
it is important not to talk too much but allow God to be with the
retreatant, and to allow the retreatant to hear God. At the end
of a day on retreat when the retreatant is tired from several hours
of intense prayer it is good to use the senses in prayer or to go
back over the day to review it. See what God has given you and enjoy
and deepen it. He also gives rules about fasting. If you are blocked
in some way with prayer decide at the end of a meal that at the
next meal you will go without a pudding or a starter. In this way
you are taking control and exercising some discipline and perhaps
the block will be resolved.
In the manual he introduces us to about fifteen different ways
of praying. Imaginative prayer which is generally regarded as Ignatian
is only one form he uses. He used all of these himself. After he
had recovered from his injuries, he went to spend a few weeks in
a cave at Manresa and stayed for 10 months. He suffered a lot of
scruples there. He spent a lot of time in prayer and penance (up
to 7 hours a day.) This shows how hard he was on himself. (If you
suffer from scruples maybe a retreat is not a good idea. It may
exacerbate your sensitivity.) During this time the whole process
led him to a great spiritual freedom. He was helped by the Benedictines
who lived near and it was from them that he learnt about prayer.
The Spiritual Exercises are based on scripture and begin where
scripture begins with Genesis although it is possible to begin at
any point. He invites retreatants to reflect on the goodness of
creation; on creation as God’s gift to us to enable us to
find God who is Himself the gift, “to praise reverence and
serve God our Lord.” What is our image of God? All the gifts
of creation are to help us to find God in all things. Then he asks
us to look at the obstacles which prevent us reaching out to God.
It is often difficult for us to think that we are loved. We must
start by putting ourselves into a right relationship with the God
who loves us as we are and not for what we do. Ignatius helps us
to come to the right response to this love.
He uses the word Indifference. This is not the same idea as “detachment”
which is more passive but is an active standing ready with a sense
of freedom to whatever one is given (riches or poverty, long or
short life etc.) It is a freedom to want only what God wants.
Ignatius recognises that we are not always able to do this and
so he invites us to look at our own sinfulness.
There is then an exercise looking at the kingdom and the ways we
might help build it.
The exercises then look at Jesus’ life.
As we move into the companionship stage Ignatius asks us to pray
the prayer of Richard of Chichester:
Thanks be to thee,
O Lord Christ,
For all the benefits which thou hast given us;
For all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for us.
O most merciful redeemer,
Friend
And brother,
May we know thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
And follow thee more nearly;
For thine own sake.
The third stage is surrender. We walk with Jesus in his pain and
acknowledge that there will be pain for us too.
The resurrection stage is followed by the Path of Love which is
the stepping stone into the rest of life. As we come to the end
we recognise it very much as the beginning. A good book to look
at as an introduction to the Spiritual Exercises is Stretched for
Greater Glory by George Aschenbrenner S.J.
Discernment
There are two aspects to discernment discerning God’s will
for us and discerning the spirits.
There are different ways to discern God’s will. For some
it comes as a blinding flash (St. Paul, Matthew the tax collector,
Mary the mother of Jesus. For most of us it is not like this. We
must look at our history to see where God has been leading us. Discernment
is not a question of choosing between a good thing and a bad thin
but of choosing between two good things. The practical way to discern
perhaps helped by a guide is to sit with the two options for a few
days each and usually it becomes clear which of the two creates
a deep feeling of inner peace.
It was in his attempts to discern God’s will that Ignatius
had his mystical experiences though we do not know what they were.
He doesn’t write most of them down. The ones he does write
down are obscure and it is difficult to know what they might mean.
A retreat is not plain sailing. Ignatius recognised that there
would be ups and downs. He put a terminology on these ups and downs.
Spiritual consolations and Spiritual Desolations. These are movements
beyond our control but which help us to recognise our dependence
on God. Ignatius said when we are experiencing desolation we need
to be reminded that it isn’t permanent. Desolation is a feeling
of the withdrawal of God’s presence. We know that God is there
and that we will feel him again.
The Examen
Also called the examination of consciousness. Not to be confused
with an examination of conscience. This is a useful exercise to
do at the end of the day. We first look at the positive aspects
of the day. What have you and I done together today, God? Only then
do we look at what we have done on our own and left God out. Then
we look in preparation at the day ahead. A book worth looking at
in this connection is called Sleeping with Bread by Dennis, Sheila
and Matthew Linn.
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