Hong Kong Journal of

Catholic Studies
《天主教研究學報》

第十二期 2021 年 Issue No. 12 2021

Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian Spiritual Direction

in Contemporary Times

〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉

Centre for Catholic Studies

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
香港中文大學天主教研究中心
Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Table of Contents

4 Contributors

5 Editor’s Word

30 HANVEY, James, “Some Political and Cultural

Implications of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius
of Loyola”

69 GARCÍA DE CASTRO VALDÉS, José,

“Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

139 WILLIAMS, Geoffrey B. (Monty), “The Way of the

Faithful: Exploring the Dynamics of Desire Using
the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

177 SHERMAN, Thomas P., “The Rules for the

Discernment of Spirits in St. Ignatius of Loyola’s
Spiritual Exercises and the Discernment of the Sage
in Laozi’s Dao De Jing as Practical Guides to Living
Well and Knowing that You are Doing So”

216 CHANG, Margaret Shu-Fen, “Claiming the Spiritual

Exercises for Contemporary Women: A Feminist
Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

250 TONG, Stephen, “An Ignatian Perspective of

Tension in Spiritual Direction”

275 LAW, Sally, “Lonergan’s Operations of

Consciousness as a Framework in Spiritual
Direction”

296 LAI, Veronica, “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in

the Discernment of Spirits in Spiritual Direction”

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目錄

4 作者簡介
5 主編的話
30 雅各伯．漢維〈聖依納爵《神操》的一些政
治和文化含義〉
69 何塞．加西亞．德卡斯特羅〈聖神内的同
伴。耶穌會的靈修歷史〉
139 韋沐天〈信友之道：利用聖依納爵．羅耀拉
的《神操》來探索渴望的動態〉
177 多瑪斯．P．謝爾曼〈辨別神類的規則：探索
聖依納爵的《神操》和老子的《道德經》作
為幸福生活的實用指南〉
216 張淑芬〈為當代女性提出對神操的要求：基
於關係自我理論的女性主義觀點〉
250 董澤龍〈從依納爵觀點看靈修輔導之中的張
力〉
275 羅家慧〈以朗尼根之「意識的操作」為靈修
指導的框架〉
296 黎桂英〈使用「體感創傷療法」在靈修指導
中辨別神類〉

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Contributors 作者介紹
James HANVEY Theologian; Secretary for the Service of
雅各伯．漢維 Faith of the Society of Jesus; former Master
of Campion Hall at the University of Oxford
神學家，耶穌會信仰服務部秘書

José GARCÍA DE Professor of Comillas Pontifical University,

CASTRO Madrid, and Director of the Master's Degree
VALDÉS in Ignatian Spirituality
何塞．加西亞．德 馬德里科米利亞斯宗座大學教授
卡斯特羅
Geoffrey B. Lecturer of Regis College, Toronto School of
(Monty) Theology at University of Toronto
WILLIAMS 多倫多大學多倫多神學院瑞吉斯學院博士講師
韋沐天

Thomas P. Associate Lecturer in the faculty of

SHERMAN Philosophy Gregorian University, Rome
多瑪斯．P．謝爾曼 羅馬額我略大學哲學院副講師

Margaret Shu Fen Associate professor in Wenzao Ursuline

CHANG University of Languages
張淑芬 文藻外語大學副教授

Stephen TONG Father Provincial of the Chinese Province of

董澤龍 Society of Jesus; Director, Xavier House—
Ignatian Spirituality Centre
耶穌會中華省省會長、思維靜院—依納爵靈修
中心院長

Sally Law Formation Officer at Xavier House Ignatian

羅家慧 Spirituality Centre, Hong Kong
香港思維靜院培育主任

Veronica Lai Somatic trauma healing therapist/ Xavier

黎桂英 House Guest Spiritual Director, Hong Kong
體感創傷治療師/思維靜院客席靈修陪伴

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Editor’s Word

Five hundred years ago, on May 20, 1521 a cannonball upended

the life of a young man with courtly dreams of military success. Thus
began the conversion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola who eventually
founded the Society of Jesus. On March 12, 1622, he and one of his
close companions, Francis Xavier, known as the Apostle of the East,
were canonized. To mark these milestones of grace, from May 2021
through July 2022, the Society of Jesus and their mission partners,
including the Centre for Catholic Studies, CUHK, celebrate the
Ignatian Year. As Fr. Arturo Sosa, superior general of the Society
reminded us, we observe the year not simply with ceremonies or
academic output. Rather it is an opportunity for our ongoing
conversion. The Jesuit community and the larger Ignatian family are
called “to see all things new in Christ”—to ask for the grace of a real
change in our day to day life-mission.
In fact just months after the promulgation of the Universal
Apostolic Preferences (UAP’s) of the Society of Jesus in June 2019, a
cannonball of an infectious kind shot through the world. The COVID-
19 pandemic altered many lives and cut short too many; among the
mishaps, plans by Jesuits and their collaborators worldwide to discern
the implementation of the Universal Apostolic Preferences 2019-2029
also turned awry.
The disruption of dreams and itineraries need not be the end.
Like Ignatius, we can embark on a pilgrimage, a chance to discover
what we truly desire; the gifts we have been given; and the mission
each of us embodies.

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Drawing on his own spiritual pilgrimage, Ignatius compiled the

Spiritual Exercises as a tool to guide such movements of discernment
and of drawing closer to God. Another founding document, the
Formula of the Institute (1540), made clear the mission of the Society
of Jesus: “to strive especially for the progress of souls in Christian life
and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith by the ministry of the
word, by spiritual exercises and works of charity, and specifically by
the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity.”
From the beginning, the Exercises have been adapted according
to the person and circumstances of the one making the Exercises. This
pastoral adaptation recognizes “the rich set of realities that constitute
the relationship of the one making the Exercises, the one who gives
them and the Triune God (i.e., Father, Son, and Spirit) who is the
ultimate Overseer of the entire enterprise.” (Howard Gray, The
Dynamics of the Exercises, lecture one). In contemporary times,
Ignatian spiritual direction is given increasingly by trained lay
collaborators. This is welcome development, as the collaborators
further diversify the talents and applications by which the Society of
Jesus offers Spiritual Exercises as a gift.
The pandemic is said to have awakened the spiritual longing of
peoples of different faiths or no faith. Perhaps. Other stressors too,
such as conflicts, climate disasters, migration, social fractures and
economic hardships, cry out for our discernment and conversion.
In the previous issue of this Journal, the theme was “Ignatian
Spirituality and the Contemporary World” (echoing the first of the
UAP’s 2019-2029). As Pope Francis affirmed, “without this prayerful
attitude, the other preferences will not bear fruit.” In the current issue
(#12) we delve deeper into the text of the Spiritual Exercises, their
adaptations and encounters with other cultures, including the cultures

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of feminism, somatic psychotherapy, as well as Lonergan’s cross-

disciplinary integration of cognitional theory with religious, moral and
metaphysical developments.
Companionship and conversation have played an important role
in Jesuit spirituality and ministries. What does it mean to accompany
another on an Ignatian spiritual journey? What is at stake? We invited
several spiritual directors to reflect on their practice. The articles in this
issue are grouped into two clusters: the first five on Spiritual Exercises,
and the latter three on Ignatian Spiritual Direction. The Centre for
Catholic Studies and I are grateful to the eight invited contributors who
share generously the fruits of their own journeys in the articles below.
There is more to the Exercises than the promotion of personal
spiritual growth. Fr. James Hanvey, who supports Jesuit Pastoral
Ministry and Spirituality worldwide, with particular attention to the
ministry of the Spiritual Exercises, draws out for us some political and
cultural implications of the Exercises. Through examining the
Principle and Foundation and the Two Standards, Fr. Hanvey presents
to us the answer, or rather, the challenge: Why make the Spiritual
Exercises? And what is at stake?
The Principle and Foundation reminds us that we belong to God.
In this lies our transcendent purpose and value, thus making all other
claims relative. Freed from the false idols that promise absolute
freedom, we come to recognize our freedom as finite but also “graced.”
We are dependent: “first upon God and then upon the community and
the whole of creation.” This relational inter-dependency means “we are
responsible for the good of the other and assisting their movement
towards God.” According to Fr. Hanvey, our “graced freedom,” though
located in “the pressing realities of human finitude,” is transfigured by

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Christ’s resurrection. It is what gives us the opportunity to take part in

God’s salvific plan.
Discernment is about choice. In Fr. Hanvey’s words, “Christ is
the unavoidable moment of decision, the moment of ‘crisis’ which
always has a historical and existential reality.” In the second part of his
paper, he reads the Two Standards as an interpretive key to unmask the
strategies of evil particularly in contemporary times. More than a “tool,”
discernment becomes an “apostolic moment.” Discernment is radical
practice when we allow ourselves to be poor, despised and humble
with Christ. What choices do we make if we live the life of Jesus as
incarnate in our everyday realities? Do we follow Jesus’ praxis of
reconciliation which refuses violence and the sacrifice of victims, and
so join in the redemptive work of the Cross? What would it mean, Fr.
Hanvey asks, if we could develop our social, economic and educational
policies guided by the values that would prioritize the well-being of the
contemporary anawim, the powerless and marginalized, the
economically and culturally deprived? The whole dynamic of the
Exercises is a profound, transformational journey “in” history, Fr.
Hanvey reminds us. To be transformed is to be sent into the world
again as a companion of Christ to create a new space, a new possibility
within history.
“One of the most unique features of Ignatian spirituality is the
development of a loving gaze on all things, on all Creation, starting
with a merciful and unconditional acceptance of the person who prays.”
To understand the origins and development of this spirituality, Fr. José
García De Castro Valdés takes us through the history of the Society of
Jesus. Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises (chiefly “Contemplation to
attain love,” 230-237), the Jesuits believe that it is possible to seek and
find God in everything. For this reason “the Society of Jesus has been

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present in very different places and very diverse circumstances, a kind

of presence that employs action as a principal means to explain her
religious experience, her particular way of loving God and loving the
neighbor.”
While the experience of Ignatius of Loyola, and his new method
to search for God were foundational, the First companions decided to
form a Societas (“companionship”). Together they confirmed the
Sociey’s apostolic identity, adapted creatively a variety of ministries,
went on mission to distant lands where many gave generous witness
with their lives; they survived political suppression, and thrived
through collaboration with others. For over 480 years, through
community discernment, and by attending to the movement of the
Holy Spirit, the Society has maintained a suppleness that continues to
open new dimensions for Ignatian Spirituality. Fr. García De Castro
Valdés notes that recently, drawing upon the Society’s rich missionary
tradition, “Ignatian Spirituality returns to culture as one of the main
factors for a fruitful mission. Once Spirituality is inside a culture, a
process of dialogue begins.” This Spirituality is key to developing a
“culture of dialogue”; it is a Spirituality of “listening, opening to others,
and being ready to start a conversation for a better world.”
Fr. Monty Williams began his article with a confession or
profession of love. An experienced giver of the Spiritual Exercises, he
offers this insight: not that we have a desire for God, but more
radically that we are created as the desire for God. Yet our
discernments are also complicated by our “ambivalence to our primary
relationship with God—we are both attracted to and hesitant towards
such an intimacy.”
Tracing the dynamics of desire which underpin the Four Weeks
(Stages) of the Spiritual Exercises, Fr. Monty uses a spatial

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metaphor—that of everyday walking, rather than a city mapped by

dogma. The journey in love does not follow a linear progression.
Indeed, the consolations of each stage lead us into the disorders of the
subsequent level of discernment. From the first stage of a self-enclosed
security, the discovery of being loved reveals the illusions that have
bound us in fear. “We let the living relationship with Jesus rather than
a previously imprinted cultural and intellectual understanding of truth,
our own biases, be the basis of our discernments” (Stage 2). As Christ
has been for us in that first stage of spiritual intimacy, we are asked to
recognize the world in ways that it does not recognize itself (Stage 3).
Finally we arrive at a passivity which is content to contemplate God,
but at the same time is a call to “creativity which builds community
across the divisions of otherness and alienation.” This, Fr. Monty
describes, is contemplation in action.
In the last section of the article, Fr. Monty contrasts the dynamics
of narcissism (fear) and the dynamics of self-transcendence (love). The
power of fear is acute in many places today. Fr. Monty’s caution is
worth noting: “Before we discern, both in the sense of what we should
do, but also in how we should read the contexts in which we live, there
is the need to develop that intimacy with God which is our primary
relationship. If that does not happen, we misread all of our contexts,
both sacred and secular.”
Using discernment as a key, Fr. Thomas P. Sherman offers a
close study of two classical texts, St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual
Exercises and Laozi’s Dao De Jing as practical guides to a happy life
in the Aristotelian sense. Fr. Sherman reviews Ignatius’ rules for the
discernment of spirits of weeks one and two to show “if a discernment
of spirits is indeed a way of determining a choice of a way of life (or of
any important action in the retreatant’s life) as being consonant with

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God’s will, the subjective experience of consolation … must include

the objective criterion of the faith of the Church.” “The retreatant must
consult not simply his or her own subjective experience of the spirit in
making a choice of a way of life or action, but also and finally this
choice must at the very least be in accord with the life of Christ as
understood by the faith community.” Fr. Sherman suggests that it is for
this reason that Ignatius delimits choice-making as within the bounds
of what is lawful within the Church (170-174, cf. 189) and concludes
the Exercises with an appendix entitled: “Rules for Thinking with the
Church (352-370).”
Though the Dao De Jing is not a religious text, it measures one’s
status in relation to the Dao or the Way: “when the best student hears
about the Way he practices it assiduously, when the average student
hears about the Way it seems to him one moment there and gone the
next, when the worst student hears about the way he laughs out loud
(41).” Fr. Sherman reads the Dao De Jing as a guide for discernment,
for “living well and knowing one is doing so requires the sage to
recognize not only his experience of inner peace and harmony as a
criterion but as well the objective criterion of being in conformity with
the real (vs. only apparent) harmony of nature and promoting harmony
within human society.” He gives the example of warfare. “Where
troops have encamped, there will brambles grow” (30). Violence is
contrary to the nature of the Dao, so the sage naturally avoids it. The
text goes on to describe: “one who is good aims only at bringing a
campaign to a conclusion and dares not intimidate. One brings it to a
conclusion but does not boast.” The verse implies that the sage
recognizes that the situation compels him to fight. Such recognition
presupposes an evaluation of the situation and a choice to take up arms.
By what criteria could the sage choose? His experience of inner peace

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and harmony would seem to offer no rationale for choosing to act, or

not to act at all. But the verse implies that the sage does indeed choose
to take up arms and that his choice is in conformity with the Dao. By
studying similar examples in the text, Fr. Sherman concludes: “we
learn from both works that if we are to live well and know that we are
doing so, we need a discernment based not simply on self-justifying
experience (of spiritual consolation or inner peace and harmony) but
on objective, or self-transcending criterion as well.”
Dr. Margaret Chang quotes from Annotation 1 of Ignatius’
Spiritual Exercises: “every way of preparing and disposing the soul to
rid itself of all the disordered tendencies…to seek and find the divine
Will…is called a Spiritual Exercise.” She states that for women in
particular, such disordered tendencies are often attributable to social
structures. In a patriarchal society, people consider God as a male ruler
and “sin is to be understood as rebellious behavior against divine
sovereignty.” However, a woman’s sin focuses not so much on pride
and self-assertion, but rather on the sin of self-doubt, timidity,
powerlessness, and even of being a self-hater. Instead of exploring
instances of pride, a feminist spiritual companion “might encourage a
woman to take on roles of responsibility and decision-making.”
Dr. Chang quotes liberally from feminist texts and scholars.
Psychologist Carol Gilligan, for instance, found that while men use
abstract rules or principles to decide, women seem to view moral
problems as those that arise from “conflicting responsibilities and
relationships rather than from competing rights.” She argued that
women consistently use relationships and personal responsibility as
their primary reference points in making moral decisions. Instead of
the “separation-individuation” model proposed by Erik Erikson,
theorists at the Stone Center at Wellesley College assert that the

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development of a woman’s self is a “self-in-relation.” In general, a

woman does not feel threatened in connection but utilizes the
opportunity to organize and develop the self in the context of an
important relationship. Disposing the soul to rid itself of all the
disordered tendencies thus means renewing a woman’s self-in-relation
with God.
Dr. Chang presents the movements in the Four Weeks of the
Spiritual Exercises in terms of mutual engagement, mutual empathy,
and mutual empowerment. She concludes that the feminist spiritual
companion should be aware of the psychosexual development of the
retreatant, and adapt the masculine language of the Exercises to
facilitate growth in intersubjectivity. God’s Mercy is not a restoration
to divine favor, but an empathic empowerment. A quote from Maureen
Aggeler sums up this journey for women: “freedom means that ‘she is
her own person.’ The price of her freedom, solitariness, means that
although she is a person in relationship, only she can/ must take
responsibility for what she sees and knows.”
Fr. Stephen Tong understands one of the implications of the first
Principle and Foundation is to hold the tension of the opposing
dynamics in one’s interior and spiritual life in order to become
indifferent towards all things on earth. And the major meaning and
function of spiritual direction is accordingly to acknowledge and
process this tension in one’s experience of life and prayers through the
help of the spiritual director so that interior freedom for the greater
glory of God is attained.
Taking this tension as a paradigm, he sees that it commonly
dwells in the process of spiritual direction and relationship between the
spiritual director and directee as well. He illustrates five possible
tensions, namely, silence versus conversation, affectivity versus

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rationality, mundane life versus spiritual experience, total acceptance

versus thinking with the Church, and human efforts versus God’s
graces. Heightening the consciousness of this reality, as Lonergan’s
transcendental method suggests, is crucial to mutual self-appropriation
in the service of doing spiritual direction.
Ignatian Spirituality is a journey towards authenticity. But not all
desires are authentic. In her article, Ms. Sally Law, Formation Officer
of Xavier House, illustrates how Bernard Lonergan’s cognitional
theory can be a helpful framework to accompany the directee’s journey
through a series of conversions (religious, moral, intellectual and
psychic) to authenticity. According to Lonergan, it is in the
autonomous human subject that self-transcendental stages of
experiencing, understanding, judging, and deliberating occurs. The
authentic subject follows the transcendental precepts to be attentive,
intelligent, reasonable, and responsible. Conversion occurs when one
shifts from biases and self-absorption to becoming attentive in
experience, intelligent in understanding, reasonable in judgment, and
responsible in deciding.
Love motivates a person to follow the transcendental precepts in
operations of consciousness while fear fuels one’s biases and leads to
decline. Lonergan defined flight from understanding and flight from
responsibility as biases which block continuous growth in authenticity
and leads to inauthenticity. The spiritual director can help the directee
turn from focusing on the incidents outside to self-appropriation of
one’s own inner operations. While spiritual directors explore with the
directees their personal experiences, the focus is not to alleviate one’s
problem but to unpack the human dimensions of experiences as
dispositions for prayer. Ms. Law posits: “Conscious presence to
oneself is a foundation for presence to the Other.”

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Ms. Veronica Lai takes note of contemporary advances in

neurosciences and introduces Somatic Experiencing, a body-oriented
trauma healing model (developed by Peter Levine in the 1970s) as an
approach to the discernment of spirits in spiritual direction. She cites
Paul Yakovlev, a Russian-born neuropathologist, who challenged the
top-down model that it was the “higher” thinking brain that controlled
the “lower” functions of the body. Yakovlev argued that the
“evolutionarily most primitive brain structures in the brain stem
(dubbed the “reptilian brain”) and hypothalamus (“limbic brain”) are
those that form “the matrix upon which the remainder of the brain, as
well as behavior is elaborated.”
Modern imaging technology allows us to see a “bodily map of
emotions”—the blood flow in the viscera, how and which neurons are
“fired or charged” when a thought arises, or when there is a sensation.
Thoughts are “charged” with feelings. Ms. Lai quotes Ignatius on
“interior knowledge—for it is not much knowledge but the inner
feeling and relish of things that fills and satisfies the soul” and the
Prayer of the Senses in the Spiritual Exercises. Here I find an article by
Gemma Simmonds (“Making sense of the application of the senses”)
clarifying. Simmonds remarks: “The Spanish word sentir carries the
same ambiguity as ‘to sense’ in English, in that it includes mental as
well as bodily processes, but it is a broader word still, including
intuition and emotional feelings. In week two of the Exercises
especially, the senses are seen as an instrument of prayer and
discernment. Being present to Jesus as he acts through his own bodily
senses we come to share more deeply in his human experience and
self-understanding.…Praying to share Jesus’s way of sensing and
feeling is not a way to pray when our minds can take us no further…It
requires praying to be transformed at what is often for us the source of

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dislocation and ambiguity when our sensual and affective longings

take us in different directions from our rational thought processes.”
For Simmonds, it confirms as reliable “the sensus Christi (1 Cor 2:16),
which enables us to feel with the feelings of Jesus as well as to have
his mind.” Ms. Lai concludes with two case studies using SIBAM
(Sensation, Image, Behavior, Affect and Meaning), a Somatic
Experiencing tool, to examine the movement of the spirits and to
“detect across the whole spectrum of our activity and consciousness
the movements through which the Holy Spirit leads and enlightens us,
and those through which other influences, if given their head, work
against that guiding and light.”
The Centre for Catholic Studies is a unit of the Chinese
University of Hong Kong which is a place of scholarship (from
Latin schola meaning "intermission of work, leisure for learning;
learned conversation”). When the Jesuits in Hong Kong began the
sponsorship of the Centre for Catholic Studies, CUHK, in August 2019,
the Centre also becomes part of a network of Jesuit intellectual
apostolate, with emphasis on scholarship, practice and mission.
“Intellectual” is derived from a Latin word, meaning "discernment,
understanding.” The term “apostolate” means “being sent as an
apostle”; and as we recall in the Formula of the Institute, we are a
companionship dedicated to the progress of souls in the Christian life
and doctrine and to the propagation of the faith.
In his first interview as superior general, Fr. Sosa highlighted
intellectual depth. He ventured: “We need to understand what is
happening in today’s world and in today’s church in order to
understand faith.” At the beginning of this Ignatian year, he continues:
“we ask for the grace of a real change in our day to day life-mission”;
“to see all things new in Christ.” We hope the articles in this issue

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devoted to the Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian spiritual direction

would lead to conversations, even collaboration with colleagues and all
people of good will that will help us discern our respective life-mission.
The knowledge and understanding that we propagate, do they
reveal the beauty and truth of all that exist? Does what we learn
transform relations and social structures so that those whose dignity
has been violated can be free to thrive and contribute to the common
good? Do we design systems of governance from the local to global
levels—based on subsidiarity, transparency and conflict resolution—so
that life would be sustainable, I mean, for our children’s children?
We are embarking on a pilgrimage to discern, and put in practice
the four universal apostolic preferences:
A. To show the way to God through the Spiritual Exercises and
discernment;
B. To walk with the poor, the outcasts of the world, those
whose dignity has been violated, in a mission of reconciliation
and justice;
C. To accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled
future;
D. To collaborate in the care of our Common Home.
Will you join us in this spiritual and intellectual journey?

Fr. Stephen Tong, SJ

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主編的話

五百年前，也就是 1521 年 5 月 20 日，一枚砲彈打碎了一位

憧憬戰績功勳、宮廷鬢影的年輕人的夢。從而開始了聖依納爵．
羅耀拉（Ignatius Loyola）的皈依，最終創立了耶穌會。1622 年 3
月 12 日，他和一位緊密夥伴、被稱為東亞宗徒的方濟各．沙勿略
（Francis Xavier）一同宣聖。為紀念這些上主恩慈的里程碑，從
2021 年 5 月至 2022 年 7 月，耶穌會及其使命夥伴，包括香港中文
大學天主教研究中心，隆重慶祝依納爵年。耶穌會總會長蘇薩神
父（Arturo Sosa）這樣提醒我們：我們不僅通過儀式或學術成果來
慶祝這一年；相反，這是我們不斷皈依的機會。耶穌會團體和更
廣大的依納爵伙伴被召叫「在基督內得見嶄新的一切」——並在
我們的日常生活使命中祈求真正改變的恩典。

事實上，就在2019 年 6 月耶穌會的普世性使徒優先（UAP’s）
公布幾個月後，一種具有傳染性的砲彈射遍了世界。COVID-19大
流行改變了許多人的生活，縮短了太多人的生命； 在這些變故中，
耶穌會士及其在世界各地的合作者旨在辨別實施 2019-2029年普世
使徒優先的計劃也被耽擱了。

夢想和行程的中斷並不章味著結束。像依納爵一樣，我們可
以踏上朝聖之旅，有機會發現我們真正的渴望，看到被賜予的禮
物，及體現所擁抱的使命。

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《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉 第十二期 2021 年

依納爵根據自己的心靈朝聖之旅，寫成《神操》作為一種指
導這種辨別的動態和親近上主之工具。另一份創始文件《耶穌會
會典綱要》（1540 年）闡明了耶穌會的使命：「扶助人靈進修並
明瞭教會的道理，並以公開佈道傳揚天主的聖訓、領導退省
[spiritual exercises] 和愛德的工作，特別是以教理教育兒童及失學
的人。」

從一開始，神操就根據退省者這個人和他或她的情況進行調
整。這種牧靈調整認識到「一系列豐富的現實構成了退省者、指
導者與作為整個事業最終主導者的天主聖三（即父、子和聖神）
之間的關係。 」（霍華德．格雷，《神操的動力》，第一講）。
在當代， 依納爵靈修越來越多地由訓練有素的平信徒合作者指導。
這是一個可喜的發展，因為合作者進一步令耶穌會提供神操作為
禮物的才能和應用多樣化。

有人說，這場大流行病喚醒了很多不同信仰或沒有信仰的人
的精神渴望。有可能。其他壓力因素，如戰禍、氣候災難、流徙
者和移民、社會分裂和經濟困難等，也呼喚出我們要作辨別和皈
依的吶喊。

上一期的學報，主題是「依納爵靈修與當代世界」“Ignatian
Spirituality and the Contemporary World”（與UAP 2019-2029的第一
項相呼應）。正如教宗方濟各所肯定的：「缺少這種祈禱的心態，
其他的優先將無從結出果實。」在本期（#12）中，我們深入探討
了《神操》的文本、它們的調整及與其他文化的相遇，包括女性
主義文化、軀體心理治療，以及將朗尼根（Lonergan）的認知理論
與與宗教、道德和形而上學的發展作跨學科整合。

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

陪伴和交談在耶穌會的靈修和事工中發揮了重要作用。在依
納爵靈修之旅中陪伴他人意味著什麼？有什麼是利害攸關呢？我
們邀請了幾位靈修導師來反思他們的實踐。本期文章分為兩大類：
前五篇關於神操，後三篇關於依納爵靈修指導。我和天主教研究
中心感謝八位受邀撰稿人，他們在以下的文章中慷慨地分享了自
己旅程的成果。

神操不僅僅促進個人的靈性成長。雅各伯．漢維神父（James
Hanvey）負責支援全球耶穌會的牧靈工作和靈修，特別是關注神
操的事工，他為我們引出神操的一些政治和文化含義。通過檢視
《原則與基礎》及《兩旗默想》，漢維神父為我們解答了，或者
更確切地說，是提出一個挑戰：為什麼要進行神操？其中利害攸
關的是甚麼？

《原則與基礎》提醒我們，我們是屬於天主的。這就是我們
超越的目的和價值，因此人與萬物的關係是相對的。當我們擺脫
了那些向我們承諾絕對自由的虛假偶像，我們開始認識到我們的
自由是有限的，但也是「蒙恩寵的」。「首先我們依賴天主，然
後依賴團體和整個受造物。」這種相互依賴的關係意味著「我們
有責任為他人的利益負責，並幫助他們走向天主。」漢維神父這
樣解釋：我們「蒙恩寵的自由」，雖然處於「人類有限且受壓的
現實」中，但因著基督的復活而轉化。這讓我們有機會參與天主
的救贖計劃。

辨別與選擇攸關。依漢維神父的說法：「基督是不可避免的
決定時刻，出現在總是具有歷史和存在現實的『危機』時刻。」
在文章的第二部分，他將《兩旗默想》作為揭示邪惡策略（尤其
在我們當代）的詮釋關鍵。辨別不僅僅是一個「工具」，而是一

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《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉 第十二期 2021 年

個「使徒時刻」。當我們允許自己與基督一起變得貧窮、被鄙視
和謙卑時，辨別可就是徹底的實踐。如果我們在日常生活中過著
耶穌道成肉身的生活，我們會怎樣選擇？我們會否遵循耶穌拒絕
暴力和犧牲受害者的「修和實踐」，從而加入十字架的奇妙救贖
工程？漢維神父繼續問道，如果我們可以制定優先以考慮當代窮
人（anawim ）、無權者和被邊緣化、經濟和文化被剝奪者的福祉
為價值指引的社會、經濟和教育政策，這意味什麼？漢維神父提
醒我們：整個神操的動力是「在」歷史中的一個深刻的、變革之
旅。被轉化就是作為基督的同伴再次被派到世界上去，在歷史中
創造一個新的空間，一種新的可能性。

「依納爵靈修其中最獨特之處是開啟對所有事物、所有受造
物的愛的凝視，而這由對祈禱者的慈悲和無條件的接受開始。」
為了解這種靈修的起源和發展，何塞．加西亞．德卡斯特羅神父
（García De Castro Valdés）帶我們穿越耶穌會的整段歷史。受神操
的啟發（主要是「獲得愛情的默觀」，230-237），耶穌會士相信
可以在一切事物中尋找並找到天主。因此，「耶穌會臨在不同的
地方和非常多樣化的環境中，這種臨在主要以行動來解釋它的宗
教經驗，她愛天主和愛鄰人的特殊方式。」

雖然依納爵．羅耀拉的經歷和他尋找上主的新方法是基礎，
但初期同伴決定組建一個 Societas（「同伴關係」）。他們一起確
認了耶穌會的使徒身份，富創意地適應各種事工，一起往遙遠的
地方傳教，許多人更慷慨地用他們的生命為福音作見證；他們在
政治鎮壓中倖存下來，並通過與他人合作而茁壯成長。四百八十
多年來，通過團體辨別，並留意聖神的觸動，該會一直保持著一
份柔軟度，繼續為依納爵靈修開闢新的維度。加西亞神父指出，

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

最近，借鑒耶穌會豐富的傳教傳統，「依納爵靈修回到文化幅度，
作為卓有成效的使命的主要因素之一。一旦靈修進入一種文化，
對話的過程就開始了。」這種靈修是發展「對話文化」的關鍵；
它是一種「傾聽、向他人敞開心扉，並準備開始對話以創造更美
好世界」的靈修。

韋沐天神父（Monty Williams）以愛的告白或宣認開啓他的文
章。作為一位經驗豐富的神操導師，他提出這樣的洞見：不是我
們對天主懷有渴望，而更根本的是，我們受造為對天主的渴望。
然而，我們「對這份與上主的首要關係懷著一種矛盾心理——我
們既被這種親密關係所吸引，又對這種關係猶豫不決」，這份矛
盾也使我們的辨別變得複雜。

韋神父用了一個空間隱喻來追溯那貫通神操四週（四階段）
的渴望動力——這空間是經由日常步行，而非由一個規條繪製的
城市所建構。愛的旅程不是線性的。的確，每個階段的神慰都會
成為我們進入後續層次的辨別障礙。從第一階段自我封閉的安全
開始，原來被愛的發現揭示了將我們束縛在恐懼中的虛幻 。「我
們讓與耶穌的活生生的關係，而不是習已為是對真理的文化和智
力的理解，即自己的偏執，成為我們辨別的基礎」（第二階段）。
正如基督在第一階段的靈性親密體驗中一直在我們身邊，我們被
要求以世界不認識自己的方式去認識世界（第三階段）。最後，
我們達到了一種滿足於默觀天主的被動狀態，但同時也是對「創
造力的呼喚，這種創造力在與其他人的分裂及疏離中建立團體」。
韋神父稱這為行動中的默觀。

在文章的最後一部分，韋神父對比了自戀（恐懼）和自我超
越（愛）的動力。恐懼的力量在今天許多地方都很嚴峻。韋神父

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《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉 第十二期 2021 年

的忠告值得我們注意：「在我們辨別之前，無論是關於我們該做
什麼，或是該如何理解我們生活的處境，我們有必要發展與天主
的親密關係，這是我們的主要關係。如果沒有這關係，我們就會
誤解我們所有的處境，無論是神聖的和世俗的。」

以 辨 別 為 關 鍵 ， 多 瑪 斯 ． 謝 爾 曼 神 父 （ Thomas P.
Sherman）仔細研究了兩部經典文本，即聖依納爵的《神操》和老
子的《道德經》，作為亞里士多德所指的幸福生活的實用指南。
謝爾曼神父回顧了依納爵關於第一週和第二週辨別神類的規則，
以表明「如果辨別神類確實是一種把生活方式的選擇（或退省者
的任何重要決定）確定為切合天主旨意的方法，主觀的神慰體
驗……必須包括教會信仰的客觀標準。」 「退省者在選擇一種生
活方式或行為時，不僅必須參考自己對神類的主觀體驗，而且最
終這種選擇必須至少符合信仰團體所理解的基督的生活。」謝爾
曼神父建議，正是出於這個原因，依納爵將選擇界定為在教會合
法的範圍內（170-174，cf. 189），並用一個附錄結束神操，題為：
「與教會一起思考的規則（352-370）。」

《道德經》雖然不是宗教典籍，但它衡量一個人與道的關係：
「上士聞道，勤而行之，中士聞道，若存若亡，下士聞道，大笑
之（41）。」謝爾曼神父將《道德經》作為辨別的指南，因為
「生活得有德性，也知道自己這樣生活，要求聖人不僅要認知自
己內心平靜與和諧的體驗作為標準，而且還要認識到那符合與大
自然的真正（而不是表面上的）和諧並能促進人類社會和諧的客
觀標準。」他舉了戰爭的例子。「師之所處，荊棘生焉」（30）。
暴力違背道性，聖人自然避而遠之。文中接著說：「善者果而已
矣不敢以取強，果而勿矜果而勿伐」。這節經文暗示聖人認識到

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

形勢迫使他去戰鬥。這認識的前提是他對局勢作了評估和做了拿
起武器的選擇。聖人可以根據什麼標準來選擇？他內心平靜與和
諧的經歷似乎無法為選擇採取行動或不採取行動提供任何理由。
但這節經文暗示聖人確實選擇拿起武器，而他的選擇符合道。通
過研究《道德經》中的類似例子，謝爾曼神父總結道：「我們從
這兩部作品中了解到，如果我們要生活得有德性， 並且知道自己
是這樣生活，我們需要做的辨別不僅基於自我辯解的經驗（即神
慰或內心的平靜與和諧），而且是基於客觀，或自我超越的標
準。」

張淑芬博士引用依納爵神操第一條：「任何準備整理靈魂，
驅除邪情，好能認清天主的聖意，以便調整自己的生活……也都
叫『神操』。」她指出，特別是對於女性來說，這種錯亂的傾向，
往往歸因於社會結構。在男權社會中，人們將天主視為男性統治
者，「罪應被理解為對天上皇權的反叛行為」。然而，女人的罪
不在於驕傲和自以為是，而是在於自我懷疑、膽怯、無力感，甚
至是自我憎恨的罪。一個女性主義的靈修指導者「可能會鼓勵女
性承擔責任和決策的角色，而不是探索驕傲的事例」。

張博士大量引用女性主義文本和學者。例如，心理學家卡羅
爾．吉利根（Carol Gilligan）發現，當男性使用抽象的規則或原則
來做決定時，女性似乎將道德問題視為「責任和關係的衝突而不
是權利衝突」引起的問題。她認為，女性在做出道德決定時始終
將人際關係和個人責任作為主要參考。韋爾斯利學院斯通輔導服
務中心的理論家斷言，女性自我的發展是一種「關係中的自我 」，
而不是埃里克．埃里克森（Erik Erikson）提出的「分離-個體化」
模型。一般而言，女性不會在一份連繫中感到受威脅，而是藉此

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《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉 第十二期 2021 年

機會建構和發展自我。因此，準備靈魂，驅除錯亂的偏情意味著
更新女性與天主的關係中的自我。

張博士在四週的神操中展示了相互參與、相互同情和相互賦
權的動態。她的結論是，女性主義的神操陪伴者應該意識到退省
者的性心理發展，調整神操中的男性化語言，以促進交互主體性
的成長。天主的慈悲不是恢復神的恩惠，而是一種同理心的賦權。
莫琳．阿格勒（Maureen Aggeler）的一句話總結了女性的這一旅
程：「自由意味著『她的位格是她自己的』。她自由、獨自的代
價意味著儘管她是一個在關係中的人，但只有她可以或必須為自
己的所見所聞負責。」

董澤龍神父理解第一個原則與基礎的含義之一，是在一個人
的內心和靈修生活中保持對立動態的張力，以達致平心對待世上
的一切事物。因此，靈修指導的主要意義和功能是通過靈修導師
的幫助，承認並處理一個人在生活經驗和祈禱中的這種張力，從
而達到愈顯主榮的內在自由。

以這種張力為範式，他認為它普遍存在於靈修指導的過程以
及指導者與退省者之間的關係中。他舉例說明五種可能的張力，
即沉默對比交談、情感相對理性、世俗生活對比靈修體驗、完全
接受對比跟隨教會訓導、人的努力對比天主的恩寵。正如朗尼根
的超驗方法所暗示的那樣，提高對這一現實的意識對於在靈修指
導的服務中相互的真我體認至關重要。

依納爵靈修是通往真實性的旅程。但並非所有的渴求都是真
實的。在她的文章中， 思維靜院培育主任羅家慧女士闡明了朗尼
根 （Bernard Lonergan ）的認知理論如何成為一個有用的框架，來
陪伴避靜者的旅程，一個通過連串的皈依（宗教、道德、智力和

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

心理）到達真實性的旅程。根據朗尼根的說法，只有在自主的人
類主體中，經驗、理解、判斷和抉擇的自我超越階段才能發生。
真實的主體遵循超驗指令（transcendental precepts）實踐留心、聰
敏、合理、負責。當一個人從偏見和自我陶醉轉變為留心經驗、
明智地理解、合理地判斷、且負責任地抉擇，就會產生皈依。

愛會激勵一個人在意識運作中遵循超驗指令，而恐懼則會助
長偏見並導致衰退。朗尼根將逃避理解和逃避責任定義為阻礙真
實性持續增長並導致不真實性的偏見。靈修導師可以幫助行神操
者從關注外部事件轉變為對自己內部運作的自我體認。雖然靈修
導師與行神操者一起探索他們的個人經歷，但重點不是減輕一個
人的問題，而是將經歷的人性層面解開作為祈禱的準備。羅女士
認為：「對自己有意識的臨在是對他者臨在的基礎。」

黎桂 英 女士 注 意到 神 經系 統科 學 的當 代 發展 ， 並介 紹了
Somatic Experiencing，一種以身體為導向的創傷治療模式，由彼得．
萊文（Peter Levine）在1970 年代開發，作為在靈修指導上辨別神
類的一種方法。她引用俄國出生的神經病理學家保羅．雅科夫列
夫（Paul Yakovlev）的話，他挑戰了自上而下的模型，即身體的
「低級」功能是由「高級」思維的大腦控制。雅科夫列夫認為，
進化上最原始的大腦結構，即「腦幹（稱為「爬蟲腦」）和下視
丘（「邊緣腦」）是「大腦的其餘部分及行為賴以合成闡述的基
質。」

現代成像技術使我們能夠看到「情緒的身體地圖」——內臟
中的血流；當一個想法出現時，或者當有一種感覺時，哪些神經
單位是如何被「激發」的。思想充滿情感。黎女士引用依納爵關
於內在知識——「因為不是知道的多，而是內心的玩味品嚐更使

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《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉 第十二期 2021 年

人滿意」——和《神操》中的〈感官祈禱〉。有關這議題，傑瑪．
西蒙茲（Gemma Simmonds）的一篇文章（〈理解感官的應用〉）
可助我們加深了解。西蒙茲評論道：「西班牙語單詞 sentir與英語
中的‘to sense’ 都同是雙關語，因為它包括心理和身體過程，但
sentir 是一個更廣泛的詞，包括直覺和情感。特別是在神操的第二
週，感官被視為祈禱和辨別的工具。當耶穌通過自己的身體感官
行事時，而我們臨在於耶穌，與他同在，我們會更深入地分享他
的人性經歷和自我理解。……當我們祈禱渴望分享耶穌的感覺和
感受時， 這並不是因我們的思想不能帶我們再進一步……反之，
當我們的感覺和情感渴望將我們帶向與理性思維不同的方向
時， 這對我們來說通常是混亂和模棱兩可的根源，正正是這時刻，
我們需要祈禱被轉化。」對於西蒙茲來說，它證實了「基督的心
意（格前 2:16）」是可靠的，它使我們能夠感受耶穌的感受，並
擁有他的思維。黎女士最後以兩個案例作為總結，她使用 SIBAM
（感覺、圖像、行為、情感和意義），一種軀體體驗工具，來檢
查神類的動態，並「在我們的活動和意識的整個範圍內檢測那通
過聖神引導和光照我們的動態，以及其他影響；這些影響，如果
賦予它們思想，會相反聖神的指導和光照。」

天主教研究中心是香港中文大學的一個單位，而大學是一個
學術的地方（來自拉丁語 schola ，意思是「工作的間歇，學習的
閒暇；學習的談話」）。當香港耶穌會 2019 年 8 月開始贊助中大
天主教研究中心，中心同時成爲耶穌會在學術領域使徒工作的一
部分，重點是學術、實踐和使命。」「使徒」一詞的意思是「被
差派為門徒」；正如我們在《耶穌會會典綱要》中所回憶的那樣，
我們是一個致力於基督徒生活和教義中靈魂進步以及信仰傳播的
同伴關係。

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

在蘇薩神父獲選為總會長後的第一次訪問中，他強調了知識
的深度。他大膽地說：「我們需要了解當今世界和當今教會中正
在發生的事情，以便了解信仰。」在依納爵年的開始，他繼續說
道：「我們祈求在我們的日常生活使命中真正改變的恩典」；
「在基督內得見嶄新的一切」。我們希望本期關於神操及依納爵
靈修指導的文章能夠引發對話，甚至與同事和所有善心的人合作，
這將有助於我們辨別各自的人生使命：

我們傳播的知識和理解，它們是否揭示了所有存在物的美和
真理？我們所學到的知識會否改變關係和社會結構，使那些尊嚴
受到侵犯的人能夠自由地茁壯成長並為大衆公益做出貢獻？我們
會否去設計從地方到全球層面的治理體系——基於輔助原則、透
明度和衝突解決——這樣我們孩子的孩子的生活可以持續？

我們正踏上朝聖之旅去辨別和實踐四項普世性使徒優先：

一. 通過神操及分辨，揭示邁向天主之路；

二. 在修和及正義的使命中，與窮人、被世界遺棄者、其
尊嚴受侵犯者同行；

三. 陪同年輕人創建充滿希望的未來；

四. 攜手照顧我們的共同家園。

你願意加入我們的靈性和知性之旅嗎？

董澤龍神父

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《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉 第十二期 2021 年

Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian Spiritual Direction

in Contemporary Times

〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Some Political and Cultural Implications of

the Spiritual Exercises of
St Ignatius of Loyola

James Hanvey, SJ

Abstract: As one of the great spiritual classics of early modern

Catholicism, the Spiritual Exercises is a generative text of political as
well as theological discourse, shaping early modern as well as
contemporary culture. This paper aims, firstly, to identify key features
which will help us appreciate the way in which the Spiritual Exercises
are significant for our social and cultural agency and can serve as a
theological-spiritual hermeneutic for judging political and cultural
systems. Secondly, it will suggest that while the Exercises are intended
for the conversion and liberation of our freedom, they also intend that
this freedom be placed at the disposal of God’s salvific purpose. The
paper focuses on two sites: (a) the Principle and Foundation which
represents the recovery of “the self” and the ordering of our freedom,
and (b) the Two Standards where the discernment of spirits serves to
unmask the strategies of Evil. Discernment is an act of faith. Choosing
and surrendering to the incomprehensible wisdom of the Cross (to be
“thought worthless and a fool for Christ”) follows the resurrection into
a Christological freedom that is realized in obedience and
abandonment to the Divine salvific will. It is an operant freedom in
history which has redemptive power. The whole dynamic of the
Exercises is a profound, transformational journey “in” history. To be
transformed is to be sent into the world again as a companion of Christ

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James Hanvey “Some Political and Cultural Implications of the Spiritual
Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola”

to create a new space, a new possibility within history. In this sense,

the paper seeks to develop Hugo Rahner’s insight that Ignatius offers
us an apostolic mysticism which is not without political and cultural
implications.

Keywords: apostolic, Christ, cross, discernment, freedom, history,

Ignatius, Principle and Foundation, redemptive, Spiritual Exercises,
Two Standards

Introduction: The Significance of a Text

We do not normally think of the Spiritual Exercises of St
Ignatius as a political text. Yet Quentin Skinner, a Cambridge
historian of political ideas, usefully and insightfully reminds us that
key political texts are also interventions in the politics of their time.
They have a “performativity” which makes them generative texts in
political discourse long after their composition. 1 We can see this with
seminal secular texts like Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx or Hegel.
The principal scriptural texts of Judeo-Christianity have remained a
constant source of political as well as theological discourse, shaping

1
Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics. Volume 1: Regarding Method
(Cambridge: Cambridge Core, 2002). For Skinner’s defence of his method, cf.
Chapter 6, and for an insightful examination of the way through texts’
vocabulary and rhetoric change, cf. Chapter 10. Both have implications for the
way we come to understand our “use” and understanding of the Spiritual
Exercises. For a brief but indicative survey of the construction of Ignatian
Spirituality, cf. John W. O’Malley SJ & Timothy W. O’Brien SJ, “The
Twentieth-Century Construction of Ignatian Spirituality: A Sketch,” Studies in
the Spirituality of the Jesuits 52, no. 3 (Autumn 2020).

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

ancient as well as contemporary culture. 2 The text of the Spiritual

Exercises ranks as one of the great classics among the spiritual texts of
early modern Catholicism, but it is not a politically innocent text.
Although it develops from the primary experience of Ignatius at
Manresa, it is also marked by the different religio-political
circumstances of his time which influenced its language and
constructions. It is not difficult to find traces of this in the formulation
of the “Call of the King” and the Two Standards. Not only do these
draw upon scriptural eschatological imagery, but they are also clearly
marked by memory of the medieval courtly heraldic ideal and the
crusades against the “infidel” to recover Spain for Christianity. The
more subtle religious and ecclesiastical “political” dimension of the
text is Ignatius’ careful and persistent attention to anything which
might support the charge of Illuminism. 3 There is also the latter
introduction of the “Rules for Thinking with the Church” and perhaps
the most radical premise of all: “that God deals directly with the
human person” which, in the highly charged situation of a growing
Protestant Reformation, could be interpreted as dispensing with priests

2
Cf. N.T Wright’s essay on Paul and Empire in The Blackwell Companion to
Paul, ed. Stephen Westerhold (Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 2011). Cf. also:
Krister Stendahl and Richard A. Horsley, Paul and Politics: Ekklesia, Israel,
Imperium, Interpretation: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl (Harrisburg,
PA: Bloomsbury Collections, Trinity Press International, 2000).
3
Cf. Moshe Sluhovsky, “St. Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises and Their
Contribution to Modern Introspective Subjectivity,” The Catholic Historical
Review 99, no. 4 (2013). Sluhovsky argues that Ignatius introduced a number
of technical changes to the late medieval tradition of undertaking spiritual
exercises, which significantly widened the retreatant’s control over his or her
spiritual growth and the access of the laity to spiritual exercises and
introspective techniques. However, this “democratizing impulse” also ignited
questions among conservative theologians who saw resemblances between
Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises and Alumbradismo. This led to a dramatic
curtailment of the Exercises’ “democratic” potential in the last years of the
sixteenth century.

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James Hanvey “Some Political and Cultural Implications of the Spiritual
Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola”

and the sacramental mediation of the Church. Whatever one’s

judgment about Dominique Bertrand’s method of “sociodoxie,” his
work makes a very powerful case for the “politique” of Ignatius and
the early Society. 4 Ignatius certainly understood the social and
political world in which he lived. The Exercises are neither a neutral
nor a purely private spiritual text. 5 They actively work to re-order
desires and values leading to the experience of the Contemplatio. 6
They contain a powerful vision of the world as a theatrum gloria Dei.
The text itself aims at the transformation of human agency and,
therefore, it aims to significantly shape political and social agency as
well. In more recent times, the work of Ignacio Ellacuría, especially
his notes on the historico-politico dimension of the Spiritual Exercises,
brings this dimension of the Exercises to the fore. 7

4
D. Bertrand, La Politique de Saint Ignace de Loyola: L'analyse Sociale
(Paris: É ditions Du Cerf, 1985), 640 ff. For the political and theological
disputes while Ignatius and the companions were students in Paris and how
they sought to navigate them, cf. Philippe Lécrivain, Paris au Temps d'Ignace
de Loyola (1528-1535) (Paris: Editions Facultés Jésuites de Paris, 2006). Also
useful for context, cf. Quintín Aldea Vaquero, Ignacio de Loyola en la Gran
Crisis del Siglo XVI: Congreso Internacional de Historia, Madrid, 19-21
Noviembre de 1991, Bilbao: Colección Manresa, 11, Santander, 1993.
5
This is carefully mapped in the second part of Bertrand’s work: “Une Lecture
Active de La Société: Le VIF des Relations,” pp.127 ff.
6
Contemplación para Alcanzar Amor. Sp Ex §230-237. It is the concluding
and summative contemplation of the Exercises and many commentators regard
it as the definitive disposition of Ignatian mysticism and vision of a God-filled
reality.
7
Cf. Ignacio Ellacuría, “A Latin American Reading of the Spiritual Exercises
of Saint Ignatius,” Spiritus 10, no. 2 (2010): 205–42 (trans. by J. Matthew
Ashley). Cf. also Ashley’s article on the translation in the same issue of
Spiritus: “A Contemplative under the Standard of Christ.” Also, Oscar Arango
Alzate and Orlando Solano Pinzón: “La Espiritualidad en Ignacio
Ellacuría,” Theologica Xaveriana 66, no. 181 (2016): 123-145. For a useful
introduction to the philosophical and theological thought of Ellacuría, cf.
Kevin F. Burke, The Ground Beneath the Cross: The Theology of Ignacio
Ellacuría (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2000), esp.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

The intention of this paper is not to undertake a comprehensive

exploration of the text of the Spiritual Exercises and its political
implications. The aim is twofold: firstly, to identify key features
which will help us appreciate the way in which the Spiritual Exercises
are significant for our social and cultural agency and can serve as a
theological-spiritual hermeneutic for judging political and cultural
systems. Secondly, it will suggest that we do the Exercises a
disservice if we confine them purely to the growth of an individual
spiritual subject. They certainly are intended for the conversion and
liberation of our freedom, but they also intend that this freedom is
placed at the disposal of God’s salvific purpose. In so far as the
Exercises always direct us to an encounter with a God “working in all
things,” they do not allow us to flee from the world. Rather, they
encourage us to become active apostles of Christ and his kingdom
within it. The Exercises do not propose any particular political or
social system, but offer us a way of discerning the principles and
values that should guide our actions and the means that best serve us
and our neighbor to attain our ends.

The two “sites” of the text of the Exercises which I think can
most directly and economically illustrate my thesis are (a) the
Principle and Foundation which represents the recovery of “the self”
and the ordering of our freedom, and (b) the Two Standards and the
unmasking of the strategies of Evil. I shall argue that they cannot be
separated from the Cross (Third Week) which grounds the counter-
strategy of a redeemed, cruciform freedom. What distinguishes this

Chapter 3, pp.85ff and Chapter 4 on theological method. Cf. also Andrew

Prevot, “Ignatian Spirituality, Political Effectiveness, and Spiritual
Discernment: Dean Brackley's Account of Liberation Theology,” Political
Theology: The Journal of Christian Socialism 18, no. 4 (2017): pp. 309–324.

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James Hanvey “Some Political and Cultural Implications of the Spiritual
Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola”

from the freedom recovered through the grace of the crucified Christ in
the First Week is that it is the expression of Christological freedom
realized in obedience and abandonment to the Divine salvific will. It is
an operant freedom in history which has redemptive power. In the
course of our exploration of each of these dimensions, I will also
indicate where I believe they have contemporary political and social
significance. In this sense, I seek to confirm and develop Hugo
Rahner’s insight that Ignatius offers us an apostolic mysticism. 8

1: The Principle and Foundation: Recovery of “Self” and the Gift

of Discerning Freedom

Although the Principle and Foundation (PF) came to be

formulated later in the evolution of the Exercises, there is no doubt that
it is central to their whole dynamic. 9 Not only does it act as a
fundamental orientation and measure of freedom at the beginning, but
it is also part of the purification of desire expressed in the preparatory
prayer of every exercise. Indeed, the formula that “all my intentions,
actions and operations may be ordered purely to the praise and
reverence of the Divine Majesty” is a prayer which describes a whole
life.10 They constitute a doxological action realized in our purified and

8
Hugo Rahner, The Spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola, trans. Francis John
Smith SJ (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1953).
9
Santiago Arzubialde SJ, Ejercicios espirituales de S. Ignacio: Historia y
análisis, coll. Manresa; second edition (Santander: Sal Terrae, 2009), cf. 111-
124.
10
Sp Ex §46. Cf. The clarifying note for “acciones” and “operaciones” in
Ignacio de Loyola: Ejercicios Espirituales: Introcción, texto, notas, y
vocabulario, ed. Cadido de Dalmases SJ (Santander: Sal Terrae, 1987). Cf,
also Diccionario de Espiritualidad Ignaciana (2 vols.), ed. José García de
Castro et al. (Bilbao: Mensajero/Sal Terrae, 2007. Cf. vol 2: 1490-1497; 1377-
1378.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

liberated freedom expressed in and through the service of humanity

and of creation. They capture the soteriological doxology of Christ’s
person and life which the graced life of the Holy Spirit realized in us. 11

Three important features of the PF are relevant for our discussion:

firstly, the human subject is set within a relationship to God which
defines the origin and telos of a human life. It is a relationship in
which all other goods are relativised in the light of this supreme good:
“to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to
save his (sic) soul.” Secondly, the PF establishes the criterion by
which we can judge our proper use of these goods “in so far as they
help” towards our end. This is also the measure of our freedom in
relation to all created things and to God. Thirdly, the PF effectively
maps the drama of our personal history which can also be expanded to
frame all human history. In this respect, Ignatius condenses into a
principle the drama of human freedom identified by Augustine as the
relationship between uti (use) and frui (enjoyment). 12 Although its
form is almost syllogistic, the PF is far from being a rationalist or
voluntarist charter. If anything, it sets out the whole purpose of the
Exercises upon which the exercitant is about to embark. It marks a
central locus in grasping the subtle interplay between human nature
and God’s salvific will at work, not only in each individual, but within
the sweep of history itself.

11
Cf. Ignacio Ellacuría, “A Latin American Reading of the Spiritual Exercises
of Saint Ignatius,” Spiritus 10, no. 2 (2010): 212, who argues against the
spiritualist, voluntarist and materialist reading to ground the PF in the salvific
work of Christ.
12
For one of Augustine’s most succinct treatments, cf. his homilies on I John,
esp. Second Homily §7-14. Cf. also the still helpful discussion in John
Burnaby, Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine, first edition:
1938, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2007), 104-110.

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James Hanvey “Some Political and Cultural Implications of the Spiritual
Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola”

As formulated and presented, the PF serves to interrogate the

understanding we have of our freedom and how it is exercised. It also
alerts us to the intimate relationship between the self and freedom. It
pushes us to a deeper reflection of the desires which motivate us and
direct our agency, both the desires we might rationally and publicly
profess as well as those that are not so readily (or willingly) recognized.
The PF presents us with a challenging clarity: if we truly desire the end
proposed, we will enter into the school of the Exercises. We will allow
ourselves to be taught by God in order to receive the gift of a loving
freedom to serve in whatever state we are called. This is a freedom
which Ignatius regards as “indifference.” It is not a neutrality or a lack
of commitment; rather, it is a readiness for whatever might be asked of
us, which is to God’s glory and the help of our neighbor. This
13
“indifference” or freedom is the condition for discerning.

The PF is a universal principle in the sense that it is operative

whatever our circumstances, status, or abilities. The freedom which it
puts before us is “sola dei gloria” and this will relativize all political
and social claims to which we may be either attracted or subject. It
places them in a new framework of value.

It would be a mistake to think that the PF proposes a purely

instrumental “use” of created things – even human beings. Rather, as
with Augustine, it is inviting us to attend to their proper “use,” which
entails an appreciation of their own intrinsic value. It is a refusal to
idealize or fetishize them as sources of our lasting happiness, our

13
For a brief treatment of this important and often misunderstood disposition,
cf. Diccionario, 1495–1496 §6. Also, cf. the entry with bibliography of useful
commentaries, “Indifferencia,” Diccionario, 1015–1021. The freedom which
is ready for service already presupposes that we love Christ and are willing to
choose whatever state of life or way of living that will be of greater service to
him. “Indifference” already presupposes this real “affective commitment.”

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

“fruition,” which constitutes an instrumentalizing approach. The world

is given in the sense of “being there” and in the sense of gift. To
inhabit it and use it well is to live conscious of our relational
dependence, which refuses to make it into some sort of “god” or
exploit its “givenness” as a resource to which and for which we have
no responsibilities. Our epistemological, moral and spiritual task is to
see and respond to it in its own proper order. This entails an obligation
to understand, respect and value the created order as something in its
own right, possessing its own telos and value which cannot be reduced
to our need or use. Gaudium et Spes captures this well when it says,
“For by the very circumstance of their having been created, all things
are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and
order.” 14 Creation has its own intrinsic goodness and this imposes
obligations upon us; we have a moral relationship to all created
things. 15 When we consider the role creation plays in the Spiritual
Exercises, especially in the First Week (§55) and the Contemplatio
(§230), we see it has a soteriological purpose. If creation is the
enduring witness of God’s providential love for us, witnessing to this
love even while we continue to reject it through our sinfulness, then, in
some way, creation participates in our destiny. Creation remains an
enduring reason for an outpouring of our gratitude. Gratitude is both
an affective relationship as well as a moral one in which a gift is
recognized, received and cherished, not only because of the giver but

14
§36. This is part of an argument for the proper autonomy of scientific
investigation on the one hand, and the harmony between science and faith on
the other.
15
In this regard, our care of creation is to imitate the Creator, which extends
beyond a narrow sense of stewardship as conservation and preservation. For a
fuller discussion, cf. Willis Jenkins, Ecologies of Grace: Environmental Ethics
and Christian Theology (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008).

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James Hanvey “Some Political and Cultural Implications of the Spiritual
Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola”

also for itself. Gratitude is the characteristic mark of someone who

lives in the right disposition of all created things; it is a sign of a
redeemed relationship towards God, neighbor and creation. If we live
in the grace of gratitude, we cannot exploit or instrumentalize another.
In this context, gratitude is more than thankfulness. It is the dynamic
dilation of one’s whole self in openness to creation and its Creator. It
heightens our awareness of our relationality, which takes active
expression in generosity: the disposition of the self to the care and
service of the other. When the soul is flooded with gratitude, not only
is it more open to God, but it is disposed to the Divine will. Gratitude
points us towards the sanctifying dimension of mission which every
Christian has with regard to creation. 16 Although it is beyond the
scope of this paper to explore the ecological implications of this vision
contained within the Spiritual Exercises, we can begin to see the
radical personal, political and economic outcomes that such a vision
will entail.

If the PF locates us as an active self within a nexus of dynamic

and intersecting relationships, its sparse, succinct “scholastic”
language can easily hide its multidimensionality and the process of
“conversion” and transformation that it describes. All these
dimensions will come into play as the PF unfolds throughout the
dynamic of the Exercises. Our relationship with God and with others
which takes place with the whole created order of the finite can
conceal the deeper dynamic which marks all our relationships.

16
“Stewardship” has now become a contested term in ecological discourse.
Within scripture, stewardship is not domination or subjection but the ways in
which humans are called upon to imitate the Divine stewardship of care. Cf.
James Hanvey, “Laudato Si’ and the Renewal of Theologies of
Creation,” Heythrop Journal 59, no. 6 (2018): 1022–1035.

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Although the central axis of mediation is always the individual’s

personal relationship of encounter with Christ, this dynamic in which
and through which our lives are played out takes place in the
transcendent reality of the salvific activity of the Triune life and the
imminent realties of our “now” or our “situatedness.” In the course of
the Exercises, the self becomes transparent to itself in the course of
loving God which, for Ignatius, is always expressed in the desire for
ever greater service. It is the movement which St Paul articulates in I
Cor 13:12 and it is both noetic and affective. The Exercises do not
know a Cartesian self or self-knowledge. It is always a self-in-relation.
This, too, has its own characteristic knowledge, for the self knows
itself in so much as it knows how much it is in need of redemption.
Hence, the deeper this awareness, the more we see that we cannot
separate ourselves from Christ: the knowledge of self will depend on
our knowledge of Christ. In knowing Christ, we cannot separate the
cognitive from the affective. As in John’s Gospel, knowledge of
Christ comes through love. Indeed, the more we love Christ, the more
we know him and our world through his love. Here, the Exercises lead
us into the central mystery of revelation: all Christian gnosis comes by
way of the Cross. “Conversion,” which is the process by which we
appropriate this “gnosis,” is a recovery and reordering or
reconstruction (conversion) of the self. Just as there is no distinction in
Christ between his person and his mission, so the Exercises gradually
re-form us in the grace of this Christ-like integrity. Hence, we will
experience a desire to participate in his mission of establishing the
Kingdom of God. The “self” that emerges from the Exercises has
discovered that “to praise, reverence and serve” are not only active
verbs that apply at the individual level, but they encompass the whole
Divine purpose of “working the redemption of the human race” (§107).

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The relationship with all created things, established in the PF, is

disclosed as mission. We come to see that the way of our salvation,
and becoming more completely who we are, must be through Christ
and the service of others; through working for the salvation of the other,
we enact the freedom of our graced self. It is now possible to see that
the whole dynamic of the PF, which leads us into the mystery of Christ
and whose end cannot be realized without him, will have significant
cultural and political consequences in practice.

The Political Implications of the PF

Firstly, if we genuinely love Christ and seek our own salvation,
we cannot avoid history or society. Indeed, we are firmly located in
and committed to the salvific good of all creation. We are
reconstituted in Christ as soteriological agents: an agency which is
worked out in the unpredictability of “times, places, circumstances.”
For this reason, “discernment” is integral to our graced freedom and
agency.

Secondly, location of the self in both transcendent and the

temporal relationships with all created things means that St Ignatius
recovers two vital dimensions for our understanding of the human
person and his or her agency. In this respect, the Exercises represent
an authentic Christian anthropology in which the person lives in a
relational transcendence to God which is foundational for the imminent
relationship with all other things. 17 It holds our relationship with

17
It is important to understand that these are not opposing relationships. There
is a certain dynamic mutuality without collapsing one into the other.
Ultimately, they disclose the character of finitude which is disclosed in the
absolute and irreducible transcendence of God. In this sense, there is a certain

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human society and creation in their most dynamic and creative order,
while providing a barrier to any reductionism. Where humans are
understood purely in material terms, not only is their moral
responsibility to all created things compromised, but they themselves
are exposed to instrumentalization. Value becomes determined by use
and utility; in turn, this becomes subject to political, economic and
social power, now liberated from any responsibility to “the human.”

The most egregious examples of this can be seen with slavery

and the politico-social creation of classes and castes, which then
subsequently determine access to legal protection and rights.
Narratives are developed to legitimate these creations and de-humanize
those placed in the categories. We can see this happening in history,
especially through the power dynamics of colonization and empire, but
it continues today with the Rohingyas, Yazidis, Uyghurs, indigenous
peoples, and Tribals.

Instrumentalization and reductionism can also take place within

societies where particular “identities”—sexual, social, economic,
cultural—can be re-narrated so as to degrade value and make violence
or policies of elimination appear necessary and virtuous. Neither the
State nor the law (national or international) have the stability to be
keepers of the human soul, for neither have any intrinsic commitment
to transcendence. Yet, this transcendence, which grounds the non-
reducibility of the human person and their freedom, can still be seen

“Chalcedonian” analogy. It is only in their relationship that we can grasp

them. However, the transcendent does not simply find expression in relation to
God, but also in relation to all created things. They represent “the other,”
which cannot be absorbed but stands as the condition and point of our own
particularity on the one hand and opens up the space “beyond” us on the other.
This means that “the other,” even when an apparent threat, is integral to our
own identity and becoming.

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even in the secular world, or where God is not explicitly acknowledged

and may even be denied. It is exercised as conscience, which is
recognized through the respect that is given to it even when it is seen
as dangerous or inconvenient.

For the Ignatian Exercises, the ultimate guarantor of humanity is

the absoluteness of God. Christianity not only maintains the absolute
transcendence of trinitarian monotheism but, with the Incarnation of
Christ, it refuses to allow this to be used to diminish or degrade the
value of the human person. God’s decision to create that which is not
God and, even more radically, to be involved in the history of creation
opens up the uniqueness of the Judeo-Christian faith. It embeds
human freedom in the Divine freedom and preserves the experience of
God as liberator not oppressor. This radical freedom of God—which is
God’s own aseity and transcendence—ultimately subverts any attempts
to turn God into a product of the State or the dominant power group.
The whole testimony of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New
Testament is a witness to this. The PF is a condensed statement of this
history in which it is grounded. In stating the transcendent purpose of
the human person, it relativizes all other claims. It also reminds us that
we belong to God and are of infinite value to God, a value which is
realized and secured in Christ. This transcendent value and, indeed,
the transcendent destiny of our whole self (material, spiritual,
historical) is realized in Christ’s resurrection. For this reason, we
should understand the “telos” described in the PF as containing an
eschatology.

The Gift of Finite Freedom for Transcendence

The absoluteness of God and our transcendent destiny is not a
hidden strategy for a theocratic state. That would be just as oppressive

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and idolatrous as any secular absolutism. There are two dimensions to

God’s absoluteness, which makes it more than a religious assertion of
Divinity. If it were only this then, politically and socially, it would
become another power game within a secular order. Firstly, in
Christian terms, God’s absolute transcendence marks the boundary
between the finite and infinite. It ensures that “God” can never be
confused with the created order and, therefore, can never be made into
an idol. Idols are not a self-creation; they are always the “product of
human hands.”18 If God’s absoluteness marks the irreducible nature of
the finite precisely as finite, it does not necessarily pose a barrier to it.
Indeed, the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation maintains the
opposite. Chalcedon’s insight into the relation between the two natures
in Christ is a paradigm for the way in which the finite (human) is
realized in its relationship to the Divine. 19

Secondly, if the “telos” of the person is God and participation in

the Divine life, then God has bestowed an inestimable value upon the
person. This is not dependent in any way upon his or her capacity,
gifts, status or physical form. Moreover, each one has a unique
vocation to God as their end, which cannot be assimilated to historical
achievements or recognition. If God is the absolute of a person’s life,
then, as we have seen, all other claims are relativized. Consequently,

18
In this sense, Ps. 135, vv. 16–18 speaks for the whole of the Judeo-Christian
tradition.
19
Cf. Karl Rahner, Ignatius of Loyola, ed. Paul Imhof; trans. Rosaleen
Ockenden (London: Collins, 1979), 13-15. For Rahner, the Exercises are
about the disclosure of God’s freedom, which disposes our lives precisely
through the recovery of our own freedom in Christ. The interplay of finite and
infinite freedoms is also explored by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Theo-drama:
Theological Dramatic Theory. Vol. 1: Prolegomena, trans. Graham Harrison
(San Francisco, CA: Ignatius, 1988). B/4. Cf. also: Theo-drama: Theological
Dramatic Theory. Vol. 2, The Dramatis Personae: Man in God, B/II.

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the order expressed in the PF ensures the proper ordering of relations

between the person and the community, the community and the State. 20
Yet, this is not the assertion of an absolute individuality which risks
confusing itself with God’s absoluteness. The PF encapsulates the
radical nature of the person’s transcendent value, but it also articulates
their dependence: first upon God and then upon the community and the
whole of creation. As we have seen, this relational inter-dependency is
the mark of finitude. 21 It not only characterizes our freedom but
entails responsibilities; we are responsible for the good of the other and
assisting their movement towards God. In this, it opens the way to the
primary insight of the Christian tradition on the primacy of “charity.”

Responsible Freedom for Others

To exercise this responsibility ensures that I cannot
instrumentalize the other to fulfil my own desires or will. This

20
From within the Protestant world, there is the important example of the
prophetic Barmer Theologische Erklärung (1934), a document adopted by
Protestant Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the Deutsche Christen,
which they regarded as making the Church subservient to the Nazi state. It
also entails the rejection of any form of racism. On this question, cf. the
impact of the Barmen Kairos Theologians: The Kairos Document: A
Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa, 2nd rev. ed.
(London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, British Council of
Churches, 1986). Cf. also Robert A. Cathey, “What Can the Barmen
Declaration Teach Us Today?” in Currents in Theology and Mission 36, no. 2
(2009). For a review of the complexities facing the Catholic position, cf.
Frank J. Coppa, “Pope Pius XI's ‘Encyclical’ Humani Generis Unitas Against
Racism and Anti-Semitism and the “Silence” of Pope Pius XII,” A Journal of
Church and State 40, no. 4 (1998): 775-95. Also cf. Frank J. Coppa, Politics
and the Papacy in the Modern World (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008), esp.
chapters 6-8.
21
For a recent exploration of inter-dependency, cf. Alasdair C.
MacIntyre, Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues
(London: Duckworth, 2009).

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responsibility also lies with the community and the State. In ways
appropriate to each, there is a commitment to respect the intrinsic
transcendent value of each person, whatever their status or condition.
Equally, there is also a commitment to provide those resources
necessary for each person to realize their dignity and “mission” for the
greater good. When the person acts in accord with their constitution in
seeking God, they are living the genuine good within them. If the
good is self-diffusive (bonum diffusivum sui), the person will also want
to share and create this good. This is another dimension of our agency,
especially when that goodness is elevated by grace.

It is in this context that we can understand how discernment is a

necessary practice for spiritual growth and must become a habitual
practice in the exercise of our freedom, especially in our relationships
and their growth in goodness. The “redemption” or “healing” of
freedom in the Exercises will also act as a critique of the dominant
contemporary equation of freedom with autonomy. 22

Autonomy as the unrestricted and independent exercise of

personal will has become deeply embedded in our western culture.
When accepted as an absolute value which underpins “freedom of
choice,” the exercise of agency and therefore of political status, it can
be double-edged. On the one hand, it can be instrumentalizing and, on
the other, it can leave us open to exploitation. It undermines the
responsibilities of interdependencies and mutual relationalities. Only
God can have the absolute freedom that autonomy sets as the human
goal. To be finite is to recognize our interdependent relationality. To

22
For an extensive discussion of the relationship between freedom and
discernment within the theology of liberation and doxology, cf. Andrew L.
Prevot, Thinking Prayer: Theology and Spirituality amid the Crises of
Modernity (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame UP, 2015): esp. chapter 5.

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attempt to circumvent it can result in a profound alienation and a

distortion of our social realities. As the alternative to this, the PF and
the Exercises which follow firmly locate us within the finite.
However, we come to understand that this does not diminish or restrict
us. Rather, it becomes the realm in which we encounter our capacity
for self-transcendence and the responsibilities we have to the other.
Here, the finite becomes the condition of realising our potential for
freedom which not only serves our own flourishing but is generative of
community. In other words, the PF envisages us exercising our
freedom in love and gratitude towards God and all created things.
Dependency is not seen as a restriction of our freedom but the
condition of its perfection (cf. Contemplatio). This understanding of
freedom and the way in which identity and purpose is expressed in its
exercise becomes a source of our liberation from the false (idolatrous)
entanglements. It is also the perspective from which we can unmask
them. It will now be clear that this understanding of freedom has wide
implications for all of our social, political and economic systems,
especially when they purport to be the cause, guarantors, and means of
our autonomy, represented by their apparent ability to offer infinite
23
capacity for choice. The recent thesis advanced by Eugene
McCarraher makes a thoughtful and persuasive case for the way in
which capitalism has become the “religion” of modernity, and a similar
24
genealogy could be developed for other economic systems.

23
Cf. Joseph Veale, Manifold Gifts: Ignatian Essays on Spirituality (Oxford:
Way Books, 2006). All of these essays are worth reading but, for this point, cf.
169–170.
24
Cf. Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism
Became the Religion of Modernity (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard
UP, 2019). Cf. also Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation, New York:
Farrar & Rinehart, 1944; and Tim Rogan, The Moral Economists: R.H.

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However, what emerges from our experience of living the dynamic of

the PF is that the finite is the realm in which we encounter the call or
pull of transcendence, which is the essence of our own journey of self-
realization. Yet, there is something more which we could not have
seen had we relied on its deistic logic alone. The “finite” is precisely
the ground in which God in Christ has chosen to meet us. In doing so,
God has guaranteed the finite creation and its capacity to mediate, to
be the theater of grace. The resurrection of Christ will confirm this and
open up a new understanding of the finite for us.

Carrying the Memory of the “Who” in the Human

It is now possible to see how the Exercises contain a theological
anthropology which does not remain at a theoretical level. It becomes
a way of living and acting in the world. Every political, economic and
social system contains its own anthropology. Policies, structures and
decisions express values; implicitly or explicitly they put forward a
vision of the human “telos,” whether that is expressed in the pursuit of
happiness and self-fulfilment or as service to the greater destiny of the
State or the system. Such anthropologies do not necessarily lack an

Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E.P. Thompson, and the Critique of Capitalism

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2017). For a cultural critique, cf. Isabel Capeloa
Gil and Helena Gonçalves Da Silva, The Cultural Life of Money (Berlin;
Boston: De Gruyter, 2015). Echoing Tawney, cf. Benjamin M. Friedman,
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York: Knopf, 2021). Like Tawney,
Friedman approaches his subject from a Protestant (and mainly American)
perspective which distorts his argument. He seems largely ignorant of
Catholic Social Thought, especially the work of Heinrich Pesch and the social
encyclicals. Cf. the work of Stefano Zamagni and Luigino Bruni on
economies of altruism and reciprocity. Also cf. the encyclical of Benedict
XVI, Caritas in Veritate (2009), which substantially advances Catholic
magisterial thinking on economic systems and values. Cf. Daniel K. Finn, The
True Wealth of Nations: Catholic Social Thought and Economic Life (New
York; Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010).

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understanding of the interplay of immanence and transcendence. In

fact, they can convert it to their own ends. John Updike once famously
described America as “a vast conspiracy to make you happy.”25 The
conspiracy, however, goes wider and deeper than America. It is the
fundamental strategy for an unredeemed political and economic
system. When harnessing religion to serve their own ends or when
rejecting it, a soteriological claim lies within all secular systems. In an
essay entitled “The Future of Catholicism,” Jean Luc Marion identifies
a crisis in the post-Cartesian construction of the self. Even though
Kant is able to establish “man” (sic) as an end in himself, Marion
points out the implication of this humanist principle: “By a paradoxical
but inevitable reversal, this means today that everything that can claim
to serve man as a final goal immediately justifies itself; man himself
can become a means for man, understood as an end—state violence,
biological manipulation, attacks on life in utero, and so on, maintain
their supposed legitimacy by claiming to serve man, as an end in
himself, at the risk of reducing very concrete men to the rank of simple
means.”26 Marion concedes that we can think of “man” as his own
final goal, but this does not answer the question of “who” such a
person is. He argues that one of the functions of the Church is to
provide the resources for answering this question, without which the
“humanum” is always in danger. The Church’s mission is “to show
that God alone can give man the freedom to go back—first—to man
himself, by giving him the freedom to resemble nothing less than God

25
The New Yorker, August 19th 1972: “How to Love America and Leave it at
the Same Time.”
26
Jean-Luc Marion, Believing in Order to See: On the Rationality of
Revelation and the Irrationality of Some Believers (New York: Fordham UP,
2017): 79

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himself.”27 What Marion sees as the future of Catholicism is, in fact,

its theological anthropology, which can both resist a destructive self-
idolization and propose a re-ordering of our relations through the
recognition that we are nothing but what we have received. 28

As we have seen, the Exercises not only offer such a theological

anthropology, but they show us a way of living it. Ultimately, this is
more significant than establishing a philosophical or theological vision
of humanity, no matter how coherent or appealing. If the vision cannot
be realized in history, it remains another noble edifice of human
reason. It may hold a vision of Christ but, if it is not incarnated into
history, the reality and practice of daily life, it will remain only an
aesthetic hypothetical construct. Jesus Christ is not only a historical
figure; he is a living presence in history, of which he is the Lord.
History is the place of encounter, transformation and transfiguration.
This is why the whole dynamic of the Exercises is a profound,
transformational journey “in” history into which we are now sent as
servant and companion of Christ who is already active within it. 29 The
Christian life and the Christian community not only articulate this
reality, but they present it in the court of human reason. By living it,
they create a new space, a new possibility within history. This
possibility can only be real and sustained by the gift of Christ and the
work of the Holy Spirit. The Church is not a self-founding or self-
sustaining community. If that is weakness before the world, it is also a
subversion of worldly powers. When the Church lives from the gift of
the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Risen Lord, she and her

27
Ibid, p. 81.
28
Ibid, p. 84.
29
Cf. The dynamic of the Fourth Week and the Contemplatio ad Amorem §230
ff.

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members are also empowered to live that freedom which the PF

describes. Such a graced freedom which takes up the cause of the
other, their dignity and hope will always be a challenge to ideology
whatever form it takes or security it offers. This will be as true for
religious ideologies as it is for secular and atheist ones. 30 The
Christian life and the community of faith, the Church, which sustains
it, is a space of creative hope in which humanity comes to know its
destiny and is empowered to live it.

If the graced experience of the Spiritual Exercises opens up this

“new possibility,” they also place us at the heart of the drama and
require us to exercise the gift of freedom that we have been given. The
Exercises confront us with the ultimate reality of choice: are we for
Christ or not? They do not allow us the luxury of neutrality. This, too,
is part of their theo-political character.

II: The Two Standards and the Unmasking of the Strategies of Evil
The centrality of the Two Standards and Three Modes of
Humility in the dynamic process of the Exercises is well recognized.
They are also at the core of the primitive version of the Exercises,
indicating their foundational nature in Ignatius’ own experience at
Manresa and subsequently forming the core of the shape of the

30
Cf. Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for
God (New York: Oxford UP, 2020), especially the concluding chapter, 151 ff.
The analysis offered of Christian nationalism as a type of ideology is also
effective for all religions which have been conscripted into nationalist politics.
The other dimension of this is “Political Religions” apart from the seminal
work of Eric Voeglin, Die politischen Religionen (Wien: Bermann-Fischer
Verlag, 1938); cf. Emilio Gentile, Le Religioni della politica: Fra democrazie
e totalitarianismi, (ET) Politics as Religion. Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton
UP, 2006. It is not possible within the scope of this essay to enter into how the
Exercises, indeed, Christian revelation, can critique this phenomenon which is
not just a modern one.

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Exercises which emerge from it. 31 While they are certainly there to
school the process of discernment and frame the election, they
concentrate and encapsulate the whole dynamic of the Exercises. They
also become the principal tools for the life of service to which we are
called. Here, we can briefly set out its key elements.

1: Knowing and Living Christ

We have already seen how the Exercises place us within the

drama of history. If one of the principal graces of the First Week is the
knowledge of how sin and evil can entangle us, the subsequent weeks
then take us into a profound and personal knowledge of how God acts
to redeem us and the world. This brings us to our “second
conversion”: the person and knowledge of Christ and his mission.

We have already encountered Christ in our “first conversion”:

knowledge of the abyss of sin in the world, both personal and cosmic,
and our encounter with the crucified Christ who is also our redemption
(§53). Only in the experience and knowledge of the First Week can we
enter into the second conversion of the Second and Third Weeks,
which is the way of the crucified Christ. For Ignatius, understanding
or knowledge is never purely an intellectual enlightenment. It is a
deeper and more complete “knowing” which engages the affect or the
heart, which is a sort of attunement to the person and way of Christ. In
this way, our knowing becomes praxis. For Ignatius, there is a
complementarity between the activity of our reason and our affective
or experiential knowledge. We can see this movement set out in the

31
For the background to the “three classes of men” (Ex § 149-157), cf.
Arzubialde, 401–416, and also Andreas Falkner SJ, “Nota sobre los Binarios”
in Juan Plazaola SJ, ed. Las Fuentes De Los Ejercicios Espirituales de San
Ignacio: Actas de Simposio Internacional, Bilbao: Ediciones Mensajero, 1998.

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governing petition of the Second Week. It is formulated in the two

verbs: conocer and imitar—to know and to imitate. In their respective
32
ways, they are both conditioned by “interno.” Through the
contemplations of the Second Week, we are drawn into an experiential
knowledge. “Imitar” is an integral part of this knowing. Christ is
more than an “exemplar” to be imitated. Rather, the knowledge which
is given is a participative knowledge; it entails the Pauline “Christ lives
in me.” 33 Here, we see that one of the fruits of the Exercises is a
profound epistemological healing and expansion: “to see all things in
Christ.”34 Formally, this is the indwelling activity of the Holy Spirit in
the exercitant through the growth and reordering of the energies of
desire and love. To be drawn into this ever deeper “conocimento
interno” of Christ is to be drawn into the whole salvific economy of
the Incarnation, its personal and historical unfolding. Not only is this

32
For a fuller exploration, cf. Arzubialde, Ejercicios, 347–354. For useful,
informative, concise studies, cf. Dicc. Vol. 1, 400-408. Still useful: cf. also,
Ig. Iparraguirre, Vocabulario. The entry in the Diccionario for “Imitar” comes
under “imitación de Cristo” (cf. Vol I, 994–100). This gives a useful summary
of the tradition with which Ignatius would have been familiar in the devotional
movements and teachings. However, it does not deal with the epistemological
significance of “imitar” and the critical role it plays in the Two Standards.
33
Cf. The Exercises on the application of the senses. These types of exercises
of the senses are certainly part of the spiritual tradition before Ignatius. They
become an important part of deepening the experiential knowledge of Christ.
However, in the Exercises, they are also part of the school of apostolic service.
They serve to renew, sensitize and educate the faculties so that they are now
not only open to the world in the normal way, but are open to it as the realm of
God’s activity and Christ’s presence. The whole object of the interior
knowledge which we seek is to become aware of, and alert to the presence of
Christ the way someone deeply and truly in love “knows” and is alert and
sensitive to the one whom they love, even able to anticipate their needs and
thoughts.
34
We can see these at play in the three ways of making the election, §175-188.
The second and third ways of making an election refer respectively to reason
and affect. They should also be read with the “parable” of the three classes of
men in mind §150-157.

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experienced in the concrete life of Christ but, as the Contemplatio

indicates, it is the ever-present activity of the Divine Triune love
sustaining, redeeming and sanctifying throughout history, past, present
and future. Whatever state of life we choose, following him cannot be
done in any way. It can only be effective through a total commitment
to Christ. To be clear, it will entail entering into the cruciform reality
of his person – his mission ad extra, which is grounded ad intra in his
obedience as Son to the Father and sealed through the Holy Spirit, “the
Lord and Giver of Life.” The position of The Two Standards and
Three Modes of Humility within the Second Week is important if this
transformation is to be realized.

2: The Eschatological Drama of the Kingdom

The Two Standards and the Three Modes concentrate and
summarize the whole mission of Christ. They correctly understand it
as one that is universal and eschatological. If the experience of the
First week shows us that the goal of the Principle and Foundation is
actually impossible without the salvific grace of the crucified Lord,
then discernment, to be effectively exercised, must have this
knowledge. To read the world and history without the crucified and
Risen Christ risks making it an exercise in theistic gnosis or atheistic
self-construction: knowledge which may need experience and insight
but not an encounter with the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The Hermeneutic of History

At first glance, the presentation of the Two Standards can appear

to have the same parabolic character as The Call of the Earthly King

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(§91ff) but I think they stand in a different genre. 35 Although it

presents us with a vivid imaginary scene, the imagery of the Two
Standards is deeply rooted in scripture and tradition. They open for us
the way in which the advent of Christ unmasks the activity of evil and
its strategies. They locate or relocate us within the immediacy of the
battle for the Kingdom. Anyone who wishes to know and follow
Christ will find themselves in a real conflict with the forces named in
Ephesians as “powers and principalities.” 36 We cannot forget the
knowledge of the First Week concerning the cosmic and supernatural
“history” of sin and evil.37 As the gospels make clear, Christ is the
unavoidable moment of decision, the moment of “crisis” which always
has a historical and existential reality. To treat the imagery of the Two
Standards as some anachronistic device derived from the piety of a
previous age that needs to be “demythologized” risks de-historicising
the reality of the Kingdom in conflict with evil. In doing so, we

35
Cf. Arzubialde, Ejercicios, cf. who sees it as a parable p.395.
36
Eph. 6:12. Karl Barth’s Rechtfertigung und Recht (1938) was one of the
pioneering works in this area; Church and State, trans. Ronald Howe (London:
Student Christian Movement Press, 1939). As noted by Marva J. Dawn,
Barth’s work was preceded by the works of Johann Christoph Blumhardt and
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt. See Marva J. Dawn, Powers, Weakness, and
the Tabernacling of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001): pp. 1-5; and
Johann Christoph Blumhardt’s biography, as narrated by Friedrich Zuendel:
The Awakenings: One Man’s Battle with Darkness (Farmington, PA: Plough
Publishing House, 1999). For influential contemporary studies, cf. Markus
Barth, The Broken Wall: A Study of Ephesians (Valley Forge, PA: Judson,
1959); and G.H.C. MacGregor, “Principalities and Powers: The Cosmic
Background of Paul’s Thought” in New Testament Studies 1, no. 1 (1954): 17-
28; and Martyn, J. Louis, Theological Issues in the Letters of Paul (Nashville,
TN: Abingdon Press, 1997). An important study for Catholic theology is
Heinrich Schlier, Principalities and Powers in the New Testament (New York:
Herder and Herder, 1961).
37
We should note that, in doing so, they recapitulate the “history” of sin in the
First Week, and they run through the same dimension: cosmic/supernatural to
existential and personal. In this sense, “history” is not simply a temporal
category measured only in human terms.

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remove it from the realm of history to the purely personal and dis-
incarnate realm of the “spiritual.” As Karl Barth argues: “To say
‘Jesus’ is necessarily to say ‘history,’ his history, the history in which
he is what he is and does what he does. In this history, we know God,
and we know evil and their relationship the one to the other—but only
from this source and in this way.”38

In locating us, the Two Standards also become a school in which

we learn the practical and necessary “discretion,” the knowledge we
need to serve Christ and stay true to him. This is essentially an
apostolic wisdom. Not only is it ordered to our own personal growth
in Christ, it is about mission. Indeed, this is what we find in the way in
which the synoptic gospels present the inauguration of Jesus’ mission
under the power of the Holy Spirit. After his baptism, he is
immediately engaged in the trial or temptations of the “Enemy.” So,
too, the Two Standards inaugurate and shape our response to the call of
Christ and the unfolding of the Christian mission. Indeed, any mission
which does not understand itself in terms of this eschatological drama
will find it difficult to understand itself and its choices. In the Two
Standards, the Exercises give us a “weapon” to be wielded in Christ’s
service for the salvation of souls. They also show us that the only
“weapon” is that of the cross.39

Discernment and the Choice of the Cross

In this context, we can see how the drama of the Two Standards
is the presupposition of the discernment of spirits. It takes up the
cosmic and supernatural history of sin in the First Week and now gives

38
“Jesus is the Victor” in Church Dogmatics IV: 69. §3. The whole discussion
is instructive for the Two Standards.
39
Hugo Rahner, The Spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola, 95.

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it particular focus in the eschatological drama of another “kingdom”

opposed to that of Christ. The kingdom of Satan exercises power
through fear, terror, deception, and violence (§140).40 It also has its
“apostles” and servants; it parallels the contemplation of the
Incarnation, for it too envisages the whole world (§141).41 Just as the
temptations of Christ are all socio-political and religious possibilities
within “this” world, so the Two Standards offer us a hermeneutic for
the concrete realities of our own history, circumstances and choices.
In whatever guise evil presents itself, there is an active hatred of
human freedom which it seeks to destroy with entrapments (nets and
chains) and seductions: coveting wealth; vain honor; pride (§142). We
can see that the effect of these is threefold:

40
Cf. also the Rules for the discernment of Spirit in the First and Second
Weeks. For a significant modern treatment of this dynamic under the
“mécanisme victimaire,” cf. René Girard, I See Satan Fall like Lightning,
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001). Girard’s whole book and his analysis of the
mechanism of mimetic imitation and the role it plays in the cycles of violence,
broken by the Cross, could act as a commentary on the Two Standards.
41
“Satan” by Xavier Léon-Dufour in the Dictionary of Biblical Theology
(French: Vocabulaire de Théologie Biblique, 1967). The Christian must
choose between Christ and Satan: 2. Cor. 6:14. He loves to disguise himself:
traps, deceits, wiles, maneuvers (2 Cor. 2:11; Eph. 6:11; 1 Tim. 3:7, 6:9). The
angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). The Apocalypse from 12 onwards offers a sort of
synthesis of biblical teaching on the adversary against whom human nature has
to struggle. The NT thinks of the devil in terms of a power struggle: power at
work among specifically human and social realities. It seeks to describe that
which is intimately connected to the exercise of human freedom in the
empirical world yet recognizes that there is a “plus factor” that the choices of
individual human freedom cannot explain. In this context the language of
personification is not only appropriate but necessary. Is it possible, then, that
the New Testament’s language about the demonic is true in ways that are
important for us to relearn? Does the language say what needs saying in a way
no other language can?

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1: To destroy human freedom by false knowledge and illusion,

especially the illusion.

2: To draw people into the world, which is itself transitory and

cannot ultimately fulfil them. This becomes a distortion of the
Principle and Foundation because we cease to use created things well.
Not only do we destroy our own freedom, but we have a purely
instrumental approach which destroys the very good that we seek.

3: Pride is ultimately the illusion of our own power and self-

sufficiency. It not only rejects God but, because it sees God as a rival,
it seeks to destroy God and faith in Christ, God’s salvific and liberating
love. As this is impossible, it will try to destroy the imago dei in each
of us, especially as God has chosen us as the object of the Divine Love.
Pride must always exercise its power as violence in one form or
another. This is precisely what we see enacted in the figure of Lucifer.
Although the dynamics of evil are presented in personal terms, there is
a social and cultural dimension which, in the Two Standards, we come
to realize is always an active and immanent power. It creates a toxic
universe which is hostile not only to human flourishing but to the life
of all that God has created and blessed as good.

In the presentation of Christ, the true leader, we have the exact

counter-values and God’s modus operandi: humility. Here, we gain
critical knowledge of the way in which God works: we are not coerced
or terrified into subjection. Grace never usurps our freedom but
creates new possibilities for it to be realized in service of God’s good
purposes. There are no limits to the Kingdom which Christ envisages.
His power is demonstrated not through violence, but through sacrificial

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loving service: in poverty (spiritual and actual), suffering humiliation

and contempt and, finally, in humility. This is the way of the Cross but,
in accepting it, the Christian servant of Christ the King must also
become the servant of his salvific mission. We can now see that
discernment not only takes place within the horizon of the
eschatological drama of the Kingdom, but it is also verified in the way
of the Cross. It is a profoundly theological act: an act of faith and
surrender to the incomprehensible wisdom of a crucified and risen
Christ. 42 As such, it also has its own eschatological character for
choosing to be “thought worthless and a fool for Christ”—de ser
estimado por vano y loco por Cristo (§167)—is a realization of the
Kingdom. In this way, all acts of discernment must always be
measured in terms of the extent to which they advance the Kingdom.
In some way and at some level, they will be counter-intuitive to the
values and wisdom of the world. It will not be sufficient to ensure that
any decision or course of action simply resists the traps of the enemy;
it will have to positively express the values and means that God’s
salvific wisdom disclosed in Christ.

We can now appreciate how discernment is grounded in this

cruciform knowledge and presupposes it. The “rightness” of discerned
decisions cannot be measured by the normal criteria of success but,
rather, in the way we are open to the sovereignty of Christ in our lives
and in our works. Only this will truly serve the Kingdom. In this way,
discernment is not just an instrument, but a test of our desires and our
values; it draws us into the mystery of the Divine economy.

42
Cf. 1 Cor. 1:18ff. For an excellent treatment of this theme, cf. Michael J.
Gorman, Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in
Paul's Narrative Soteriology (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Eerdmans,
2009).

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The Wisdom of the Cross in the Two Standards

One of the major features of contemporary theology is the
recovery of the theology of the Cross.43 Although Augustine does not
have the same preoccupation with a revisionary metaphysics, in a brief
but significant treatment in his De Trinitate, he draws out the radical
significance of God’s choice of the cross. In many ways, it is the same
implicit “logic” of the Two Standards and it can offer a challenging
consideration for the use of violence in social transformation. In Book
XIII of the De Trinitate, Augustine asks why God does not use His
power to counter Satan but chooses the powerlessness and degradation
of the cross? 44 His answer is simple and profound: to do so would
entail God using the same strategies as Satan to overcome Satan.
Instead of breaking the “economy of evil,” God would remain trapped
in it, because God would be recognizing its logic. This is the way the
world thinks, and it must inevitably perpetuate the cycle of violence
and destructive power.

For Augustine, God chooses to triumph “by the power of God’s

righteousness” rather than by raw power itself. Of course, to those

43
The recovery of Luther’s theology of the Cross combined with the
conceptualization of Aufhebung gave European contemporary systematic
theology the tools and the need to re-think the theology in terms of kenosis,
especially following the experience of a century of war and the Atomic Bomb.
This can be seen in the work of Jürgen Moltmann and Eberhard Jüngel as well
as in Hans Urs Von Balthasar and J.B. Metz. It can also be seen in Liberation
Theology, most notably in the work of Leonardo Boff and Jon Sobrino. It is
present, too, in early pioneering Protestant thinkers, such as Karl Barth and
P.T. Forsyth.
44
De. Trin. Book XIII. Chapter 13 ff. Cf. also Book IV. 12–13: here, reflecting
on the Magi, Augustine “anticipates” the Two Standards. He argues that we
should seek to return to our homeland (heaven) by another way, “which the
humble king has taught and which the proud king, the adversary of that humble
king, cannot block.” Augustine also traces the strategies of deceit which
characterize the devil.

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who are not illuminated by the Cross, it will seem like the folly of an
impotent dream. They will remain within the fatal logic of “Satan”
and continue to have faith in their own liberating powers of violence.
Discernment, which understands itself within the eschatological drama
of the Two Standards, can only be a radical act of faith in Christ and
that his way is the only way that can save.45

Augustine presents us with a challenging insight into the ways in

which our decisions and actions must also break out of the logic of a
fallen world. This is the work of discernment that we come to learn in
the school of the Exercises, especially deepened and consolidated in
the Third Week when we enter into the depth of Christ’s passion and
crucifixion and its subtle education of our solidarity with Him and all
the victims of political and religious power. Yet, it is only by our
complete surrender to God and the Divine “way of proceeding” that we
can receive the mission which comes with the Fourth Week where we
learn from the Risen Christ how to be true ministers of consolation in a
suffering and broken world. It is the ministry of reconciliation which is
grounded in the work of Christ and eschews all violent means to
achieve its end. The reconciled peace of the Risen Christ, the true
“shalom” of the Kingdom’s sabbath can only be brought about when
we are abandoned to God’s foolishness and step into its unfathomable
darkness, the ultimate act of faith.

45
Cf. below and the discussion of René Girard. Cf. also Raymund
Schwager, Jesus in the Drama of Salvation: Toward a Biblical Doctrine of
Redemption (New York: Crossroad, 1999): esp. 182ff.: “The Transformation
of Evil,” which Schwager develops from Girard.

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3: Some Observations

Even in the light of these preliminary remarks on some of the

principal elements of the Exercises, we can begin to sense the extent of
their implications in the socio-political field. In conclusion, it may be
helpful for a deeper, more comprehensive and critical examination of
the central thesis of this paper to make three final observations.

a: Epistemology of the Two Standards

As we have seen, neither The Two Standards nor the Three
Modes can be thought of as operating purely within privatized interior
spirituality. They are set within the struggle for the Kingdom and it is
within the realm of our existence and history that they are lived out. It
is a real participation in the immanent work of Christ “laboring and
working” in the reality of each circumstance or moment. Both the
Two Standards and the Three modes necessarily contain an
epistemology. The full importance of those verbs we have discussed,
conocer and imitar, realize their full significance: we have entered into
“the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). This is a continuation and
deepening of our conversion. At its core is the freedom to enter into an
ever deeper self-offering of the “suscipe” (§234). This self-offering is
the core of his “apostolic mysticism” and the touchstone of mission.

b) Discernment as the Transvaluation of Values

In this context, we can see that discernment is more than a “tool.”
It is itself an “apostolic moment.” We cannot ignore the exigencies of
the situation or the pressing realities of human finitude. On the
contrary, these are precisely the realities in which the incarnation
requires us to acknowledge the limitations with which we must deal.

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Yet, as the PF has taught us in grasping the way in which finitude

discloses transcendence, when placed within the horizon of the Fourth
Week, these very limitations can become the contingent opportunities
to realize the Kingdom. Even so, given our weaknesses and the
unfinished business of history, we cannot seek to meet our need for
security in the systems and institutions of the world. Even when well
established and ordered, they will surely be tokens of the Kingdom, but
they can be no more than this. Discernment is always an act of
surrender to God in faith.

At another level, when the values of the Standard of Christ are

the operant ones in discernment, there is a transvaluation of the counter
values of the world. There is a redemptive power in this. Discernment
is radical practice when we allow ourselves to be poor, despised and
humble with Christ. When these become the active values realized in
our decisions, especially when they are about apostolic works and
institutions, the Kingdom comes into view. This will always present a
threat to the established order and to our own securities. What then
would it mean if we could develop our social, economic and
educational policies guided by these values: those that would prioritize
the needs (spiritual, social and material) of the contemporary “anawim,”
the powerless and marginalized, the economically and culturally
deprived?

c: The Two Standards and End of Violence

Finally, it could be argued that the greatest transvaluation of
values is the ending of the cycle of violence in all its forms. René
Girard’s theory of mimetic violence can serve to underline the
relevance of The Two Standards in this regard, not only on the

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spiritual-theological plane but also in the field of politics. For Girard,

societies are founded on primal acts of sacrificial violence (the
scapegoat). This violence is rooted in the power of mimetic desire
which inscribes violence into social structures. 46 In describing the
ways in which these operate in relations, Girard is able to recover the
ancient Biblical reality of “Satan” who “signifies rivalistic contagion,”
up to and including the single victim mechanism. 47

For Girard, modern exegetes, not recognizing the mimetic cycle,

have the impression that since the word “Satan” means so many
different things, it no longer means anything: “This impression is
deceptive… Far from being too absurd to deserve our attention, this
Gospel theme contains incomparable knowledge of human conflict and
societies that are generated by the violent resolution of conflict…” 48
The cycle is broken by the cross, which refuses to enter into it. Here,
we can see the social and political significance of Augustine’s insight
into the alternative way of the cross, which the Two Standards
encapsulate. What Christianity is able to do through its own counter-
mimetic mechanism (imitar) is to heal this violence. It can restore
peace through “absorbing the violence” and performing those
reconciliations which are deliberate counter-strategies to it. The Two

46
For a probing analysis and exposition of Girard’s mimetic theory, cf. James
Allison, The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin through Easter Eyes (New
York: Crossroads, 1998).
47
Cf. René Girard, Je Vois Satan Tomber Comme L'éclair (Paris: Grasset,
1999); ET I See Satan Fall like Lightning (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
2001). Reference is to the English translation. Satan and the strategies of
mimetic violence which he symbolizes may be located either in the entire
process or in one of its stages.
48
Ibid, 43. The whole of the third chapter is on Satan and the Satanic
strategies at play in society. It could be seen as a fruitful exposition of the
Two Standards.

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Standards provide us with a praxis of reconciliation, which refuses

violence and the sacrifice of victims. In this sense, we are drawn into
the redemptive work of the Cross as a political and social reality. This
gives us a way of understanding the Church’s mission in the world. It
is a mission which belongs to every Christian life. The mark of its
liberating power lies in the action of martyrdom. The prayer to imitate
Christ in poverty, being despised and in humility bears marks of
martyrdom, both in the sense of “witness” and also in suffering social,
political, economic and spiritual violence, if not actual physical
violence, whilst also refusing to return it. As a “praxis,” it provides an
exodus from the mimetic structures of death. As a “praxis,” the
violence of the enemy and the anti-kingdom will always be directed
against it. This, too, is an eschatological reality.

In an impassioned and provocative penultimate chapter in I See

Satan Fall Like Lightning, Girard inveighs against the usurping
ideology of “victimization,” which he sees as an ideological form of
neo-paganism. 49 In fact, as Girard observes (but does not develop),
Christianity is neither the religion nor practice of this ideology. The
crucified is also the Risen Christ. If this were not the case, the cycle
would remain a tragic one: “The Gospel theory of Satan uncovers a
secret that neither ancient nor modern anthropologies have ever
discovered. Violence in archaic religion is a temporary remedy. The
sickness is not really cured and always recurs in the end.” 50 Catharsis
is not redemption. The power that triumphs over mimetic violence lies
in the resurrection, which comes through the action and gift of the
Holy Spirit: “The Resurrection is not only a miracle, a prodigious

49
Ibid, 181; whole chapter: 170-181.
50
Ibid, 183.

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transgression of natural laws. It is the spectacular sign of the entrance

into the world of a power superior to violent contagion.” 51 Although
Girard is primarily concerned to develop an anthropology, this
conclusion provides an important direction for our understanding of
the Exercises. He can help us appreciate that the Fourth Week is not
only part of a narrative but is actually that from which the salvific
power of Christianity is derived.

Firstly, the resurrection always ensures that the way of the

crucified Christ as a redemptive and not a tragic way is always a grace.
It is a gift that we must seek and it does not lie in our power: “if your
most holy majesty wishes to choose and receive me into this life and
state” (§98). As such, it cannot be achieved through a series of
practices in which we only imitate, in the sense of playing a part. The
same would be true for the gift of discernment. It cannot be effective
if it is converted into a formulaic practice. It can only be sought as a
grace which first requires an interior surrender to let Christ “indwell.”
This, as I have argued, needs our willingness to be re-located in the
eschatological drama of the Kingdom as a quotidian reality.

Secondly, the importance and indispensable requirement of the

Fourth Week is too often treated in a perfunctory way and rarely
discussed in the context of discernment. If the reality of the Risen
Lord and the abiding gift of the Holy Spirit is not our habitual dwelling,
becoming the effective horizon of our understanding, then,
notwithstanding all our good intentions and noble desires, we will
remain always prone “to feel his death but not his victory.” Without
the Fourth Week, we cannot fully understand the reality of the
Kingdom and the true purpose of Christian mission; we cannot be

51
Ibid, 189.

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Christ’s apostles. To know and imitate Christ, to have that deep

interior knowledge of him, is not an exercise in remembering or
imaginative reconstruction of a First-Century Palestinian Jewish
Messiah. It is precisely to know and imitate the Risen Christ, the one
who is immanent and active in our lives and in our histories. This is
the Christ that cannot be made the subject of any State or political
party. It is the Christ to whom all nations, parties and movements must
ultimately come and under whose cross they will be judged.

In a reflection given in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, the Italian

philosopher Giorgio Agamben challenged the Church to recover its
messianic vocation. Failure to do so, according to Agamben, risks it
being swept away like every other government and worldly
institution. 52 Even from this selective exploration of the Spiritual
Exercises, we can see that the Church is not without resources to
propose Christ and the Kingdom to humanity. Although its mission
must always be renewed, the indwelling life of the Holy Spirit in the
lives of men and women is the guarantee that its mission can never be
lost or absorbed, either by coercion or by seduction, into the projects of
worldly powers.

52
La Chiesa e Il Regno (Rome: Nottetempo, 2007): 18; ET: The Church and
the Kingdom, trans. Giorgio Agamben and Leland de la Durantaye (London:
Seagull, 2012).

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[摘要] 作為早期現代天主教博大的靈修經典之一，聖依納爵的
《神操》是政治和神學話語的衍生文本，塑造了早期現代和當代
文化。本文旨在首先確定有助於我們了解神操如何對我們的社會
和文化施為具有重要意義的關鍵特徵，並可以作為判斷政治和文
化體系的神學-靈修解釋法。其次，它將表明，雖然這些神操旨在
轉化和解放我們的自由，但它們也旨在將這種自由置於天主的救
贖目的中。本文重點關注文本兩部分：（a）〈原則和基礎〉，即
代表「自我」的恢復和如何整理我們的自由，以及（b）〈兩旗默
想〉，即神類的辨別有助於揭露邪惡的策略。辨別是一種信仰的
行動。選擇並臣服於十字架那難以理解的智慧（「被認為是毫無
價值的，為基督而成為愚妄的人」），然後隨著復活進入基督
（性質）的自由，這種自由是在服從和投身神聖的救贖旨意中實
現的。這是在歷史中具有救贖力量的一種操作性的自由。整個神
操的動態是一次「在」歷史中深刻的、具變革性的旅程。被轉化
就是作為基督的夥伴再次被派到世界上，為創造歷史中一個新的
空間，新的可能性。從這個意義上說，本文試圖發展胡戈．拉納
（Hugo Rahner）的見解，即依納爵為我們提供了一種使徒神秘主
義，而這種神秘主義並非沒有政治和文化含義。

關鍵詞：使徒， 基督，十字架，辨別，自由，歷史，依納爵，

原則與基礎，救贖，神操，兩旗默想

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Companionship in the Spirit.

A History of the Spirituality of
the Society of Jesus1

José García De Castro Valdés, SJ*

To the Society of Jesus,

and the Jesuits;
In their 475 years of History
(1540 – 2015)

ABSTRACT: One of the most unique features of Ignatian Spirituality

is the development of a loving gaze on all things, on all Creation,
starting with a merciful and unconditional acceptance of the person
who prays. “God labors and works for me in all creatures” [Sp Ex 236].
Throughout its 475 years of history, the Society of Jesus has been
present in very different places and very diverse circumstances, a kind
of presence that employs action as a principal means to explain her
religious experience, her particular way of loving God and loving the

1
This article comes from two lectures given at the International Conference on
Ignatian Spirituality, “An Ignatian Pilgrimage: from Personal Interiority to
Shared Apostolic Vision”, held at Xavier House, Ignatian Spirituality Center,
Hong Kong, 28 November – 1 December 2014.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

neighbor: “Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words”

[Sp Ex 230]. This article offers an inescapable panoramic view of the
kind-hearted and merciful work that the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits
who have dwelt in her and her collaborators, have been doing through
her History.

KEYWORDS: Action, Ignatius of Loyola, Jesuits, Ministries, Mission,

Society of Jesus, Spiritual Exercises

Editor’s note: Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies is grateful for

the permission to republish this article originally published in Estudios
Eclesiásticos 91, no. 356 (Jan-Mar 2016) to commemorate 475 years
of the Society of Jesus. (www.comillas.edu/estudioseclesiasticos). The
year 2021 marks 481 years of the Society’s history. In deference to the
original publication, we publish the article as is, only updating the
spelling of some words in English, and with a few editorial changes.

When the Society of Jesus was founded by Pope Paul III2, a new
trend in spirituality arose within the Catholic Church. Even though the
followers and the First Companions of Ignatius of Loyola were never
known as or called “Ignatians” 3 , this new spirituality is nowadays
recognized as “Ignatian Spirituality”. It was a new path, a new method

2
The official document Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae (September 27th, 1540)
confirmed ten years later by Pope Julius III, Exposcit Debitum (1550).
3
As, for example, the Franciscans from Saint Francisco, Dominicans from
Saint Dominique or Benedictines from Saint Benedict.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

to search for God proposed by Ignatius and his First Companions 4 and
mainly fixed in the text of the Spiritual Exercises and the Constitutions
of the Society of Jesus.

In order to understand the origins and development of this

spirituality and how this movement of the Holy Spirit has reached us,
we will try to follow the historical development of the Society of Jesus.
It is a long period of 475 [481 in 2021] years full of life, including a
wide variety of experiences all around the world and in many different
fields of human culture. The more we consider the history of the
Society of Jesus, the more we realize how wide and deep the
contribution of the Jesuits was to build the history and culture of
Western tradition.

Because of the new features of this new congregation, the Jesuits

could move around the world and were allowed to preach the Gospel
through many different means, which they called “ministries”5. They
did not adopt a single specific work (healing, education, preaching…)
as their charismatic mission. From the very beginning, and inspired
mainly by the “Contemplation to attain love” of the Spiritual Exercises
[230-237]6, they had a deep conviction that God dwells, labors, and

4
I call “First Companions” the group of ten young men that gathered at
Sorbonne University (Paris) between 1529-1536 around Loyola’s Project to
travel to Jerusalem. See: GARCÍA DE CASTRO, J., “Ignatius of Loyola and his
First Companions”, in A Companion to Ignatius of Loyola (Mariks, R., ed.),
Brill, Boston 2014, 66-83; GARCÍA DE CASTRO, J., “Los primeros de París:
amistad, carisma y pauta”, Manresa 78 (2006) 253-275.
5
See: O’MALLEY, J.W., “To Travel to Any Part of the World: Jerónimo Nadal
and the Jesuit Vocation”, Studies in the Spirituality of the Jesuits 16/2 (1984).
6
I will refer to the Spiritual Exercises offering the international paragraph
numbers; GANSS, G. E. (ed.) The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Gujarat
Sahitya Prakash, Anand 1992.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

works in everything, and so it is possible to search and find Him in

everything.

To talk about Ignatian Spirituality requires a wide and deep

vision that includes under this category the many apostolates
developed by the Jesuits from the XVI century until our times. In these
pages, we will consider only the most significant works, projects, and
relevant figures of each historical period7. Let’s start by going back to
the first sources.

1. The Foundations of the Charisma, Gift of the Holy Spirit

1.1 To follow the institute of Íñigo

To understand the origins of what is known as “Ignatian
Spirituality”, we have to turn back and travel to, maybe, the third floor
of that “tower-house” of Guipúzcoa, located between two small
villages, Azpeitia and Azcoitia. What was the inner experience of that
26 year-old wounded soldier between June 1521 and February 1522?
The first and transforming spiritual experience of this man appears in
the Autobiography, chapter 1 [5-7]. The reading of two classical books
of Medieval piety was the starting point of his unexpected human and

7
Some reference books: BANGERT, W.V., A History of the Society of Jesus,
The Institute of Jesuit Sources, St. Louis-MO 1972; De GUIBERT, J., The
Jesuits. Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, The Institute of Jesuit Sources,
St. Louis-MO 1964 (3th printing 1986) (Spanish translation: La Espiritualidad
de la Compañía de Jesús. Bosquejo histórico, Sal Terrae, Santander 1956);
GANSS, G. E. (ed.), The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, The Institute of
Jesuit Sources, St. Louis-MO, 1970; O’MALLEY, J.W., The First Jesuits,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge-MA 1994; GRUPO DE ESPIRITUALIDAD
IGNACIANA (ed.) Diccionario de Espiritualidad Ignaciana (2 vols.) Mensajero-
Sal Terrae, Bilbao-Santander 2007 (DEI); O’NEILL, Ch. / DOMÍNGUEZ, J. Mª
(eds.), Diccionario Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús, (4 vols.) Universidad
Pontificia Comillas – Institutum Historicum SI, Madrid-Roma 2001 (DHCJ).

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

spiritual transformation. Analysis and contrast of different feelings and

thoughts; consolations and desolations, fantasies, desires and dreams…
and at the end… a decision to leave his parents’ home and to travel to
Jerusalem8.

Even before the Society of Jesus was founded, Ignatian

Spirituality began to reach beyond the person and the experience of
Íñigo / Ignatius of Loyola. The First Companions decided to found
what they called a “Societas”, that is a “companionship.” That means
that to understand the charismatic foundational experience and Ignatian
Spirituality, we also need to look at the experience of the First
Companions of Ignatius and to integrate their experience of God in the
process of birth and development of the Ignatian Spirituality. Who
were they?

1.2 Different… but one mind and one will9

This “Societas”, this “friendship in the Lord” as Ignatius wrote 10,

included people from very different backgrounds. The First
Companions were conscious of their diversity, coming from different
places and cultures, but it was clear to them that the Holy Spirit was

8
See on Ignatius of Loyola: GARCÍA-VILLOSLADA, R., Ignacio de Loyola.
Nueva biografía, BAC, Madrid 1986. Others: DALMASES, C. de, Ignatius of
Loyola. Founder of the Jesuits: His Life and Work, The Institute of Jesuit
Sources, St. Louis-MO, 1985; TELLECHEA IDÍGORAS, J. I., The Pilgrim Saint,
Loyola University Press, Chicago 1994; recent one: GARCÍA HERNÁ N, E.,
Ignacio de Loyola, Taurus, Madrid 2013. See, also: GARCÍA MATEO, R.,
Ignacio de Loyola, su espiritualidad y su mundo cultural, Universidad de
Deusto-Mensajero, Bilbao 2000.
9
“Aunque de tan diferentes naciones, de un mismo corazón y voluntad”,
RIBADENEIRA, P. de, Vida de Ignacio de Loyola, Fontes Narrativi IV, Roma
1965 (MHSI 93), 233.
10
“De París llegaron aquí, mediado Enero, nueve amigos míos en el Señor”,
Epistolae et Instructiones I, Madrid 1903, 119.

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the link to the union between their hearts and minds. During their
Deliberation in Rome (1539), they decided to remain together because
they were sure that it had been God (and not themselves) who had
gathered them years ago in Paris11.

The first companion was Peter Faber (Saboye 1506-Rome 1546).

He and Ignatius met at Sainte Barbare College in Paris. After a long
and delicate process of discernment, Peter decided to perform the
Spiritual Exercises with Ignatius, and join him on his project of
travelling to Jerusalem. Peter Faber was a Jesuit for only 6 years
(1540-46) but during this short period of time he was a pilgrim around
Europe, always available and obedient, ready to move to any part of
the world he was required to. He was the “apostle of the conversation”
and as Ignatius used to say, Faber was the best one in giving the
Spiritual Exercises12.

Close to Faber, sharing the same room in that college, was

Francis Xavier (Xavier/ Navarre 1506-Sancian / China 1552). It was
not easy for Ignatius to convince Xavier to join the project to travel to
Jerusalem. Even though he had not yet done the Spiritual Exercises,
Xavier took part in the liturgy of Montmartre (August 15 th 1534) where
the first seven companions 13 promised to try to go to Jerusalem and

11
CONWELL, J., Impelling Spirit. Revisiting a Founding Experience 1539,
Loyola Press, Chicago 1997, 11-17. See, also CONWELL, J., “Deliberaciones
1539”, DEI I, 549-553.
12
See: BANGERT, W. V., To the Other Towns: a Life of Blessed Peter Faber,
first Companion of St. Ignatius, Ignatius Press, San Francisco 2002.
13
Besides Ignatius, Faber and Xavier the first group of seven companions was
integrated by Diego Laínez, Alfonso Salmerón, Nicolás de Bobadilla and
Simão Rodrigues. Once Ignatius left Paris to Azpeitia, his own town in North
Spain, Faber gave exercises to Claudius Jayo, Jean Codure and Paschase Broët
who decided to join the project. The three new members participated in the
Liturgy of Montmartre, same date in the next two years: August 15 , 1535 and

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

remain there forever, if possible. Xavier, maybe the most well-known

of the First Companions, was the “apostle in mission,” generous and
deeply motivated to gain souls for the Kingdom of Heaven. Through
Francis Xavier and his departure for India (April 1541), the Ignatian
Spirituality began to be universal, as it was already written in the
Formula Instituti14.

Among the other Companions in the first generation of Jesuits,

two of them had a more relevant role in the first development of the
“body of the Society” and its spirituality15. Fr. Jerome Nadal (Palma de
Mallorca / Spain 1507 – Rome 1580) was the first “Theologian” of the
Ignatian Spirituality, that is, the first who offered a systematic
reflection regarding the spiritual experience of Ignatius and its
consequences for the foundation of the Society of Jesus 16. Nadal had
the responsibility of traveling to different parts of Europe to explain to
the Jesuit communities what the Society of Jesus was and was not, and
what this new spirituality consisted of17.

1536. See: PADBERG, J., “The Three forgotten Founders of the Society of
Jesus”, Studies in the Spirituality of the Jesuits 29/2 [march 1999]). A short
biography of each of the ten founders in AHSI 59 (1990).
14
“and to go at once, …, to whatsoever provinces they may choose to send us
–whether they decide to send us among the Turks or any other infidels, even
those who live in the regions called the Indies, or among any heretics whatever,
or schismatics…” (GANSS, Constitutions, 68). See: SCHURHAMMER, G. O.,
Francis Xavier: His Life, his Time (4 vols.) Institutum Historicum S.I., Rome
1973-1982.
15
“How did the Society of Jesus come to be?” O’Malley offers a list of
important Jesuits of the very first years of the Society of Jesus, “however, three
outstrip the others by far: Polanco, Nadal and Ignatius” (The First Jesuits, 376).
16
Most of his lectures and “pláticas” in Monumenta Natalis V, Commentarii de
Instituto, Roma 1962 (MHSI 90). See, also, Las pláticas del P. Jerónimo
Nadal. La globalización ignaciana (LOP, M., (ed.) Mensajero-Sal Terrae (col.
Manresa nº 45), Bilbao-Santander 2011.
17
See: BANGERT, W. V. – MCCOOG, Th., Jerome Nadal (1507-1580). Tracking
the First Generation of Jesuits, Loyola University Press, Chicago 1992.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Fr. Nadal worked closely with Fr. Juan Alfonso de Polanco

(Burgos / Spain 1517 – Rome 1576), the main Secretary of the
institution and one of the most influential Jesuits in the first Society of
Jesus. He was not only in charge of the increasing bureaucracy in
Rome; he also wrote thousands of letters in the name of Ignatius, and
prepared a very valuable Directory for the Spiritual Exercises which
was the main inspiration for the official one, Official Directory
published by Fr. Claudius Aquaviva (1599). Polanco wrote both a
Directory for Confessors (Roma 1554) and also one on how to assist
and offer pastoral care to dying people, 18 two bestsellers in European
spiritual literature of the sixteenth century. A man familiar with
business, government and bureaucracy, he offered a new face to the
Jesuit mission, working generously for the inner structure of the
Institution19.

Polanco also worked as General Secretary of the Society under

the second Fr. General, Diego Laínez (Almazán / Spain 1512-Rome
1565); it was a period of the founding of new schools and the
expansion of the Society all over the world 20 . With Francis Borgia
(Gandía 1510- Rome 1572), third General Praepositus of the Society of
Jesus, spiritual life became more regular and more structured in a
religious congregation which had neither prayer nor choir in common.
The Second General Congregation (1565), decree 29, established: “At
length the congregation agreed that Father Superior General in his

18
Methodus ad eos adjuvandos qui moriuntur… (Macerata 1575).
19
GARCÍA DE CASTRO, J., Polanco (1517-1576). El Humanismo de los jesuitas,
Mensajero-Sal Terrae-Universidad P. Comillas (col. Manresa nº 48), Bilbao-
Santander-Madrid 2013; see also: DEI II, 1462-1471.
20
SCADUTO, M., L’epoca di Giacomo Laínez (1556-1565), La Civiltà Cattolica,
1964-1974; recently OBERHOLZER, P. (ed.), Diego Laínez (1512-1565) and his
Generalate, IHSI, Rome 2015.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

prudence might increase the time, as he would judge proper in the Lord,
taking into account his understanding of persons, regions and so on” 21.
Two months after the Congregation was over, Fr. Borgia decided: one
hour of morning prayer for all Jesuits in Spain (45 minutes in other
places) and half an hour in the evenings, including an examen of
consciousness22. Borgia himself was very attentive to his own personal
prayer; his Spiritual Diary and most of his treatises on spiritual life 23
focus mainly on sin, mercy and indignity, and they allow us to uncover
his soul. Borgia also supported and encouraged missions beyond
Europe: Florida, Cuba, México, Brazil and Peru, where Jesuits such as
José de Acosta were developing a deep connection with indigenous
cultures.

2. Misunderstandings of the Charisma and First Controversies

But not everything was easy during the first years, even the first
decades of the Society of Jesus. Over one thousand Jesuits spread all
over the world were working in the Vineyard of the Lord at the date of
Ignatius’ death (July 31st 1556). Far from Rome, despite the great

21
Very good modern edition of all decrees of the first thirty General
Congregations in: For matters of greater moment: the first thirty Jesuit
General Congregations: a brief history and a translation of the decrees
(Padberg, J. W. / O'Keefe, M. D. / McCarthy, J. L., eds.) Institute of Jesuit
Sources, St. Louis –MO 1994; here, 120; original Latin texts in: Institutum
Societatis Iesu, Typis Civilitatis Catholicae, Romae 1869, here II, 201-202. GC
4 went back to this point and confirmed what Fr. Borgia had decided: “is by all
means to be retained as a devout and salutary custom” (GC 4, decree 5), see:
For matters of greater moment 169, Institutum II, 248.
22
See: SCADUTO, M., L’opera di Francesco Borgia (1565-1572), La Civiltà
Cattolica, Roma 1992, 97 and LETURIA, P. de, “La hora matutina de oración en
la Compañía naciente [1540-1590]” Estudios ignacianos II, ,189-243, BIHSJ,
Roma 1957.
23
Diario Espiritual (Ruiz Jurado, M., ed.) Mensajero-Sal Terrae (col. Manresa
nº 17), Bilbao-Santander 1997; Tratados espirituales, Juan Flors, Barcelona
1964.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

efforts by Fr. Polanco and his Secretary, communications were not

regular and information was not always punctual24. How, then, can one
live a spiritual life trying to remain faithful to the first charisma if
Jesuits didn’t know what this first charisma was exactly?

2.1 Tendencies to cloistered and contemplative life

One of the first misunderstandings about the interpretation of

Ignatian charisma appeared soon in Gandía (Spain), promoted by Fr.
Andrés de Oviedo and Fr. Francis Onfroy. Maybe through the
influence of mystic spiritual ties from Northern Europe or from new
Franciscan movements in Spain, as recogidos, they felt a strong
vocation to contemplative life (silence, prayer, retreat) inside the
Society. They were convinced that to be a good Jesuit they should pray
five or six hours a day and keep silent for most of the day… as if they
were part of a new form of monastic way of life. Fr. Oviedo wrote to
Rome asking for permission to remain for seven years in the desert (!).
Rome had to respond to these new proposals by showing and
explaining to them the true Ignatian charisma and urging them to come
back to the Ignatian way of prayer and apostolic life 25. One hour of
prayer including the exam of consciousness was enough; the rest of the

24
Some examples: a letter from Rome to North or South Italy, 6-8 days; from
Rome to Madrid, Lisbon or Paris, 25-30 days; a letter to Goa (India) 12-15
months.
25
Fr. Oviedo’s letter in Epistolae Mixtae I, Madrid 1898 (MHSI 12) 467-472
and Polanco’s answer in Epistolae et Instructiones Ignatii II, (MHSI 26) 54-65.
Very interesting and also very unknown is the long letter called “Illusionibus
quibusdam” written by Polanco (Rome 1547) (Epistolae et Instructiones XII,
MHSI 42) in which the Secretary of the Society offers a very lucid list of
criteria for discernment inspired in those we can find in “Rules to aid us…” of
the Spiritual Exercises [313-336].

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

time should be invested in helping souls, that is, on “apostolic

ministries” as related in Formula instituti (1550)26.

2.2 Tendencies to silence and silent prayer

Also in the XVI century, was the more powerful movement that
proposed and taught a new style of prayer that distanced itself from
that of the Spiritual Exercises. Fr. Antonio Cordeses (Olot / Gerona
1518 – Seville 1601) in his Itinerario de la perfección (Itinerary to
perfection) developed a method of prayer in which he insisted that
reaching inner silence and awakening the affections were the main
goals of experience in prayer. Fr. Borgia told him that God had already
given to the Society of Jesus a way to pray, that is in the Spiritual
Exercises; next Fr. General, Everard Mercurian, had to insist
(November 25th 1574) on the primacy of the apostolic sense of Ignatian
prayer through contemplation of the Life of Christ. Cordeses accepted
these recommendations from Fr. General and most of his final years
were dedicated to ministries with sick people and confessions27.

Close to Cordeses, was Fr. Baltasar Á lvarez (1533-1580), novice

Master, Third Year Instructor and Rector of some colleges in Spain.
He was Saint Therese's confessor: “he was the one who helped me
most,”28 “he was a real saint,” said the Saint of Ávila. But his teachings
on prayer insisted, perhaps too much, on silence, taking distance from
contemplation of the Mysteries of the Life of Jesus and colloquies, as

26
Fr. Oviedo was missionary in Goa and afterwards Patriarch of Ethiopia,
where he died as a holy man (Fremona-Ethiopia 1577). See: VAZ DE
CARVALHO, J., “Oviedo, Andrés de”, DHCJ III, 2936-2937); De GUIBERT, The
Jesuits, 219-229.
27
RUIZ JURADO, M., “Cordeses, Antonio”, DHCJ, I, 952-953; DUDON, P., “Les
idées du P. Antonio Cordeses sur l’oraison”, Révue d’Ascétique et Mystique 12
(1931) 97-115.
28
“el que más me aprovechó”, Book of Life, 26.3.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

taught in the Spiritual Exercises. His Provincial Fr. Juan Suárez,

knowing the last documents of the Inquisition against Alumbrado’s
movement, decided to inform Fr. Everard Mercurian, Fr. General at
that time. Rome sent some guidelines back to Spain strongly
recommending following the traditional way of prayer of the Society
of Jesus. Fr. Á lvarez obeyed and continued working in the Society; he
was appointed Provincial of Peru, but never travelled to Latin America;
afterwards he was appointed provincial of Toledo Province (Southern
Spain), but he died in Belmonte, Cuenca, before reaching his final
destination29.

3. The Spiritual Exercises

3.1 Who are we? Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian identity30
It is very difficult to understand either the inner life of the
Society of Jesus or that of a Jesuit without entering into the “what” and
the “how” of their spiritual experience as proposed in the Spiritual
Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. We could say that the Society of
Jesus took shape in the womb of the Spiritual Exercises. In a way, the
Exercises are the articulated and systematic words of the spiritual
processes of Ignatius of Loyola from 1521 until his last theological
reflection on his own experience in Paris (1528-1534) and later in

29
ENDEAN, Ph., “The strange style of Prayer: Mercurian, Cordeses and
Álvarez”, Mercurian Project. Forming Jesuit Culture 1573-1580 (McCoog,
Th., ed.), Institute of Jesuit Sources – Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, St.
Louis – Rome 2004, 351-398; RUIZ JURADO, M., “Álvarez, Baltasar”, DHCJ I,
91-93; BOADO, F., “Baltasar Álvarez en la historia de la espiritualidad del siglo
XVI”, Miscelánea Comillas 41 (1964) 155-257; DUDON, P., “Les leçons
d’oraison du P. B. Álvarez”, Révue d’Ascétique et Mystique 2 (1921) 36-57;
GUIBERT, Joseph de, The Jesuits…, 219-229.
30
See: RUIZ JURADO, M.: “Los EE en la vida interna de la CJ”, inside
“Ejercicios Espirituales”, DHCJ II, 1226-1227.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Rome (1540-1544). Ignatius understood his religious and mystic life

under the systematic frame of the Spiritual Exercises.

All the first ten companions completed the full spiritual exercises
in Paris (1534-1536), six of them under the Ignatius’ guidance, 31 and
three of them under Peter Faber’s. 32 . Even though we don’t know
much about these foundation experiences, 33 we can affirm that this
experience changed their lives; all of them decided to follow Ignatius’
way of life, which at that time implied traveling to Jerusalem and, if
possible, living and preaching the Gospel in the Holy Land 34. The first
Jesuits were so convinced of the “power” of the spiritual exercises that
they started to give them to many different social groups of people,
always adapting them to the circumstances and possibilities of the
person.

Peter Faber and Claudio Jayo in Germany, Francis Xavier in

Portugal and India, Diego Laínez, Alfonso Salmerón and Nicolás de
Bobadilla in Italy… it doesn’t matter where they were, they always
found time to talk about and to give the exercises, which became an
essential and indispensable point in the identity of the Society of

31
Peter Faber, Diego Laínez, Alfonso Salmerón, Nicolás de Bobadilla, Simão
Rodrigues and Francis Xavier.
32
Claude Le Jay (Jayo), Paschase Broët and Jean Codure.
33
Only a couple of paragraphs about Peter Faber and spiritual exercises in
Paris: L. GONÇ ALVES DA CÁ MARA, Memoriale [305]. See: Remembering Inigo.
Glimpses on the Life of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The Memoriale of Luis
Gonçálves da Cámara (Egleaston, A. and Munitiz J. A., eds.), Gracewing, St.
Louis-MO 2004; original critical edition in Fontes Narrativi I, Rome 1943
(MHSI 66), 508-752.
34
These decisions were openly communicated in the liturgy of Montmartre,
not far from Paris, August 15th 1534, and repeated the same date in 1535 and
1536 (see: Autobiography [85]).

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Jesus35. Ignatius had already said: “The Spiritual Exercises are the very
best thing that in this life I can think, perceive, or understand for
helping a person benefit him[her]self as well as bringing fruit, benefit,
and advantage to many others”36.

It was the General Congregation IV (1598) which determined

that all candidates should perform the spiritual exercises during their
first probation,37 and the General Congregation VI (1608, decree 29)
which decided that every Jesuit should practice eight or ten days of
Spiritual Exercises every year. An Instruction from Fr. Aquaviva
included the 30 days’ retreat (a full month of Spiritual Exercises) as an
important element in the Tertianship (Third Year) that usually took
place in the Noviciate community38.

In the most difficult days in the History of the Society, those of

the Suppression, the Jesuits went back to the exercises as the mystical
place for their own identity in troubled times. The I Polocense
Congregation (1782) established that those priests or scholastics who

35
Fr. Iparraguirre prepared a long list with all the Jesuits who gave the spiritual
exercises during Saint Ignatius times: Antonio Araoz, Francisco de Borgia,
Peter Canisius, Jerónimo Doménech, Leonard Kessel, Francisco Villanueva
and many others (see the wonderful: IPARRAGUIRRE, I., Historia de los
Ejericicios de san Ignacio I, Mensajero-IHSI, Bilbao-Roma 1946, 299-301).
36
Letter to Manuel Miona (Venice, November 16th 1536), IGNATIUS OF
LOYOLA, Letters and Instructions (Palmer, M. / Padberg, J. / McCarthy, J., eds.)
The Institute of Jesuit Sources, St. Louis-MO 2006, 27.
37
The Jesuits called “First Probation” (Prima probatio) a short period of time
(12 to 20 days) that the young boys who wanted to join the Society of Jesus
had to spend as a guest or in a separated room before becoming a part of the
Noviciate Community. The Noviciate was the “Second Probation” and at the
end of the Formation the “Tertia Probatio” or Tertianship appears (see the very
complete and systematic article: RUIZ JURADO, R., “Probación”, DHCJ IV,
3235-3242).
38
Ratio peragendi tertium annum probationis (1592). See also: “De usu
Exercitiorum Spiritualium” (August 14, 1599) in Epistolae Praepositorum
Generalium ad Patres et Fratres Societatis Iesu (I), Gandavi 1847, 276-279.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

wanted to join back with the Society after having left it, should spend
four weeks in the Exercises, showing how deeply rooted in the
Exercises the identity was.39

One of the most fervent “apostles” of the Spiritual Exercises was

Fr. Jan Roothaan. He was so convinced about the value of the
Exercises that he learnt Spanish in order to be able to closely study the
Spanish text called Autograph and to compare it with the Latin text
Vulgata or other Latin versions as P1 or P2. He was sure that it was
through the fidelity to the Spiritual Exercises that the Society of Jesus
would find the way back to its own identity and charisma 40 . M.
Chappin says that Roothaan’s most personal contribution as General
was his philological and spiritual focus on the book of Spiritual
Exercises, offering the whole Society the core of its own charisma.
Because of this, some historians considered Roothaan the second
41
Founder of the Society of Jesus. The energy flowing from
Roothaan’s affection for the Exercises lasted until contemporary times.
A hundred years later, another Fr. General, Wlodimiro Ledóchowski,
insisted on this point: the spiritual vigor of the Society depended on the
fidelity to the practice of the Exercises. After Council Vatican II, Fr.

39
For Matters of greater Moment, 409; Institutum II, 452.
40
His second letter to the Society was De Spiritualium Exercitiorum S.P.N.
studio et usu (Dec 27th, 1834); he insisted on how the Jesuits, especially
Novices Masters and Tertian Instructors, should receive a deep knowledge of
the Exercises and a faithful practice of the method. See: “Sobre el studio y uso
de los Ejercicios espirituales de nuestro Santo Padre”, Cartas selectas de los
Padres Generales, Oña 1917, 194-205. Original latino: Opera Spiritualia
Ioannis Phil. Roothaan I (De Jonge, L. / Pirri, P., eds.), Romae 1936, 357-366.
41
CHAPPIN, M., “Generales: 21. Roothaan”, DHCJ II, 1665-1671, 1666-1670.

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Arrupe encouraged all Jesuits to perform the Exercises every year

according to the spirit of Saint Ignatius (silence, retreat, solitude…).42

3.2 Spiritual Exercises… to help souls

But the Spiritual Exercises were not only a key element in the
identity of the Jesuits and the Society of Jesus; they were also one of
the most important ministries in the apostolic life of those men.43 The
Exercises were included in The Formula Instituti as one of the specific
ministries of the Jesuits; 44 in fact, the Constitutions recommend that
every Jesuit has to learn how to provide the Spiritual Exercises 45 .
Among all the Jesuits from the first generation, Peter Faber, according
to Ignatius himself, was the best one giving the Spiritual Exercises 46.
He used to give the Exercises to many different kinds of people and

42
See: letters of Fr. W. Ledóchowski June 9th, 1935 and Fr. Arrupe’s
December 31st, 1975 (Acta Romana SI, Roma 1976, 635-636).
43
See the monumental work of Fr. I. IPARRAGUIRRE, Historia de los Ejercicios
de San Ignacio (vol. 1: “En vida de su autor” [During his Author’s life]; vol. 2:
“Desde la muerte de su autor hasta la promulgación del Directorio oficial”
[from the death of his Author (1556) till the promulgation of the Official
Directory (1599)]; vol. 3: “Evolución en Europa durante el siglo XVII”
[development in Europe during XVII century]), Biblioteca del IHSI, Roma
1946-1973. See, also O’MALLEY, J., The First Jesuits, “The Exercises in
Practice”, 127-133.
44
“…public preaching, lectures, and any other ministration whatsoever of the
word of God, and further by means of the Spiritual Exercises, the education of
the children…” (GANSS, The Constitutions, 66).
45
“After they have had experienced of the Spiritual Exercises in their
ownselves, they should acquire experience in giving them to others. Each one
should know how to give an explanation of them and how to employ this
spiritual weapon, since it is obvious that God our Lord has made it so effective
for His service” (Constitutions [408] see, also, next declaration [409], GANSS,
The Constitutions, 202-203).
46
“Speaking about the [Spiritual] Exercises, he said that of those he knew in
the Society, Fr. Favre [Faber] took the first place in giving them, Salmerón the
second…” Remembering Inigo [226], 130.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

under different circumstances, always adapting the method as the 18th

and 19th annotations propose. As the Jesuits started to deliver the
Exercises, many different ways of interpreting the text appeared47. Fr.
Aquaviva tried to unify them and published an Official Directory of
the Spiritual Exercises (Rome 1599) that every Jesuit should follow in
his ministry48.

The Jesuits gave the Exercises according to the natura of the

person. They were convinced that the 30 days’ retreat should be given
to very few people, but especially to those who could consider the
possibility of becoming a priest or joining a religious congregation,
including the Society of Jesus… and the method worked! We have a
list of the people who joined the different religious congregations after
having undertaken the spiritual exercises49. During Saint Ignatius' life,
the Jesuits gave the exercises to members from other religious
congregations: Augustinians, Benedictines, Carmelites, Dominicans,
Franciscans, Jeromes 50 … Most of the retreatants undertook some
exercises from the First Week about sin, the mercy of God, and
guidelines for a good examen of consciousness and confession.

47
IPARRAGUIRRE, I., Exercicia spiritualia Sancti Ignatii de Loyola et eorum
Directoria. Directoria (1540-1599), Nova editio, II, Roma 1955. All
directories in On giving the Spiritual Exercises, (Palmer, M., ed.) Institute of
Jesuit Sources, St. Louis-MO 1996; Los Directorios de Ejercicios (LOP, M. ed.)
Mensajero-Sal Terrae (Col. Manresa nº 23), Bilbao-Santander 2000.
48
It was not the first Directory. Some years before, other Jesuits had written of
their own way of giving the Exercises, such as Diego Mirón or Juan A. de
Polanco.
49
Augustinians, Benedictines, Capuchins, Dominicans, Carthusians,
Franciscans, Jeromes, Mercedarians, Theatins… Complete list of names and
places in IPARRAGUIRRE, I., Historia de los Ejercicios, I, 297-298. Iparraguirre
also offers some cases of people who had left their congregations and joined
them again after the exercises (298).
50
Complete list of names and places in IPARRAGUIRRE, I, Historia, I, 302-303.

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But, where did they provide the Spiritual Exercises? In the very
beginning Jesuits used to go to people’s homes. Soon they started
welcoming retreatants for spiritual exercises in their own residences
and, as the numbers increased, they adapted an area of the schools (as
in Gandía, Siena, Goa…) as a preliminary step to the appearance of the
first retreat house 51 . During the XVII century the apostolate of the
Exercises increased very quickly. In 1727, there were eleven retreat
houses in France, seven for men and four for women 52 . Diocesan
priests and other religious congregations (Redemptorist and Passionist)
started to provide exercises (full or adapted) to all kinds of people. At
the beginning of XIX century, 1816, Bruno Lanteri founded the
Oblates of Virgin Mary whose specific charisma was to give spiritual
exercises in rural and poor areas. Years later, the Parochial
Cooperators of Christ the King and Hand Maids of Christ the King
were founded to provide spiritual exercises and to support the retreat
houses53.

4. Spirituality on the Track. Fr. Claudio Aquaviva’s Period (1581-

1615)

Elected by the IV General Congregation (GC) (February 7 –

April 22, 1581) and having been Provincial of Naples, Fr. Claudio
Aquaviva became the fifth Fr. General of the Society of Jesus. He was

51
Maybe the first retreat house was in Alcalá de Henares (Spain), promoted by
Fr. Francisco Villanueva (see: IPARRAGUIRRE, I., Historia I, 145).
52
About the apostolate of the spiritual exercises developed once the Society of
Jesus was restored see: Tetlow, J., “Casas de Ejercicios” [Retreat Houses], DEI
I, 311-314.
53
The first congregation was founded by Fr. Francis de Paula Vallet (1883-
1947) and the second by Fr. Pedro Legaria Armendáriz (1878-1956), both in
1928.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

only 37 years old. His long generalate lasted for 35 years, so he was
perhaps the most influential one in the history of the first Society of
Jesus. Concerning spiritual life, the GC IV established one hour of
daily meditation for all Jesuits and determined a formation plan for
novices54. Fr. Aquaviva followed the spiritual life of the Society very
closely, always encouraging and keeping alive the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit through letters and documents to the whole Society 55. It
was during the GC VI (1608) that decree 29 established the eight – ten
day retreat for all Jesuits and the triduum for renovation of vows 56.
Aquaviva also focused on formation for young Jesuits during the
Juniorate or Tertianship. He also insisted on the presence of the
Spiritual Father in every community and in the formation of those who
would become preachers (human values, oratory style or even some
techniques for memorizing).
Two very important documents appeared in 1599: The Official
Directory of Spiritual Exercises and Ratio Studiorum, this latter after
seventeen years of experience from many high schools all over Europe.
This Ratio was probably the most influential pedagogical document in
modern times. Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, it offered a method
and a frame to build an Ignatian person in all his or her dimensions 57.

54
Decree 67, Institutum I, Roma 1869, 241-242.
55
Spiritus ac fervoris renovatio (1583), De studio perfectionis et caritate
fraterna (1586), Ad augendum et renovandum spiritum in Societate (1588), De
fervore et zelo missionum (1594), De renovatione spiritus et correspondentia
cum Deo (1604). See: Epistolae Praepositum Generalium ad Patres et Fratres
Societatis Jesu I, Gandavi 1847, 74-359.
56
“1. ante renovatione votorum instituatur vacatio per triduum…”; “homnes
quotannis vacent spiritualibus exercitiis per octo vel decem dies continuos”
(Institutum I, 279).
57
See: DUMINUCO, V. J. (ed.), The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: 400 anniversary
perspective, Fordham University Press, New York 2000. See also bilingual

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Aquaviva did not forget the missionary life of the Society. The
Mexican Province grew from 107 Jesuits (1580) to 314 (1599). Three
new provinces appeared: Philippines, Paraguay and Nuevo Reino
(Colombia and Venezuela) and, responding to the demands of Enrich
IV of France (1604), some Jesuits were sent to Canada for the first
time in 1611. In the East Assistancy, Aquaviva supported Robert De
Nobili’s mission for the conversion of brahmans in India, and the
adaptation that the Gospel required in Japan, as Alessandro Valignano
proposed58.

5. “… for your Spirit’s Refreshment and Consolation.”59 Printed

Spirituality
It was also under the government of Fr. Aquaviva that the
spiritual literature of the Jesuits reached a higher level of divulgation.

Fr. Alonso Rodríguez (Valladolid / Spain 1538 – Seville 1616)

was one of the most influential Jesuit writers in the first Society of
Jesus. He spent most of his life in Castile and Andalusia (southern
Spain) teaching Theology in different places and working as Novice
Master60. His Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas (Practice of
Perfection and Christian Virtues, Seville 1609), consists in a collection
of his weekly lectures to his community between 1589 and 1595. In

edition, Latin-Spanish in La pedagogía de los jesuitas, ayer y hoy (Coria Gil,

E., ed.) U.P. Comillas – CONEDSI, Madrid 1999.
58
FOIS, Mario, “Generales: 5. Aquaviva”, DHCJ II, 1614-1621.
59
“It would be all right for you to occasionally read or have someone read to
you [spiritual books] for your spirit’s refreshment and consolation” (Letter to
Francesco Mancini (Rome, April 7, 1554), Letters and Instructions, 490).
60
DONNELLY, J. P., “Rodríguez, Alonso (II)”, DHCJ IV, 3394-3395;
DONNELLY, J.P., “Alonso Rodríguez: Ejercicio: A Neglected Classic”,
Sixteenth Century Journal 11 (1980) 15-24; VASSAL, Al de, “Un maître de la
vie spirituelle, le Père Alonso Rodríguez”, Etudes 150 (1917) 297-321.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

1626, only fifteen years after the first edition, this book had been
translated into French, Italian, Latin, German, and partially into
English. There were more than 300 editions, and it was translated into
23 languages, including Armenian (1741), Arabic and Chinese (1890).
This was perhaps the most printed and published book written by a
Jesuit after the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius 61 . Rodriguez’s
book was the text every novice had as his personal spiritual reading.
Jesuits were not the only people who read and prayed with this book;
other religious congregations and lay people used it as well. Practical,
spiritual, rooted in the Christian tradition (Agustin, Bernard, Gregory,
Jerome) and full of life and examples, the book of Rodrigues was very
alive until the Council Vatican II.

Born in the same Castilian city as Rodríguez, we find Fr. Luis de

La Puente (Valladolid 1554 – Valladolid 1624). La Puente lived most
of his years as a Jesuit in Castile working as a Novice Master, Tertian
instructor or teaching Theology in Valladolid.62 In 1605, he published
his Meditaciones de los misterios de nuestra santa fe (Meditations of
the Mysteries of our Holy Faith), that reached 400 editions and
translations (Chinese and Arab included). Four years later (Valladolid
1609), the Guía spiritual (Spiritual Guide) appeared, a description of
the different paths of the Holy Spirit based on prayer and mortification.

61
See: SOMMERVOGEL, C., “Rodriguez, Alphonse”, Bibliothèque de la
Compagnie de Jésus, Bruxelles – Paris 1890-1930, VI, 1946-1963. The book
has three main parts of eight treatises each; every treatise has around twenty
chapters. The books touches the main aspects of Ignatian Spirituality (I), the
principle virtues of the Christian person (II) and the spiritual fundaments of the
Society of Jesus (III).
62
RUIZ JURADO, M., “La Puente, Luis de”, DHCJ III, 2244-2245. See, also:
ABAD, C. Mª, El venerable P. Luis de la Puente. Compendio de su santa vida,
Valladolid 1935; ALLISON PEERS, J., Studies of the Spanish Mystics, 3 vols.
(London 1951-1960), II, 241-269.

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He also wrote a well-known Vida del P. Baltasar Á lvarez (Life of Fr.

Baltasar Á lvarez, Madrid 1615) where he tried to offer a portrait of a
perfect Master of spiritual life that was deeply influenced by the
doctrines and teachings of Fr. Louis Lallemant 63.

Achile Gagliardi (Padua / Italy 1539 - Módena / Italy 1607) had a

deep influence as well as being a spiritual writer in Italy. Professor of
Philosophy and Theology in Collegio Romano, he worked also in
Padua, Milano, Brescia and Modena, always in Italy. During his
fourteen years in Milano, he was the spiritual director of a mystic,
visionary woman from the Milanese society, Isabella Berinzaga.
Gagliardi wrote a Breve compendio in torno alla perfezione christiana
(Brief Compendium about Christian Perfection, Brescia 1611) where
he described and analyzed the mystic intuitions of this woman:
deification of the soul, passive quietness, and pure union with God.
Even though Gagliardi remained inside the orthodox Catholic limits,
he seemed to be close to “pre-quietism.” Pope Clemens VIII imposed
on him a retractatio and silence about these doctrines. His most
popular Ignatian work, S. P. Ignatii de Loyola de discretione spirituum
regulae explanatae (Naples 1851) (On Discernment of spirits) offers a
synthesis of the Ignatian mysticism following the rules on discernment
of the Spiritual Exercises [313-336]64.

Among the very long list of spiritual writers, there are still two
more that we should mention. Fr. Diego Á lvarez de Paz (Toledo 1561
– Potosí / Bolivia 1620) who was sent to Peru and reached Lima on

63
Four Latin editions, twelve French editions and some others in Italian,
German, Flemish…. SOMMERVOGEL, “Puente, Louis de la”, VI, 1271-1295.
64
MUCCI, G., “Gagliardi, Achille”, DHCJ II, 1547-1548; GIL, D., “Gagliardi y
sus comentarios a los Ejercicios”, Manresa 44 (1972) 273-284. SOMMERVOGEL,
“Gagliardi, Achille”, III, 1095-1099.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

June 1585. After being a teacher and a rector in several schools in Peru,
he was appointed Provincial in 1616. Fr. De Paz combined his
administrative work with his writing. A huge work in three volumes
(1608, 1613 and 1618) constitutes his Spiritual Theology. The third
one, De inquisitione pacis, is a treatise on prayer which develops in
four steps: intellective prayer, affective prayer, “inchoative”
contemplation and perfect contemplation. Fr. Á lvarez de Paz tried to
integrate his own spiritual experience with his spiritual theological
reflection in a systematic way: in the fifth part of the third volume he
organizes the ascent to pure mystic life in fifteen steps 65.

All this spiritual literature arrived in France and influenced Fr.

Louis Lallemant (Châlons-sur-Marne / France 1588 – Bourges 1635).
After years teaching philosophy, moral theology and mathematics, he
became a Novice Master (Rouen, 1622-1626) and Tertian Instructor
(Rouen, 1626-1631). One of his disciples, Jean Rigoleuc, took notes
from his lectures and published, with Pierre Champion, the book
Doctrine Spirituelle (Spiritual Doctrine), one of the most important
titles in the history of the spirituality of the Society of Jesus. The
second conversion, caution regarding the active life, purity of heart and
guidance of the Holy Spirit, are the main topics that Lallemant
develops in the seven main parts (“principes / principios”) of his
Doctrine66. The martyrs and saints Isaac Jogues (+ October 18, 1646),

65
FERNÁ NDEZ, E., “Álvarez de Paz, Diego”, DHCJ I, 94-95; LÓ PEZ AZPITARTE,
E., La oración contemplativa. Evolución y sentido en Á lvarez de Paz, S.J.,
Granada 1966; O’CALLAGHAN, T. G., Á lvarez de Paz and the Nature of Perfect
Contemplation, Rome 1950. See: SOMMERVOGEL, “Álvarez de Paz, Jacques”, I,
252-258.
66
See: The Spiritual Doctrine of Father Louis Lallemant, of the Company of
Jesus, Kessinger Publishing 2007; new and critical edition: La doctrine
spirituelle (Salin, D., ed.), Desclée de Brouwer, Paris 2011. SOMMERVOGEL,
“Lallemant, Louis”, IV, 1402-1404.

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Antonio Daniel (+ July 4, 1648) and Jean de Brébeuf (+ March 16,

1649) were some of his disciples who died in the Canadian mission
among the Hurons. Lallemant is nowadays recognized as the Master of
what we can call the “French Jesuit School of Spirituality” whose most
recognized disciples are Jean Joseph Surin, Julien Maunoir, Jean
Rigoleuc and Vincent Huby.

6. “Among the Turks, or any other Infidels…”67. Spirituality for

and in Mission
As it is written in the Formula Instituti and appears in the VII
part of the Constitutions 68 one of the main and biggest concepts in
Ignatian spirituality is “mission.”69 From the very beginning, the first
Jesuits developed a deep self-consciousness of apostles, of men sent by
Jesus Christ through their Superiors or through the Pope (Vicar of
Christ) to a concrete and specific mission. Francis Xavier in India,
Peter Faber in Germany, Laínez and Bobadilla in Italy, Claude Le Jay
in Austria or Simão Rodrigues in Portugal served as the first
missionaries in a long tradition in the Society of Jesus which reaches
the XXI century.

67
“… even those who live in the region called the Indies…” (Formula of the
Institute [3], see: GANSS, The Constitutions, 63-73, 68.
68
“The distribution of the incorporated members in Christ’s vineyard and their
relations there with their fellowmen” (“De lo que toca a los ya admitidos en el
cuerpo de la Compañía para con los próximos, repartiéndose en la viña de
Cristo nuestro Señor”).
69
SIEVERNICH, M., “La misión y las misiones en la primitiva Compañía de
Jesús”, Ite, Inflammate omnia. Selected Historical Papers from Conferences
Held at Loyola and Rome in 2006 (McCoog, Th., ed.) IHSI, Rome 2010, 255-
273; O’MALLEY, J., “Mission and the early Jesuits” The Way Supplement 79
(1994) 3-10. See also: SALVAT, I., Servir en misión, Mensajero-Sal Terrae (col.
Manresa nº 27), Bilbao-Santander 2002.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

From the very beginning, with Ignatius of Loyola Father General

(1540-1556), the Society sent Jesuits to different parts of the world,
and as a consequence, new provinces began to appear.70 A Jesuit was a
man not only with a mission, but on mission. Many young Jesuits
departed from Lisbon (Portugal) or from Seville (Spain) to preach the
Gospel in the new lands of Latin America, or following the first steps
of Francis Xavier in India and beyond; most of them were volunteers.
Between 1610 and 1730, more than 760 German Jesuits asked to be
sent to the “missions,” and during the first fifteen years of the XVII
century more than 130 Jesuits from Italy, Spain or Portugal left for the
Portuguese Indies71.

6.1 Missions in India and Asia

On a very long and relatively unknown list of missionaries, we
find Jesuits who have really fixed their names in the history of the
Mission. Thomas Stephen (+ Salsete, Goa 1619), a friend of Edmund
Campion, published a Catechism and the first Grammar of the
Konkani language (and the first one in any Indian language); he also
published his Christian Purâna (1616) in Marathi, a long epic poem of
11,018 stanzas of four verses each! The poem explains the History of
Salvation since the Creation of the world till the Ascension of Christ to
Heaven. People used to sing some stanzas during liturgy celebrations,

70
1546 Portugal; 1547 Spain; 1549 India; 1551 Italy; 1552 Aragón (Spain);
1553 Brazil; 1554 Castile, Aragón, Andalusia (Spain); 1555 France; 1556
Germany.
71
Those volunteers were known as Indipeti (those who ask [Latin “petere”] for
going to the Indees) volunteers for the overseas missions. “About 14,000 of
these autograph letters (pre-1773) are held in ARSI” (see: GRAMATOWSKI,
Wiktor, Jesuit Glosary: Guide to understanding the documents [English
version: Camilla Russell] in www.sjweb.info/arsi/documents/ glossary.pdf

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at home or while working in the fields 72. Gonsalvo Fernandes worked

hard in Madurai (India) for more than fourteen years without achieving
one conversion until the arrival of Robert de Nobili (Rome 1577 –
Chennai/ India 1656). This great Roman Jesuit studied Tamil, Sanskrit
and the complex and rigid caste system. He dressed like an Indian man
and tried to adapt the liturgy to Indian tradition. Nonetheless conflicts
arose. Some Jesuits thought he was going too far in his methods of
evangelization, to the point where Fr. Provincial, Pero Fernandes,
forbade him from baptizing. Even though Fr. General Aquaviva
supported De Nobili, the Inquisition of Goa prosecuted him; after a
long process, Pope Gregory XV defended him and the case was
closed73.
But India was not the limit. With Fr. Alessandro Valignano
(Chieti 1539 – Macao / China 1606) the Jesuits crossed India and
reached Japan. In 1573, Fr. Mercurian appointed Valignano as
“Visitador” for India and the Far East. On March 24 th 1574, he
departed Europe from Lisbon for Goa with forty-one missionaries; it
was the first trip to Asia, his place for mission during more than 30
years. He organized provinces in Japan, the formation of the Jesuits,
the promotion of diocesan priests, and built the first press in Japan for
Japanese Christian literature. Many of his great efforts had a deep
influence in the attitude of the Church towards “mission” 74.

72
See: CARAMAN, P., “Stephens (Stephanus, Estevão), Thomas”, DHCJ IV,
3637. SOMMERVOGEL, “Busten, Buston, de Bubsten, Estevam, Stephens,
Thomas” II, 468-469.
73
PONNAD, S., “De Nobili, Robert”, DHCJ II, 1060-1061; RAJAMANICKAM, S.,
The First Oriental Scholar, Tirunelveli 1972. SOMMERVOGEL, “Nobili, Robert
de”, V, 1779-1780.
74
CIESLIK, H. / Wicki, J., “Valignano, Alessandro”, DHCJ IV, 3877-3879;
WICKI, J. (ed.), Historia del principio y progreso de la Compañía de Jesús en
las Indias Orientales (1542-1564), Roma 1944; ROSS, A. C., “Alessandro

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

A bit younger, LI Madou was the Chinese name of Matteo Ricci

(Macerata / Italy 1552 – Beijing / China 1610), another Italian
missionary, founder of the Jesuit mission in China. After a long
formation in Rome, he travelled to Goa (1578), and four years later
Valignano called him to work in China. He and Michele Ruggieri
established the first mission in China. Ricci studied Chinese religious
traditions and learnt Chinese. His deep knowledge of mathematics,
cartography and cosmology and his extraordinary memory created a
deep esteem and reputation among the Chinese high intellectual
society. His five scientific books appeared under the title Qiankun tiyi
(Treatise on Heaven and Earth). His collected works are very diverse
and touch very different fields of human culture 75 . In 1604, the
Chinese mission became independent from the Japanese Jesuit
Province, and Ricci was its first Superior. As this happened to De
Nobili in India, Ricci had conflicts with other missionaries (inside and
outside of the Society of Jesus) who could not accept his methods for
inculturation and provoked the “controversy about Chinese rites.”
When Ricci passed away, the Jesuit mission in China had eight
missionaries and eight Chinese Jesuit brothers working in four Jesuit
residences, as well as a Christian community of 25.000 members 76 .

Valignano: The Jesuits and Culture in the East”, The Jesuits: Cultures,
Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1773 (O’Malley, J.W. / Bailey, G. A. / Harris, S. J.
/ Kennedy, T. F., eds.), University of Toronto, Toronto 1999, 336-351.
75
See: SOMMERVOGEL, “Ricci Matthieu”, VI, 1792-1795.
76
In his reception to the Jesuits of the 35th General Congregation (February 21st
2008), Pope Benedict XVI offered the testimony and life of Matteo Ricci and
Robert de Nobili as examples of inculturation of the Faith: “extraordinary
experiences of proclamation and encounter between the Gospel and world
cultures” (Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Fathers of the General
Congregation of the Society of Jesus [5] in Decrees and Documents of the 35th
General Congregation, British Province of the Society of Jesus in association
with Way Books, Oxford 2008, 143).

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Chinese bishops in Council Vatican II (1963) asked the Pope to

introduce the “cause of beatification” of Fr. Matteo Ricci 77.

6.2 Missions in America

Meanwhile what was happening on the other side of the world?
America was a new continent, and the new circumstances of its people
and culture were demanding new methods for evangelization.
Following the Franciscans projects, the Jesuits began with the
“reductions,” 78 which included not only a way to promote Christian
Faith or to convert unbelievers, but also a proposal for building a new
life for the indigenous people: education, art, culture, music, economy,
religion, family, and work. Jesuits began the first reductions in the
region of Paraguay and the highest population reached 104,483 in 1755.
Community life was always structured around the church 79 , the
residence of the Jesuit Fathers and the big square in the middle of the
city. They developed their own economy around agriculture (sugar,
tobacco, potatoes) and cattle 80 . After a long period of conflict with

77
Among the very long bibliography: STANDAERT, N., “Jesuits in China”, The
Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits (T. Worcester, ed.), Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge 2008, 169-185; SEBES, J. “Ricci, Mateo”, DHCJ
IV, 3351-3353; SEBES, J., “Ritos chinos. Controversia”, DHCJ IV, 3367-3372;
SPENCE, J. B., The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, Nueva York, 1984.
78
The word comes from Latin “ducere” (to lead), and the word “reduction”
was used to refer “to persuade” or “to convert”. The action consisted (in its
first meaning) on leading the indigenous people from being dispersed in the
jungle to new collective ways of living in villages organized and run by a small
community of Jesuits.
79
Some of them very big and rich: the church of Saint Ignatius Mini was 24
meters wide and 62 meters long. See: BAYLE, G. A., “Jesuit Architecture in
colonial Latin America”, The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits (Worcester,
T. ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, 217-242.
80
700,000 sheeps, 75,000 horses give an idea of the prosperity of the economy
of those communities.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Portuguese and Spanish kings, the reductions declined and started to

disappear when the Jesuits were expelled from all Portuguese and
Spanish territories in 1767 and 1768. Political and ecclesiastical
conflicts wrote the last line of one of the most prosperous projects in
the history of Christian missions, that revealed the “inner energy” of
the Ignatian Spirituality81.

7. To Love and Serve till the very End. Spirituality of Martyrdom

“No one has a greater love than those who give their own life for
their friends” (John 15:13). In the Spiritual Exercises the retreatant
used to pray: “I wish and desire, and it is my deliberate decision,
provided only that it is for your greater service and praise, to imitate
you in bearing all injuries and affronts, and any poverty actual as well
as spiritual…” [Sp Ex 98]; and the “Third way of being humble” prays:
“I desire and choose poverty with Christ rather than wealth; contempt
with Christ laden with it rather than honors. Even further, I desire to be
regarded as a useless fool for Christ… rather than as a wise or prudent
person in this world” [Sp Ex 167].

The history of Ignatian Spirituality is also based on a fundament

of fidelity and commitment with projects that the Jesuits started in so
many different places all over the world and, even more, with the
people they helped in their missions. This fidelity and commitment to
people and to God was often the main cause of a violent death and
martyrdom. The list of Jesuit martyrs is quite long; they offered their

81
MORALES, M. Mª, “Reducciones”, DHCJ I, 111-114, under “América
Hispánica III. Métodos misionales”; REVUELTA, M., “Los jesuitas en la
América española. Gloria y Cruz de las Reducciones del Paraguay”, Once
calas en la historia de la Compañía de Jesús, Universidad P. Comillas, Madrid
2006, 113-143.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

lives in very different contexts, revealing how deep their spiritual

experience was, mainly rooted in the friendship with Christ, through
the Spiritual Exercises. Even though they were conscious of the
circumstances and risks around them, they chose to remain in their
missions.
Year Place Name Blessed/
Canonization
1570, Canary Ignacio de Azevedo and Beat.: Pius IX, May
July 15 Islands 39 companions (see list: 11, 1854.
(Spain) DHCJ III, 2539-2540).
1571, Brazil Pedro Días and 11 Venerable.
Sept 13 companions (see list:
DHCJ III, 2540).
1574- England Edmund Campion, Paul VI, Oct 25,
1603 Alexander Briant, Robert 1970.
Southwell, Henry
Walpole
1583, Salsete Rodolfo Acquaviva, Beat.: Leon XIII,
July 25 (India) Alfonso Pacheco, April 30, 1893.
Antonio Francisco,
Pietro Berno, Francisco
Aranha
1597- Japan Pablo Miki, Juan de Canon.: Jun 8, 1862.
1633 Gotó, Diego Kisai and 34 Beat.: July 7, 1867.
companions (beat.) (see
list: DHCJ III, 2545)
1603- England Nicolas Owen, Thomas Paul VI, Oct 25,
1625 Garnet 1970.
1615 Glasgow John Ogilvie Paul VI, Oct 17,
(Scotland) 1976.
1616, Durango Hernando de Tovar, Process reopened
Nov 16- (North Bernardo de Cisneros, Dec 20, 1983.
20 México) Diego de Orozco, Juan
del Valle, Luis de
Alavés, Juan Fonte,
Jeronimo de Moranta,
Hernando de Santarén
1619, Slovakia Istvan Pongrácz, Canon.: John Paul
Sept Melchior Grodziecki, II, July 16, 1995.
Marko Krizevcanin

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

1624, Ethiopia Francisco Machado, Victim of

Sept 28 Bernardo Pereira Violence82.
1625- England Edmund Arrowsmith, Paul VI, Oct 25,
1649 Henry Morse 1970.
1628, Paraguay Roque González, Alonso John Paul II, May
Nov 15- Rodríguez, Juan del 16, 1988.
17 Castillo
1635, Ethiopia Gaspar Pais, João Process opened in
Apr 25 Pereira, Bruno Bruni 1902.
1638 Ethiopia Francisco Rodrigues, Process opened in
June 14 Giacinto Franceschi 1902.
1642- Ontario René Goupil, Jean de Canon.: Pius XI-
1649 –Canada Lalande, Antoine Daniel, 1930.
Jean de Brébeuf, Gabriel
Lalemant, Charles
Garnier, Noël Chabanel

1649- England Peter Wright, Philip Beat.: Pius XI, Dec

1702 Evan, David Lewis 15, 1929.
Canon.: Paul VI,
Oct 25, 1970.
1653 Ethiopia Bernardo Nogueira Victim of Violence.
1670, Microne- Luis de Medina, Diego Beat.: John Paul II,
Jan 29 sia Luis de San Vitores Oct 6 1985.
1672,
Apr 2
1674, Microne- Francisco Esquerra Victim of the War.
Feb sia
1675, Microne- Pedro Díaz Victim of the War.
Dec sia
1676, Microne- Antonio di San Basilio, Victims of the War.
Jan-Sept sia Sebastian de Monroy
1684, Microne- Manuel Solórzano, Victims of
July – sia Balthasar Dubois, Violence.
1685, Agustín Strohbach,
July Pieter Coemans
1792, France See long list of 23 Jesuits Beat.: Pius XI, Oct
Sept 2-5 in DHCJ III, 2534-2535 17, 1926.
1936, Valencia Tomás Sitjar Fortiá and Beat.: John Paul II,

82
“Victim of Violence / Victim of War” is the name given by the DHCJ; see
vol. IV, 3940-3944: “Victims of Violence in El Salvador (Nov 16th 1989)”
3940-3941; “Victims of Violence in the Civil Spanish War (1936-1939)” 3942-
3943; “Victims of Violence in Indonesia (Nov. 1 st 1945)” 3943; “Victims of
Violence in Libano (June 1860)” 3943-3944; “Victims of Violence in Pécs
(Hungary) (March 26th 1704)” 3944.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Aug 19 (Spain) 12 companions (list: March 11, 2001.

DHCJ III, 2538).
The Diccionario Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús offers a long
collection of articles (III, 2531-2551) on all these Jesuit Martyrs
explaining the main causes, reasons and kind of martyrdom.

8. “Education of Children and Unlettered Persons in

83
Christianity” : Spirituality in Popular Missions

This is a method of Evangelization that appeared in the XVI

century. A “Popular Mission” was a pastoral strategy specifically
thought and prepared for small villages and poor rural areas. This
ministry had a deep influence during the Counter Reformation period
in those places far from big cities and with much less opportunities for
a basic Christian education. Even though the Society of Jesus invested
a lot of Jesuits, time and efforts in this ministry, other new religious
congregations were also dedicated to Popular Missions: the Priests of
the Mission of Vincent Paul (1625) and Redemptorists of Alfonso Mª
de Liguorio (1732), among some others.

The first Jesuits adopted also this apostolate, motivated once

more by the significance of “mission” in the Formula Instituti or in the
Constitutions [603-632]. Probably the first one dedicated specifically
to this apostolate in small villages was the Italian Silvestro Landini (+
Corse / France 1554)84, author of a very detailed apostolic project: one

83
Formula Instituti, GANSS, Constitutions, 66. See, also, Constitutions [528]:
“The promise to instruct the children and uneducated [rudos] persons in
conformity with the apostolic letters and the Constitutions…” (GANSS, 238).
84
See: GUIDETTI, A., “Landini, Silvestro”, DHCJ III, 2277. Some people
compared the work Silvestro did in Europe with the one Francis Xavier did in
India.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

week in a village preaching, giving Christian doctrine to different

groups of population, praying the Via Crucis, offering sermons and
confessions, promoting reform of life, and, in the end, founding small
confraternities that could continue with the mission once the
missionary had to leave for the next village.

Fr. Aquaviva encouraged this apostolate with three of his letters

(1590, 1594, 1599) and one Instruction, mentioning the main goals,
means and topics that the missionary should develop 85 . Soon this
method was spread among other countries such as Germany, Spain,
Portugal or France86. In northern Europe, missionaries fought mainly
against the “false doctrine” of the Lutherans, while in the South the
enemies represented ignorance, superstition and vices.

After the Restoration of the Society of Jesus (1814) and strongly

supported by Fr. Jan Roothaan in his Meditationes et Instructiones
compendiosae pro SS. Missionibus (1879)87, the Jesuits continued with
this method of Evangelization. The Manuel du missionnaire (Paris
1847) published by the French Adrien Nampon offered a very good
guide on how to proceed in the missions 88 . Germany (Colonia,
Aquisgran, Paderborn), Holland, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Peru,
Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and United States continued this fruitful

85
The Instruction “Pro iis, qui ad missiones fructificandi causa proficiscuntur”,
in Institutum SJ, III, 365-368.
86
Among the long list of Jesuits dedicated to this apostolate, we should
mention: Konrad Herdigen and Georg Loferer in Germany; Jerónimo López
and Pedro de Calatayud in Spain; Francis Regis and Julien Maunoir in France.
87
See: SOMMERVOGEL VII, 127.
88
Manuel du Missionnaire, séculier ou régulier: ouvrage utile á tous les
pasteurs des âmes (Lyon et Paris 1847). Almost eighty five years later a new
handbook appeared, this time in Italian: Manuale pratico per le Missioni al
popolo (Padua 1931) by Giuseppe Golia. See: SOMMERVOGEL V, 1554-1557,

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

methodology always inspired by the Spiritual Exercises89. In the sixties

of the XX century this apostolate came into a deep crisis and
experienced a fast and universal decline.

90
9. “Collaboration at the Heart of Mission” (GC 35) :
Confraternities

As it was written in the Formula Instituti, to move from one

place to another was a proper element in the Jesuit vocation. So, first
Jesuits started to think on how to preserve the experience and the fruits
God had produced in the Vineyard where the Jesuits had been working.
Without any institution around, there was a high risk of losing easily
what they had built up with such big effort.

Sent to Parma (June 1539), Peter Faber and Diego Lainez worked
there for more than one year. Before leaving for Germany (Faber), and
to Rome (Laínez), they founded the confraternity of the “Holy Name
of Jesus”. Faber wrote a list of guidelines offering advice on how to
keep alive what people had already received through spiritual exercises
and conversations with these two Jesuits 91. In 1547 Ignatius worked
with twelve men who could help him organize the works of mercy in

89
Some numbers are really amazing: Germany: in twenty years: 1.500
missions; Holland 1912: 179 missions; Austria Fr. Mathaus Wieser 943
missions in 33 years (almost 29 every year); France: 285 missions in 1851 (see:
O’MALLEY, John “II. CJ Restaurada (Desde 1814). In “Misiones Populares”,
DHCJ III, 2693-2694).
90
“We are humble and grateful that so many –inspired as we have been by the
vocation of Ignatius and the tradition of the Society- have chosen both to work
with us and to share our sense of mission and our passion to reach out to the
men and women of our broken but lovable world” (GC 35, decree 6 [3], 108).
91
Meditation, Exam, Daily Mass, weekly Communion, works or mercy (see:
Monumenta Fabri, 41-ss). Some important Jesuits of the first generation joined
the Society through this confraternity: Jerónimo Doménech, Benito Palmio,
Antonio Criminal (martyr).

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Rome around the church of the “Twelve Apostles”, as the beginning of

the confraternity of the “Holy Sacrament”. Nadal, founded in Mesina
and Laínez in Palermo different confraternities; some others appeared
in Genova, Padua, Ferrara, Florencia, Venecia, Siena and Perugia.
Even though it was easy to see and verify the fruits of those small
institutions, Ignatius preferred the Jesuits free from direct
responsibilities in order to keep them available for other missions and
he, for example, refused permission to Polanco when a confraternity in
Pistoia wanted to elect him rector.

These pastoral platforms helped lay people live their Christian

lives; sometimes the congregations were specifically oriented towards
different social groups: doctors, lawyers, artisans, sailors, or even
prisoners. Juan Berchmans discovered his vocation in the
Congregation in Malinas; Francis Sales in Clermont; Jean Eudes in
Caen and also others as Alfonso Mª de Liguori, Jean Baptiste de la
Salle, Camille de Lelis, etc…92

But the most important fruit of these confraternities were the

Congregations of Our Lady, Marian Congregations, founded by Jean
Leunis (Liège, Belgique 1532 – Torino, Italy 1584) a young Belgian
Jesuit and grammar teacher at Collegio Romano 93 . He began a
congregation with his students called “Congregation of Annunciation”,
the name of the church where they used to meet. In 1564 they
approved the Rules of the Congregation, the first structure of the
thousands of communities that would appear in the future. Ten years

92
See: GUIBERT, J. de, The Jesuits, 295-301; O’MALLEY, The First Jesuits,
192-197.
93
See: WICKI, J, - DENDAL, R., Le P. Jean Leunis, fondateur des
Congrégations Mariales, Rome 1951. A short article MEESSEN, G., “Leunis
(Leon), Jean”, DHCJ III, 2242.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

later, Fr. Aquaviva prepared a new version of the rules; the Jesuit “in
charge” of the Congregation was not going to be elected anymore by
its members, but appointed by the Fr. General. Soon this structure was
adopted by other institutions: the Collegio Germanico, the Roman
Seminary or the English College in Rome, and also beyond Italy as in
Bohemia, Poland, Spain, Peru, México, Portugal, Brazil and Japan.
Leunis founded new congregations in France (Paris, Billom, Lyon and
Avignon) and they entered into Germany.

The General Fathers E. Mercurian and C. Aquaviva seriously

supported the congregations and the Bulle Omnipotentis Dei (1584) by
Pope Gregory XIII erected the congregation of Collegio Romano as the
“Mother and Head” of all congregations and placed all of them under
the immediate direction of the Fr. General. Marian congregations were
integrated in the pedagogical structure of the Jesuit schools, being an
important element in the Christian formation of the students 94. After
difficult times during the Suppression of the Society, the congregations
renewed their rules (Fr. General Peter Beckx, 1855) and adapted to
new times. The movement grew very quickly95 till the new atmosphere
after the Council Vatican II (1965) started to demand new changes in
the congregations. It took many years, long conversations and a

94
One of the Rules of Fr. Rector of the Ratio Studiorum encouraged him to
include the Congregation of Our Lady in the ordinary life of his School:
“Procure que la Congregación de Santa María de la Anunciación del Colegio
Romano se extienda por el suyo…” (“Reglas del Rector [90]”, La pedagogía
de los jesuitas, 84; Institutum III, 168).
95
“more than one thousand of new congregations were affiliated to the Prima
Primaria in Rome every year”.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

delicate process of discernment to transform the congregations into the

new movement, the Christian Life Communities (CLC) 96.

10. “Generous Contribution of Women” 97

10.1 The charismatic experience of Ignatius and his companions

The role of women in the spiritual growth of Ignatius of Loyola

was very important98. When he left his home in Azpeitia with his eyes
and heart in Jerusalem he stopped in Manresa for quite a long time,
eleven months (March 1522 – February 1523). On her way back home,
the evening of March 25th 1522, Ines Pascual was the first one to talk
to Ignatius, helping him when he was lost upon arrival to Manresa 99.
She and her friends assisted Ignatius during his sickness in Manresa,
supported him with food and clothes and were affectionate towards the
very first Ignatius’ teachings on prayer 100 . Inés, as her son Juan
declared, also helped Ignatius during his years of studies in Paris
(1528-1534), sending him money enough to pay for books,
accommodation, registration…

96
Paul VI confirmed the new situation ad experimentum on 25th March 1968,
and approved definitely 31st May 1971. See: O’SULLIVAN, P. “Congregaciones
Marianas”, DHCJ I, 914-918.
97
“We wish to express our appreciation for this generous contribution of
women, and hope that this mutuality in ministry might continue and flourish”
(General Congregation 34, decree 14).
98
And even before: his mother, his wet nurse, his “certain lady”
(Autobiography [6]). For Ignatius, Women, and First Jesuits, See: GARCÍA DE
CASTRO, J., “Las mujeres y los primeros jesuitas”, Iguales y diferentes (Rivas,
F. ed.), San Pablo, Madrid 2012, 219-282.
99
That day, Inés took Ignatius to Sainte Lucía Hospital and that first night
brought him chicken soup.
100
Their names: Angela Amigant, Juana Serra, Micaela Canilles, Inés Claver,
Brianda Paquera, Juana Ferrer; they were known as “The Yñigues”, catalan
word “affictionated to Iñigo”. Most of the information about these women in
Scripta Sancti Ignatii, Madrid 1918.

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In Barcelona Ignatius became friends with Isabel Roser and her

group of devout women101. Isabel also supported Ignatius during his
days in Barcelona and also years later, as Inés Pascual, during his
studies in Paris. When Isabel’s husband died, she decided to travel to
Rome and to join the Society of Jesus. As Ignatius tried to avoid it,
Isabel wrote to the Pope Paulus III102 and Ignatius had to admit her and
her two companions Francisca Cruyllas and Lucrecia de Brandine in
the Society103. After pronouncing their vows, the three women became
Jesuits and remained in the Society for a period of nine months. Which
could be the most suitable mission for them? Ignatius sent them to
“Santa Marta”, a house for the rehabilitation of prostitutes 104. But after
a few misunderstandings and conflicts, Ignatius asked the Pope to cut
the link of the vows they had pronounced and to allow the Society not
to admit women again. Isabel and Francisca went back to Barcelona;
Roser joined the Franciscan convent of Saint Mary of Jerusalem in
1549 and Cruyllas worked serving at Hospital de la Cruz 105. Lucrecia
joined a convent in Naples.

101
See: DALMASES, C. de, “Roser (Rosés, Rosell), Isabel”, DHCJ IV, 3413.
Names of her friends: Isabel de Josa, Leonor Zapila, Estefanía de Requesens,
Guiomar de Ostalrich, Mencía de Requesens, Isabel de Boxadors, Aldonza de
Cardona.
102
The letter in Scripta II, 12-13 and also in Fontes Documentales, Rome 1977,
698-699.
103
The three of them pronounced their vows 25th December 1545 in Saint
Mary of the Way Church, in front of Ignatius of Loyola.
104
CHAUVIN, Ch., “Ignace et les courtisanes. La Maison Sainte Marthe (1542-
1548)”, Ignacio de Loyola y su tiempo (Plazaola, J., ed.), Mensajero-
Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao 1992, 551-562.
105
Ignatius himself explained the situation in a letter to Fr. Torres (Epistolae I,
437-441). See: GARCÍA DE CASTRO, J., “Las mujeres y los primeros jesuitas”,
253-270.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Original and strange was the case of Juana de Austria, who was
also admitted in the Society of Jesus (letter January 3, 1555) and who
was a Jesuit till she died (September 7, 1573). Daughter of the
Emperor Charles V, Juana was an important benefactor of the Society.
To keep the unusual situation secret and in silence, Jesuits always
referred to her in their correspondence as “Mateo Sánchez” or
“Montoya”. She died at El Escorial Monastery (near Madrid) and was
buried in the Carmelite convent of Descalzas Reales that she had
founded in Madrid106.

Women appeared again in Alcalá and Salamanca (1526-1527) as

devout followers of Ignatius, interested in deepening their spiritual
lives 107 . They used to meet in private homes or in the Antezana
Hospital, residence of Ignatius in Alcalá, to talk about methods of
prayer, exam of consciousness and how to prepare a good confession.
Because of this kind of meetings and the original personality of
Ignatius and his friends (Calisto de Sá, Diego de Cáceres and Juan de
Arteaga), the Inquisition began to keep an eye on them to the point
where Ignatius spent forty-two days in prison. They had to leave the
city and start thinking of a new plan108.

Once in Rome, and after the episode with Isabel Roser, Jesuits
started to develop a way of proceeding with women based on prudence,
respect and a certain distance. Other religious congregations
considered that the Jesuits were too close to women in their

106
See: DALMASES, C. de, “Juana de Habsburgo (Austria)”, DHCJ III, 2159-
2160; VILLACORTA BAÑ OS-GARCÍA, A., La jesuita. Juana de Austria, Ariel,
Barcelona 2005; DALMASES, C. DE., “Jesuitesas”, DHCJ III, 2148-2149.
107
Isabel Sánchez, Beatriz Ramírez, María Días, María de la Flor, Ana,
Leonor… full list in Scripta I, 609.
108
See: Autobiography [58-62].

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confessions and conversations 109 , that’s why some of Fr. Nadal’s

advices first, and the Constitutions later tried to introduce some
changes in the behavior of the Jesuits110.

Nowadays, Jesuits have revisited this topic in the 34th General

Congregation (1995). Decree 14 recognized all the mistakes in the
Jesuit tradition against women, gave thanks to all the women that had
been faithfully collaborating in Jesuit institutions, and offered some
practical points in order to change ideas and behaviors for a better
integration of women in the society111.

10.2 Ignatian spirituality and female religious institutions (FRI)112

We have mentioned how women in different places and moments
were sensitive and attracted to Ignatian Spirituality. If it is true that
after the first approach by Isabel Roser, there were no other open
initiatives from women to become Jesuits, Ignatian Spirituality
inspired many other ways of living under the new charisma initiated by
the First Jesuits. Five new FRI were founded before the Suppression of

109
As the Dominican Melchor Cano; See: O’REILLY, T., “Melchor Cano’s
Censura y Parecer contra el Instituto de los Padres Jesuitas. A Transcript of
the British Library Manuscript”, in From Ignatius Loyola to John of the Cross.
Spirituality and Literature in Sixteenth-century Spain, Aldershot-Hampshire
1995, V, 1-21. See also the opinion of Archbishop of Valence (Spain) in
Epistolae Mixtae I, 257 (January 26th 1546).
110
See, for example, Epistolae Natalis IV, 334, 592, 597 and Constitutions
[266.267.588]: “it is expedient that women should not enter the houses or
colleges but only the churches” and few lines lower: “the superior in his
discretion will have the power to grant a dispensation for just reasons”.
111
See: 34th GENERAL CONGREGATION, Decree 14: “The Society of Jesus and
Women in the Church and in the Society”; FULAM, L, “Juana, S. J.: The Past
and Future? Status of Women in the Society of Jesus”, Studies in the
Spirituality of the Jesuits 31, St. Louis 1999.
112
I am following DE CHARRY J. RSCJ, “Institutos Religiosos Femeninos
ligados a la CJ”, DHCJ III, 2050-2056.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

the Society 113 (1773); six appeared during the Suppression of the
Society (1773-1814) 114 and around 209 after the Restoration (1814).
Among these 220, 166 were born in Europe 115, 35 in North America
(USA and Canada), 28 in Latin America, 12 in Asia116, 7 in Africa 117
and 4 in Australia.

YEARS Nº of YEARS Nº of YEARS Nº of

FRI FRI FRI
1815- 32 1871- 21 1921- 17
1830 1880 1930
1831- 23 1881- 15 1931- 7
1840 1890 1940
1841- 17 1891- 10 1941- 15
1850 1900 1950
1851- 13 1901- 11 1951- 4
1860 1910 1976
1861- 17 1911- 7
1870 1920

What was the main role of the Jesuit(s) in all these processes of
foundations? The Constitutions [588] were very clear: “… people of
this Society […] must not take care of souls [‘cura de ánimas’], even
less charge of religious women or any others, to confess them
ordinarily or to govern them” 118. But the fact that History is telling us
is that Jesuits worked hard to promote and to incarnate Ignatian

113
1585: Ursulines of Dôle; 1607: Daughters of Our Lady; 1609: Institute of
BVM (Mary Ward); 1633: Order of Incarnate Word; 1650: Sisters of Saint
Joseph.
114
Daughters of Heart of Mary; Society of Sacred Heart; Daughters of Holy
Family of Amiens; Daughters of Our Lady; Handmaids of Christian Instruction;
Congregation of the Nativity of Our Lord.
115
France 76; Spain 29; Italy 26; Belgium 14; Ireland 5; Holland 5; Germany 3;
Poland 2 and Sweden 1.
116
India 7; Lebanon 1; Syria 1; Sri Lanka 1; Indonesia 1 and Thailand 1.
117
Algeria 2; Zaire 2; Nigeria 1; Zambia 1; South Africa 1.
118
See: GANSS, 262-263.

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Spirituality among women. Sometimes Jesuits were the spiritual

directors of the Founder; at other times, they acted as advisors or
confessors of the Foundress, and on other occasions Jesuits offered
help in writing and preparing the first drafts of their Constitutions.

11. “Assisting and Serving those who are Found in Prisons or

Hospitals” (Formula Instituti, 1550)
When Ignatius of Loyola left his family home in Azpeitia for
Manresa, poverty became one of the most important dimensions in his
new life. This option for poverty led him to choose hospitals as
ordinary places to live. During his eleven months in Manresa he stayed
most of the time at Sainte Lucia hospital. After having finished his
studies in Paris, Ignatius travelled to Loyola (April 1535) and decided
to stay at La Magdalena Hospital in Azpeitia, two kilometers away
from his family home119. With his own experience, Ignatius started a
way of proceeding for his Companions.

11.1 “The sick person was greatly comforted and quickly recovered”
[Autob. 95]
The First Companions made the same decision when they left
Paris (November 15th, 1536) and travelled to Venice; they used to stop
at hospitals sharing their lives with the sick and poor 120 . Once in
Venice, “at the beginnings of 1537, they started to serve in diverse
hospitals” and it was while serving the poor that Diego de Hoces, one

119
See: Autobiography [87-88].
120
A wonderful description of this journey in Simão RODRIGUES, A Brief and
Exact Account: The Recollections of Simão Rodrigues on the Origins and
Progress of the Society of Jesus (Conwell, J. F., trans.), Institute of Jesuit
Sources, St. Louis 2004. (Original: Origine et progressu Societatis Iesu,
Fontes Narrativi III, 5-135), with many references to the hospitals and how
devoutly First Companions used to serve the sick.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

of the First Companions, died in the hospital of Padua (13 th of March

1538) 121 . Ignatius tried to keep the Jesuits close to poverty. In an
instruction to the Fathers sent to Trent, Loyola recommended visiting
the hospitals: “I would hear the confessions of the poor and console
them, even bringing them something if I could. I would have them say
prayers, as was said regarding confessions” 122 . Diego Laínez and
Nicolás Bobadilla became members of the confraternity of the Holy
Spirit in Rome. We can also mention Fr. Paschase Broët, a Jesuit from
the First Companions, who died in Paris (September 14 th 1562) taking
care of sick people during a plague that started in July that year123.

After all these experiences, this ministry for helping the sick was
considered so important as to be included in the Formula Instituti (“to
serve the sick people in the hospitals” [3]) and in the Constitutions of
the Society of Jesus. To visit and to live in a hospital is the second
“probatio” for the Jesuits novices, who are called to serve the poor
with the love of Christ124.

Fr. Nadal “has justly been described, for instance, as ‘the premier
organizer of social relief in Sicily’ during his years there, 1548-53”125.
From the letters that Jesuits had to send to Rome every year, we know
that in Lisbon, for example, Jesuits worked in hospitals preparing food,

121
See: Autobiography [93.98].
122
See: “Instruction to the Fathers of the Council of Trent”, Letters and
Instructions 128-131; the instructions of Ignatius written in first grammatical
person “I”; see Epistolae et Instructiones I, 386-389.
123
We preserve the last document from Fr. Broët: a short list of the things of
this room he had touched; after, trusting God’s mercy, he peacefully says
goodbye to his Jesuits companions before dying. See: Monumenta Broetii,
Madrid 1903 (reprint, 1971) 194.
124
See: Constitutions of the Society of Jesus [66]; “They can help the sick,
especially those in hospitals by visiting them” [650].
125
O’MALLEY, The First Jesuits 167.

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making beds and washing the sick. The same occurred in Goa (India)
and in Japan where Jesuits founded a small village near Nagasaki to
take care of the lepers, both men and women, who were not allowed to
enter into the cities.

In the ministry of caring for the sick, the borders are the people
suffering from the plague, the most contagious and mortal illness
among other diseases such as malaria, cholera or typhus. More than
2.000 Jesuits died serving the sick, and they are known as the “martyrs
of charity”. Based mainly on the writings of Fr. Polanco, O’Malley
offers some particular cases of this ministry of the first Jesuits:
“During the plague in Rome in 1566 and again in 1568, they went out
in large numbers to care for the stricken, with each Jesuit assigned a
street as his particular charge. In Lisbon in 1569 seventeen Jesuits died
while attending to victims of the plague”126.

The young Louis Gonzaga died in Rome (June 21, 1591), but
there were many others in France, Northern Italy, Naples, Seville,
Poland or Yucatán (México) and Paraguay. It is time to remember St.
Pedro Claver, “apostle of black slaves” who also died after four years
fighting against an illness he contracted during his service to sick
people. This apostolate reaches our times. There have been institutions
for lepers in Fontilles (Spain), Culión (Philippines) (1924 – 5,500 sick);
Mangalore, Trombay and Goa (India) and N’Djamena (Tchad) a

126
O’MALLEY, J. W., The First Jesuits, 171, from Polanci Complementa II,
Madrid 1917 (MHSI 54), 666.691 and 707. Recently: Malulu LOKUWE
GAUTHIER, Etude des oeuvres de miséricorde ignatiennes à Azpeitia, en
Vénétie et à Rome, Thèse doctorale, U. P. Comillas, Madrid 2015.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

hospital for disabled servicemen. Fidelity and generosity appear as

features of Ignatian Spirituality127.

To accompany dying people was a work of mercy in which

Ignatius was always very interested. He knew that Jesuits were often
called to this ministry, and therefore he showed a deep interest in
having a handbook that could help young (and not so young) Jesuits in
their ministries. He himself had gone through the experience of
“touching the end of his life”, in Loyola, in Manresa, leaving Valencia,
or Rome… 128. We preserve many letters from different parts of the
world in which Jesuits informed Rome how often they were called to
assist people in their last moments: “We are usually called to help
people in a ‘good death’, and we go there diligently” 129: “it was more
necessary to help people reach a good death than to enjoy a good
living” 130 . Fr. Polanco published the first book: Methodus ad eos
adjuvandos qui moriuntur 131 . This book had 17 editions and was
translated into German, French and Portuguese. This text offered a
synthesis of Dogmatic, Spiritual, Moral and Pastoral Theology and was

127
See: P. CARAMAN / C.J. VISCARDI, “Enfermos, ministerio de los”, DHCJ II,
1242-1244; all numbers in 1243.
128
See: Autobiography [3.33].
129
Litterae Quadrimestres V, 801: Alfonso Román to Diego Laínez (Zaragoza,
Sept. 18, 1558). More references from other cities as Granada, Sevilla,
Salamanca, Lisbon, Valladolid in GARCÍA DE CASTRO, J., “’Que partan de esta
vida en gracia y amor de Dios’. El Directorio para ayudar a bien morir del P.
Juan Alfonso de Polanco”, Discursos después de la muerte (Mª Jesús
Fernández Cordero / Henar Pizarro Llorente, eds.), col. Textos para un milenio,
Madrid 2013, 15-38, here 21-22.
130
BURRIEZA, J., “Los Jesuitas: de las postrimerías a la muerte ejemplar”,
Hispania Sacra LXI, 124 (julio-diciembre 2009) 513-544.
131
Full Latin title: Methodus ad eos adjuvandos qui moriuntur ex complurium
Doctorum ac piorum scriptis diuturnoque usu et observatione collecta
(Macerata, Sebastiano Martinelli, 1575).

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truly one of the most influential books among the Spiritual and
Pastoral literature in the second part of the XVI century in Europe 132.

11.2 “The defense of Faith and promotion of Justice” (GC 32, decree
4; 1974)
To visit prisoners or slaves in galleys 133 became a typical
ministry for the Jesuits. It was already recommended in the
Constitutions134 and to ask about this apostolate was one of the Rules
for Fr. Provincial during his canonic visits to communities. People
were surprised and “edified” by these well-known priests who, aside
from working as teachers in schools or universities, were also occupied
with marginalized and poor people. They visited prisons to offer
spiritual help through prayer, simple devotions, confessions, Masses or
sermons, but they also offered corporal assistance 135.

Jesuits begged in the streets or in their churches to earn money

for bread, fruit, medicines, tobacco or even to pay for fines prisoners
owed. They also worked to achieve better health conditions for sick
prisoners. In Seville, for example, Fr. Pedro de León founded the

132
SOMMERVOGEL VI, 944-945 with all the editions and translations. Other
titles: Tomás de Villacastín, Práctica para ayudar a bien morir (1630); Alonso
de Andrade, Lección de bien morir (Madrid 1662); Juan Weyer, Affectus pii
(Olmutz 1670). Long and amazing list about literature of helping dying people
in SOOMERVOGEL X, 510-519: “La Mort”.
133
Related to this, we find the early case of Fr. Laínez who in June 1550 had to
join in Sicily the naval expedition of Juan de Vega as chaplain. Healing the
sick, hearing confessions, helping dying people, baptizing the converted…
“with almost no time to eat or to sleep”; see the four letters sent to Rome in
Monumenta Lainii I, Madrid 1912, 164-173 and the short information from
Polanco, Chronicon II, 43-44.
134
GANSS, The Constitutions, 283: “[they] do what they can for the poor and
for prisoners in the jails” [650], and the Formula Instituti: “and serving those
who are found in prisons”.
135
SOMMERVOGEL II, 1242-1243, “Clinton, Alexander, dont le vrai nom est
Mac-Kensie”; first title, The poor Prisoner’s Comforter, London 1764.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

“Congregación de Nuestra Señora de la Visitación” to offer legal

support to prisoners. He also accompanied 309 condemned to death,
consoling them in the last moments of their lives. In Rome in 1575, the
French Fr. Jean Tellier founded the “Confraternità dei carcerati”.
Jesuits received a license from civil authorities to allow prisoners to
attend Sunday Mass in any chapel close to the prison, and often they
prepared prisoners for their First Communion 136 . This apostolate
continued after the restoration of the Society of Jesus and during the
XX century when many Jesuit Provinces sent members to work as
chaplains in prisons137.

But there were also some other social groups of people who also
needed to be liberated from other kind of prisons. A few months after
their arrival in Rome, the first Jesuits realized how many prostitutes
were in the city and how poor and miserable their living conditions
were. The few institutions that already existed in 1540 seemed not to
be enough to afford the situation. Ignatius decided to start a
congregation, “Compagnia della Grazia”, to get money to start
building a new place for them. The project, “Casa de Santa Marta”,
was approved by the pope Paulus III in February 1543, and was
supported by fourteen cardinals in Rome. This house was organized
almost as a convent and the process of admission required the women

136
See: VISCARDI, C. J., “”Encarcelados. Ministerios con”, DHCJ II, 1239-
1241 and O’MALLEY, The First Jesuits 167-168, 173-174, with many
references to Fr. Polanco’s Chronicon Societatis Iesu.
137
We cannot forget the high number of Jesuits that for very different reasons
have suffered themselves the experience of being prisoners; see: ANDERSON, G.
M., Jesuits in Jail, Ignatius to the Present, Studies in the Spirituality of the
Jesuits 27/4 (September 1995).

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to answer a detailed list of questions138. Seven years after, more than

three hundred women had received help from the institution and
twenty years after the death of Ignatius, the house had been
transformed into a female convent.

Even though this ministry doesn’t appear in the Formula Instituti,

it was quite common among the first Jesuits and Superiors who used to
inform Rome about what the Jesuits in their communities and
provinces were doing regarding the rehabilitation of prostitutes139.

12. “This Sick Man was Devoted to Saint Peter” [Au. 3] Spiritual
Life through Popular Devotions
Devotion is a very important concept and experience in Ignatian
Spirituality. It appears at the beginning and at the end of the
Autobiography. “It happened that this sick man was devoted to St.
Peter” and it was through his intercession that Ignatius started to
recover his health [Au 3]; and in paragraph [99] Fr. Câmara says: “our
Father [Ignatius] was always growing in devotion, that is, in facility to
find God”. Devotion was for Ignatius an inner feeling which helped
him to discern and discover God in all things.

The Jesuits promoted different devotions to help people to

discern and to discover God in their ordinary lives. It would take us a
long time and a very great number of pages to describe in detail all

138
See: AICARDO, J. M., Comentario a las Constituciones de la Compañía de
Jesús IV, Madrid 1924, 651-652. CHAUVIN, Ch., “Ignace de Loyola et les
Courtisannes. La maison Sainte Marthe (1542-1548)”, Ignacio de Loyola y su
tiempo, Mensajero, Bilbao 1992, 551-562.
139
CARAMAN, P. “Ministerios apostólicos especiales. I Prostitutas”, DHCJ III,
2678-2679; See letter of Bartolomé Ferrão (November 1545; Epp I, 327-328).

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

these devotions; but we have to mention at least some of them in order

to get a more complete picture of Ignatian Spirituality through history.

12.1 Devotion to frequent communion

We know how important the Eucharist was in the life of Saint
Ignatius: Manresa, Barcelona, Paris, Venice, Rome etc… Some of his
important visions were related to the Mystery of Eucharist 140; the first
vows of the Companions in Montmartre were pronounced during a
Liturgy, before the Body of Christ 141 and his very important spiritual
discernment on poverty (Rome 1544-1545) always took place around
the daily Mass, as the Spiritual Diary testifies 142 . The Spiritual
Exercises recommend “to attend Mass and Vespers daily” and the
“Third rule for thinking with the Church” says: “We should praise
frequent attendance to Mass”; Jesuit Scholastics should frequent
communion every eight days and hear Mass everyday 143.
The first Jesuits were promoters of frequent communion. Peter
Faber, in his notes to the confraternity in Parma, recommended
receiving communion every eight days 144. Frequent communion was a
common topic in the preaching of the First Companions after their
ordination. Bobadilla had written about it in his Libellus on frequent

140
Autobiography [29].
141
See: Autobiography [29.85].
142
The deep mystical experience during the thirteen months (2 nd February
1544 – end of February 1545) of the Spiritual Diary takes place always around
the Eucharist; the Ignatian Concordance offers more than three hundred
references to the daily Mass celebrated by Ignatius.
143
See: Sp Ex [20 and 355]; Constitutions [342]; “very special care should be
taken that those who come to the universities of the Society to obtain
knowdege should acquire along with it good and Christian moral habits […]
hear Mass everyday” Constitutions [481] (See: GANSS 184 and 223).
144
See: Monumenta Fabri, Madrid 1914 (reprint, 1972) 42. Faber had gotten
into troubles because he had recommended a woman to receive communion
everyday.

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communion 145 and the book of Fr. Cristóbal de Madrid, based on a

previous incomplete text by Fr. Salmerón, became very popular 146.
Fr. Aquaviva did not allow lay people to receive communion
twice a week without permission from Fr. Provincial. In the XVII
century the book of Jean Pichón L’Esprit de Jéus-Christ et de l’Eglise
sur la fréquente Communion (Paris 1745) 147 , encouraged people to
receive communion every day; it was a polemic text that received a lot
of criticism, mainly from Jansenists, and was included in the Index of
forbidden books. Still in 1883, Jesuits Scholastics were not allowed to
receive communion more than once a week. In 1906, a decree by Pious
X would change the situation.

12.2 Devotion to our Lady, Mary

Reading the Autobiography we discover how present Mary was
in the life of Ignatius148; the Spiritual Diary is a clear example of the
role of Mediator that She has in the mystical experience of Ignatius and
in the Spiritual Exercises Mary is always the Third person to talk to in
the final colloquy of every exercise. Very probably inspired by The
Vita Christi of Ludolpho of Saxony, Ignatius offers the first

145
Maybe the first book written on this topic, but not the first published; see:
CARAMAN, P., “Comunión, Misterio de la”, DHCJ I, 893-894. The text from
Bobadilla was published in AHSI 2 (1933) 258-279.
146
Libellus de frequenti usu Sacramenti Eucharistiae (Neapoli 1556); see:
SOMMERVOGEL V, 278-279.
147
The Spirit of Christ and of the Church on frequent Communion; see:
SOMMERVOGEL VI, 717.
148
From Autobiography [10] (vision of Our Lady with the Son) till
Autobiography [96] where Ignatius prays insistently to Mary to be placed with
her Son, before the Storta vision. Our Lady of Olatz, in Loyola, Our Lady of
Aránzazu near Azpeitia, or Our Lady of Montserrat, monastery where Ignatius
offered his weapons and changed his clothes, and Our Lady of La Strada in
Rome show how important Mary was in the first steps of his new life.

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contemplation of the Fourth Week: “How Christ our Lord appeared to

Our Lady” [Sp Ex 218-225]. Peter Faber used to say that, after the
contemplation of the Mysteries of the Life of Christ, nothing is as
helpful in spiritual life as the contemplation of the Mysteries of the
Life of Mary 149 . During three years (1534-1536), the vows of
Montmartre were pronounced on the feast of the Assumption of Our
Lady (August 15) and the final vows of the first Jesuits in Rome at the
basilica of Saint Paul before a mosaic of our Lady. In the beginning of
the Society of Jesus, many Jesuits pronounced a vow of defending the
doctrine of the Immaculate Conception; maybe the best known is John
Berchmans who signed the formula with his own blood.

Jesuit literature on Marian topics is very wide. Only a few years

after the Society was founded first devotional books started to appear:
Gaspar de Loarte published Istruttione e avvertimenti per meditar i
misterii del Rosario (Rome 1573), Francis Coster De vita et laudibus
Deiparae Mariae Virginis meditations quiquaginta (Amberes1587),
similar to those of Vicenzo Bruni (Venecia 1586)150.

Joseph de Guibert maintains that Jesuits do not add anything

original to the traditional devotion to Mary, but just preserve and care
for what already was a patrimony of Western Spiritual Tradition 151.
Jesuits wrote abundantly about the Immaculate Conception of Mary,
about devotion to Rosary, devotion to the Scapulary152, to the Heart of

149
See: Peter FABER, Memorial [110]. Mary is present in the experience of
Peter Faber: Memorial [27.39.45.85.91.135.150.208238…].
150
SOMMERVOGEL X, 424-442.
151
DE GUIBERT, The Jesuits, 387-389.
152
First titles on Rosary, maybe, Benoît Herbestus, Adjecta quoque est pro
Christianis piis Rosarii Virginis Mariae expositio devota (Cracow 1568) and
Gaspar Astete Modo de rezar el Rosario, Salmos y oraciones (Salamanca 1578)
(SOMMERVOGEL IV, 292 and I, 604). Devotion to Scapulary started a bit later in

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Mary or to the Month of Mary. Even though few titles of these two last
devotions appeared at the end of XVII century, most of them belong to
XIX century.

In XVII century, Jesuits referred to Mary as the “Mother of the

Society”. In 1914, a hundred years after the Restoration of the Society,
Fr F. J. Wernz changed the title into “Queen of the Society” and in
1942 W. Ledóchowski got from Pope Pius XII the Mass of “Mary,
Queen of the Society of Jesus”; this title lasted till 1973 when it went
back to “Mother of the Society” 153.

Mary our Lady was always present in the main documents of

different Fathers General during the difficult times of prosecutions. Fr.
Lorenzo Ricci used to encourage the Jesuits asking them to pray first to
Mary in all possible ways: litanies, offerings… totally convinced that
“she never abandons who honestly pray to Her” 154.

In contemporary times, last General Congregations have

reminded and insisted on the role and significance of Mary in the life
of the Institute: “filial devotion to his Mother and our Lady”, “humble
and simple devotion to our Lady”155. “Mary shows us how to live in
total availability and to place our whole lives at the service of her Son.
In her instruction to the servants at Cana, ‘Do whatever he tells you’,
Mary points out for us the basic orientation that should guide our lives.

1654: Théophile Raynaud, Scapulare Partheno-Carmeliticum illustratum et

defensum (Venecia) (SOMMERVOGEL VI 1537).
153
O’NEILL, Ch, “Devoción a María”, DHCJ II, 1104-1106: “h) Mes de Mayo”
and “i) Consagración a María”. See also DHCJ IV, “Teología. IV.5.
Mariología” 3737-3739.
154
See: Supresión y Restauración de la Compañía de Jesús. Documentos
(Valero, U., ed.), Mensajero-Sal Terrae-Universidad P. Comillas, Bilbao-
Santander-Madrid 2014, 89-134.
155
GENERAL CONGREGATION 31, decrees 8.3 and 16.7e.

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For this reason, the Society has always seen in Mary a model of
obedience”156.

12.3 Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

This was perhaps the most popular and influential devotion
promoted by the Society of Jesus. As we understand it today, the
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was not a part of the spiritual life
of the first Jesuits. Faber and Borgia had special devotion to the wound
in Christ’s side, that already appears in the medieval prayer Anima
Christi: “intra vulnera tua, abscondeme” (“inside your wound, hide
me”). Peter Canisius wrote about a deep experience he went through
the day of this solemn profession in Rome: Christ opened his Heart
and invited him to drink the water that flowed from His Heart 157 .
Important Jesuits writers as Fr. Diego Á lvarez de Paz and Luis de la
Puente in Spain, or Vincent Huby in France began writing about the
Heart of Christ.

But this devotion entered into a new dimension with Fr. Claude
de la Colombière, spiritual director of Margarite de Alacoque, a mystic
visionary of the Heart of Christ. Her visions took place in Paray-le-
Monial. She wrote six letters in which she established links between
the Heart of Christ and the Society of Jesus. A year after her having
passed away, the Jesuit Jean Croiset published La dévotion au Sacré
Coeur de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (1691) (Devotion to Sacred
Heart of Jesus Christ). Soon some confraternities appeared, the first

156
GENERAL CONGREGATION 35, decree 4.53. Something similar offers the
concluding paragraph [108] of decree 1 of GC 33, a quotation from one of the
first letters of Ignatius to Inés Pascual: “I pray to our Lady to implore on our,
behalf between us sinners and her Son and Lord, and to gain us His grace, so
that…”.
157
See: PEDRO CANISIO, Epistulae et Acta (Braunsberger, O., ed.) Friburgo
1896, I, 55-59.

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one in France in 1698 and eight years later there were more than one
hundred. On January 2nd 1765 the Pope approved the Mass of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This devotion was very important during the difficult times of the
Suppression of the Society. The II Polocense General Congregation
(decree 8) imposed prayer to the Heart of Christ in these days of
prosecution, and to celebrate a triduum before the Feast. New religious
congregations of the “Sacred Heart” appeared, and many bishops
wanted to consecrate their dioceses to the Heart of Christ. In August
23th 1856, Pious IX extended the Feast to the whole Church; and in
1899 Leon XIII consecrated the world to the Heart of Christ. This
devotion became a very important part of the spiritual life of the
universal Church, and the Society of Jesus after the Restoration
remained very close to the Heart of Christ158.

Yet, after the Council Vatican II, the 31st General Congregation
(1965) recommended a renovation of this devotion and the next 32 nd
(1975) insisted on this point. At the same time, the most important
theologians, such as Karl Rahner, offered a new theology of the Sacred
Heart. Fr. Pedro Arrupe included the Spirituality of the Sacred Heart of
Christ in one of his letters in 1972 and, again, in one of his most
important documents as Fr. General of the Society of Jesus: “Rooted
and Founded in the Charity” (1980). Pope Jean Paul II asked the
Society to continue promoting this devotion (1986) and Fr. General P.-
H. Kolvenbach went back to it in his lecture “Munus suavissimum”

158
All Fathers General wrote letters or documents on this devotion: Jean
Roothaan, Peter Beckx, Anthony Anderledy, Luis Martín, Francis Wernz,
Wlodimiro Ledóchowski, Jean B. Janssens.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

(1988) and in his letter of April 12th 1992 announcing the canonization
of Blessed Claude de La Colombière159.

12.4 Devotion to Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph doesn’t appear in the Autobiography nor in the
Spiritual Diary nor in the Exercises160. Among the many saints that do
appear, I have not found him in the Memorial of Peter Faber. But
devotion to Saint Joseph became more and more important in Europe
in the XVII century and some devotional books were published in
honor of Saint Joseph; the Jesuits were devout promoters of this
devotion161: De Barry La Dévotion à Saint Joseph le plus aimé et le
plus amiable de tous les saints (Lyons 1640), Fr. Nadasi Hebdomada S.
Iosepho sacra (Roma 1659); Fr. José Antonio Patrignani Il divoto di
San Giuseppe (Florencia 1707)162.

13. “He saw the windows were closed” [Au 97]. The Suppression of
the Society of Jesus (1773)
From the very beginning, things were not always easy. Since his
time in Alcalá 1526 until his last years in Rome (1540-1556), Ignatius

159
Lecture in the third Centenary of the revelations (July 2 nd 1988); letter in
Acta Romana SI 20 (1988-1992) 725-729. See the article NICOLAU, M. /
VISCARDI, C.J., “Corazón de Jesús. Devoción”, DHCJ I, 944-948; De GUIBERT,
J., The Jesuits, 392-401.
160
Only in the references to Mysteries of the Life of Christ [264.265.269.270].
161
See: DE GUIBERT, The Jesuits 389-390, who refers to SOMMERVOGEL X
447-448.
162
Among the different devotions promoted by the Jesuits we can add devotion
to Purgatory as a place to “awake” to a better life. Some titles: Binet: De l’etat
heureux et malheureux des âmes souffrantes en Purgatoire, et des moyens
souverains pour n’y aller pas ou y demeurer fort peu (1626); Martín de la Roa:
Estado de las almas del Purgatorio (Sevilla 1619); Domingo Bruno: Il
Purgatorio aperto e chiuso (Nápoles 1730) (4 vols.); J. E. Nieremberg:
Devoción con las ánimas del Purgatorio (1630); Marcos de Bonnyer: L’avocat
des âmes du Purgatoire (1632); Jacques Mumford: A remembrance for the
living to pray for the dead (1641); Nicolas Zucchi: Pratica della vera
divozione in aiuto delle anime del Purgatorio (Roma 1659).

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went through seven Inquisitorial processes. He and his First

Companions were often under the eye of the Inquisition. 1538 was,
maybe, one of the most difficult periods in the life of the group due to
a conflict with an Augustinian Friar in Rome, Augustin Mainardi163. A
few months later, the process of the founding of the Society took more
time than expected because Cardinal Jerome Guinucci, in charge of
writing the report to the pope, was openly against the foundation 164.
But all these difficulties were almost a game compared to what had to
happen two hundred and thirty five years later…

In 1759 the King of Portugal decided to expel the Jesuits from

his territories. Louis XV of France did the same in 1764 and also the
King of Spain, Charles III, through his document known as
Pragmática Sanción on April 2nd 1767. An experience of exile began
for all Jesuits living in all these countries and their colonies in Asia and
Latin America. We cannot spend time detailing the main causes for
this very complex situation: the economy, social, political and
ecclesiastical reasons165 are behind this dramatic episode in the History
of the Society of Jesus. The Pope Clemens XIII tried to avoid this
conflict but all his efforts were not enough166.

163
“El negocio ha seido tal, que durante ocho messes enteros hemos passado la
más recia contradicción o persecución que jamás ayamos passado en esta vida”
Letter of Ignatius to Isabel Roser (Rome, December 19, 1538) Epistolae et
Instructiones I, 137.
164
See: CONWELL, J., “Cardinals Guidiccioni and Ghinucci faced with the
Solemn Approbation of the Society of Jesus”, AHSI 66 (1997) 3-50.
165
See the long article: PINEDO, I, “Supresión” inside “Compañía de Jesús”,
DHCJ I, 878-884; FERRER BENIMELLI, J. A., Expulsión y extinción de los
jesuitas. 1759-1773, Mensajero, Bilbao 2013.
166
He wrote the Bullle Apostolicum Pascendi (January 7, 1765), and an
important letter to King Charles III (April 16th 1767), asking him to revoke the
decision of expelling the Jesuits from his territories.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Elected in May 21, 1758, Fr. Lorenzo Ricci was the General of
the Society167. In January 1765 he began writing open letters to the
whole Society encouraging the Jesuits and asking them to remain
faithful to their vocation and close to Jesus Christ in those very
difficult times. He asked for sincere prayers, and to remain close to the
Passion of Christ. The Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady Virgin
Mary, as well the Saints of the Society of Jesus, were always present in
their prayers 168. But the pressure that the different Kings of Europe
placed upon the Vatican, and directly onto the Pope, succeeded, and
Clemens XIV in his technically called brief, but quite long document,
Dominus ac Redemptor Noster (June 21st 1773), decided to abolish the
Society of Jesus. That meant that the Society had to disappear from the
“face of the Earth”: Jesuits, institutions, patrimony… everything:

We suppress and extinguish that Society; we abolish and

declare null all and each of their ministries and works, houses,
schools, colleges, orphanages, farms and whatever possessions
placed in any Province, Kingdom or Dominions… and her
statutes, customs, decrees and constitutions… And so, we
declare that all authority of Fr. General, Fathers Provincial,
Visitadores and any other Superiors concerning temporal and
spiritual matters, were perpetually abolished and totally
extinguished169.

167
BOTTEREAU, G., “Ricci, Lorenzo”, DHCJ II, 1656-1657.
168
See the very good collection of original documents on Suppression and
Restoration in VALERO, U., (ed.) Supresión y Restauración de la Compañía de
Jesús. Documentos, Mensajero-Sal Terrae-Universidad P. Comillas (col.
Manresa nº 52), Bilbao-Santander-Madrid 2014, 89-134.
169
VALERO, U., Supresión y Restauración…, 158-159.

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The period of the Suppression lasted for forty years. Most of the
Jesuits were living in very difficult and poor conditions. Many of them
were in prison until they died. It was a time for the Society to grow in
humility and poverty; time to contemplate the Third Week of the
Spiritual Exercises, the Passion, suffering and death of Jesus Christ;
time to consider the third level of Humility and to experience what
more than two hundred years before, Fr. Diego Laínez had called the
“Minima Societas Iesu”. Fr. General Ricci and his Assistants were put
in jail in Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome in September 1773. Ricci was
there for two years and two months, until his death on November 24 th
1775170. It was a very hard period and probably the darkest page of the
history of the Society of Jesus, but at the same time a very deep
experience in the spiritual life of the Institution.

In the middle of the darkness, a very weak light was still shining.
Zarina Catherine II of Russia did not recognize the papal document in
her territories and that is why the Jesuits could continue with their own
apostolates in that region. I am sure that Catherine was not conscious
of the depth and transcendence of her decision supporting the Jesuits.
She was so satisfied with Jesuit schools and their pedagogical methods,
that she could not even think about the possibility of losing one of
them.

14. Towards Contemporary Times: the Society of Jesus Restored

In 1800 there were in Russia 214 Jesuits (94 priests, 74
scholastics and 46 brothers). The Society was officially restored when

170
In his two-page document “Declaration of Innocence”, written a few days
before his death, he declared open and honestly regarding his innocence and
the innocence of the Society and also his forgiveness to all the people
responsible for the situation: “I wish to die with this desire in my heart”.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Pious VII published his document Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclessiarum

(August 7th 1814); at that moment there were six hundred Jesuits, but
soon the situation started to change and the number of Jesuits increased
very quickly, as we can see in the following table 171.

YEAR JESUITS FR. GENERAL

1814 600 Tadeusz BRZOZOWSKI

1829 2,139 Louis FORTIS

1853 5,209 John ROOTHAAN

1887 12,070 Peter BECKX

1892 13,274 Anthony ANDERLY

1906 15,661 Luis MARTIN

1936 16,950 Francis J. WERNZ
1942 26,588 Wlodimiro LEDÓ CHOWSKI
1964 35,968 Jean B. JANSSENS

14.1 Back to the Exercises

After the Restoration, Jesuits started to rebuild their own
formation structures and were called upon by many institutions
(mainly schools or seminaries) in different countries such as Ireland,
England, France, Italy or the United States. But the Society did not
have enough human resources to respond to all the demands. It was
under the Generalate of Fr. Jean Roothaan (1829-1853) that the
Ignatian Spirituality became more explicit in the life of the Society and

171
All numbers taken from the articles in the DHCJ II, 1660-1696, from
“General 19c. T. Brzozowski” till “General 27. J. B. Janssens”.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

in every Jesuit’s life in particular. The Spiritual Exercises were the

central point in the formation and life of the Jesuits 172. Roothaan really
loved the experience and the text of the Exercises. He studied the
Autograph, (Spanish) version of the Exercises, and prepared some
editions of the Vulgata (Latin) version173.

14.2 Mission again and again

Roothaan also promoted the “Popular Missions” and attempted to
have his own Jesuits involved in this ministry of all Jesuit Provinces.
He was sensitive to the context surrounding this matter, as we see
during the cholera epidemic in Rome (1837) where he organized all the
Jesuits in the city to assist the sick. His letter De Missionum
externarum desiderio excitando et fovendo 174 had a great impact
among young Jesuits to the point where more than 1260 Jesuits offered
themselves as volunteers to go to any mission around the world 175 .
Diocesan Seminaries were opened in China and Albania (1843), India
(1844) and Syria (1845), and Jesuits were sent to many countries

172
See the letter “Ad Patres et Fratres Societatis: De spiritualium exercitiorum
S. P. N. studio et usu” (Roma December 27, 1834) in ROOTHAAN, Johannis,
Opera Spiritualia (De Jonge, L, / Pirri, P., eds.), (2 vols.) Roma 1936, I, 357-
366. See also Cartas selectas de los Padres Generales, Oña 1917, 170-221.
173
Latin editions in 1838, 1847, 1852 y 1854. He also prepared an edition of
the Spanish text that he liked to offer to Friends or visitors. Recently:
CEBOLLADA, P., “Jan Philip Roothaan, restaurador de los Ejercicios
Espirituales”, Manresa 87 (2015) 73-75.
174
On how to awake the desire for external Missions (December 3, 1833), in
Opera Spiritualia I, 347-356.
175
But Roothaan was very strict with the natural and spiritual conditions of the
missionaries, avoiding when possible “missionary romanticism”.

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José García De Castro Valdés “Companionship in the Spirit. A History of the
Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

around the world176; where a few of them were appointed bishops in

different dioceses.
General Congregation XXII elected Fr. Peter John Beckx as
Father General in July 2, 1853. He wrote fourteen letters to the Society
regarding Jesuit religious life, formation, and how to support the
Society during troubled times177. Number 12 insisted on mission: “On
the zeal for the souls and how to help them” (December 10 th 1875).
The 1st of January 1872, all Jesuit provinces were consecrated to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Missions in Asia and Latin America
grew178. The same happened under the short period of government of
the next Fr. General, Antonio Mª Anderley (1887-1892).

14.3 Spirituality, Formation and Mission

Fr. Luis Martín García was elected General (Loyola 1892)179 and,
following one of the main accents for Anderley, insisted, on
intellectual apostolate and serious formation of the Jesuits. He had a
deep interest in the History of the Society of Jesus and began (Madrid
1894) the huge collection of Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu, a

176
United States, Syria, Bengal, Argentina, Jamaica, Greece, Algeria, Uruguay,
China, Paraguay, Chile, Guatemala, Madagascar, Herzegovina, Central Africa,
Sri Lanka, India…
177
See complete list of documents in SMET, S. de, “Becks, Pedro Juan [Pieter
Jan]”, DHCJ II, 1672. Selection of letters in Cartas selectas, 222-236.
178
New missions in Cuba, Colombia, Philippines-Culión, Madagascar,
Mangalore, Zambia, Australia.
179
Due to the conflictive political situation in Italy, Fr. Martin (General Vicar)
decided, with the approval of Pope Leo XIII, to convoke the General
Congregation in Loyola (Spain); it started September 24 th 1892. See the long
article SANZ DE DIEGO, R. Mª, “Martín García, Luis”, DHCJ, II, 1676-1682;
some letters in Cartas selectas, 476-511.

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critical edition of all documents regarding the beginnings of the

Institution, starting from those of the first Jesuits 180.

Fr. Franz Xavier Wernz (General September 8th 1906), a German

canonist, insisted upon the renovation of the spiritual life of the Jesuits,
vocations and solid formation inside the Society. To develop a deeper
communication among the Jesuits, he founded Acta Romana Societatis
Iesu, the official publication inside the Society of Jesus and also the
prestigious periodical America (December 8th 1909). Pope Pious X
founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute which was run by the Jesuits
from the beginning, and Fr. Wernz founded the Sophia University in
Tokyo in 1913 (this mission began in 1908). In 1914, the Society
celebrated the first Centenary of the Restoration; one of the main
outcomes of this was the Liber saecularis S.I. that included the main
activities and ministries of the Society during the last hundred years.
To prepare this important date, Wernz wrote a letter to the whole
Society (September 8, 1907) insisting on spiritual renovation and on
the apostolic value of high divulgation works.

Born in Austria October 7th 1866, and elected Fr. General on

February 11th 1915, Fr. Wlodimiro Ledóchowski continued insisting
on formation for the young Jesuits, education and what we call today
“Intellectual Apostolate”. He revised the Ratio Studiorum and
published a new version (1941); The Gregorian Pontifical University
began publishing the periodical Gregorianum (1920) and in 1929 the
Pontifical Biblical Institute started, always run by the Jesuits.

180
Monumenta, a treasure of the patrimony of the Society of Jesus, started in
Madrid and then moved to Rome in 1932. More than 165 volumes including
the writings of first Jesuits and all documents concerning the first missions of
the Society of Jesus. Detailed and full description of this amazing collection in:
DANIELUK, R., “Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu. Uno sguardo di insieme
sulla collana”, AHSI 81 (2012) 249-271.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Ledóchowski founded the Historical Institute in Rome and started the

periodical Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu. Some of his letters to
the Society focused on “Apostolate of Sacred Heart of Jesus” (1919)
and “On devotion to our Saints” (1933). He started the Secretaries of
“Apostolate of Prayer” and “Congregation of our Lady”. It was
Ledóchowski who established the Curia in Borgo Santo Spirito,
inaugurated in 1927181.

The 29th General Congregation could not gather until September

1946, four years after the death of Fr. Ledóchowski (Rome, December
13th 1942). Fr. Jean Baptist Janssens, from Amberes (Holland) was
elected in the first round. Among the many letters he wrote to the
Society, the first one was about “Spiritual and interior life” (1946) and
the second one on “Social Apostolate” (1949)182. He had to address the
impact of the “New Theology” and provide instructions regarding
books and readings which were not appropriate for Jesuits students.

Related to this, Janssens had to handle the conflict with Fr. Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin and his important book Le Phénomène humaine183.
Scientist, Anthropologist, Theologian and Mystic, Fr. Teilhard had
opened a new door for a new way of thinking, that is the relationship
between Science and Religion. But his ideas were, maybe, too

181
See: La voz del P. Ledóchowsky, Barcelona 1945; Selected Writings of Fr.
Ledóchowsky, Chicago 1945.
182
De vita interiore fovenda, Instructio de apostolatu sociale and some others
about Ratio Studiorum (1954), On Liturgy (1959), or even on De veste
Societatis (On Jesuit dress) (1964) or Normae de usi tabaci, (On tobacco and
smoking in the Society) (1957).
183
Once Teilhard had passed away (December 19, 1955), the book was
published without the required “imprimatur”. Janssens forbade the book in all
Jesuits libraries (January 1956) and two years later it was the Congregation of
the Holy Office who initiated the removal of all works of Fr. Teilhard from the
libraries of all religious communities.

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advanced for that moment. At the same time, the spirit of the mission
continued growing; many new provinces appeared and also new
missions in South Korea (1955), Zambia (1956), Yoro (Honduras,
1957), Sinoia (Rhodesia) and Osorno (Chile) the last two both in 1959.
Fr. Janssens died on October 5th 1964, when the Council Vatican II
was in its full development.

15. Ignatian Spirituality in Contemporary Times

15.1 The renewal of the Society of Jesus
The renovation of the Church promoted by the Council Vatican
II provoked a deep and quick renovation inside the Society of Jesus. Fr.
Pedro Arrupe (1907 Bilbao / Spain) was elected Fr. General on May
22nd 1965. He was the man who had to lead the Jesuits into a very
turbulent period in the history of the Church. It is very difficult to
summarize the richness of Arrupe’s period (1965-1983) concerning
Ignatian Spirituality 184 . Following his previous tradition, Arrupe
confirmed the primacy of the Spiritual Exercises in the personal life of
every Jesuit and in the life of the Society. He encouraged the “people
who give” the Exercises to renew methodologies going back to more
Ignatian ways of providing the Exercises. At the same time, he
promoted the foundation of centers and institutes to study Ignatian

184
Almost everything about Pedro Arrupe, his time and circumstances in Pedro
Arrupe, General de la Compañía de Jesús. Nuevas aportaciones a su biografía
(La Bella, G., ed.), Mensajero-Sal Terrae, Bilbao-Santander 2007, 1077 pp.
and 24 collaborators. German translation: Pedro Arrupe Generalloberer der
Jesuiten: Neue biographische Perspektiven (Gianni La Bella and Martin Maier,
eds.) 608 p. Herder 2008. English translation: Pedro Arrupe Superior General
of the Society of Jesus: New Contributions for his Biography (Prologue by
Father Adolfo Nicolás; trans. Michael Campbell-Johnston and others) Gujarat
Sahitya Prakash, Anand 2008, 362 pages and a CD containing 18 chapters of
the original not in the printed edition.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Spirituality and the sources and history of the Society185. The fruit of
all the efforts which had started years before the initiatives of Arrupe,
was a quite long list of Jesuits fully dedicated to the study and
promotion of Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit History: Ignacio
Casanovas, Joseph de Guibert, Pedro de Leturia, Dionisio Zapico, José
Calveras, Hugo Rahner, Cándido de Dalmases, George Ganss, Ignacio
Iparraguirre, Maurizio Costa…among many others.

He tried to adapt poverty and obedience to the new times but

being faithful to the very first intuitions of Saint Ignatius, in search of
the essential. Arrupe insisted on how necessary it is for a Jesuit to be
rooted in a deep spiritual experience; his main letters and lectures to
the Society have offered a renewed interpretation of Ignatian
Spirituality186. Supported by the 31st and 32nd General Congregations
(decree 4)187 the Society pushed its institutions and Jesuits towards a
deeper commitment with “Justice” and this new perspective had an
important influence on spirituality: spirituality from the poor and for
the poor.

15.2 Contemporary Ignatian Spirituality

a. Jesus Christ as “Principle and Foundation”

185
Some of the Ignatian periodicals that appeared in this time: The Way
(London 1962), Diakonía (Panamá 1967), Boletín de Espiritualidad (Buenos
Aires 1968), Progressio (Rome 1968), Studies in Spirituality of the Jesuits (St.
Louis, MO 1969), CIS (Rome 1970), Appunti di Spiritualità (Napoles 1972),
Ignis (Mumbai 1972), Cahiers de Spiritualité (Quebec 1976).
186
Main documents of Fr. Arrupe on Ignatian Spirituality and Ignatian
charisma are: “Apostolic mission, key to Ignatian charism” (1974), “Our way
or proceeding” (1979), “Trinitarian inspiration of Ignatian Charisma” (1980)
and “Rooted and founded in Charity” (1981). See recent edition of these
documents: Pedro Arrupe, carisma de Ignacio (Mollá, D., ed.), Mensajero-Sal
Terrae-U.P. Comillas (col. Manresa nº 55), Bilbao-Santander-Madrid 2015.
187
Decree 4: “Defense of Faith and Promotion of Justice”.

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Time, culture and people are in permanent change; that is why

spirituality has to stay alert to adapt its language and pastoral methods,
when and where possible, to these new circumstances. Different
circumstances but the same God. He is the same as Ignatius discovered
during his convalescence in Loyola, the same that the Spiritual
Exercises offer to be known, loved and to be followed. He is the same
that supported the Society in difficult times during the Suppression and
the One who offered His grace to Jesuits who accepted martyrdom.
After these Christocentric documents by Fr. Arrupe 188 and many others
by Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach189, the 34th General Congregation (1995)
opened the spiritual life of the Society of Jesus to new dimensions:
Culture, Interreligious Dialogue, Ecumenism, Collaboration with lay
people, Status of Women, Ecology 190 . These were new topics that
invited Ignatian Spirituality to explore the world under the light,
always new, of the Incarnation. Thirteen years after, the 35 th General
Congregation confirmed the Christocentric dimension of the heart of
the Society, and so, the heart of the Ignatian Spirituality and the
different ministries that flow from her. “Jesuits know who they are by
looking at Him”191.

188
See, for example, Arrupe’s prayer: “Jesus Christ Our Model” in “Our way
of Proceeding” (1979).
189
KOLVENBACH, P.-H., Decir al Indecible. Estudios sobre los Ejercicios
Espirituales de San Ignacio, (Iglesias, I., ed.) Mensajero-Sal Terrae (Col.
Manresa nº 20), Bilbao-Santander 1999.
190
Decrees 4, 5, 12, 13, 14 and 20.
191
General Congregation 35, decree 2. The whole document is very
Christocentric: the first conversion of Ignatius in Loyola (1522), La Storta
experience (1537), the Deliberation of First Fathers (1539) or the mission of
Francis Xavier in India (1542).

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

b. Culture – Dialogue - Justice

And where is the Ignatian Spirituality nowadays? If we revisit
the main points of the last two General Congregations (34 th - 1995, and
35th - 2008) we discover new topics that have opened new dimensions
for Ignatian Spirituality. According to the rich missionary tradition,
Ignatian Spirituality returns to culture as one of the main factors for a
fruitful mission192. Once Spirituality is inside a culture, a process of
dialogue begins. This Spirituality remains always in the dialogue, we
could say, developing a “culture of dialogue”; it is a Spirituality of
listening, opening to others, and being ready to start a conversation for
a better world. Dialogue with other Christian Churches (GC 34, decree
12 “On Ecumenism”) and dialogue with other religions (CG 34, decree
5 “Our Mission and Interreligious Dialogue”) were incorporated as one
of the missions’ main goals in the Society. Culture and Dialogue offer
the possibility to continue working for Justice, the third pillar that
inspires and supports a spiritual experience from an Ignatian
perspective today193.

c. Reconciliation
The contemplation of the Incarnation offers us the possibility of
contemplating “those on the face of the earth, so diverse in dress and
behavior: some white and others black, some in peace and others at
war” [Sp Ex 106]. The Formula Instituti (1550), expanding the “works
of charity” that the previous Formula (1540) had only mentioned

192
See what we have already said about Matteo Ricci or Robert de Nobili; see
also General Congregation 34th, decree 4 “Our Mission and Culture”. Twenty
years before, Fr. Arrupe had started to talk about “Inculturation” in his letter to
the whole Society “On inculturation” (May 14th, 1978), Acta Roma S.I. XVII
[1978] (1979) 256-263.
193
GC 32nd, decree 4 and GC 34th decree 3 “Our Mission and Justice”.

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without any specification, included “reconcile the estranged”

(desavenidos), encouraging the Jesuits to work as “peacemakers”
among different people, families, villages or even countries. Recently
Ignatian Spirituality has recovered this deep intuition from the first
Jesuits 194 , and has begun thinking and working intensely in this
ministry of reconciliation. The 35th General Congregation in its decree
number 3 wrote about “Reconciliation with God [19-24]”,
“Reconciliation with one another [25-30]” and “Reconciliation with
Creation [31-36].

d. Ecology
It has become one of the most sensitive points in contemporary
culture. A new relationship with nature started to emerge a few years
ago in many different countries and in social and political groups. If
we refer to the Spiritual Exercises, we discover a few key elements
which allow us to make a commitment to Ecology, deeply rooted in
Ignatian tradition. We only have to explore what Ignatius says in the
second and third points of “Contemplation to Attain Love”, found in
the first definition of Consolation (third rule of discernment of spirits
[316]) 195 . As a prophetic voice, the 34th General Congregation
(document 20) had written a short “Recommendation to Fr. General:
On Ecology” asking for a study regarding how Ignatian Spirituality can
contribute to inspire different ministries in the universal Society of
Jesus.

194
See O’MALLEY, J., The First Jesuits, 168-171.
195
See: paragraphs [235-236] “Contemplation to Attain Love” (how God
dwells, labors and works in creatures) and [316] the first definition of spiritual
consolation. See: AGUILAR, J., “Contemplation to attain love and ecology” and
GARCÍA DE CASTRO, J., “Ecology and Consolation”, both in “A Spirituality that
Reconciles us with Creation”, Promotio Iustitiae 111 (2013/2) 10-14 and 22-26.

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Spirituality of the Society of Jesus”

Thirteen years later, the 35th General Congregation (2008)

referred to Ecology in decrees two and three helping the whole Society
of Jesus in becoming more sensitive and effective on ecological
matters, “men and women to take responsibility for our home, the
earth”196. The Congregation “urges all Jesuits and all partners engaged
in the same mission, particularly universities and research centers, to
promote studies and practices focusing on the causes of poverty and
the question of the environment's improvement”. Our relation to
Creation has become a criterion to discern the authenticity of our
spiritual experience: “to appreciate more deeply our covenant with
creation as central to right relationships with God and one another” 197.
Based on this mystical fundament, Ignatian Spirituality is inspiring
new missions and ministries198.

196
See: decree 2 [20-24] and decree 3 “Reconciliation with Creation” [31-36].
197
GC 35, decree 3 [35-36].
198
See the document: Healing a Broken World, Promotio Iustitiae 106
(2011/2), specially “Understanding our Jesuit Mission in the Context of
Ecological Crisis” 29-41 and “Recommendations and Concrete Suggestions”,
42-53. Recently: “Espiritualidad ignaciana y ecología. Ecos de la Laudato si”
(Tatay, J., coord.) Manresa 87 (2015).

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[摘要] 依納爵靈修其中最獨特之處是開啟對所有事物、所有受造
物的愛的凝視，而這由對祈禱者的慈悲和無條件的接受開始。
「天主在世上的一切受造物中為我操勞工作。」[《神操》236 條]
縱觀其 475 年的歷史，耶穌會臨在不同的地方和多樣化的環境
中，這種臨在主要以行動來解釋它的宗教經驗，它愛天主和愛鄰
人的特殊方式。「愛情不在空言，應在事實上表現。」[《神操》
230 條] 這篇文章提供了一個全景，讓我們觀察耶穌會士和合作
者，在耶穌會歷史中貫徹在做的善良和仁慈的工作。

關鍵詞：行動，依納爵 ．羅耀拉，耶穌會士，事工，使命，耶穌
會，神操

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Geoffrey B. (Monty) Williams “The Way of the Faithful: Exploring the
Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”
”

The Way of the Faithful: Exploring the

Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises
of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Geoffrey B. (Monty) Williams, SJ

Abstract: The paper examines the dynamics of desire which underpin the
series of meditations and contemplations that form the four “Weeks” of the
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It places these within the
basic tension between love and fear. It recognizes these four stages of spiritual
development as a process of becoming more human when one moves from the
acceptance of being loved, while conscious of one’s conscription within the
forces of destruction, to being so transformed by that love that one lives in
ways which renews a broken creation. This paper removes that dynamic from
the traditional language of a mediaeval Catholicism, in which Ignatius
scripted his insights, to a contemporary rhetoric appropriate for use in other
spiritual traditions. This accessibility also broadens the analysis of such
conversion from the individual so that it can be applied also to communities,
institutions and cultures.

Keywords: desire, discernment, spiritual journey, mutuality

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I was happy

until I met you

now I know

I was unhappy

until I met you

Preface
Anne Carson, the Canadian poet and classicist, writes about the peculiar
ecstasy of love and about the difficulty of writing about love which she sees as
a translation. Love, she says, asks the question: “What is it that love dares the
self to do?” And she answers, “Love dares the self to leave the self behind, to
enter into poverty.”1 This undoing of self by moving through self to find a
more authentic self, Anne Carson following Simone Weil, calls “decreation,”
and she notes of this process “to undo the self one must move through the self,
to the very inside of its definition.”2 In this she follows the mystical tradition of
introversion as a stage of the spiritual journey to enter into a contemplative
stance towards reality.3 This engages us with the world in ways that transform
both it and ourselves. The dynamics of an engaged desire with the divine
manifested as love is not restricted to the mystic or to the poet, but is, I would
claim, a characteristic of becoming human. Maximus the Confessor (ca. 580-

1
Anne Carson, Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera (New York: Vintage Books, 2005),
162.
2
Anne Carson, Decreation, 175, 179.
3
Cf. Thus, for instance, Gregory the Great in his homily on Ezechiel, 2, v. quoted in An
Anthology of Christian Mysticism, 2nd ed., ed., Harvey D. Egan, S.J. (Collegeville,
Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1991, 1996), 109., writes, “And so the first step is that it
collect itself within itself (recollection); the second, that to consider what its nature is so
collected (introversion); the third, that it rise above itself and yield itself to the intent
contemplation of its invisible Maker (contemplation).”

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Geoffrey B. (Monty) Williams “The Way of the Faithful: Exploring the
Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

662) writes: Perfect love does not split up the one nature of men on the basis of
their various dispositions…it loves all men equally…. [I]t manifests the fruits
of love equally for all.4

Humans made in the image and likeness of God are created to love.
They find their fulfillment in love. The difficulty of talking about love is that
we must translate that experience of ek-stasis, of going beyond oneself, in
language which in itself acts as a rearview mirror. In retrospect, it gives us
some traces of the reality we incarnate, but it does not tell us where we are now
or what we are entering into. We can offer only approximations. Rather than
saying of what we endure,

That is not what I meant at all.

That is not it, at all.5

instead we can offer, like the later Eliot,

Hints followed by guesses; and the rest

Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.

The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.6

I have a confession.7 I fell in love. Or to be more precise, I am falling in

love and it keeps changing my life. I seem to have entered an adventure of
meeting God, not as a philosophical abstraction, or a theological notion for
investigation but as a real live relationship that engages every aspect of myself

4
Maximus the Confessor, “The Four Hundred Chapters on Love: First Century, # 71” in
An Anthology of Christian Mysticism, 2nd. ed., ed., Harvey D. Egan, S.J., (Collegeville,
Minn.: The Liturgical Press), 127-8.
5
T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” ll.98-99, in
https://poets.org/poem/love-song-j-alfred-prufrock
6
T.S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages,” section 5, ll. 112-115 in
http://www.davidgorman.com/4Quartets/
7
This is a deliberately chosen rhetorical stance in keeping with the prophetic nature of
desire in the Exercises, which is deeply personal and intimate and public.

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and shapes all the relationships I have with others. On that path I encountered
others whom I was concerned with, and cared for, and I discovered, in their
allowing me to enter their worlds, a more accepting sense of self that opened
me further to a deeper and more real relationship with Mystery. That embrace
transforms me and opens me further to others, to the world and to creation. In
living thus exposed I find myself even more drawn into the life of the Trinity
as a Loving actively and passionately devoted to Life and to all of creation. It is
a journey beyond the limits of my present imagination and, as Martin Buber
has pointed out, “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is
unaware.”8

I am discovering that every act of love, however simple, or complex, is a

revelation of that journey to the fullness of humanity as love. It arises from and
points back to that Loving. This has not been an easy path. I have been
challenged or seduced, enchanted or repelled, by the encounters on the path.
There are aspects of my life, some bewildering, that emerge and cause distress.
There are others that surprise and leave me in a state of wonder and delight.
And then there are those I just had to wait patiently and attentively with to see
what emerges without indulging in compulsions or leaping to pre-determined
conclusions.

It is one thing to have these experiences, and another to understand them

in the immediate context of our lives. But it is quite another thing to place them
within the constantly changing relationship we have with God, and in the light
of God’s desire for us. Being in love leads us to recognize ourselves in ways
we had not expected, and it leads us to live our lives in ways that allow us to
share what has been given to us with the rest of creation of which we are an
intimate part. Then we seek to recognize others the ways we have been

8
Martin Buber in https://www.voices-visions.org/content/poster/collection-poster-
martin-buber-yarom-vardimon/.

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recognized, and desire to allow them to recognize themselves in similar ways.

Love creates lovers, and the love that has loved us into being shows us we are
loveable and capable of loving others in such a way that they too become
loving and loveable. Love, quite simply, plots our lives.

St. Ignatius of Loyola discovered this in his own life. His Spiritual
Exercises is a manifestation of that gift he received and shared with others,
presented in the cultural narratives of his time. We cannot return naively to
that time and to those narratives but we can undertake to explore how the
human dynamics he confessionally explored of encountering grace can be
appropriated for our times. This study is one such investigation. It undertakes
to examine the dynamics of desire which underpin the discernments of each of
the Four Stages of the spiritual journey Ignatius maps out in the Exercises. It
plots a movement from the first stage of a self-enclosed security to the final
stage of a creativity which builds community across the divisions of otherness
and alienation. With each stage there is a growing recognition of what it means
to be in love.

In contrast to the contemporary interpretations of the Exercises in terms

of psychological well-being, social and ecological concerns, the present
examination works from the question: what is happening to us, personally,
socially, and culturally, when we are attentive to these Exercises in themselves,
rather than to the uses we can put them to from a particular ideological
perspective. It would hold that to be human9 is to be attentive first to the
Mystery we call God, and that such attentiveness determines how we deal with
the concerns we have. Even more than our attentiveness to Mystery is that
Mystery's attentiveness to us in a love relationship which constantly calls us

9
I hold to be human is to be engaged relationally on a personal, social, cultural,
ecological and cosmic levels and so the stages of intimacy with God need to be
considered in these dimensions of conversion as eschatology.

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beyond our socially created conceptions of self. Being attentive we learn to

recognize ourselves, and thus others and all of creation, as God recognizes us
to be, an interrelated community. The creativity to which our growing
intimacy with God invites us moves us beyond our self-enclosed worlds and
concerns to build up that community of love where no one and nothing is
denied the fullness of life. To be human is to walk that path of faithfulness.

At each stage of the path the concerns and tensions in our desiring the
fullness of life differ from those of the other stages. Ignatius deals with this by
positing pre-conversion and post conversion rules for discernment and these
are respectively the Rules of the First Week and those of the Second and
following Weeks. He notes that his observations in this matter are not
comprehensive. His First Week rules are “for understanding to some extent the
different movements produced in the soul” (Spiritual Exercises, 313;
henceforth cited as Sp Ex, followed by the paragraph number). Yet the
dynamics of desire in the Second through Fourth Weeks of the Exercises differ
from each other. They need a refinement of the more general rules Ignatius
gives to help one recognize the deceptions of what is inimical to our human
nature.

Both before and after conversion we may be oriented to God and to

others by the very nature of our creature-hood, but we may also find ourselves
unable to fulfill or even recognize that orientation because of sin. Conversion
is an ongoing process. Compromised by sin, we have not attained an
appropriate sense of right relationship with God, others, or even with our very
selves, but we can still desire it. That desire shapes our intentions and opens us
up to be approached by God who desires for us the fullness of life. As that
mutuality becomes more incarnate in our lives, we discover our awareness of
how to live life becomes more comprehensively human. The questions and
concerns we may previously have had now change. This best manifests itself
in our times of prayer when we are more conscious of our desire to be in a

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Geoffrey B. (Monty) Williams “The Way of the Faithful: Exploring the
Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

relationship with God and more open to God’s desire to be in a more intimate
relationship with us. But that awareness also operates in the dailyness of our
lives. As we become more intimate with God we start to discover the
boundaries between prayer and the rest of the day disappears, such that the day
and all in it moves to prayer not as a pious devotion but as an attentiveness
which informs all we do. At any rate the material for prayer comes from the
events in our daily life. All of this is to say our daily life manifests our spiritual
life.

St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises, which draws attention to how we

live our lives daily, asks us to consider how and where we place ourselves as a
preparation for prayer and how and where we find ourselves in the prayer
itself. He suggests that before we pray we ask God for the grace “that all my
intentions, actions and operations may be directed purely to the service and
praise of His Divine Majesty” (Sp Ex 46). He asks that we consciously dispose
ourselves towards God in our intentions, experiences, and habits. In doing this
we acknowledge our awareness—not that we have a desire for God, but more
radically that we are created as the desire for God. Ignatius sees us created as
the orientation towards God though we may not be conscious of this most of
the time. Even less so is our awareness of the spiritual space we inhabit at all
times. That space he describes as being in the presence of “God Our Lord, and
of the Angels and Saints who intercede for me.” (Sp Ex 232) For Ignatius, to
have the awareness of who we are—as the desire for God—and of where we
are—surrounded and interpenetrated by that unceasing activity of God’s love
and in the company of all the forces of God, manifested in the Angels and
Saints—is to be a “contemplative in action.” This is not to be caught up in
some otherworldly transport of ecstasy but actually to live one’s life most truly
in the here and now experiencing its conflicting attractions both outside of
oneself and within one’s very own self. Our attention is often caught up by
those conflicting attractions—one usually more dominant than others—which

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draw us either one way or another and distract us from our rootedness and
from living more fully our true nature.

We are Defined by Relationships

We tend to see our lives within immediate needs or within the social
constructions of job, ethnicity, gender, and creed. These pattern our lives and
they distract us from the deeper patterning manifest in our call to God and to
God’s desire for us. Immediate concerns are important and we ignore them at
our peril but they are contained in the deeper patterns of our ongoing
relationship with God. These deeper patterns actually shape the way we live
those more immediate concerns. Both sets of patterns influence each other and
it requires deliberate forms of self-consciousness for us to discern which to be
more attentive to in particular instances. Underlying this challenge are the
questions of how we read, and understand ourselves, and of why we recognize
our lives in that particular way. We may have a commonsense literacy about
how things are and about the ways in which we make our way through this
life. We may even have, given its emphasis in our culture, somewhat
technical, psychological ways of understanding ourselves. And, whether we
like it or not, since we are social beings, we also understand ourselves in the
ways we interact with family, friends, those around us, our various groups, and
within the places and times we find ourselves. As these change, we change,
and our sense of immediacy changes. But underlying these relationships, and
the way these relationships value the Mystery we call God, there is always the
abiding primal relationship we have with that Mystery. At times that primal
relationship is supported by others and by our own self-understanding, and at
other times that primal relationship find itself in opposition to what those other
relationships offer. We find ourselves caught in these conflicting relationships
and so need to discern what to do.

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

Our discernments are also complicated by the fact that we have an

ambivalence to our primary relationship with God—we are both attracted to
and hesitant towards such an intimacy—and by the conflicting emotions we
also have towards all of our subsequent relationships. This happens even
within the different dimensions of our own personality. It would be wonderful
if things could be simpler, but they are not. In all of this we are faced with the
complexity of negotiating what is truly desirable, what is truly possible, and
what is to be done.

Relationships are Manifest through Desire

Ignatius asks that we pray for a felt intimacy with God, out of which
flows love, which manifests itself in service to that God (Sp Ex 104). The
dynamics of desire which lead to apostolic discernment are rooted in a lived
intimacy with God, self-consciously manifest in a loving service to creation.
Thus it seems before we discern, both in the sense of what we should do, but
also in how we should read the contexts in which we live, there is the need to
develop that intimacy with God which is our primary relationship. If that does
not happen, we misread all of our contexts, both sacred and secular. It is not as
if that intimacy is not offered to us already. The power of that love affirms
what is good in us and celebrates what gives life so we can rejoice in what is
present to us now. That love comforts and consoles us in our brokenness when
we are trapped in ways beyond our control. It also calls us beyond ourselves in
ways that offer us a fuller life and which leads on to the fullness of life. In all
of this that love surrounds us, enters into our narratives, and journeys with us.

The Dynamics of Desire

This essay explores that journey through our lives and time. It does not
restrict itself to the dramatic moments of rites of passage or extraordinary
spiritual experiences—important as they are—but examines more the

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dynamics of graced desire present in our ordinary and everyday lives. It looks
at how we negotiate in the commonplace the tensions between the desire for
deeper spiritual intimacy and the desire, for whatever reason, which urges us to
flee from that intimacy.

St. Ignatius in the very center of his Spiritual Exercises has a meditation
he calls The Two Standards (Sp Ex 136). Using a military metaphor, he
describes the battle present in every human being at every moment of life
between the Standard of Satan and the Standard of Christ. Ignatius depicts
Satan, surrounded by horrors, and inspiring fear and terror, sending out his
minions to entrap people out of that fear and terror to protect themselves by
provoking them to covet riches, of any sort, so that they may more easily win
the honor of the world and then, self-assured, be trapped in an overweening
pride which leads them to more and more acts of self-enclosure. This dynamic
operates not only with individuals but also with institutions, cultures, and
nations. Christ, on the other hand, attracts with his life peoples to move
beyond their self-enclosed worlds10 and he missions those who follow him to
go to the whole word recommending a life of the highest spiritual poverty—
which so goes against the values of a world deceived by Satan—where they
are led to the state of radical dependence on the Father called humility.

For most of us this dynamic tension plays out often quite unconsciously
in our daily lives. Our riches do not have to be financial but can be anything
we regard as our gifts, be they intellectual, physical, social, or even spiritual.
These generally arouse admiration among people. People with such giftedness
often regard the social responses to those gifts as their due and live out of those
responses in ways that inflame their selfishness. But if we choose to see our
gifts as just that, gifts and not intrinsic to our identity, we discover that being
human is the acceptance of our radical poverty of spirit. It is not deceived by

10
Cf. Matthew 14:15-29.

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

the ways of the world and often stands in opposition to those ways. It relies
instead on that spiritual intimacy offered by God as a way of living this life
given to us all. Such a radical dependence on the Divine Providence, which
has brought us into being and supports, maintains, and corrects our sense of
identity, however, does not leave us irresponsible, passively accepting
everything that comes along as if from God. We need to discern, and to ask
ourselves if what is appealing to us comes from God or not, and is it helpful in
building up the Kingdom.

Our Life is a Journey between Conflicting Desires

While the tension between narcissism and self-transcendence occurs at

every moment of our life, it is helpful to ask how these are experienced and
understood in the different stages of our journey to the fullness of life. How
are riches, honor, pride, and their opposites, poverty, humiliations, humility,
experienced when one is turned away from God? How are they experienced
when one realizes one is trapped in sin but still loved by God and so turns to
God? How are those tendencies realized when one tries to dispose oneself to
become a follower of Christ? How do they manifest themselves when as a
follower of Christ we enter with him into his passion and death? What is our
awareness of them as we accept and live the gift of the resurrection?

Just as I am constantly changing in my acceptance of God’s love for me,

the more I allow myself to be opened by that love, the more does my sense of
self change, and so too also do the dynamics of discernment by which I
understand both my traps and my liberation to love. In fact the face of, and the
call to love change as I journey into spiritual maturity. We build on what
comes before, for without those previous stages we cannot maintain the
structures of attention to be present to who we are now and to what we are
called at a particular time. Similarly we cannot use earlier forms of
discernment for later stages of the spiritual journey. The present is built on the

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past, but is different from that past. Moreover, we also need to know that the
future also shapes our present. In fact a realistic understanding of the present
encompasses both past and future.

Often we start our spiritual journey long before we even realize we are
on that journey. It is only years later when we look back on our past and
reflect on it that we realize where some of the beginnings of that journey had
its roots. It could have happened in our lifetime. It could have happened
before within the dynamics of our family relations. We might even have some
moments of quiet certainty that we were born for this journey, and even born
into this journey. It is written in the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in
the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have
appointed you a prophet to the nations" (1:5). Each of us was born into the
spiritual journey we are now on. We may go even further and say humanity,
and all of creation, of which we are an integral part, has been brought into
being for this journey. Creation needs the Creator, and the Creator loves this
creation. Whatever dreadful distortions evil advocates and produces, it cannot
deny, though it can frustrate, the deepest desire of creation to be in right
relationship with the Creator. Here we do not intend to explore an ontology of
evil. We note its presence and its effects in our history, our world, and in
ourselves. We also note the power of God, in God’s own time, to overcome
evil and transform it into good so that the time will come as Paul says in his
letter to the Corinthians, when “In Christ all will be made alive. But each in
turn: Christ, the first-fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father”
(I Cor 15:22-24).

In this cosmic journey extending through time and space, where do we

fit in, and how can we contribute to the recapitulation of all things in Christ
who returns them to the Father? We realize that this journey started before we
were born and will continue even after the dissolution of our physical bodies as

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

we know them now. Ultimately, we come from God, we return to God, and
the path given us is of God. But in this life and where we are now, how do we
walk that path which open up in our daily lives and is present at every moment
of that life? For those in religious traditions there are the cultic rituals—
sacraments, meditation groups, spiritual direction—which offer life and
guidance. But how are we to deal with the busyness of everyday life?

It is not as if we have to start from scratch. We are socialized into the

constructions of belief. We apply the plot of belief to our lives. Here we are
not talking about the abstractions of belief but what we actually do believe.
These are the actual routes we take as we walk through our cities mapped out
by dogma. The dynamics of desire drive that plot. They determine whether
we move closer to salvation or not. They construct the imagined world of that
journey. The belief systems we are educated into inform us both theoretically
and practically how to seek and maintain a relationship with God. The various
manuals and catechisms of our particular traditions offer us guidelines and
norms for behavior and for belonging. We learn what to believe and how to
believe in order to be saved. How we negotiate that episteme in the
practicalities of actual living is another matter.11 The tactics we actually live
by are shaped by what we have personally found useful and, by the exigencies
of a post-modern conscience, suspicious of those controlling institutions and
their legislations which map out our moral and spiritual life. Those tactics are
how we discern, even though we might say we do not discern. But
discernment is more than a compass. The dynamics of desire direct our lives.

11
Cf. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, English translation by Stephen
Rendell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984). General Introduction, xix,
accessed January 12, 2017.
https://chisineu.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/certeau-michel-de-the-practice-of-
everyday-life.pdf. De Certeau makes the distinction between strategies, by which a
world is ordered culturally through legal, educational, religious norms, and tactics
through which individuals or social groups negotiate practically those strategies.

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In practice the conflicting voices, within us and outside of us, telling us what to
do and how to do it, negotiate among themselves in the site we call our lives.
As such it is good to have an example of how these operate. For this we turn
to someone who lived at a time when an established world was breaking down
and the new world of modernity not yet fully born. We turn to Ignatius of
Loyola.

St. Ignatius’ Life: a Journey of Refining Desire

St. Ignatius (1491-1556) lived in a time just like ours. Traditional ways
of living in Western Europe were being challenged by scientific discoveries
which changed the way people imagined reality to be, by explorations which
brought to light, and contact with, new peoples, civilizations and countries, by
the influx of Islam in Western Culture, by the conflicts in the Christian
tradition, by corruption and dissension within the Catholic church, by
suspicion of institutional authority, by the struggle for power in the political
world, and by such diseases as the bubonic plague and cholera which cut
across culture, class, and religion. What was one to do in the midst of such
deep, rapid and sweeping changes? How was one to live, find meaning and
security, and a sense of belonging in ways that affirmed and celebrated life?

When the world as we know it breaks down, and we are offered

conflicting ways of reading reality, we tend to withdraw into ourselves to find
a path that gives life. Ignatius thought that that path could be discovered by
making the self the center of the universe. The young Ignatius was vain,
aggressive, venal, and concerned only with making a name for himself in the
world. But all his attempts despite his charm, intelligence, and energy, came to
nothing. He was frustrated and actually was badly wounded in a small war and
went home to recover. His illness was the beginning of his conversion and, in
the course of his life after that, he moved from being driven by pride to
becoming an apostle of Christ in the world. The shift lay in the understanding

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

of what it means to be a self. By becoming attentive to himself he discovered

that the self was a tension of conflicting desires, some leading to a pleasure
which soon left one dissatisfied, others to a sense of contentment which
remained. Ignatius’ life was to follow that second path. Such a following was
not easy or simple. The desires he had to be a simple Jerusalem pilgrim, then
of being an itinerant preacher, then of returning to Jerusalem again with his
companions after his studies, all of which were good in themselves, were
frustrated. His desires encountered the emerging desires of God for him and
he ended up against his own spontaneous inclinations as the founder and the
first general of the Society of Jesus, stationed in Rome.

That radical shift from self to service is a spiritual journey and Ignatius’
spiritual journey is best seen in the Spiritual Exercises, based on his own
experiences, which he created to help others discover the presence of God in
their lives. In that relationship, through growing attentiveness, they discover a
unique path of growing spiritual intimacy which allowed them to work as
companions of Christ in making the world a place of community and
creativity.

Now this journey is graded. One reaches higher levels of intimacy only
by successfully establishing and maintaining lower levels of attentiveness.
The journey starts off with a desire to know God more clearly, to love him
more deeply, and to follow him more closely. We first feel this as a
dissatisfaction with our present lives and all our flirtations to ease this
unhappiness, without losing anything we already cherish do not bring us closer
to an abiding sense of joy. So we set out.

Stages in the Journey of Desire to Greater Spiritual Intimacy

Even though it was written later, Ignatius inserts what is called the
Principle and Foundation at the beginning of the Exercises and it is usually
given as a consideration before the work of the First Week. The strategy of its

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rhetoric sets up a tension between the humanity of a committed relationship to

God and one’s existential state. It brings out the tensions between what we
believe and how we actually live.

It brings to consciousness the dynamics of desire in our daily lives and

leads us into the work of the First Week where we discover how we are loved
in spite of being trapped by the disorders which circumvent a full response to
that love. That work carries us through our anxieties which we must face, and
beyond the limiting ways we see ourselves, God and the world. What we
discover at this level are the traps that bind us, often quite unconsciously, but
we also discover, deeper and more pervasive than those traps, a love which
constantly loves us into being.

When we accept this we are ready for the second stage of the journey
which teaches us how to live out of that newly discovered and deeper love.
The tasks we accomplish here carry us to a profound intimacy with God out of
which flows love and, out of that love, to the work of building up the Kingdom
of God. Here we become companions of the Christ learning what it means to
be human as we journey with him to His Father. We let the living relationship
with Jesus rather than a previously imprinted cultural and intellectual
understanding of truth, our own biases, be the basis of our discernments.

In that journey of living as mystery with Mystery, we reach the third

stage of spiritual intimacy. There we follow behind Jesus as he enters into his
passion opening a human path through suffering and death to the Father. He
gives up worldly power and enters in this vulnerability to a state of emptiness.
We too, as we travel deeper into a relationship with Mystery, give up power
and enter self-consciously into radical states of vulnerability and emptiness
totally dependent upon that Mystery Jesus calls Father. In this state we are
opened to ways of being in the world which we have previously excluded. We
are moved beyond our ghettoized sensibilities, with its power plays, reaching
towards an inclusivity which embraces all of creation.

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On that path the Father brings the humanity of his beloved Son to a new
life and new creation called resurrection. So too does the Father bring us who
remain simply present to Jesus in his journey into emptiness to the next stage
of spiritual intimacy. In this fourth stage we move beyond a secularized
reading of emptiness as social passivity to seeing it as the ground of creativity.
Imbued with the Spirit we see that it reveals a new creation emerging out of
the brokenness of the world. There we become living words of the Father and
invited to work with Him and his Son, together with the community of those
who, throughout the ages, build and maintain the Kingdom of God in this
world. Like Christ we become the witness of the compassionate mercy of the
Father in our world and time.

This level carries us deeper into the world and we experience at this new
stage of awareness even more clearly the traps and disorders of the world we
are asked to live in. We are asked to be as Christ has been for us in that first
stage of spiritual intimacy. We are asked to recognize the world in ways that it
does not recognize itself. We recognize that it cries out to be more loving and
compassionate as it was created to be. We become present to its pain and, like
the Christ on the cross, conspire with the Father to transform its misery. Thus
the journey continues. Spiritual intimacy is a spiral which carries us deeper
into union with God, and at the same time deeper into the miseries of a
disordered creation.

When we look at this spiritual journey we see ourselves caught first in

the tensions between closed and scripted worlds, maintained by fear, and an
openness which we now have access to, as we become aware of our
rootedness in God. When we accept and start to live out of that rootedness, we
find ourselves in a tension between reading that rootedness from the categories
of an understanding seeking faith and a deeply personal relationship with God
which goes beyond such definitions but which casts light on them. This is a
faith which sees the need for, and the limitations of, any conceptual forms of

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understanding. We discover living in such Mystery gives us power, for now

we are not trapped by the constructions of the world. Now we start to realize
even more deeply the dynamics of spiritual desire moving us beyond the
temptation to substitute one manifestation of power to control our reality for
the next. We do not have to replace another’s projection of how the world is to
be with our own. We may be tempted here by our fear to do just that. But if
we choose otherwise and patiently and humbly wait on the Father, something
else happens. We actually discover that our growing intimacy with God
carries us, within our own lives and elsewhere, to the spaces of the
marginalized, the alienated, the broken and the forgotten. We find ourselves
among the anawim, with those who do not have power in the world.

We move beyond the seductions of power to establish a world as we

would like it, to an emptiness which can hold without manipulation all it
encounters. Such a holding is not a resignation to the ways of the world—as
occurs in the despair we acknowledge in the discernments of the First Week.
The expression of our intentionality has been changed. Now we know and
have a spiritual intimacy with God. We have learnt to trust that intimacy. We
wait in that intimacy even as we experience the horrors a disordered creation
inflicts upon us in our vulnerability. It is the witness of martyrdom. We are
made and become empty. Out of that emptiness comes the power of the
Divine Desire who desires the world to be made into a community of mutual
giving and receiving.

Living that emptiness carries us to that fourth stage. Yet, we discover

ourself at this stage still tugged between fear and love. On the one hand there
is a form of complacency which, though not of the world, goes along with the
world, holding that God comes to us, and all we have to do is wait. This is a
passivity which is content to contemplate God. On the other hand we find
ourselves called to a creativity which actively seeks to make the world, and

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

wounded creation, a home respectful and caring for all. This is contemplation
in action.

Such a journey from security to creativity evokes a spirituality of risk.

We are constantly being called and led beyond ourselves in a passionate love
affair with God. This engages us with the world in ways that transform both it
and ourselves. On that journey to be sure we suffer, but we also find in it life,
peace, joy, and companions who celebrate the life we are now looking for.
And, interestingly enough, we find this path not in esoteric practices or in the
mansions of high mysticism but in the everyday lives we lead. When we
become attentive to our lives, we discover the path we walk is one which
allows us to become more and more intimate with God and creation.

Fear versus Love

What this journey reveals is that the dynamics of narcissism move from
fear, through self-justifying ideologies and into ghettos where the like-minded,
confusing conformity with unity, dwell in states of complicity which accept
and promote the status quo. On the other hand the dynamics of self-
transcendence move us from the awe of discovering we are loved to learning
how to live in such a love which carries us beyond our known selves, and the
conscriptions of a fallen creation, to a creativity which engages that world to
transform it.

As in Ignatius’ “Two Standards” meditation of riches against poverty,

honor against humiliations, and pride against humility, these two dynamics in
each stage of the spiritual journey parallel each other

FEAR LOVE

Security Rootedness

Ideology Mystery

Power Emptiness

Status Quo Creativity

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As one moves through life, we notice that each stage builds on the
previous stage, and that the consolations of each earlier stage lead us into the
disorders of the subsequent level of attentiveness. Thus, being rooted allows us
to explore the ways in which we are caught in ideologies. As we are taught to
overcome those traps we find ourselves moving more and more into Mystery.
Living in that Mystery we discover the traps of power. When we walk the
path of the Passion, we discover ourselves leaving behind the forms of power
which trap us. We become vulnerable and emptied. Living our daily lives in
emptiness, we are tempted to be uninvolved in the worlds we live it. But the
passion of the Spirit inflames us to be creative with what is given us in our
worlds. Thus the energies liberated by consolations carry us to those places
that cry out for conversion, and which are felt as desolation.

We note here that as we open ourselves to God that consolation leads to

desolation, and desolation leads to consolation. In that journey the embrace of
love slowly heals and repairs our damaged spirit and gives it the heart both to
celebrate life as it is given, and also go to those damaged and isolated areas of
our desires to bring them to light and integration. Desolation is merely our
awareness of our isolation and alienation. It is the nature of love to seek out
and to save what is lost. So the drive to God that causes us to nourish, affirm
and celebrate life, also causes us to be present to what is life-destroying, and to
aid in its transformation. Thus consolation leads to desolation, and desolation
leads to subsequent consolation. Thus Ignatius observes that when one is in
desolation, one should “dispose himself for the coming consolation.” (SE 7)
Similarly, Ignatius also points out, “When one enjoys consolation, let him
consider how he will conduct himself during the time of ensuing desolation,
and store up a supply of strength as defense against that day.” (SE 323)

This essay explores the specific consolations and desolations and their
sequencing as it occurs in the practices of our daily life. While historical,
cultural, social, and political forces shape our lives and provide us with the

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

structures which inform what we do, it is what we actually do in the day-to-

day busyness of living which manifest how and where we are in our spiritual
journey. Our topic is the discernments of an everyday life and the forces those
discernments encounter as one becomes attentive to one’s life. Our reading of
those dynamics is based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

In those Exercises Ignatius asks us to pray for different graces as we go
through the different stages of our spiritual growth. Thus as one goes through
the first stage of that journey, one prays for shame, confusion, sorrow and
horror. In the second stage one prays for an intimacy which connects one to
the Father in a loving service that shows one is a companion of the Christ. At
the third stage one prays for a different sense of shame and sorrow being
present to Christ’s passion and suffering as the beloved suffers. In the fourth
stage we pray to experience joy as we share Christ’s resurrection and work in
this world.

Ignatius sets the request for such graces within the prayerful context of
dwelling in God’s love and stemming from the desire to live the whole of
one’s life devoted to the praise, reverence and service of God. In the Ignatian
Exercises the affectivity of consolation and desolation from which one
discerns is experienced within the closed context of that prayer. The particular
exercises are precise experiments within a controlled context. But is it possible
to use Ignatius’ insights within the broader realm of daily life? To be able to
do this one must first see how the tension between narcissism and self-
transcendence works out dynamically in each stage of the Exercises, and
secondly whether the movement from one level of attentiveness to the next in
the Exercises is similar to the one found in the spiritual path of our daily lives.

In the first instance there is the interaction between one’s narcissism and
the love of God which roots the self and calls it beyond its present sense of

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self. The dimensions of that self which, conscripted by self-interest, and

looking for ways to establish itself more comfortably in its present state of
being, would struggle against the path offered by what is “Other” to it. What is
at stake here is the world-view out of which the self operates. We live in our
imagined worlds as if they are real. This “organization of reality,” which
displaces reality as it is, is embraced by a Divine love always actively seeking
to liberate the self from the illusions it has negotiated to make a home for itself.
Each of us is caught in such a tension at every stage of our lives in prayer and
out of it. Then the embrace of Love the Other offers us brings to light what is
repressed, or ignored, or devalued. Such revelations, until they are accepted on
an existential level, threaten us, not only because they are potentially
dangerous to an already established life-style, but also because they are feared
and the unknown quality they possess causes anxiety in us.

In this context we first experience the love of God for us in terms of fear
which, as it is unpacked, manifests itself first in a sense of confusion as the
conflicting narratives of our desire for God and our self-preservation engage
each other. As we start to realize how we are trapped and how we co-operate
with that disorder, we move to a sense of shame at this realization.12 When we
grow towards a liberation from that disorder, we move to a horror not only at
what we have done, but also at the soul-destroying patterns behind our
behavior, and at the ways in which the world seduces and enthralls us.13 In all
of this the dynamics of fear operate. First there is the fear that keeps us trapped
in socialized patterns of behavior which give us security but not spiritual
intimacy. This fear is often so much a part of our lives that we do not regard it
even as fear, and mis-name it as particular habits of inattention. This fear
comes from a distorted relationship with God and results in misinformed

12
Cf. Sp Ex 50
13
Cf. Sp Ex 63

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

notions of how God operates. Fear, if not contained, or defused, increases our
spiritual blindness. It keeps us frozen in a contractual relationship with our
image of God that becomes even more legalistic.

Fear on that level is partly overcome when we discover, through prayer

and meditation, and being truly attentive to our being in the world, that loved
by the reality of God liberates us from such traps. We can do this by looking
prayerfully at our present life and our histories. There we discover our
vulnerability and the fact that we have not been destroyed in spite of the forces
of disorder in and around us. But we still have to discover how to live lives of
greater integrity. The habits of our culture and our past have indoctrinated us
into forms of thinking, and behaving, in ways that misunderstands the Mystery
which invites us to a fuller life beyond the ideologies we plot our lives with.
At this second level of fear we are caught up in the tension between ideology
and intimacy. The work of the spirit upon us and in us is to transform the
narratives we live out of from closed and broken myths to an open myth14.
There we trust not maps or theologies or just the symbolic world of our
tradition but, more deeply, the lived relationship we have developed with the
Mystery we call, in the Christian dispensation, “Father.”

Here we use the same word that the human Christ addresses the
Mystery which roots him. In living in the same relationship that the humanity
of Christ has with the Father we are thus able to follow the Christ as he enters
into His Passion and Death in his human journey to the Father. The tension
we now experience in this vulnerability is between the power exercised by
adhering to that symbolic world of an enclosed community, which sees
otherness as destructive, and the emptiness we embrace as we go beyond the
norms of such community to ever greater forms of inclusivity.

14
See Monty Williams, “Ignatius’ Incarnation Contemplation and The Stories We Live
By: The Nash Memorial Lecture 2010.” Campion College, University of Regina, 2010.

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At this stage we can either define ourselves by the norms of the

community we belong to or by our lived relationship with the “Father” for
whom nothing or no one is excluded. Living out this call of self-transcendence
to be empty, we are faced with the choice in our everyday lives between a
complacency which accepts what is given as a path to God, and a creativity
which seeks to transform the world to a more human place for all aspects of
creation. Made in the image and likeness of God we are invited to be creative
as God is creative.

The way of faithfulness carries us from limiting forms of security to a

life of creativity where we help contribute in whatever way we can to the
ongoing creativity of the Father. That journey carries us back ever deeper into
our lived contexts to establish right relationships within created reality. Our
growth to humanity occurs in the way we continue to negotiate the tension
between fear and love. Fear keeps us trapped in limitation; love exposes us to
the Mystery which calls us beyond our known world and our ways of
understanding, living, and transforming that known world.

The Spiritual Journey

What has just been described is a reading of the dynamics of the
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Those exercises move through
four different stages of spiritual development. Each one builds on the graces
received on the previous level. The first level deconstructs the imaginative
world we live in so that we experience the love of God breaking through the
traps which limit our affectivity. The second level seeks to transform the way
we live by bringing the stories we live in into contact with the gospel stories of
the Christ. The Christ enters into our existential narratives and transforms
them so we can now live out of a deepening personal intimacy with him. Such
an intimacy carries us to the third stage of spiritual development where we
follow the Christ through his passion and death. At this level we are carried

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beyond the borders of our imagined worlds into a state of emptiness and total
abandonment to Divine Providence. Out of that emptiness comes an
experience of resurrection which gives us the grace to be creative in our fallen
world to build up the Kingdom. So changed we return to the world of the first
stage, at a deeper level, to continue the transformation of the world.
Embracing what is presented to us as alienated we share what we have been
given in that spiritual journey to create a growing network of interrelationships.

In this journey we are always putting away limited ways of recognizing

ourselves, others, and even God, so that we become more loving and more
alive. There is always the tendency to stop or withdraw from this pilgrimage.
Working against the dynamics of self-transcendence are the dynamics of
narcissism manifest as fear. The “otherness,” which we experience as
unknown and in contrast to who we think we are, and to the world as it is
explained to us, fills us with fear. How we suppose that unknown to act
constrains us. It is shaped by our fear.

The Nature of Fear

We are educated into fear. Fears are socially constructed and made
meaningful within cultural-historical contexts. As we grow into a culture we
are shaped by its attitudes, its values and its presumptions, its stereotypes,
patterns of behavior, ideas and beliefs. Within that broader context there are
the family dynamics and narratives we are born into, and appropriate. Even
more personally there are also our own individual mythologies shaped by our
reflections and understandings of what we have experienced. Our
understanding of our identity is shaped by these factors and while they might
provide us with a basis of self-understanding, they also limit our
understanding. Our fears maintain our conformity within approved norms and
standards even when those factors take from us avenues of growth, self-

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acceptance and trust.15 Indeed as a primary emotion socializing fear manifests

itself in the experience of anxiety, shame, regret, abjection, denial, repression,
and overcompensation. Such fear threatens us about imagined consequences
and we have personal and social histories confirm for us that those fears are
valid. Fear provides us with incentives to conform by limiting our
attentiveness.

By focusing on what is proscribed by such authority we restrict our

openness to experience and limit the range of that experience. We then
interpret that already limited data according to an acceptable hermeneutics, and
respond in ways that reinforce our truncated world views. What we hold as
natural is in fact constructed. For many of us, though, fear is not experienced
as fear. It has become so habitual that we consider it normal as it pervades
everything we see, say, or do. We live in a culture of fear, consciously and
unconsciously. Even mass media, in general, with its emphasis on violence
and its advertisements, with its appeals to the created deficiencies in their
targets, contribute to this pervasive background against which one struggles to
be human.

Fear misdirects one into what it means to be human. It limits our

awareness of the contexts out of which we live, and it inhibits the processing of
the data we receive from those contexts so we come to wrong conclusions and
make bad decisions. It robs us of our freedom by paralyzing us so we become
sick, avoid risk, and remain trapped in closed or broken myths. Fear
subjugates the Christian virtues of compassion, hospitality, generosity,
openness, wonder, wisdom, and patience, to a neurotic self-interest. This
creates havoc because the order it seeks to establish and maintain is itself

15
Barry Glassner, “The Construction of Fear,” Qualitative Sociology 22, no. 4
(December 1999): 301–309.

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

disordered. If that fear is not contained or deconstructed, it spreads to cover

more and more areas of our life until we find ourselves trapped in compulsions
and obsessions. Rather than progressing along the spiritual path, we tend to be
caught in resentments, and our histories become repetitive. It is as if a gear
keeps slipping and so we are doomed to repeat patterns of behavior which we
accept as natural and normal. Unless we practice a self-discipline informed by
a deep sense of being loved, and a deep belief in our ability to love in return,
our compulsions become obsessions which lead to addictions and we end up
being possessed.

But in the context of accepting we are loved and are capable of loving,
we can start recognizing and separating ourselves from the fear that has so
dominated our lives in so many different ways and at so many different levels.
There are stages of disengagement. We can start by recognizing our disorder
through its effects on ourselves and others. What has been repressed manifests
itself, quite unconsciously in our attitudes and behavior. Fear is actually a
form of self-disclosure. It reveals to others our orientation to life. Because we
are vulnerable, we see life as a series of threats without the humanizing
dynamics of trusting relationships. Fear which interprets experience in terms
of aggression uses violence to maintain its limited vision of order. That
violence is found in the ways we maintain our security without accepting that
deeper rootedness of being held in God’s love. It rationalizes its stance by
world-views which absorb God into systems of belief that limit God’s freedom
and God’s ongoing merciful care for all of creation beyond the Law. It
protects its vulnerability by developing and operating out of positions of
power. These seek to control what they do not understand by destroying or
conscripting this “otherness.” In its pragmatism fear maintains the status quo it
is comfortable with, even though that stifles creativity and the building of
communities where difference is welcomed and celebrated.

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The Nature of Love

Love transforms the fear by embracing the memory which maintains

that fear and the conditions which caused it. Love transforms the interpretation
of the memory and releases it from its status as a closed myth. Opening to
love allows us to recognize our fears for what they are. Often this is not
instantaneous and dramatic. Slowly love brings the fear to consciousness in a
different way. What had been previously repressed or ignored is liberated into
suppression. As it rises even further up to awareness, it becomes a concretely
realized oppression which translates into depression, as one realizes how
complicit one is in what denies life. As one struggles to deal with this, the
depression is turned outwards and becomes anger, and this is transformed into
anxiety. Such anxiety reveals the vulnerability of the human condition in
circumstances beyond its control. But even there, as one opens more and more
to love, that anxiety becomes awe when one realizes one is looked after, even
in spite of oneself. Then the power of the closed myth is broken.

The responses to the traumas which fix our identity through memory
into a sense of self are repeated in daily life. Love allows those traumas to
emerge into self-consciousness, and love dissolves the anxieties created by
those traumas. When that happens spiritual growth occurs. We no longer feel
trapped by that past. We see it in a different context. We experience ourselves
differently. Fear gets transformed into awe. Both the fear and the awe are the
responses of a person to forces beyond one’s control. Fear sees those forces
and conditions as inimical to one’s perceived well-being; awe sees those forces
and conditions as held in God’s compassionate Mercy whose ways are not our
ways, and whose thoughts are not our thoughts. Our God desires for us the
fullness of life beyond our imaginings. Fear and awe might exhibit the same
bodily sensations, but their dynamics are quite different. Fear traps us in
closed myths and resignation; awe engenders hope and new life. While a
single fearful incident can trigger a significant Pavlovian conditioning not

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

forgotten over an adult lifespan, the work of love can erase, or neutralize the
effects of that negative experience. In time its meaning is transformed into
something positive and life affirming. The threat of non-being that triggers
fear is real in as much as the imagined world we live in is real. Entering into
the areas of one’s fear often seems like forms of dying. It is only when we
have had personal lived experiences of such deaths, in one form or another,
that we discover such deaths are not the end of our life, but doors to a new and
fuller life. Then we move from one imagined world to another, more life-
giving and human. We do not move to nothingness. Living in a way
committed to God translates fear into awe. It is the response we feel when we
discover what we thought would be a life-destroying experience actually
carried us to one which affirms life in ways beyond our imagining. The awe is
not because we have triumphed over death because we know we did not have
it within us to do so. Rather, it comes because there is an agency—we are
happy to confess it as a personal God—who is able to rescue us from our
disorders, is willing to do so, and in this instance has actually done so.

We can fear God because we have a wrong notion of God and see God
as judgmental and punitive. We can fear God because we attribute to God the
destructive consequences of a disordered creation. Here we fail to see God as
loving us and caring for us even when we are complicit in destructive
behaviors. We can fear God because as we walk the spiritual path we are
transformed, and the unknown which calls us beyond ourselves triggers a fear
we attach to God. We fear making a mistake in our judgments because we do
not have all the facts to make informed choices. We can fear God because
God’s ways are mysterious and God’s freedom in dealing with us as creatures
reveal our absolute dependence on God in a world beset by evil over which we
have little control. We can fear God because we are still trapped by sin even as
we walk towards a deeper relationship with God and to freedom. We fear God
because when we turn in on ourselves and consider our sinfulness, we expect

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to be punished and we fear that punishment. We forget God’s love for us even
as we sin, and the fact of that love coming to us to liberate us from sin.16 The
tension between our narcissism and our transcendence engenders in us an
ambiguity for we are torn in two directions about the nature of God. Such an
ambiguity with its lack of clarity engenders fear.

We know from the scriptures that perfect love casts out fear (1 John
4:16,18), and that God does not give us a spirit of cowardice but one of power,
of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). We also know God aids us
against the crippling effects of fear, as when Jesus eases the terror of the
disciples caught in a storm at sea (Mark 4:35-41), or when he holds onto Peter
who had become afraid while walking on the water towards him (Matthew
14:22-33). It is the same Jesus who advises us not to be anxious about our
lives (Matthew 6:25-34), and he is the one who calms the fears of the Gerasene
demoniac (Mark 5:1-20). But the scriptures also tell us “For as high as the
heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him (Psalm
103:11) and the Acts of the Apostles has the observation that “the church
throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was
strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy
Spirit, it increased in numbers (Acts 9:31). There are the distinctions between
servile fear and filial fear. The first is the fear of punishment; the second the
fear of offending someone one loves. The latter is touched with reverence, but
as St. Ignatius points out in his Exercises,

Though the zealous service of God our Lord out of pure love should be
esteemed above all, we ought also to praise highly the fear of the
Divine Majesty. For not only filial fear but also servile fear is pious
and very holy..., [I]t is very helpful for rising from mortal sin, and once
this is accomplished, one may easily advance to filial fear. (Sp Ex 370)

16
Romans 5:8

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

A growing intimacy with God can start off with impure motives—such
as the fear of punishment—but as that intimacy develops, the fear changes to
one of not wanting to offend the Beloved. As the relationship develops, fear is
turned into awe. The original impulse—the orientation to the Other—is still
there but now, acknowledged in a new context of being loved and of being
saved by that love, it is experienced and understood differently. Fear limits our
attention by focusing and restricting it to imagined consequences and so we
react to projections rather than to the reality offered us by a primary
relationship to God. To give up those projections is long and difficult work.
We cannot deal with our fear adequately through the despair of recklessness or
by the paralysis of presumption. The courage required comes only from lived
relationships which foster love.

Love deconstructs fear by allowing a context broader than an enclosed

self-interest to inform the facts of one’s life. Such a stepping out of one’s
security feels like a death. It is the dark night of the senses when the world we
experience, as a system of belief, cannot make sense of how we find ourselves
at this stage. The walls we put up to maintain our false sense of self erode and
we are left with a sense of confusion. Whatever had educated us to the way we
now think, feel, and respond, cannot withstand the erotic impulse of the divine
which desires every part of us. Because our past histories cannot help us make
sense of what is happening to us now, this dissolution feels like a depression
and, until we finally give in to that desire of God, we struggle to maintain the
world we know and accept.

There are in the spiritual life boundaries to be crossed. They demarcate

stages in our growth in spiritual intimacy. The draw of God’s desire for us
brings us to one such stage here and once we cross that divide we are carried
inexorably to those spaces where we are helpless in a state of dissolution until
we arrive at a new level of awareness when we see we have not been

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destroyed but transformed. What is eradicated in that process is the power fear
has over us in the area of a particular security.

Freed from that, we develop a felt wariness to what had previously

enthralled us and an instinct about the way we can be still conscripted into
those earlier forms of behavior. Overall, the experience has given us the felt
sense of being trapped, the felt sense of the agony of being released from those
traps, and the felt sense of a new life being offered and accepted. Those felt
senses help us to discern on a spontaneous level what to do when we
encounter new situations which may trigger in us the same traps we have
experienced before. The experience has educated us. We feel it in our bodies.
Those feelings are values learnt and refined to spontaneity. We are educated
into reading what we experience through the values we incarnate. We can say:
God does not give us answers; God gives us experiences and those
experiences shape us and the way we read reality. On the spiritual path our
experiences educate us to a path which leads either to God or away from God.

We could choose a path which leads away from a growing intimacy

with God because of fear. Giving into that fear and living out of it may give us
the illusion of safety and security. But because we do not accept the deeper
calling to a rootedness in spiritual intimacy with God, we find ourselves living,
as the gospel tells us, on inadequate foundations which are destroyed in times
of crisis (Matthew 7: 24-27). The power of fear traps us in the illusion which
suggests its defenses against vulnerability are effective. Fear promotes a
willingness to accept a certain flawed understanding and representation of
what offers security. Such disorder favours certain forms of order, and ignores
more comprehensive forms of ordering which, from its limited perspective, it
sees as disordered.17 Other alternatives are overlooked because fear paralyses

17
Cf. Michel Serres, Genesis, trans. Genevieve James & James Nielson (Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press, 1995). “To say disorder is to say one is both

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Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

and limits attention. Fear, in this way, becomes a tool for manipulation,
motivation, and control. We are coerced in acquiescence, and not only are our
spiritual, social, political and existential liberties eroded by such tactics, but we
can become so accustomed to such a way of living that the habitual becomes
the familiar, and then the familiar is taken as the index of reality and of truth.

Our attention is always caught between our constructed worlds and the
activity of God within and surrounding those constructed worlds. What is life-
giving is affirmed; what does not give life finds itself in tension with the desire
God has for us, and which we experience as the call to the fullness of life. We
live these opposing tensions as a radical unresolvable ambiguity present at
every moment of one’s life, and we experience it as anxiety.

Living vulnerably manifests itself in anxiety. Although it can frighten

us and freeze us in forms of despair, it can also shake us from our conditioned
and habitual responses to existential decisions by making us more aware that
we exist in a world of choices and consequences. Anxiety increases our self-
awareness and sense of personal responsibility. It raises the question of trust.
Do we make our decisions on our own, or in a conscious relationship with
God?

At each stage on the path of spiritual intimacy we are caught up in the

tension between fear and love. St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises uses the
tropes of mediaeval spirituality which defines that path as purgative and
illuminative. (SE 10) Building upon, incorporating and transcending these is
what patristic and mediaeval spirituality calls the unitive way. In the purgative
way we are cleansed from the biases which focus us on self-gratification; so
cleansed, in the illuminative way we learn to see reality as God sees it; while in

unwilling and unable to conceive it. It isn’t an anti-order, perhaps it is a more exquisite
order still, one our banal stupidity cannot imagine, stiff as a board as it is, to conceive,
since it is still given over to concepts—to order.” (p.109)

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the unitive way we become united with God and live reality as companions of
God seeing things as God sees them. One concern with this taxonomy is that
it suggests a chronology of response to God’s intervention in our lives. But the
truth is we are never out of the purgative way; we are constantly being
illuminated even as we are trapped in destructive behaviors, and our union
with God is not essentially once and for all, but suffers the fickleness of our
humanity which, as St. Paul tells us, “makes me do not the good I want to do,
but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19)

The Tensions in Becoming Human

What can be helpful in discernment is understanding the level of

dialectical tensions we are caught in in the different areas of our lives, all of
which are created by God for a relationship with God. In different areas we
may have different responses. In some we are committed loving people; in
others our neuroses limit our affectivity and healthy relationships with others,
the world, and God. When we are trapped we find ourselves compelled.
There is an urgency which removed our detachment and limits our
attentiveness in the situation we find ourselves in. When we indulge our
compulsions, they become stronger and more demanding. They become
obsessions and they limit our range of interests. Addictions do not just limit
our range of interests, however. They become the sole focus of our interests.
Everything we do, we do to satisfy a particular need. The addiction controls
our life and finally takes possession of us. Possession destroys our humanity.
It removes the remnants of whatever free will we had left as addicts. It seeks
to eradicate the expressed commitment to God which even an addict might
hold on to.

But there is an opposing dynamic to this drive to destruction. Because

of a lived relationship with God, one can be disciplined enough not to be
trapped by one’s compulsive tendencies. One can become so committed to

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Geoffrey B. (Monty) Williams “The Way of the Faithful: Exploring the
Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

that relationship that one values everything else in the light of that relationship.
This allows us to make choices which build up the relationship and to live out
of those choices in lives of service which manifests the Kingdom and liberate
us into greater and greater lives of freedom. Freedom here is not to be
understood as individual license, or as social liberty, but as a lived intimate
relationship with God which allows us to discover what it means to be human.

It is possible to juxtapose these opposing dynamics of fear and self-

transcendence as they operate in our lives and of which we are conscious when
we find ourselves in situations of vulnerability.

A person is defined through –

act habit orientation identity

fear
in the form of compulsion obsession addiction possession

vs vs vs vs vs

love
indifference passion freedom emptiness
in the form of

Living authentically does not destroy fear, but it allows one not to be
trapped by fear. Fear constrains us in closed and broken myths which indicate
the reality we experience is unchangeable. The compassionate mercy of God
however says that creation is not complete. We are still being formed, and the
creativity of God is such that every evil, such as death, will be transformed into
resurrection. The stories we live out of and incarnate are not finished products.
Those stories form the basis of our perceptions, our actions and our
discernment. The plots which drive those stories operate from a basic tension

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between fear and love. That tension is manifest in the operations of our daily
life, often hidden and unacknowledged, but more overtly present when we find
ourselves in crisis and vulnerable.

Basic Tensions in Human Life

Fear…………………………………………….……..Love

dynamics of fear Effects Effects dynamics of love

anxiety security rootedness awe

suspicion clarity mystery wonder

aggression power emptiness vulnerability

despair status quo creativity hope

This schema is based on what goes on in the Four Weeks of the

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. That 16th-century text is a manual for
ordering one’s life to become more disposed to God. It is based on St.
Ignatius’ own experiences of the evolution of his conversion. There he moved
from being defined solely by his own needs, and the prevailing secular norms
of his culture, to living out a spiritual intimacy with God which manifested
itself concretely in his forming the Catholic Jesuit religious order noted for its
creativity.

These Exercises offer us a way of looking critically and lovingly at

ourselves, and offer us choices how we wish to be present to our world. The
illusions we accept as ourselves are taken away in the First Week. We find our
true life in the Second Week. In the Third Week this life is exposed to what
borders this life, the test of death. In the Fourth Week we are liberated from
the power of death for the service of the Divine Mystery. Our spiritual journey
through the Exercises calls us always to be moving beyond ourselves and ever

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Geoffrey B. (Monty) Williams “The Way of the Faithful: Exploring the
Dynamics of Desire Using the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola”

deeper into the love of God. In order to do this we are constantly drawn from
the worlds we have imagined and into a life as imagined by the mystery of the
God we describe as Compassionate Mercy. This journey never ends. As we
journey through the Fourth Week, we discover that we are not carried to a
mythic paradise freed from the world. We find ourselves once again at a
deeper level in the realities of the First Week, where we have to discover even
more deeply how we are loved. There is no end to God’s love, and no end to
our journeying ever deeper into that love and to the community created by that
love.

Here we are interested in another thing. We are trying to unpack the

dynamics of desire, manifested in the ongoing relationship between humanity
and God, in a language which respects the insights of St. Ignatius as he
presents them in the Exercises. We should note we are not adapting or
translating the Exercises to fit contemporary concerns such as feminism or
ecology, or contemporary social interests. Rather we provide a contemporary
narrative which links the particular exercises within each stage in a
developmental unity and also links each of the four stages of the Exercises in
an evolving way of faithfulness. In doing this we find a way of extending the
mission of the Exercises beyond even a Catholic and Christian context to
include, without detriment to their own religious truths, “infidels and
heretics.”18 It is possible to do this if one sees the Exercises as following the
emerging dynamics of desire common to every human being and community
seeking the fullness of life.

18
J. Nadal, “Exercises for Infidels, Heretics and Sinners,” The Way 43, no. 1 (2004): 43-
50. Nadal writes, “this is my belief: for all of these our Exercises can be accommodated,
even for infidels, if we draw on the principles of the law of nature in the teaching of Paul
(Romans 1 and Acts 17—the speech to the people on the Areopagus). Positively, they
need only to be persuaded that they are being carried towards God.” (p. 46)

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[摘要] 這文章檢視了渴望的動態，這些動態作為基礎，構成了依納
爵《神操》四「週」内一系列的沈思和默觀。文章把這些置於愛與
恐懼的基本張力中。它認為這四個靈修發展階段是一個使人變得更
加人性化的過程：從一個人接受被愛開始，同時意識到自己受破壞
性的力量所束縛，以至被那愛徹底改變，繼而選擇一種更新那破碎
了的受造界的生活方式。本文將這種動態從中世紀天主教的傳統語
言中，即依納爵用以編寫他的洞見的語言，轉為適用於其他靈修傳
統的當代修辭。這種可及性還擴大了這種皈依的分析，使其可以應
用於個人，以至社區、機構及文化。

關鍵詞：慾望，分辨，靈修之旅，相互

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Thomas P. Sherman “Discernment in the Spiritual Exercises and in the Dao De
Jing as Practical Guides to Living Well and Knowing that You Are Doing So”

The Rules for the Discernment of Spirits in

St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and
the Discernment of the Sage in Laozi’s Dao De Jing
as Practical Guides to Living Well and
Knowing that You Are Doing So

Thomas P. Sherman, SJ

Abstract: Living well and knowing that one is doing so involve not
only making the right choices in life but knowing that those choices are
right. This requires a discernment in determining whether one’s feeling
convictions are in accord with objective, checkable self-transcending
criteria. In this paper I examine both St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual
Exercises and Laozi’s Dao De Jing as world famous practical guides
for living well and knowing you are doing so. I argue that just as in the
Spiritual Exercises, living well and knowing one is doing so involves a
subjective criterion of the experience of spiritual consolation and the
objective criterion of whether that chosen way of life or action is in
conformity with the life of Jesus Christ as understood by the faith
community of the Church, so in the Dao De Jing, living well and
knowing one is doing so requires the sage to recognize not only his
experience of inner peace and harmony as a criterion but as well the
objective criterion of being in conformity with the real (vs. only
apparent) harmony of nature and promoting harmony within human
society. We learn from both works that if we are to live well and know
that we are doing so, we need a discernment based not simply on self-

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justifying experience (of spiritual consolation or inner peace and

harmony) but on objective, or self-transcending criterion as well.

Keywords: discernment, spiritual consolation, spiritual desolation,

objective and subjective criterion

Introduction
The happiness of the virtuous person, Aristotle maintained,
consists not simply in living virtuously but in knowing, or appreciating,
that he or she is doing so. 1 In this paper I am going to examine and
compare two famous but very different works from different religious,
historical, and cultural points of view, the one the Spiritual Exercises of
St. Ignatius of Loyola, a famous religious manual composed in the mid-
sixteenth century in Spain; the other, the Dao De Jing 道德經, an
ancient (from the 4th Century BCE) Chinese mystical and philosophical
classic ascribed to the figure of Laozi, 老子.2 Despite their significant
differences, both these works can be fruitfully understood and
compared as practical manuals designed so that their practitioners
might live well and be aware that they were doing so.3

1
Cf. Nicomachean Ethics IX.9 1170b10ff.
2
For a concise historical introduction to the text and author, cf. WING-TSIT
CHAN, ed., A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1973), 136-8. In Daoism the Dao (or Way) is understood to
be the principle of both the cosmic and moral order. In this paper the Chinese
and English transliteration of the word will be capitalized.
3
As the virtuous person, for Aristotle, consists not simply in his actually living
virtuously but in appreciating (and so enjoying) that he is doing so, I shall
argue that analogously for the Christian in making the Spiritual Exercises,
living well is not simply making the right decision according to God’s will but
in knowing one is doing so in the experience of spiritual consolation. I shall

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Thomas P. Sherman “Discernment in the Spiritual Exercises and in the Dao De
Jing as Practical Guides to Living Well and Knowing that You Are Doing So”

The Argument of the Paper

In order to show that both St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual
Exercises (henceforth Sp Ex) and Laozi’s Dao De Jing (henceforth
DDJ) can be such practical guides, I am going to focus on the
description in each work of the inner life and dynamics of their
practitioners as they make their way through the texts. In the
experience of the person making the Sp Ex in the context of a retreat
(normally accompanied by a spiritual director) and in the experience of
the student of the Dao in meditating on the verses of DDJ (not without
guidance from a Daoist master), both will engage in a reflective process
in examining their lives and in making significant decisions. This
reflective process involves two dimensions, one objective, the other
subjective. The objective dimension to be considered will be whether
the decision to be made is in conformity with the standard presented in
the given text as normative, and the subjective dimension of the
decision will be whether the one in making the decision experiences a
feeling consonant with living in conformity with that standard. In the
case of the retreatant making the Sp Ex, his or her reflective process in
making a decision, which St. Ignatius calls a discernment (discreción)
will involve an objective dimension as to whether the decision is in
conformity with the standard of the life of Jesus Christ as this life is
understood by the faith community of the Church. The subjective
dimension will consist in whether the decision involves an experience
of spiritual consolation in the love of God. In the case of the student of
the Dao, as he or she meditates on the verses of the DDJ, the reflective

argue similarly that in the DDJ enlightenment is not simply acting in accord
with the Dao but in knowing that one is doing so in experiencing zu - peace and
contentment.

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process (which has no special name) involved in making a significant

decision will respect an objective dimension as to whether the decision
is in conformity with the standard of the Dao as the Dao is traditionally
understood and recorded in the text of the DDJ and a subjective
dimension in whether that decision is accompanied by an experience of

inner peace and harmony, or “knowing contentment” (zhi zu 知足)

(DDJ 33, cf 44), an experience understood to be characteristic of those

who are in accord with the Dao.

For both the Sp Ex and the DDJ a proper reflection process in any
decision will involve both these objective and subjective dimensions
and by offering their practitioners guidance in this process, the Sp Ex
and the DDJ can be understood as effective practical guides for their
practitioners in living well and in appreciating that they are doing so.

I
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as a Method for
Finding God’s Will in the Choice of a Way of Life (or in
Some Particular Action)

The practical purpose of the Sp Ex of St. Ignatius is for the

retreatant to discover and to embrace the Will of God in a choice of a
way of life (or of some important action). Such a choice has as its basis
what Ignatius calls “The First Principle and Foundation”:

We are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord,

and in doing so to save our souls. The other things on the face
of the earth are created to help us in attaining the end for which
we are created. Hence we are to make use of such things in as
far as they help us in the attainment of our end, and we must rid
ourselves of them in as far as they prove a hindrance to us.
Therefore we must make ourselves indifferent to all created

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Thomas P. Sherman “Discernment in the Spiritual Exercises and in the Dao De
Jing as Practical Guides to Living Well and Knowing that You Are Doing So”

things as far as we are not under any prohibition (…). Our one
desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end
for which we are created (Sp Ex 23).4

In order for anyone to make a choice of a way of life (or of some

momentous action in one’s life) in accord with the praise, reverence
and service of God, certain “spiritual exercises” are needed. Such
exercises are described as “every way of preparing and disposing the
soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and, after their removal,
of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life for
the salvation of our soul” (Sp Ex 1). In the Sp Ex, these exercises
involve contemplating Jesus Christ in his life, death, and resurrection.
As Jesus is believed to be the Way to God (John 14:6), by so focusing
on Christ throughout the retreat and by carefully attending to the inner
movements of the heart, it is believed that the retreatant will be inspired
to know and then choose to follow Christ in whatever particular way of
life or action that the retreatant is considering.

In the process of considering a way of life or some particular

action in following Christ, Ignatius describes three “times” in which a
decisive choice can be made (Sp Ex 175-189). For the specific
purposes of this article, however, we will focus on what Ignatius calls
the second time of deciding—a time when the retreatant by attending to
his or her inner experience of spirits, both good and evil, can be helped
in making a right decision inspired by God, so that one can
immediately experience the rightness of the decision.

4
While the text of the Spiritual Exercises in the original Spanish can be found
in Obras de San Ignacio de Loyola, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos (Madrid:
Editorial Catolica, 1963), 206-303, I will be using the English translation of
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius by Louis Puhl, S.J, Chicago 1952.

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But before we examine this second time of deciding according to

an experience of spirits, a few preliminary points are to be kept in mind.
In attending to inner experience, the retreatant will be aware of the state
of, and movements within his or her consciousness. 5 “Soul” (ánima) is
the term Ignatius uses to refer to the inner principle of life and
consciousness unique to each person. By the phrase “movements of
soul” (las varias mociones que en el ánima) Ignatius refers to the
affective responses of feeling and desire based on perceptions,
imaginations, thoughts, and images of the situations the retreatant may
have in prayer or in mind at any time during the retreat. These
movements of soul are experienced as motive forces, impulses of
attraction or repulsion which may influence the retreatant in thought,
word, or deed. These impulses can be felt as positive (e.g., pleasant,
comforting, inviting) in attracting a retreatant toward someone or
something (emotions like love, joy, peace, etc. are examples of positive
impulses) or as negative (e.g., unpleasant, discomforting, discouraging)
in repelling the retreatant from another person or situation (emotions
such as fear, anger, anxiety). A spirit (espíritu) on the other hand is
understood as a force which transcends the consciousness of the
retreatant. As such, “spirit” is to be distinguished from the retreatant’s
own soul.

For Ignatius movements of soul (mociones que en el ánima) are

to be distinguished from motions as actions of spirits (espíritus). While

5
In beginning with the second time we begin with the retreatant’s subjective
experience, his or her experience of inner movements and emotions. In
examining and judging the truth of these subjective experiences, the second
time begins with the subjective dimension of discernment and in discerning its
truth will have the retreatant (and his or her director) consider the objective
dimension of these experiences in their conformity (or not) with the life of
Christ as understood by the faith community of the Church.

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Thomas P. Sherman “Discernment in the Spiritual Exercises and in the Dao De
Jing as Practical Guides to Living Well and Knowing that You Are Doing So”

movements of soul can arise voluntarily or involuntarily from a

retreatant’s own consciousness, these movements can also have as their
causal source a spirit—a force which transcends the retreatant’s own
consciousness and is in some form personal: the one good (ultimately
God), the other, evil, Satan. 6 These different spirits are experienced as
antagonistic, influencing the person to think and act in different if not
opposed ways.

Ignatius believed that negative movements of soul could be

caused either by a person’s own psychology or by the influence of an
evil spirit. Positive movements of soul could also be the result of a
person’s own psychology but could also be caused by either a good
spirit (leading the person to God) or by an evil spirit (leading the person
away from God). If the person is to make a right decision, the
influence of personal psychology as well as the action of the different
spirits must be recognized and distinguished

By the term “discernment” (discreción) Ignatius means the act or

process of discerning, that is, of recognizing or perceiving something
otherwise difficult or obscure by means of discriminating differences.
A discernment of spirits (discreción de espíritus) 7 is a process of
recognizing or perceiving the reality and influence of a spirit in one’s

6
Cf Sp Ex 329 where Ignatius writes “It is characteristic of God and His
Angels, in their actions (en sus mociones) to give (dar) the soul true happiness
and joy, and to banish all the sadness and disturbances which are caused by the
enemy. It is characteristic of the evil one to fight against such happiness and
consolation by proposing (trayendo) fallacious reasonings subtilties, and
continual deceptions. The movements of spirits are personal and so better
understood as actions rather than simply generic motions, as the latter could be
the effect of the retreatant’s own psychological make-up or the effect of merely
physical causes.
7
Cf. Sp Ex 328 Ejercicio espirituales, Obras de San Ignacio de Loyola,
Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos Madrid, 1963, 328

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consciousness by first distinguishing that spirit from one’s own

consciousness and then by distinguishing that spirit as either a good or
bad spirit.8

In order to aid the retreatant and his or her director in discerning

good from bad spirits, St. Ignatius offers in the appendix of the Sp Ex
(313-336) certain rules which he formulated, collected, and
systematized over a long period of time.

The Use of Rules for the Discernment of Spirits (Sp Ex 313-336)

Ignatius’s Rules for the Discernment of Spirits are divided into
what he calls “two weeks,” or periods, which mark in some manner the
retreatant’s progress in following the life of Christ in meditation during
his making the Sp Ex. As the retreatant is gradually drawn into a
deeper relationship with Jesus in prayer during the retreat and considers
the decision he or she needs to make, the influence of the spirits in the
retreatant’s consciousness can become more and more subtle. The
“first week” rules deal with the basic principles of the different spirits
and how to recognize them. The “second week” rules deal with some
of the complicated and subtle ways the different spirits can interact and
influence a person in making a choice of life. In an examination of
these “two weeks” which follows, we will limit ourselves to consider

8
J. TONER, A Commentary on Saint Ignatius’s Rules for the Discernment of
Spirits [cf. nt. 4] (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1991), 12-13 and
M. RUIZ JURADO, Il Discernimento Spirituale (cf. nt. 4), Edizioni San Paolo
1997, 232, and cf. M. IVENS, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises
(Leominster: Gracewing 1998), 205-209. Understanding these spirits and
discerning between them has not been without controversy among
commentators of the Sp Ex. For some of the diverse interpretations of Ignatian
“consolation” and “desolation” cf. J. TONER, A Commentary on Saint Ignatius’
(cf. nt. 4), 283-290.

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Thomas P. Sherman “Discernment in the Spiritual Exercises and in the Dao De
Jing as Practical Guides to Living Well and Knowing that You Are Doing So”

and comment only on those rules most relevant for the purpose of this
study.

FIRST WEEK RULES (Sp Ex 313-327)

Ignatius opens the first week rules with a description of the
purpose of the rules, which are: “for understanding to some extent the
different movements produced in the soul and for recognizing those
that are good to admit them, and those that are bad, to reject them” (Sp
Ex 313).

The first rule of the first week focuses on the experience of the
movement of soul and sets forth a crucial distinction between differing
movements of soul with respect to an action:

In the case of those who go from one mortal sin to another, the
enemy is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures.
He fills their imagination with sensual delights and
gratifications, the more readily to keep them in their vices and
increase the number of their sins. With such persons the good
spirit uses a method which is the reverse of the above. Making
use of the light of reason, he will rouse the sting of conscience
and fill them with remorse (Sp Ex 314).

A few important preliminary things are to be noted in this first

rule. “Mortal sin” is a thought, word, or deed in serious violation of
God’s will based on Christian faith and the teaching of the Church.
From the perspective of the Christian faith, a movement of soul toward
what is sinful is toward what is objectively negative and yet such a
movement of soul can be experienced subjectively as either positive or
negative so that the retreatant’s subjective movement of soul, whether
positive or negative, is not indicative of the objective goodness or evil
of the action from the point of view of faith.

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In the next, or second rule of the first week Ignatius states:

In the case of those who go on earnestly striving to cleanse

their souls from sin and who seek to rise in the service of God
our Lord to greater perfection, the method pursued is the
opposite of that mentioned on the first rule. Then it is
characteristic of the evil spirit to harass with anxiety, to afflict
with sadness, to raise obstacles backed by fallacious reasonings
that disturb the soul. Thus he seeks to prevent the soul from
advancing. It is characteristic of the good spirit, however, to
give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and
peace. This He does by making all easy, by removing all
obstacles so that the soul goes forward in doing good (Sp Ex
315).

A good spirit causes positive movements of soul in the direction

of what is objectively good, whereas the evil spirit causes negative
movements of soul toward what is objectively good, but positive
movements toward what is objectively evil. Spirits are judged to be
good or bad not by their positive or negative subjective “feel” but by
whether they influence the agent to choose or not choose action which
is in objective conformity with God’s will as understood from a faith
perspective.

The third and fourth rules describe the experience of spiritual

consolation and desolation:

SPIRITUAL CONSOLATION. I call it consolation when an

interior movement is aroused in the soul, by which it is
inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord, and as a
consequence, can love no creature on the face of the earth for
its own sake, but only in the Creator of them all. It is likewise
consolation when one sheds tears that move to the love of God,
whether it be because of the sufferings of Christ our Lord, or
for any other reason that is immediately directed to the praise
and service of God. Finally, I call consolation every increase of
faith, hope, and love, and all interior joy that invites and attracts
to what is heavenly and to the salvation of one’s soul by filling
it with peace and quiet in its Creator and Lord (Sp Ex 316).

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And the fourth:

SPIRITUAL DESOLATION. I call desolation what is entirely

the opposite of what is described in the third rule, as darkness
of soul, turmoil of spirit, inclination to what is lowly and
earthly, restlessness rising from many disturbance and
temptations which lead to want of faith, want of hope, want of
love. The soul is wholly slothful, tepid, sad, and separated, as it
were, from its Creator and Lord. For just as consolation is the
opposite of desolation, so the thoughts that spring from
consolation are the opposite of those that spring from
desolation (Sp Ex 317).

Here we note that while spiritual consolation and desolation are

subjectively experienced, respectively, as positive or negative
movements of the soul, these movements are recognized as spiritual by
their intentional object: the explicit consciousness of God or the things
of God. When one considers God or the things of God and experiences
positive motivation in the emotions of love, joy, and peace, this
movement of soul is a spiritual consolation inclining the person to the
love of God and the desire to do His will, whereas the experience of a
negative movement of soul, when considering God or the things of God
(feelings of sloth, tepidness, sadness, etc.), is an experience of
desolation inducing the person to turn away from God.
In the fifth and sixth rules, Ignatius counsels the retreatant on how
to treat desolation and consolation in discerning a decision to be made:

In time of desolation we should never make any change, but

remain firm and constant in the resolution and decision which
guided us the day before the desolation, or in the decision to
which we adhered in the preceding consolation. For just as in
consolation the good spirit guides and counsels us, so in
desolation the evil spirit guides and counsels. Following his
counsels we can never find the way to a right decision (Sp Ex
318).

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Though in desolation we must never change our former

resolutions, it will be very advantageous to intensify our
activity against the desolation. We can insist more on prayer,
upon meditation, and on much examination of ourselves. We
can make an effort in a suitable way to do some penance (Sp Ex
319).

So far, the above rules seem to suggest that when considering a

decision to be made, the retreatant can interpret his or her experience of
(spiritual) consolation as in some way meeting with divine approval in
so far as the consolation indicates being guided by the good spirit
whereas the experience of desolation can be interpreted as failing
divine approval in so far as in desolation the evil spirit is guiding and
counseling. Yet as we shall see shortly when we get to the rules of the
second week, there may not be a simple correlation between the
subjective experience of spiritual consolation and objective divine
approval.

SECOND WEEK RULES (Sp Ex 328-336)

Rules for the Discernment of Spirits for the second week are
described as: “further rules for understanding the different movements
produced in the soul. They serve for a more accurate discernment of
spirits” (Sp Ex 328).

In the first rule of the second week Ignatius describes the good
spirit (whether God or His Angels) as giving true happiness:

It is characteristic of God and His Angels, when they act upon

the soul, to give true happiness and spiritual joy, and to banish
all the sadness and the disturbances caused by the enemy. It is
characteristic of the evil one to fight against such happiness and
consolation by proposing fallacious reasonings, subtleties, and
continual deceptions (Sp Ex 329).

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While this first rule apparently summarizes points already noted

in the rules for the first week, there is a twofold complication as we are
now told that the good spirit of the first week can be the action of either
God or His Angels and that the effect of the good spirit (either God or
His Angels) is “true happiness and joy”—a description which implies
that there can also be a false happiness and joy. An experience of
consolation, then, can be ambiguous—either true or false—and so itself
is in need of discernment to determine whether it be one or the other.

In addition to a recognition that there can be a true or false

consolation, in the second rule of this second week St. Ignatius notes
for the first time a kind of consolation which only God can give:

God alone can give consolation to the soul without any

previous cause. It belongs solely to the Creator to come into a
soul, to leave it, to act upon it, to draw it wholly to the love of
the Divine Majesty. I said without previous cause, that is,
without any previous perception or knowledge of any subject
by which a soul might be led to such a consolation through its
own acts of will and intellect (Sp Ex 330).
God, as creator of the soul, is capable of consoling the soul of the
retreatant “without previous cause” that is, in an immediate and
intimate way.9

In the next rule of this second week, this divine “consolation

without previous cause” is distinguished from an experience of
consolation which can be caused by either good or evil spirits:

If a cause preceded, both the good angel and the evil spirit can
give consolation to a soul but for quite different purposes. The
good angel consoles for progress of the soul; that it may

9
For a more detailed analysis of this second rule of the second week as well as
a description of various commentators’ differing views on the nature and
frequency of such consolation “without previous cause,” cf. M. RUIZ JURADO, Il
Discernimento Spirituale (cf. nt. 4), 227-229.

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advance and rise to what is more perfect. The evil spirit

consoles for purposes that are contrary, and that afterwards he
might draw the soul to his own perverse intentions and
wickedness (Sp Ex 331).

Previously, in the second rule of this second week we had read

that “without previous cause” was to be understood as “without any
previous perception or knowledge of any subject by which a soul might
be led to such a consolation through its own acts of will and intellect”
(Sp Ex 330). Now in this third rule of the second week Ignatius
introduces us to a different kind of consolation—a consolation with
previous cause. The experience of this kind of consolation can be
caused by either the good spirit (angel) or the evil spirit depending on
whether that consolation leads toward or away from God (“what is
more perfect”).

So far, then, we can conclude that consolation without previous

cause comes directly from God (and so must be true consolation)
whereas consolation with previous cause can be either true or false
depending on its source—either the good or the evil spirit. Once these
two kinds of consolation are introduced, the retreatant must now
discern (or be helped to discern) a possible consolation “without
previous cause” from a consolation “with previous cause,” and of the
latter kind—one that is true (as guided by the good spirit) from one that
is false (misguided by the evil spirit).

In the fourth rule Ignatius begins to describe how the retreatant

and his or her director are to discern whether consolation “with
previous cause” is ultimately caused by the good or evil spirit:

It is a mark of the evil spirit to assume the appearance of an

angel of light. He begins by suggesting thoughts that are suited
to a devout soul, and ends by suggesting his own. For example,

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he will suggest holy and pious thoughts that are wholly in

conformity with the sanctity of the soul. Afterwards, he will
endeavor little by little to end by drawing the soul into his
hidden snares and evil designs (Sp Ex 332).

If the retreatant and director are to discern which spirit is

ultimately causing consolation with previous cause, they must examine
not the immediate experience itself of the consolation but rather its
progression and conclusion. Moreover, judgments as to whether the
consolation leads to thoughts suited to a devout soul or whether they
lead to hidden snares and evil designs require a standard outside the
subjective experience of the consolation itself.
The fifth rule of the second week instructs the retreatant and
director how to determine whether the retreatant’s thoughts (an
important component of consolation) are coming from the evil spirit
rather than the good:

We must carefully observe the whole course of our thoughts. If

the beginning and middle and end of the course of thoughts are
wholly good and directed to what is entirely right, it is a sign
that they are from the good angel. But the course of thoughts
suggested to us may terminate in something evil, or distracting,
or less good than the soul had formerly proposed to do. Again,
it may end in what weakens the soul, or disquiets it; or by
destroying the peace, tranquility, and quiet which it had before,
it may cause disturbance to the soul. These things are a clear
sign that the thoughts are proceeding from the evil spirit, the
enemy of our progress and eternal salvation (Sp Ex 333).

As noted above in the third rule of the first week, spiritual

consolation consists in thoughts of God accompanied by positive
movements of soul, of emotions like love, joy, and peace. But to
discern whether thoughts coming from consolation with previous cause
are ultimately caused by the good or evil spirit, the retreatant is
instructed to observe the whole progression of these thoughts and

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finally their conclusion. If the conclusion of this progression of

thoughts is in accord with what is wholly good and right, the
consolation of such thoughts can be judged to come from the good
spirit, but if those thoughts ultimately lead rather to something less
good or even something evil, the consolation accompanying such
thoughts can be judged to come from the evil spirit. What is implied
here in this judgment is the insufficiency of the subjective experience
itself of consolation; a standard or criterion other than the experience of
the consolation itself is needed. For Ignatius, this objective standard or
criterion is ultimately that of the teaching of the Christian faith which
both retreatant and director accept.

In the sixth rule of the second week Ignatius counsels the

retreatant to carefully review his or her experience with the evil spirit’s
use of consolation to deceive him so as to guard against such deception
in the future:

When the enemy of our human nature has been detected and
recognized by the trail of evil marking his course and by the
wicked end to which he leads us, it will be profitable for the
one who has been tempted to review immediately the whole
course of the temptation. Let him consider the series of
thoughts, how they arose, how the evil one gradually attempted
to make him step down from the state of spiritual delight and
joy in which he was, till finally he drew him to his wicked
designs. The purpose of this review is that once such
experience has been understood and carefully observed, we
may guard ourselves for the future against the customary
deceits of the enemy (Sp Ex 334).

Once the train and conclusion of the subjective experience of

consolation can be seen to come from the good or the evil spirit, the
retreatant and his or her director are instructed to go back and review
the experience and its discernment for future discernment of like

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experiences. Again, such discernment for future reference presumes the

implication of the fifth rule: that the subjective experience of
consolation is ultimately determined by an objective standard, the
standard of faith that both retreatant and director accept.

In the eighth rule Ignatius goes back to examining the experience

of consolation without previous cause, the consolation that comes
directly from God:

When consolation is without previous cause, as was said, there

can be no deception in it, since it can proceed from God our
Lord only. 10 But a spiritual person who has received such a
consolation must consider it very attentively, and must
cautiously distinguish the actual time of the consolation from
the period that follows it. At such a time the soul is still fervent
and favored with the grace and aftereffects of the consolation
which has passed. In this second period the soul frequently
forms various resolutions and plans which are not granted
directly by God our Lord. They may come from our own
reasoning on the relations of our concepts and on the
consequences of our judgments or they may come from the
good or evil spirit. Hence, they must be carefully examined
before they are given full approval and put into execution (Sp
Ex 336).

We are told here that the immediate experience of God’s action

on the soul cannot deceive for it comes directly from God. No further
discernment as to the source of the consolation is needed. The
consolation is directly of God. Aside from the question of how the
retreatant and his or her spiritual guide (or anyone else) could be
certain of an experience of consolation without previous cause (a
question Ignatius does not seem to ask), one could ask: what practical

10
And for a detailed analysis of this eighth rule of the second week, cf, M.
RUIZ JURADO, Il Discernimento Spirituale (cf. nt. 4), 229-239.

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significance such a consolation can have for the retreatant trying to

make a decision in accord with God’s will? If, as some commentators
have understood, consolation is more a volitional impetus than
anything else, does this special consolation indicate that what the
retreatant is considering as a way of life or a particular action to be
chosen is being divinely inspired and so in accordance with God’s will?
Nowhere in the text does Ignatius identify any experience of
consolation (with or without previous cause) with God’s will. Yet in
warning the director and the retreatant to distinguish consolation
without previous cause from the experience of its aftereffects by means
of the thoughts that arise from the latter, Ignatius seems to imply that
(in contrast to the thoughts and plans made during an experience of the
aftereffect) there could be thoughts or plans made during the time of
experiencing consolation without previous cause, and then the question
could be asked whether such thoughts or plans can be taken as
indicating the divine will. However, even if an experience of
consolation without previous cause could be interpreted as an
indication of God’s will in a choice of action, (as seems to be the case
in Ignatius’s description of the conversion experiences of St. Matthew
or St. Paul at Sp Ex 175) Ignatius holds that whatever is made manifest
or affectively affirmed in these special experiences must always be
within the objective bounds of the faith.11

11
And outside the Sp Ex themselves, as in his letter to Teresa Rejadell (June
18, 1536), Ignatius writes, “It often happens that Our Lord moves and forces us
interiorly to one action or another by opening up our mind and heart, i.e.,
speaking inside us without any noise of voices, raising us entirely to His divine
love, without our being able to resist His purpose, even if we wanted. The
purpose of His that we then adopt is such that of necessity we conform with the
commandments, with the precepts of the Church and with obedience to our
superiors, and it is full of complete humility because the same divine Spirit is in
everything,” Letter No. 7, 99-107 from Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal

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We must conclude then that if a discernment of spirits is indeed a

way of determining a choice of a way of life (or of any important action
in the retreatant’s life) as being consonant with God’s will, the
subjective experience of consolation (whether with or without previous
cause) must include the objective criterion of the faith of the Church.
In the case of consolation without previous cause, if there is indeed any
intentional content by way of any thought or image that could be
interpreted as some sort of divine manifestation, that consolation would
at least have to conform with (or not contradict) the faith of the Church
for it to even be considered as coming from God, much less any
indication of the divine will. In both kinds of consolation, that
objective criterion can be none other than the person and life of Jesus
Christ as understood and believed by the faith community of the
Church. The retreatant must consult not simply his or her own
subjective experience of the spirit in making a choice of a way of life or
action, but also and finally this choice must at the very least be in
accord with the life of Christ as understood by the faith community. It
is for this reason that Ignatius begins his analysis of making a choice of
a way of life in the Sp Ex by setting the parameters of such a choice as
within the bounds of what is lawful within the Church (Sp Ex 170-174,
cf. 189) and concludes the Sp Ex with an appendix entitled: “Rules for
Thinking with the Church” (Sp Ex 352-370).

So what can we take away from this analysis of St. Ignatius’s

Rules for the Discernment of Spirits in our own choice of a way of life
or of some important action? If we want our choice to be right, that is,
in accord with God’s will (or at least not opposed to God’s will) for our

Writings, translation, introduction and notes by J. MUNITIZ – P. ENDEAN,

London 2004, 133-4.

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true end of praising, reverencing, and serving God, we must meet two
criteria, one subjective, the other objective. The subjective criterion is
the experience of spiritual consolation as described in the third rule of
the first week, the experience of the love of God leading to an increase
in faith, hope, and charity, and joy, peace, and quiet in God. If the
retreatant is sincerely seeking to find and do the will of God in making
a choice of a way of life, the experience of consolation (as the felt love
of God) surely must be a sine qua non for the rightness of any decision
made. Consolation could be understood as constituting a necessary
condition for knowing that one’s choice of life or action is consonant
with God’s will. Yet however necessary, the experience of consolation
cannot be a sufficient condition for knowing that one’s choice of life or
action is so consonant with the divine will. If the retreatant and his or
her director are to know whether the choice to be made is in accordance
with (or at least not opposed to) God’s will, that choice must conform
to the objective criterion of the life of Christ as believed in by the faith
community of the Church. If both these criteria are met, the retreatant
and retreat directors can be sure that that choice is consonant with
God’s will for His praise, reverence, and service.

However, as St. Ignatius never identifies God’s will with an

experience of spiritual consolation, these two criteria can be understood
only as offering necessary and sufficient conditions for knowing that
the contemplated choice is consonant with or at least not opposed to
God’s will. The actual discovery of God’s will for the retreatant in his
or her very particular choice of life or in a particularly significant
decision in his or her life will involve historical and personal particulars
which will ultimately require the exercise of his or her prudential
judgment. What can be said, though, is that whatever God’s will
actually is for the retreatant in any particular choice as this has been

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discerned by the retreatant, that choice will be consonant with God’s

will if it is chosen for the sake of following Christ as understood and
approved of in the faith community of the Church from an experience
of spiritual consolation in the love of God.

The retreatant can then be understood to be living well (as living

in conformity with God’s will) and to be knowing that he or she is
doing so (by experiencing the consoling love of God).

II
Laozi: Dao De Jing and the Need for Discernment in
the Sage’s Experience of Following the Dao

Recalling Ignatius’s understanding of the term “discernment” as

the act or process of recognizing or perceiving something otherwise
difficult or obscure by means of discriminating differences, we have
seen how in the Sp Ex a discernment of the action of spirits in the inner
experience of the retreatant was necessary to make a right choice of a
way of life or of some important action—a choice in accord with God’s
will. This discernment of spirits required the recognition of two criteria,
one subjective (the experience itself of the positive movements of soul
in spiritual consolation) and the objective criterion of the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ as understood by the faith community
of the Church. A spiritual, or religious faith discernment as found in
the Sp Ex requires the retreatant to recognize and fulfill these two
criteria if he or she is to live well and know that he or she is doing so in
a choice of life or action.

While Laozi’s DDJ is not a text written from a religious faith

perspective and not usually understood specifically as a guide for
decision-making, it can certainly be understood as a practical guide for

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the serious student to live well by meditating on the Dao (and by

joining with the sage in following the Dao in his or her life). In this
second section of my paper, however, I am going to argue the DDJ can
also be understood more specifically as a practical guide for decision-
making. The evidence for this in the text is found in certain verses
where the sage (and, by implication, the student of the Dao in
following the example of the sage) is presented as engaged in a
reflective process that can be understood as a moral philosophical
discernment of a choice of action. Moreover, this reflective process the
sage engages in arguably involves both a subjective and an objective
criterion if he is to really (rather than only apparently) follow the Dao
in that decision. This reflective process the sage engages in in making
a decision can be understood as analogous to the process of
discernment the retreatant engages in as described in the Sp Ex.
Despite the obvious difference between the Sp Ex as an explicitly
religious faith document and the DDJ as a more secular mystical or
philosophical work, I argue that the experiences of both the sage (and
by implication the student of the Dao) and the retreatant in these two
works are comparable enough that their comparison can be mutually
enlightening for appreciating both works as practical guides for their
practitioners by helping them make use of a reflective decision process
for the sake of their living well and knowing that they are doing so. To
do this however we must first note the profound similarities between
the Sp Ex and the DDJ.

The first remarkable similarity to be noted in the Sp Ex and the

DDJ is that both works are self-described not as a theoretical
investigation of the nature of their respective subjects but rather as
practical guides, that is, guides as to how to live in accord with a
special way. For St. Ignatius, of course, as a Christian, Jesus Christ is

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presumed to be the Way to God (cf. John 14:6) and the purpose of
making the Sp Ex is not to offer a theoretical reflection on that belief
but rather to discover God’s will in the important decisions the
retreatant as a Christian needs to conform to the life of Jesus Christ as
the Way in his or her life. For Laozi in the DDJ, the nature of the Dao
道 as the Way is examined but that examination is offered for the sake
of putting the Way into practice. Both works then can be understood as
presenting a practical ideal to be followed in action; a recognizable
way to live well.

Secondly, in both the Sp Ex and the DDJ great attention is paid to

the inner experience of the practitioner in following that Way. This
inner experience involves both positive and negative kinds of emotion
where the experience of the positive indicates the way is rightly being
followed, while the experience of negative kinds of emotion indicates
that the way is not being followed or at least that something is wrong.

But thirdly, and most importantly, as I shall presently attempt to

show, while the inner experience of positive feeling is a subjective
indication of rightly following the way for both the practitioner of the
Sp Ex and the DDJ, an objective criterion needs to be recognized and
conformed to if the practitioner is to know he or she is rightly following
the Way.

What is the textual evidence in the DDJ for these three claims?

First of all, as many commentators have noted, the DDJ has as its
practical concern the Dao as the Way to be lived. 12 The sage or

12
This of course is one possible interpretation of the DDJ. For some others, cf.
I. ROBINET, “The Diverse Interpretations of the Laozi” in M.
CSIKSZENTMIHALYI – P. IVANHOE, ed., Religious and Philosophical Aspects of
the Laozi (Albany: State University of New York, 1999), 127-159.

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enlightened person (sheng ren 聖人) is the one who follows the Way
by practising that Way. But following the Dao for the sage is not a
matter of following some practical maxim or abstract rule but is rather
an identification in some way with the Dao as the mysterious origin or
source (shi 始) of everything:

wu ming tian di zhi shi 無名天地之始 “nameless it is the

source of heaven and earth” (1).
Dao sheng yi; yi sheng er; er sheng san; san sheng wan wu 道
生一, 一生二, 二生三, 三生萬物 “The Way begets the one;
one begets two; two begets three; three begets the myriad
creatures” (42).13
dao ke dao fei chang dao ming ke ming fei chang ming 道可道,
非常道, 名可名, 非常名 “The Way that can be spoken of is not
the constant way; the name that can be named is not the
constant name” (1).

This mysterious nameless source of everything cannot be sensibly

perceived:
shi zhi bu jian ming yue yi ting zhi bu wen ming yue xi 視之不
見, 名曰夷, 聽之不聞, 名曰希 “searched for but unseen, its
name is without form; listened to but not heard, its name is
silence” (14).

Indeed, it is not a perceptible thing among things. Rather, as the

source of all things, the Dao transcends those things and can only be
referred to (in comparison with them), as “no thing”:14

13
English translation of the Chinese text: D.C. LAU, Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching
(New York: Penguin, 1976). I will use Lau’s translation throughout although I
will also rely in part on Philip Ivanhoe’s translation and commentary of the
DDJ in his The Daodejing of Laozi (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003).
14
Cf. M. CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, “Mysticism and Apophatic Discourse in the
Laozi,” in M. CSIKSZENTMIHALYI – P. IVANHOE, ed., Religious and
Philosophical Aspects (cf. nt. 10), 33-58.

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tian xia wan wu sheng yu you you sheng yu wu 天下萬物生於

有, 有生於無 “the myriad creatures in the world are born from
something, and something from nothing” (40).

The influence of the Dao is unique and supremely effective:

Dao chang wu wei er wu bu wei 道常無爲而無不爲 “the Way
never acts yet nothing is left undone” (37).

An influence that is beneficent, even provident:

fu wei dao shan dai qie cheng 夫唯道, 善貸且成 “it is the Way
alone that excels in bestowing and accomplishing” (41).

wan wu zuo yan er bu ci sheng er bu you wei er bu shi gong

cheng er fu ju 萬物作焉而不辭, 生而不有, 爲而不恃, 功成而
弗 居 “the myriad creatures arise from it yet it claims no
authority; it gives life yet claims no possession; it benefits them
yet exacts no gratitude, it accomplishes its tasks without
dwelling on them” (2, cf. 34, 51, 81).
tian zhi dao bu zheng er shan sheng bu yan er shan ying bu
zhao er zi lai chan ran er shan mou tian wang hui hui shu er bu
shi 天之道, 不爭而善勝, 不言而善應, 不召而自來, 繟然而善
謀 , 天 網 恢 恢 , 疏 而 不 失 “the Way of heaven excels in
overcoming though it does not contend, in responding though it
does not speak, in attracting though it does not summon, in
laying plans though it appears slack. The net of heaven is cast
wide. Though the mesh is not fine, yet nothing ever slips
through” (73).
tian dao wu qin chang yu shan ren 天道無親, 常與善人 “it is
the Way of heaven to show no favoritism. It is forever on the
side of the good man” (79).

The effect of the Dao’s benevolent influence is the ordered

harmony (he 和) of nature:

Dao sheng yi yi sheng er er sheng san san sheng wan wu wan

wu fu yin er bao yang chong qi yi wei he… 道生一, 一生二, 二
生三, 三生萬物, 萬物負陰而抱陽, 沖氣以爲和 “the Dao
produces the one. The one produces the two. The two produces

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the three. Three produces the ten thousand things. The ten
thousand things carry yin and embrace yang and by blending
their qi they attain harmony” (42).

But as the provident source of the harmony of all things, the Dao
presents itself as a practical reality to be freely followed or not and
many if not most prefer not to do so:

da Dao shen yi er min hao jing 大道甚夷, 而民好徑 “the great

way is easy, yet people prefer by-paths” (53).
Indeed, those who do follow the Dao in practice are few:
shang shi wen Dao qin er xing zhi zhong shi wen dao ruo cun
ruowang xia shi wen dao da xiaozhi bu xiao bu zu yi wei dao
上士聞道, 勤而行之, 中士聞道, 若存若亡, 下士聞道, 大笑之,
不笑不足以爲道 “when the best student hears about the Way,
he practices it assiduously; when the average student hears
about the Way, it seems to him one moment there and gone the
next; when the worst student hears about the way, he laughs out
loud. If he did not laugh, it would be unworthy of the way”
(41).
The sage on the other hand is the one who follows the Dao and in
doing so imitates the Dao:

Tian zhi Dao li er bu hai sheng ren zhi dao wei er bu zheng, 天
之道, 利而不害, 聖人之道, 爲而不爭 “the Way of heaven
benefits and does not harm; the Way of the sage is bountiful
and does not contend” (81).
For the sage to follow (cong 從) the Dao is to put the Dao into
practice (xing 行 41) by means of non-action (wu-wei 無爲) (37, 38, 43,
47, 48, 63, 64) with no words (bu yan 不言), thereby benefiting all
people, both good and bad (27, 49) without contending (bu zheng 不爭)
(66, 68) or exalting himself (72) or expecting recognition from others
(77). Moreover, should the sage be called to govern others, he will
imitate the Dao by effectively promoting peace and contentment among
the people (3, 80, cf. 57).

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The sage’s following the Dao is an inner experience of unity (yi

一) (22), harmony (he 和) (55, 56), peace, or stillness (jing 靜) (16, 31,
37), a pleasing state of consciousness which can be summed up by the
phrase “knowing sufficiency (or contentment)” (zhi zu 知足) (33, cf 44).
On the other hand, the experience of those who refuse to follow
the Dao, is described as troubled (luan 亂) (3) by inner confusion (huo
惑) (22), and discontent (bu zhi zu 不知足) in the desire to possess (yu
de 欲得), (46) what is difficult to obtain (nan de 難得) (12, 26).
Now to step back briefly here to consider the significance of these
verses for the purpose of this study, we might note that while the DDJ
may not be an explicitly religious work,15 the nature of the Dao in the
text is nevertheless described in recognizably religious terms. The Dao
is the fundamental reality which both causes and providentially cares
for all things, presenting itself as a way to be freely followed by
imitation. To this extent at least, the Dao and its relation to the sage
could be understood as analogous to the figure of Jesus Christ as the
Way in relation to the retreatant in the Sp Ex. For as the retreatant in
meditating on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ in the Sp Ex is
inspired to follow Christ in making a particular choice of life or action,
so the sage can be understood as meditating on the Dao in order to
imitate the Dao in his day-to-day life.
Further, in both the Sp Ex and the DDJ close attention is given to
the inner experience of their respective practitioners in following their
respective ways and the positive and negative feelings noted in doing
so seem to parallel one another. The sage’s experience of inner unity

15
Although cf., Jia, Jinhua, 2009. “Religious Origin of the terms Dao and De
and their signification in the Laozi,” The Royal Asiatic Society JRAS, Series 3,
19, 4.

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and harmony, for instance, appears analogous to the experience of

spiritual consolation in the Sp Ex and the experience of inner confusion
and discontent as described of one who does not follow the Dao
appears analogous to the experience of what Ignatius would call the
spiritual desolation of one who is tepid or negligent in his or her
spiritual exercises (cf. Sp Ex 322).
But if there is a striking analogy in the description of the inner
experience of the Daoist sage and the retreatant in the Sp Ex, there is
certainly one clear difference between them. In the Sp Ex the
experience of positive emotions in spiritual consolation in
contemplating a choice of life or action does not by itself indicate that
the choice the retreatant is considering is in accord with God’s will, for,
as we have seen, spiritual consolation can be either true (as caused by
God or good spirits) in leading the person according to God’s will or
false (as caused by the evil spirit) in leading the retreatant away from
God’s will. And, as we have noted previously, even true consolation
for Ignatius cannot in itself be identified as doing God’s will. This
ambiguity in the retreatant’s subjective experience of spiritual
consolation leads to the recognition that a spiritual discernment is
required which takes as its objective criterion the conformity of the
retreatant’s chosen life or action with the life and action of Christ as
understood by the normative faith of the Church. If the experience of
spiritual consolation is really an indication of divine approval in some
way, any choice of action must be in conformity with the objective
criterion of faith. But can a parallel for this need for an objective
criterion in the Sp Ex be found in the sage’s experience in the DDJ? For
the sage’s experience of inner peace in unity and harmony appears to
need no criterion outside the experience itself as indicating that he is
following the Dao. The sage, in other words, appears to need no

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reflective process, no type of discernment as to whether he is following

the Dao or not beyond the awareness of his own experience of the Dao.
In other words, for the sage to experience inner peace and harmony is
to be following the Dao.
If this is so, is there any evidence in the text of the DDJ to
suggest that there may be certain situations in which the sage may find
that his experience of inner peace and harmony would not in itself be
sufficient to determine if he were following the Dao? If there were any
such situations, the sage would then appear to need a criterion beyond
that of his habitual subjective experience of contentment and inner
harmony to discern if he were really (rather than only apparently)
following the Dao. In the following, I cite some verses in the DDJ that
suggest the sage does need such an objective criterion.
The first piece of textual evidence in this regard can be found in a
verse from chapter 31 where the sage is described as encountering
situation in which he must make a practical decision on how to respond
to situations of violence and war. In this verse, the sage first recognizes
that weapons and their use are not open to a follower of the Dao:

Fu jia bing zhe bu xiang zhi qi wu huo wu zhi gu you dao zhe
bu chu 夫佳兵者, 不祥之器物或惡之, 故有道者不處 “Fine
weapons are inauspicious, all find them repulsive and so one
who has the Way does not use them” (31).
Weapons are instruments of violence and as violence is contrary
to the nature of the Dao, the sage naturally does not use them. Yet the
following part of the verse suggests that at times the taking up of arms
is necessary and when this is so, arms must be taken up even if it means
killing human beings:

bu de yi er yong zhi tian dan wei shang sheng er bu mei er mei

zhi zhe shi le sha ren 不得已而用之, 恬淡爲上, 勝而不美, 而
美之者, 是樂殺人 “when one is compelled to use them [arms],

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it is best to do so without relish, for there is no glory in victory,

and to glorify it despite this is to exult in the killing of men”
(31).
When, or in which particular situation or situations would the
sage feel compelled to take up arms? The text here does not explain
and a similar question arises in a verse from chapter 30 where military
campaigns are criticized:

Shi zhi suo chu jing ji sheng yan da jun zhi hou bi you xiong
nian 師之所處，荊棘生焉。大軍之後，必有凶年 “where
troops have encamped there will brambles grow; in the wake of
a mighty army bad harvests follow without fail”.
Despite the moral problematic of a military campaign, the sage
may find himself in the midst of such a campaign where:

shan zhe guo er yi bu gan yi qu qiang guo er wu jin guo er wu

fa 善者果而已，不敢以取強，果而勿矜，果而勿伐 “one
who is good aims only at bringing a campaign to a conclusion
and dares not intimidate. One brings it to a conclusion but does
not boast” (30).
In these two verses, the sage appears to find himself faced with a
situation which would appear to challenge him in his commitment to
following the Dao. Presumably in such a situation the sage must
(somehow) respond as one who habitually follows the Dao. Verse 31
implies that the sage recognizes that the situation compels him to take
up arms. But surely such recognition on his part presupposes an
evaluation of the situation and a choice to take up arms. By what
criterion or criteria could the sage use to make such a choice? His
habitual experience of inner peace and harmony, or “knowing
contentment” by itself would seem to offer no rationale for choosing to
act in one way or another—or not to act at all. But these verses imply
that the sage does indeed choose to take up arms and that his choice is
in conformity with the Dao.

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In a verse from chapter 74 the sage appears to be called on to

make another decision, this time with regard to the administration of
punishment:

chang you si sha zhe sha fu dai si sha zhe sha shi wei dai da
jiang zhuo fu dai da jiang zhuo zhe xi you bu shang qi shou yi
常有司 殺者殺, 夫代司殺者殺, 是謂代大匠斲 夫代大匠斲者,
希有不傷其手矣 “there is a regular executioner whose charge
it is to kill. To kill on behalf of the executioner is what is
described as chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter.
In chopping wood on behalf of the master carpenter, there are
few who escape hurting their own hands instead”.
This passage has puzzled many commentators.16 Is the sage being
called on to decide whether human beings or God alone can kill, and if
the former, who is authorized to do the killing? Such a decision
presupposes having to make a choice of action between alternatives and
the passage implies that there is a right and a wrong way to respond.
As in verses taken from chapters 30 and 31 where the sage appeared to
be called on to make a decision to take up arms or not, this passage
describes another situation in which the sage must decide how to
respond. The verse clearly implies that in this situation there is a right
way to respond, that is, by refraining to kill on behalf of the executioner.
But to respond in this (the right way) rather than in the wrong way (or
ways) would (again) seem to require of the sage something more than
his habitual experience of inner peace and harmony, for to rely solely
on that inner experience of peace would appear to justify (or not) any or
no response at all!

Finally, in a verse from chapter 79 the sage appears to be

confronted with another difficult situation calling for evaluation of a

16
Cf. A. SABBADINI, ed., Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching: Una guida all’interpretazione
del libro fondamentale del taoismo, Milano 2017, 550-554.

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complicated situation and a decision to respond in one way rather than

another. In this chapter the sage is presented with a decision that
involves the administration of justice between parties so as to ensure
harmony between them:

He da yuan bi you yu yuan an ke yi wei shan shi yi sheng ren

zhi zuo qi er bu ze yu ren you de si qi wu de si che, 和大怨, 必
有餘怨, 安可以爲善, 是以聖人執左契, 而不責於人, 有德司
契, 無德司徹 “When peace is made between great enemies
some enmity is bound to remain un-dispelled. How can this be
considered perfect? Therefore the sage takes the left hand tally
but exacts no payment from the people. The man of virtue takes
charge of the tally; the man of no virtue takes charge of
exaction.”
Here the sage is (yet again) presented with an option: either to
take the left hand tally, the tally of the creditor who is owed exaction or
to take the right hand tally, the tally of the debtor who owes the
exaction. But if he would bring about harmonious reconciliation
between enemies, the sage sees that the left hand tally rather than the
right hand tally must be taken. He as creditor (to whom is owed the
exaction) has the rightful authority to exact or refrain from exacting
payment from the people as his debtors. He understands that the right
(as opposed to a wrong) way to respond to this situation is to take the
left hand tally as this will enable him to refrain from demanding
rightful exaction from the people as his debtors and so contribute to
reconciliation among the people. This decision of the sage to take the
left hand tally rather than the right for the sake of a harmonious
reconciliation would appear to require consideration of a criterion
beyond his own habitual inner peace in order to discern what the right
(vs. less good or even wrong) response would be.

If the sage is one who habitually acts in accord with the Dao, we
see from the above verses in the DDJ that there are situations where the

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sage seems to require some criterion beyond his own habitual peace
and inner harmony, if he is to respond in the right way—that is, a
response that is really in accord with the Dao. Does the DDJ provide
evidence of a criterion the sage can appeal to above and beyond his
own inner (subjective) experience to decide rightly rather than wrongly
in any given situation?

The textual evidence for such a criterion in the DDJ appears to be

the nature of the Dao itself.

Dao sheng yi yi sheng er er sheng san san sheng wan wu wan

wu fu yin er bao yang chong qi yi wei he 道生一, 一生二, 二生
三, 三生萬物, 萬物負陰而抱陽, 沖氣以爲和 “The way begets
the one; the one produces two; two produces three. Three
produces the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures shoulder
yin and embrace yang, and by blending these qi they attain
harmony”17 (42).
The Dao is the source of real order and harmony. Since the sage
wishes to follow the Dao in his life, the nature of the Dao as the source
of all and whose providential influence effects order and harmony in
nature should be normative for him in his evaluation of situations in
which he must decide to act and to act in one way or another. 18 And
since the Dao, by effecting the real order and harmony in nature effects
the order and harmony in human society, the sage in following the Dao
would act in accordance with the Dao so as to promote the real order

17
Here I use Ivanhoe’s translation of the line in The Daodejing of Laozi (cf. nt.
11), 45.
18
This practical maxim of the sage does not involve illicitly deriving an
“ought” from an “is” by deducing a practical conclusion from a theoretical
premise. Rather, by first desiring to follow the Dao as his good and practical
goal, the sage’s choice of action in conformity with that goal is a piece of
practical reasoning through and through, as cf. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,
1143a31-5.

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and harmony of nature and of his society. This arguably is the

objective criterion the sage needs in his choice of action in conformity
with the Dao.

Now in some verses of the DDJ the sage is called on to govern

the people by following the Dao in non-action:

Wo wu wei er min zi hua wo hao jing er min zi zheng wo wu shi

er min zi fu wo wu yu er min zi pu 我無爲而民自化, 我好靜而
民自正, 我無事而民自富, 我無欲而民自樸 (the sage says) “I
take no action and the people are transformed of themselves; I
prefer stillness and the people are rectified by themselves; I act
without busyness and yet the people will prosper by
themselves; I am free of desire and the people of themselves
become simple like the uncarved block” (57).
Sheng ren zhi zhi xu qi xin shi qi fu ruo qi zhi qiang qi gu chang
shi min wu zhi wu yu shi fu zhi zhe bu gan wei ye wei wu wei ze
wu bu zhi 聖人之治, 虛其心, 實其腹, 弱其志, 强其骨, 常使民
無 知 無 欲 , 使 夫 智 者 不 敢 爲 也 , 爲 無 爲 , 則 無 不 治 “in
governing the people the sage keeps them free of desire and
satisfies their needs, dampens their hearts and strengthens their
physique. Constantly keeps the people without cunning and
without desire, ensures that the clever never dare to act. In
taking no action, order prevails” (3).
The result of such non-action is to:
Sui you jia bing wu suo chen zhi shi ren fu jie sheng er yong zhi
gan qi shi mei qi fu an qi ju le qi su lin guo xiang wang ji quan
zhi sheng xiang wen min zhi lao si, bu xiang wang lai 雖有 甲
兵, 無所陳之, 使人復結繩而用之, 甘其食, 美其服, 安其居,
樂其俗, 隣國相望, 鷄犬之聲相聞, 民至老死不相往來
“ensure that even though the people have tools for war for a
troop or battalion they will not use them. Let the people return
to knotting cord and use them as well so that they find relish in
their food and beauty in their clothes, will be content in their
abode and happy in the way they live. Neighboring
communities may see each together, roosters and dog’s sounds
can mutually be heard, people reach old age and death, yet
without having gone to visit each other” (80).

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The Dao is supremely effective in ordering and harmonizing

states of affairs by this mysterious non-action. In these verses, the sage
in understanding the nature of the Dao follows by non-action, thereby
imitating the Dao as the source of universal natural harmony as well as
harmony within human society. In so doing (or not doing) the sage
apparently allows the people simply to be in well-being. Does this
mean that in situations of governance, the sage simply assumes a
quietist attitude by not acting at all thereby allowing the Dao to act (by
not acting) in allowing the people simply to be? A way of interpreting
the sage’s apparent quietism in governing the people that would be
consonant with our understanding of the necessity of the sage’s choice
of action in the previous verses would be to interpret the sage here as
choosing to act by not acting in conformity with his understanding the
nature of the Dao. On this interpretation, his is not an absolute
quietism here but a rightly reasoned response to a given situation.

What I am suggesting then is that the sage as the wise man

understands the nature of the Dao, and this knowledge of the nature of
the Dao as a providential source and provider of all things provides him
with an objective moral reason for responding in the morally right way
to each and every situation he finds himself in so that he would be
acting (or better not-acting) in imitation of the Dao. And since there is
a radical difference between order and disorder, harmony and
disharmony, right and wrong, the sage must respond to each situation,
as it were, mindfully with the knowledge of the nature of the Dao (and
the motivation to act as the Dao acts). His awareness of the nature and
(non) activity of the Dao, then gives the sage the objective criterion to
morally discern how to respond rightly (as in accordance with the Dao)
in any given situation. Sometimes, for instance, he will discern that
following the Dao will involve entering (or not entering) a military

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campaign, if so entering would promote (or not) an overall harmony in

nature and society (more so than another possible choice). Other times
he will be able to discern that following the non-action of the Dao in a
particular situation is rather to make a decision about whether, and if so,
who, is to administer what kind of punishment that will promote natural
and civic harmony.19 These decisions require that the sage (or those
who aspire to live like the sage) must rely not only on the subjective
criterion of an habitual inner experience of peace and harmony, but on
an evaluation of the given situation in the light of the objective criterion
of the Dao as the source and provider of peace and harmony. This
objective criterion as provided by the text of the DDJ will then have its
public criterion in whether or not the choice of the sage in each
situation actually does promote peace and harmony in nature and in his
community.

The sage, then, can be understood to be living well (as acting in

conformity with the nature of the Dao) and to be knowing that he is
doing so (in his experience of peace and contentment).

We may conclude then that as the retreatant in the Sp Ex must

discern and choose what life or what action is in real conformity with
Jesus Christ, so in an analogous way the sage in the DDJ makes a
moral discernment in choosing to live in conformity with the Dao in
each of the many and differing situations in which he finds himself.
And as the retreatant is able to know the rightness of a decision
according to a subjective criterion of spiritual consolation and the
objective criterion of the life of Jesus Christ according to Church
teaching, so the sage in making any decision to follow the Dao makes

19
Daoist non-activity cannot (righty) be understood as any form of quietism
unconcerned with, or in disregard of morality.

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use of a subjective criterion of inner peace and harmony (knowing

contentment), as well as a consideration of the nature of the Dao as
source and provider of harmony in nature and society—a harmony
which he must conform to and promote. If then the Sp Ex is understood
as a practical religious faith manual to help a person make the right
decision, that is, a decision in conformity with the life of Jesus Christ,
the DDJ can also be understood as a practical manual of reflective
moral reasoning in helping the student of the Dao follow the Dao in his
or her life. Both works in their own way help their practitioners live
well and know that they are doing so by providing a reflective
procedure in decision-making which requires following both a
subjective and an objective criterion. Of course this reflective
procedure differs as the one is rooted in religious faith while the other
is rooted in a particular philosophical or moral understanding of the
universe, but the criteria involved in such a process appear to be
remarkably analogous.

SUMMARY

Living well and knowing that one is doing so involve not only
making the right choices in life but knowing that those choices are right.
In this paper I have looked at both St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual
Exercises and Laozi’s Dao De Jing as different examples of practical
guides in making use of a reflective process which aids in the decision
to act rightly rather than wrongly in one’s choice of life or actions. I
have first examined the Spiritual Exercises as such a practical guide
and then examined the Dao De Jing as a practical guide in an
analogous way. I have argued that just as in the Spiritual Exercises,
living well and knowing one is doing so is to be combined in a choice

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of life or action which involves respecting the subjective criterion of

the experience of spiritual consolation with the objective criterion of
that life or action in a verifiable conformity with the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ in the faith understanding of the Church, so
in the Dao De Jing living well and knowing one is doing so is to be
combined in the choices of action of the sage (or anyone who wants to
be a sage), choices which in a comparable way involve a recognition
and fulfillment of two criteria: a subjective criterion of inner peace and
harmony in following the Dao and the objective criterion of those
choices promoting peace and harmony in nature and in the social
community.

So what can we take away from this interpretation of the Spiritual

Exercises and the Dao De Jing? We learn from the former that living
well and knowing one is doing so is living in conformity with God’s
will as manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ with
the inner experience of spiritual consolation while for the latter, living
well consists in following the Dao in the promotion of a publically
verifiable social harmony, and knowing that one is doing so is in the
experience of inner peace and contentment. And in both works we
learn that while the subjective experience of consolation or inner
contentment is a necessary condition for a right decision, this subjective
experience must involve an objective, or self-transcending criterion, a
criterion that is (at least in principle) open to a communal evaluation (in
the one case in the judgment of the Church, in the other, in a
communally recognized sense of social and natural harmony).

In summary, then, both the retreatant and the sage in the

important decisions in life as guided by their use respectively of the
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Dao De Jing of Laozi can be
understood to be living well and knowing that they are doing so.

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Jing as Practical Guides to Living Well and Knowing that You Are Doing So”

[摘要] 活得有德性，且知道自己是這樣生活，不僅涉及在生活中
做出正確的選擇，還要知道這些選擇是正確的。這需要辨別一個
人的感覺信念是否符合客觀的、可檢驗的自我超越標準。在這篇
文章中，我檢視了聖依納爵．羅耀拉的《神操》和老子的《道德
經》，作為世界著名的生活實踐指南，即如何認知活得好、有德
性。我認為，就像在《神操》中，活得有德性，並知道自己是這
樣做，涉及到主觀的神慰的體驗和客觀標準，即選擇的生活方式
或行為是否符合教會團體所理解的耶穌基督的生活。同樣，在
《道德經》中，活得有德性，並知道自己是如此生活，這要求聖
人不僅認識到他內心平靜與和諧的體驗是一個準則，而且符合真
實的（對比表面的）大自然的和諧，以及促進人類社會和諧的客
觀標準。我們從這兩部作品中了解到，如果我們要活得有德性，
並知道自己是這樣生活，我們需要的辨別不僅基於自我辯解（神
慰或內心的平靜與和諧）的經驗，而且也基於客觀或自我超越標
準。

關鍵詞：分辨，神慰，神枯，主觀及客觀標準

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Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for

Contemporary Women: A Feminist Perspective
Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory

Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang

Abstract: This article examines how to integrate the feminist perspective into
meeting the need of contemporary women when giving the Spiritual Exercises.
The paper outlines the necessity of adaptation for contemporary women,
structural sins on women, Self-in-Relation theory, and adaptation of the giving
of the Exercises based on a feminist perspective. It then articulates the
definition and characteristics of a self-in-relation, and moves to discuss the
dynamics of the Weeks of the Spiritual Exercises based on feminist spiritual
direction. More specifically, the dynamics are as follows: (1) The First Week is
about helping the retreatant to renew one’s self-in- relation with God. Through
the first and second meditations, one might explore his or her sin of a poor self-
image. Then from the third to the fifth meditations, the director might facilitate
the retreatant to experience God’s mercy—that is empathic empowerment
from God. (2) The Second Week aims at growing in mutual intersubjectivity.
The retreatant and Jesus Christ participate in one another’s life and eventually
establish mutual intersubjectivity between them. (3) The Third Week is a
moment when the retreatant shares mutual empathy in suffering. The
contemplation of the Passion serves as a means of developing empathic
interaction between the retreatant and Jesus Christ. (4) The Fourth Week
facilitates the retreatant to connect with Jesus Christ and share the view of the
risen Christ. Thus the retreatant could see the world in an enlarged vision to the
extent that one could find God in all things

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Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang “Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for Contemporary
Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

Keywords: feminism, Self-in-Relation theory, the Spiritual Exercises, spiritual

direction

Introduction: The Necessity of Adaptation for Contemporary Women

The flexibility and adaptability elaborated by Ignatius in Annotation 18

provide the foundation for considering adaptation for contemporary women in
giving the Spiritual Exercises. Because Annotations 18 to 20 manifest the
feature of adaptability of the Spiritual Exercises, the essential spirit of such
flexibility is to adapt to the need of the person. Hence, the adaptation could
encourage contemporary women to “take their own unique needs and desires
seriously” in making the Exercises.1

Based on this notion, the question that arises here is: how does a spiritual
companion (or spiritual director) adapt the Spiritual Exercises, which are
composed by a man in the sixteenth century, for contemporary women to be
transformed and to transcend themselves? If they are not adapted, some
contemporary givers of the Exercises such as Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert,
argue that for women, “The Spiritual Exercises present serious obstacles,
either in their content or the way they have been interpreted and presented.”2

The point is that the Spiritual Exercises were composed when the social
context and church situation were quite different from what they are today.

1
Katherine Dyckman, Mary Garvin, and Elizabeth Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises
Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women (New York: Paulist Press,
2001), 10.
2
Ibid., 3.

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Besides, Ignatius used imagery and language in a more masculine way to

articulate and expound some exercises. For example, in the Kingdom exercise
[92-108], he describes how a king calls for conquering the whole world and
every enemy. In Two Standards [137-148],3 he uses metaphors of commander
and battle. In Rules for Discernment [327], he talks about a military leader
setting up his camp and inspecting the enemy, and so on. Such “military” and
“masculine” content and language might be alienating, and hard for a
contemporary woman to resonate with. The images of “commanding”
“obedient submission,” “winning-losing,” and “fighting-fleeing” do not cohere
with the aspirations and perspective of many women in contemporary culture.

To put it further, the more masculine image and language manifest

tension between being powerful and being powerless and assume that men
gain more power than women due to social and economic status. Exercising
power on the one hand and becoming dominated on the other hand make the
tension grow even higher. Pierre Bourdieu notes, “If women, subjected to a
labor of socialization which tends to diminish and deny them, learn the
negative virtues of self-denial, resignation, and silence, men are also prisoners,
and insidiously victims, of the dominant representation.”4 Since domination
results in valuing someone and devaluing others, it is harmful to both men and
women. In this sense, an adaptation of the Exercises to be more androgynous
(suitable to or for either sex) might help to reduce the tension and make it
easier for the retreatant to resonate with.

There are, of course, some other images in the Exercises that manifest
the closeness, friendship, love and fragility of God, which are easier for the
retreatant to understand. For instance, the colloquy of the First Week reads,

3
The number in square brackets in this article refers to the paragraph number in the
Spiritual Exercises.
4
Pierre Bourdieu, Masculine Domination, trans. Richard Nice (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2001), 49.

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Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang “Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for Contemporary
Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

“speaking as one friend speaks with another” [54]; in the Third Week “how the
divine nature goes into hiding” [196]; and in the Contemplation to Attain Love,
“love consists in mutual communication” [230]. These images are greatly
valued in modern theology, particularly in feminist theology.5 The reason is
that mutual communication, empathy, and identification with fragility make
more sense based on women’s self-knowledge and the way they relate to
others.

It is not possible here fully to debate the disputed question of masculine

language and female language in spiritual direction; these issues include a
universal biological factor and cultural diversity as well. Hence this essay will
focus more on exploring women’s experience and emphasizing that the
spiritual companion needs sensitivity and flexibility in attending to the inner
experience of the female retreatant when giving the Exercises. The spiritual
companion has the responsibility to accompany a retreatant to understand each
exercise, to be able to resonate with the grace asked for, and engage in an
intimate colloquy before the end of each prayer. Thus the retreatant’s
experience might be interwoven into the dynamic of each Week to achieve the
goal of the Exercises—the rebirth of a new self in a renewed relationship.

A Broader Perspective: Structural Sin Imposed on Women

Kathleen Fisher points out, “It is clear that spiritual friendship will not
meet the needs of women unless it reflects an awareness of the cultural and
religious situation in which women find themselves, and an acknowledgment
of the harmful effects of the sexist society in which we live.”6 It is obvious that

5
Nerea Alzola, “Women helping to give the Spiritual Exercises,” The Way 49, no. 1
(January 2010): 52.
6
Kathleen Fisher, Women at the Well: Feminist Perspectives on Spiritual Direction
(New York: Paulist Press: 1940), 5.

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the social and cultural value system has a major influence on people’s life.
Demaris Wehr highlights sexism as one of the factors that impact human life.
She notes, “sexism consists of limiting beliefs about the “nature” of women
and men…women are the ones who stand outside of the definition of the fully
human…Women find many difficulties in claiming adult status, responsibility,
and authority.” 7 That is, sexism is damaging to both genders, but it is
particularly wounding to women in terms of how women should live their life.

Most people are not aware that sexism is a “lens” through which they
see the world and thus make sexism a structural sin in human society. God
creates humans as a whole person, yet the worldview of sexism distorts
humanity and brings about unequal status and oppression both on men and
women. Women’s sense of self is easily damaged to the extent that the self is
treated as an object, not normative, and even not fully adult. Therefore
Kathleen Fisher notes,

Perhaps what women need to die to is the false system imposed on

them by patriarchy…dying to this false self would prepare for the
birth of their true selves. Men, on the other hand, may need to die to a
self—experienced as separate and distinct from others, and be reborn
into relationality.8

In this sense, it is important to analyze the social situation to help

women “differentiate between internal and external sources of conflict.”9 For
instance, the spiritual companion should begin with the woman retreatant’s
experience, encourage her to rely on her own experience, not on what

7
Demaris Wehr, Jung and Feminism (London: Routledge, 1988), 15.
8
Fisher, Women at the Well, 117.
9
Fisher, Women at the Well, 17.

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Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

someone from the ruling group tells her what her experience should be. Marie-
Eloise Rosenblatt gives an example of this: “Human sinfulness, taking the
form of physical violation of women, is a pervasive expression of sexist
behavior with long-term and depressive effects on women's spirits.” 10
Different forms of violence against women are truly human sinfulness, namely
the violation of connections among oneself, God, and others.

Although feminist psychology highlights women's experience of self-

knowledge, it also challenges various genders to recognize problematic
workings in different cultures and socio-economic dynamics, especially the
widespread ideas of patriarchy and its injustice. Ignatius wrote in Annotation 1:
“every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered
tendencies…to seek and find the divine Will…is called a Spiritual Exercise.”
One might say a retreatant who has benefited from the Exercises might be
willing to advocate social justice thus enhancing the dignity of all humans.
This is the value of making the Exercises.

Feminist Psychology: Self-in-Relation Theory

Definition of Self: A Being- in-Relationship

John Calvin asserts that without the knowledge of self, there is no

knowledge of God, and without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of
self. 11 That is, self-knowledge and knowledge of God are a mutual
enhancement in our journey of seeking and union with God. If the self-
knowledge of a person increases, he or she might have a better understanding

10
Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt, “Women and the Exercises: Sin, Standards, and New
Testament Texts,” The Way Supplement 70 (Spring 1991): 20.
11
John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian
Classics Ethereal Library, 2002), 30.

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of God and build a closer and healthier relationship with him as well.
Therefore, how a woman’s self grows and relates to others influence her faith
journey. Feminist theorists from the Stone Center at the Wellesley College in
America12 assert the development of a woman’s self is a “self-in-relation,”
instead of “separation-individuation” proposed by Erik Erikson,13 which is a
more masculine view. Self-in-Relation Theory offers meaningful insights in
understanding a woman’s self- development. They assert that a woman’s self
grows in a mutual, reciprocal attachment.

One question arises here: what is self after all? Judith Jordan defines it as
a construct that refers to “the organization of a person’s experience and
construction of reality that illuminates the purpose and directionality of her or
his behavior.”14 One might say that a self is the central consciousness of one’s
being that is aware of and constructs his or her own reality. Moreover, how a
person perceives and experiences the reality have an impact on his or her way
of living almost beginning from the stage of an infant. When a girl infant’s self
develops, it tends to be a being-in-relationship,15 which means she feels what
is going on in her mother as well as what is going on in herself. That is,
attending to each other’s mental states and emotions is a woman’s nature in
terms of the development of her sense of consciousness.

This “being-in-relation” is the base of all continuing psychological

growth. The essential concept is what Jean Baker Miller observes: a woman’s

12
Judith V. Jordan et al., Women’s Growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone
Center (New York: Guilford Press, 1991).
13
Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: W.W. Norton, 1950).
14
Jean Baker Miller, “The Development of Women’s Sense of Self,” in Women’s
Growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone Center (New York: The Guilford Press,
1991), 15.
15
Ibid., 13.

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Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

growth “occurs within emotional connections, not separate from them.” 16

Miller also notes, “women’s sense of self becomes very much organized
around being able to make, and then to maintain, affiliations and relationships,”
and that “eventually, for many women, the threat of disruption of an affiliation
is perceived not just as a loss of a relationship but as something closer to a total
loss of self.”17

Further, feeling more related to another person means one’s self is

enhanced, not threatened. In general, a woman does not feel threatened in
connection but utilizes the opportunity to organize and develop the self in the
context of an important relationship. That is, relationship is the basic goal of
development; a woman’s self aims at deepening her capacity for building and
maintaining relationship.

In this sense, self-in-relation theory has profound importance in

explaining a woman’s development of a sense of self. In Janet Surrey’s words,
“The notion of the self-in-relation involves an important shift in emphasis from
separation to relationship as the basis for self-experience and development.”18
Surrey also asserts that self-in-relation theory serves to explain “the complex
needs of women and the role of relationships in their development and
functioning.”19 Hence, women grow in many facets and develop toward a
more connected relationship, which becomes a base for their life.

16
Surrey, “The Self-in-Relation: A Theory of Women’s Development,” in Women’s
Growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone Center (New York: The Guilford Press,
1991), 52.
17
Jean Baker Miller, Toward a New Psychology of Women (Boston: Beacon Press,
1976), 83.
18
Surrey, “The Self-in-Relation,” 53.
19
Melinda Pilkinton, “Self-in-Relation Theory: A Model for Helping,” Perspectives, 5,
no. 1 (2007), 30.

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Characteristics of a Self-in-Relation
Mutual Empathy and Intersubjectivity
Based on the definition of self, a being-in-relation, one might say that
the human psyche is fundamentally relational in nature. That is, humans are
relational beings and most cannot survive in isolation. Here another question
arises: What is the feature of relationship? First of all, in Janet Surrey’s
definition, relationship involves an experience of mutual empathy, which
refers to the “ability for relatedness, emotional closeness, and emotional
flexibility.”20 When a woman could experience, comprehend, and respond to
the inner state of another person, she has developed the ability to be empathic.

Further, accurate empathy involves “a balancing of affective arousal and

cognitive structuring.”21 In this sense, a woman could empathize with the other
person, while receiving the other’s response based on affection-cognition
balancing. In short, relationship means “an experience of emotional and
cognitive intersubjectivity: the ongoing, intrinsic inner awareness and
responsiveness to the continuous existence of the other or others and the
expectation of mutuality in this regard.”22 This authentic relationship embodies
an I-Thou relation described by Martin Buber,23 and is exactly how Jesus
Christ interacts with people who encounter him. That is, authentic relationship
is central for all humans across cultures and gender issues.

The third question is: Why is relationship so important to women? What

role does relationship play in a woman’s life span? According to Heidi
Fishman’s quotation, Jean Baker Miller emphasizes that relationships are
central to women’s development because women’s sense of self is organized

20
Surrey, “The Self-in-Relation,” 53.
21
Surrey, “The Self-in-Relation,” 54.
22
Surrey, “The Self-in-Relation,” 61.
23
Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Ronald Gregor Smith (New York: Scribner, 2000), 6.

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Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

around their ability to make and to maintain affiliation and relationships.

Women’s whole sense of self depends on a process of continuity of emotional-
cognitive dialogue, thus forming a process of mutual relational interaction. To
put it another way, the “caring for and being cared for” in a mutual way is the
key factor in women’s self-esteem.24 Hence, women’s growth and maturation
are “virtually impossible without relating to others and to self.”25 That is, a
woman’s self develops and nurtures within the context of an important
relationship.

Furthermore, not only external relationships are important for women,

but also internal relationships. On the one hand, internal relationships are those
that occur inside a woman’s psyche, such as fantasies, images, and memories.
On the other hand, external relationships are real interactions with other people
in the world.26 In this way, internal relationships and external relationships are
interwoven in a woman’s psyche, forming an interacting self. Besides, Jean
Baker Miller asserts that the interacting sense of self includes “feeling the
other’s emotions and acting on them as they interplay with one’s own
emotions.”27 That is, a woman would relate to, even engage with others’ inner
state, while allowing the other’s inner state to have an impact on her own. Thus
both or all people involved in the relationship might “be encouraged and
challenged to maintain connection and to foster, adapt to, and change with the
growth of the other.”28

24
Heidi Fishman, “Exploring the Self-in-Relation Theory: Women’s Idealized
Relationship-of-Choice and Psychological Health,” Dissertations (1992), 6.
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid., 7.
27
Miller, “The Development of Women’s Sense of Self,” 14.
28
Surrey, “The Self-in-Relation,” 60.

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Mutual Empowerment

Most women build connections through dialogue to empower each

other. In conversation, women tend to convey messages and aim at
understanding and to be understood by each other. Through dialogue, they try
to “remain real, vital, purposeful, and honest in relationship.” 29 Ideally,
relationship-authenticity serves as a motivation for most women to create
mutually an empowerment context within which maturity could occur and
continue. As Carol Gilligan’s research demonstrates, interdependence can
create strength, build resources, and motivate giving in the mature feminine
style. 30 Through interdependence, dignity is enhanced and maturity might
grow.

Heidi Fishman quotes from Janet Surrey and summarizes a relational

self as follows:

(1) It is an interest in, and attention to, the other person(s) which form
the base for the emotional connection and the ability to empathize with the
other; (2) the expectation of a mutual empathic process where the sharing of
experience leads to a heightened development of self and other; and (3) the
expectation of interaction and relationship as a process of mutual sensitivity
and mutual responsibility which provides the stimulus for the growth of
empowerment and self-knowledge.31

These three important concepts highlight mutual engagement, mutual

empathy, and mutual empowerment as well. They are significant features of
relationship for women, as Kathleen Fisher notes, “disruption of such

29
Surrey, “Relationship and Empowerment,” in Women’s Growth in Connection:
Writing from the Stone Center (New York: The Guilford Press: 1991), 162-180.
30
Joann Wolski Conn, Women’s Spirituality: Resources for Christian Development.
(New York: Paulist Press, 1996), 19.
31
Fishman, “Exploring the Self-in-Relation Theory,” 29.

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Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang “Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for Contemporary
Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

relationship is perceived not just as the loss of the relationship, but closer to a
total loss of the self.”32

In brief, feminism is a vision of life emphasizing inclusion rather than

exclusion, connectedness rather than separateness, and mutuality in
relationships rather than dominance and submission. Lying at the heart of
dominance is the way by which people exercise power. One can hand his
power over to others or receive it from others. When one participates in a
power structure, he or she is to acquiesce to it to a certain degree and so to
hand over personal power.33 Thus power is actually organized by the relational
webs of which one is a part. In the feminist view, mutuality means mutual
empowerment for all who engage in relationships, thus to connect one another
and foster development of self-in-relation.

Adapting the Exercises based on Feminist Spiritual

Direction
Based on the core concept of feminist psychology, there would be
appropriate adaptation that needs to be considered in giving the Exercises. The
following sections will explore how to adapt the main exercises in each Week
based on these theories.

The First Week: Renew Women’s Self-in-Relation with God

The following sections discuss how the meditations in the First Week
renew the retreatant’s self in regards to relating and maintaining the
relationship with God. The spiritual companion should be aware of how the
distortion of the biblical revelation of God as a male being prevents a woman

32
Fisher, Women at the Well, 118.
33
Jamie Calder, The Mission of Jesus Christ: The Kingdom of Kingship and Belonging,
page 7. Class resource.

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from “valuing and affirming herself as authentically an image of God.”34 The

fruit of the First Week should be the restoring of self-image and God-image,
and the experience of one’s self as a beloved sinner.

Principle and Foundation: Respond to and Interact with God

“The human person is created to praise, reverence and serve God our
Lord, and by so doing to save his or her soul [23].” Ignatius himself makes
clear that humans’ life is to respond to God’s love; to put it in another way,
God’s incarnation embodies the divine self that relates to humans, and we need
to respond to God continually to keep this relationship fresh and energetic.

This principle serves as a foundation for evaluation and discernment of

our relationship with other creatures, as Ignatius expounds, “One must use
other created things in so far as they help towards one’s end, and free oneself
from them in so far as they are obstacles to one’s end [23].” Therefore, a
person’s self exists, identifies and energizes in connection to God and all
creatures. Ignatius pinpoints the self that needs to grow in the context of
responding to God, namely to praise, reverence, and serve him.

In Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert’s view, a feminist spiritual companion

should help a retreatant in the exercise of Principle and Foundation to be aware
of God’s creation and presence within the mystery of one’s self. The idea is
that a woman who pays more attention to her self might be the prelude to
paying more attention to God. Based on the notion of self-in-relation, the key
idea here is to relate a woman’s self to God, as well as to emphasize her self-
identity before God, thus to facilitate her self-awareness and benefit from the
exercise more greatly.

34
Conn, Women’s Spirituality,14.

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Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang “Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for Contemporary
Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

Further, in this exercise, Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert highlight the

importance for the spiritual companion to see the woman retreatant’s
personality and be aware of her experience within her worldview. The spiritual
companion might ask questions like: How do you relate to other people and
God’s creation? How do you sense your role in cooperation with God’s
creation? These questions could help the retreatant to deepen one’s
consideration of the Principle and Foundation through bringing one’s own
worldview. In this sense, a woman’s experience of her world and her relation
with others would be considered thoughtfully, thus she might increase the
awareness of her sense of self-in-relation to all creatures.

Another point in this exercise is about the desire for indifference.

Regarding indifference in Principle and Foundation, Dyckman, Garvin, and
Liebert argue, “Women cannot act with indifference in any positive sense until
they have identified their desires and passions.”35 The companion might help
the retreatant to list her desires and passions by discerning between “ought to
seek and ought not to seek,” and it is quite possible the list might embody
cultural myths on gender, including beauty, body shape, dependency, and so
on. Then the retreatant might reflect on whether or not these issues form a false
self- image in her.

John Veltri points out the main theme of indifference is about being
spiritually free. He emphasizes the importance of “understanding the concept
of spiritual freedom” and “awareness of an area in his life where he needs to
grow in freedom.”36 The woman retreatant might ruminate over the Principle
and Foundation first, then ask for the grace of seeing herself in front of God,
being aware of some areas in her life that need to grow in freedom. If it is

35
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 102.
36
John Veltri, Orientations, For Those Who Accompany Others on the Inward Journey
(Toronto: Guelph Center of Spirituality), chapter 5, 1.

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helpful, she could write in her own words about the purpose of her life, the
self-identification among various relationships and spiritual freedom she
pursues, thus constituting her own principle and foundation of life.

In this broader sense, a woman’s relational self could not be disengaged

from interaction with significant others, particularly with God. If the mutual
interaction has been cut off, a woman’s self would be distorted and would
wither, thus she would lose her sense of self. In this case, this distorted self-
image would influence her image of God, causing a disconnection between
her and God; it is possible that sinfulness has been generated exactly when the
relationship has been twisted or even cut off.

Furthermore, both women and men will pass through developmental

phases, which involve a certain kind of balancing between differentiation and
integration, between autonomy and inclusion. As Maureen Aggeler points out:
“Both will have and identify ‘inordinate attachments’ along the way and both
will exhibit defenses typical of those stages.”37 She asserts that the necessity of
freedom from “inordinate attachments” is a key element of discernment.38 It is
exactly the grace of Principle and Foundation that will lead women and men to
identify inordinate attachments, and to renew the purpose of life.

The First and Second Meditation: the Sin of a Poor Self-Image

In a patriarchal society, people consider God as a male ruler and “sin is
to be understood as rebellious behavior against divine sovereignty.”39 Such
insubordination is unforgivable and the only way to be restored to divine favor
is through divine mercy or forgiveness. However, Lavinia Byrne notes,

37
Maureen Aggeler, “Women’s Metaphors for Freedom,” The Way Supplement, 74
(1992): 22.
38
Ibid., 20.
39
Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Feminist Critique and Re-visioning of God-Language,”
The Way 27, no. 2 (1987): 134.

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Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang “Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for Contemporary
Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

“Women sin by having a poor self-image, men through pride.”40 That is, a
woman’s sin focuses not so much on pride and self-assertion, but rather on the
sin of self-doubt, timidity, powerlessness, and even of being a self-hater. The
self-hater might lack self-actualization, focus, and ambition, exhibiting too
much self-abnegation. Kathleen Fisher notes, “A basic tenet of feminist
spirituality is the conviction that women have been socialized to discount their
feelings and responses.”41 Similarly, Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt argues, “It may
be said that typically women's experience of original sin today is not pride in
an honorable lineage or an over-blown sense of self-worth, but shame and self-
denigration.”42 In many cultures, women are led to believe they are virtuous
“when actually they have not yet taken the necessary possession of their lives
to have an authentic ‘self’ to give in self-donating love.”43 That is to say, the
culture of poor self-image can operate as an inner voice or inner figure for a
woman, so as to form an obstacle to a healthy self-image.

Therefore, the dynamic of the First Week is “the need for a strong and
loving sense of self before God and others.”44 This transforming of self-image
is exactly at the heart of conversion and this conversion might transform the
culture of a poor self-image. But how does this happen? Demaris Wehr puts it
well: “It is possible that if the woman changes her inner image, by dialoguing
with it, befriending it, or in some cases exorcising it, the person’s behavior will
change.” 45 Therefore, instead of exploring instances of pride, a feminist
spiritual companion “might encourage a woman to take on roles of

40
Lavinia Byrne, “Women and the Second Week.” The Way Supplement, 74 (1992): 34.
41
Fisher, Women at the Well, 8.
42
Rosenblatt, “Women and the Exercises,” 20.
43
Conn, Women’s Spirituality, 12.
44
Dorothy Lee-Pollard, “Feminism and Spirituality: The Role of the Bible in Women’s
Spirituality,” The Way, 32, no. 1 (1992): 27.
45
Demaris Wehr, Jung and Feminism, 21.

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responsibility and decision-making.”46 Feminist spiritual direction can help

women to stop blaming themselves, and learn instead to restructure their
beliefs about themselves.

In Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert’s view, sin for women is a relational

concept rather than disobedience to laws. Sin is more like the lack of self-voice
and absence of authentic relationship, not transgressions of rules. Hence in the
light of God’s divine love and mercy, a woman could be aware of her sin in
terms of relationships with self, other creatures, and God.

The Third to the Fifth Meditation: God’s Mercy—an Empathic Empowerment

In the second meditation, Ignatius invites the retreatant to conclude with
a colloquy about mercy. “All my thoughts will be about mercy and I will thank
God for giving me life up till now [61].” The retreatant is enlightened with
“Exclamation of wonder, with intense feelings, as I reflect on the whole range
of created beings, however have they let me live and kept me alive! [60]” This
dynamic of conversion lasts to the third, fourth, and the fifth meditation, God‘s
mercy lies there for the retreatant. God does not put humans into hell; instead,
he has an empathic action to feel the retreatant’s feelings, to tolerate one’s
choice of moving away against him, and still keeps one alive. Katherine
Dyckman and Patrick Carroll assert if one has not tasted or seen or felt the love
of God and others, one cannot recognize and acknowledge sin because “sin,
infidelity, is correlative to love.” 47 That is, God’s mercy elicits one’s
conversion.

In the third and fourth exercise, God’s empathic mercy empowers one to
“feel an interior knowledge of my sins…a sense of the disorder in my

46
Annice Callahan, “Some Women’s Perspectives on the Ministry of Spiritual
Direction,” The Way Supplement 91 (1998): 89.
47
Katherine M. Dyckman and L. Patrick Carroll, Inviting the Mystic, Supporting the
Prophet: An Introduction to Spiritual Direction (New York: Paulist Press, 1981), 9.

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actions…so that out of abhorrence for it I may put away from myself worldly
and aimless things [63].” The retreatant has been empowered and encouraged
now to move toward God and re-connect to him. In other words, the
retreatant’s self is energized and activated through being in relation with God
again. One has been empowered to live out his or her self-in-relation.

The first and second meditation in the First Week leads the retreatant to
meditate on the first sin, which was that of the angels’ sin, to the sin of Adam
and Eve, then to the sin of any particular individual who has gone to hell, all
the way to the record of one’s own sin [50-56]. This funnel-shape of
meditation opens the retreatant’s view and enhances one’s awareness of sins
from a universal level to a personal level. In this sense, the retreatant might be
aware of the whole picture of structural sin, particularly the hidden oppression
upon women.

Considering sins from a feminist perspective, the spiritual companion

needs to help the retreatant to enhance self-empathy. Self-empathy suggests
that one focuses on some experiences in a new, empathic manner.48 On the one
hand, a self-empathic manner could decrease self-blame and guilt-feeling. On
the other hand, it increases the ability to see herself from God’s sight. In this
broader sense, facing and admitting one’s sin leads the retreatant along the way
to where God’s mercy is.

The Second Week: Growth in Intersubjectivity

In the Second Week, the retreatant asks to better know and love Jesus of
Nazareth. This grace helps the retreatant to contemplate Jesus’ hidden life as
well as public life. In the contemplation, the retreatant maintains interaction
with Jesus Christ through imaginary prayer in contemplation, in which not

48
Judith V. Jordan, “Empathy, Mutuality, and Therapeutic Change: Clinical
Implications of a Relational Model,” in Women’s growth in Connection: Writing from
the Stone Center, 286.

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only does the retreatant enter into Jesus’ life, but she also invites Jesus to be
involved in her life span. In this sense, the retreatant and Jesus Christ
participate in one another’s life, encounter each other in significant life events
respectively, and eventually establish mutual intersubjectivity between them.

The Kingdoms: Commitment to a Relationship to Change the world

Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert emphasize that the grace of the Second
Week is a deepening relationship with Jesus that offers new ways of knowing,
loving and following. They argue that “beneath the image of the King and
Kingdom lies the truth of commitment, single-heartedness, sacrifice, and
freedom.” 49 However, the language of monarchy seems repugnant to
contemporary women because this parable emphasizes God as a male
conqueror. A woman retreatant might reject being in a relationship with a
powerful male in a hierarchical and impersonal system. Hence they suggest
reconstructing this context as if “one recalled a person who unleashed one’s
admiration and loyalty in a relationship that elicited personal greatness.”50 This
relationship evokes a great desire-sharing vision, which could be understood as
a commitment to a relationship and as the necessary disposition for entering
the kingdom of peace and justice.

Jean Baker Miller notes that power is “the capacity to move or to

produce change.”51 In this sense, power is not defined as “domination, control,
or mastery, implying power over.”52 This shift in the definition of power leads
us to reconsider the focus of the Kingdom. For women, the essence of this
exercise is not about “conquer[ing] all the land of the infidels” [93], namely

49
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 190.
50
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 193.
51
Miller, “Women and Power,” 198.
52
Surrey, “Relationship and Empowerment,” 162.

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winning over others, but about producing change according to a desire to

follow Christ and change this world.

Furthermore, meditating on the Kingdom helps the woman retreatant to

be empowered by Christ, who asserts “they will afterwards share with me in
the victory, as they have shared with me in the labours [94].” The mutuality of
sharing in the Kingdom empowers women to be alert to Christ’s call and to be
firm in following him.

Rules for Discernment: Dancing in Mutual Harmony

In writing rules for discernment, Ignatius helps the retreatant to be more

aware of the way one dances with the good spirit or evil spirit. Dyckman,
Garvin, and Liebert offer a psychological perspective in understanding the
movement of dancing with a good or evil spirit. They assert that the spirits are
intrapsychic rather than external.53 Timothy Gallagher also explains, “Besides
Satan and demons, [evil spirit] includes the tendency in our psyches which
spring from egoism and disordered sensuality and also from other individual
human persons or society insofar as these are an influence for evil in our
lives.”54 Luigi Rulla also notes, “The ‘spirits’ to be discerned are understood
not in the preternatural sense of demons and angels, but in the sense of the
dispositions of the individual person.”55 That is, being aware of one’s inner
movement is helpful to discern whether one is moving toward God or away
from God. In the feminist view, the inner movement represents mutuality in
terms of how one responds to Jesus’ call. It is God who initiates an invitation

53
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 251.
54
Timothy M. Gallagher, The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday
Living (New York: Crossroad, 2005）33.
55
Luigi M. Rulla, “The Discernment of Spirits and Christian Anthropology,” 2, Class
resource.

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to dance with him, and the inner movement in one’s psyche shows harmony or
discord with his music.

Through prayer and reflection on the inner movement, a woman

retreatant discerns the living truth about her self, thus maintaining her integrity
and her own authority.56 If not, when a woman’s self-doubt colludes with
Satan, it makes the enemy of human nature [334] stronger. In contrast, when
consciousness dances with angels and the Holy Spirit, it makes the good spirit
increasingly powerful.

Michael Ivens argues that movements of the soul refer to “the

interactions of feelings, thoughts … imagination, impulses of attraction and
57
recoil, which occur spontaneously in consciousness.” The spiritual
companion should help the woman retreatant to be aware of what Timothy
Gallagher expounds as three key elements of discernment: be aware,
understand, and take action.58 That is, the movements of the psyche are not just
focused on the feelings themselves but on the direction to which these feelings
lead. In other words, what matters is not only where a person is, but whether
their direction to God is forwards or backwards.59

In this sense, the spiritual companion needs to be aware of consolation

and desolation in terms of three components: the feeling itself, the source of
that feeling, and the consequences of that feeling on one’s life and decisions.
Antonio Guillén writes, “discernment is not a technique, but a constant call to
search for God.”60 Elizabeth Liebert also emphasizes, “ideally, discernment
becomes an entire way of life, beyond simply a process for making a single

56
Lee-Pollard, Feminism and Spirituality, 30.
57
Michael Ivens, Understanding The Spiritual Exercises (Herefordshire: Gracewing,
1998), 210.
58
Gallagher, The Discernment of Spirits, 16-17.
59
Ivens, Understanding The Spiritual Exercises, 211.
60
Antonio Guillén, “Deceptions in Discernment,” The Way 49, no. 3 (2010): 92.

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decision.” 61 Therefore, at this stage, the woman retreatant has learned how to
listen to God’s music, to move toward him, and to dance with him in mutual
harmony.

Two Standards: Identifying with Jesus’ Value System

Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert argue that language referring to poverty,
reproaches, and humility in Two Standards are not easy for contemporary
women to resonate with, especially for those who are oppressed. One reason
might be that humility implies submission to an authoritative figure, and this
seems to be in conflict with finding a voice and asserting oneself.
Consequently, Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert stress a different aspect of
humility for women. They suggest insult and contempt are not imposed by
culture, class or economic situation, but “(arise) from freely identifying with
the poor out of love for Christ.”62 Hence for women, the essence of Two
Standards is not about victory or conquering enemies; rather, it is about
identification with a value system, which invests energy in empowering the
oppressed. The standard of Christ will lead one toward imitation of Jesus
Christ’s self-emptying, namely living in poverty, insult and contempt, which
resonate with most women’s need to be empowered.

Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt writes, “From a woman's perspective, the

imaginative picture of two leaders, evoking the world-view of a Christian
crusader, rests on a dichotomous split between a world dominated by the force
of good, and that dominated by evil.” 63 The dichotomy deepens one’s
awareness of inner movement and serves as a reference point for choosing the
beloved’s value system.

61
Elizabeth Liebert, “Discernment for Our Times,” Studies in Spirituality V18 (2008):
13.
62
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 198.
63
Rosenblatt, “Women and the Exercises,” 22.

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Based on this notion, Rosenblatt asserts that “Emphasis then would fall
less upon a leader's triumph over an enemy than upon the performance of
those acts which truly liberate the oppressed, the acts of Jesus which express
determined and courageous care for those suffering injustice.”64 Because a
woman’s psychological orientation is for total commitment in love and
relationship, the conquest is replaced by the love of a woman for her beloved.
In this sense, the spiritual companion might utilize the image of “bride of
Christ” (John 3:29; Revelation 19:7) to enhance the retreatant’s identity with,
and commitment to Jesus Christ’s value system, which aims at liberating the
oppressed.

Three Classes of Persons: Toward Spiritual Freedom

Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert interpret the three classes of persons with
three terms. The first class is a postponer, the second class is a compromiser,
and the third class is a surrenderer who is a wholeheartedly indifferent
person.65 The third person roots his or her decision in love and desires for true
spiritual freedom to choose whatever Christ desires for him or her with
indifference. Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert interpret indifference as getting rid
of nailing desire to specific objects, which creates addiction; that is attachment
in Ignatius’ words.66 They suggest questions like “What is the one thing I
refuse to turn over to God’s care?” thus helping the retreatant to cooperate and
dance with God freely. In this way, the retreatant’s spirit even transcends
indifference and chooses to give over the whole of life to imitate Jesus Christ
and let him guide his or her way of living.

64
Ibid., 24.
65
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 200-201.
66
Ibid., 200.

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Making an Election: Focusing on Responsibility and Relationship

For a spiritual companion, to help a woman retreatant to maintain
growth in prayers is important. This means to develop “the ability to heighten
awareness of what one really wants in life and how one really feels in God’s
presence.”67 Journeying through the Exercises, the woman retreatant might be
more aware of her desire and affirmation of her self and be more indifferent to
make an election in her life in terms of taking actions to be a bride of Jesus
Christ.

Regarding making an election, Carol Gilligan found that men use

abstract rules or principles to decide, while women seem to view moral
problems as those that arise from “conflicting responsibilities and relationships
rather than from competing rights.”68 She argued that women consistently use
relationships and personal responsibility as their primary reference points in
making moral decisions.69

Kohlberg describes how the most mature level of moral development

accords with universal principles of justice and respect individual rights;
however, for women, Gilligan argues moral imperative repeatedly emerges as
“an injunction to care, a responsibility to discern and alleviate the world’s
trouble.” 70 Likewise, Heidi Fishman notes, women's moral judgments are
embedded in “a context of human relationships, mutuality, communality and
interdependence.”71 To put it another way, responsibility and relationship lie at
the heart of making decisions for women. The spiritual companion should
understand that responsibility is conceived in terms of a woman’s caring and

67
Conn, Women’s Spirituality, 12.
68
Aggeler, “Women’s Metaphors for Freedom,” 21.
69
Ibid.
70
Conn, Women’s Spirituality, 18.
71
Fishman, “Exploring the Self-in-Relation Theory,” 3.

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involving with others, and thus help the woman retreatant find an appropriate
way of expressing mutuality and interdependence.

Joann Wolski Conn notes, “Christian spirituality entails the conviction

that God is indeed personal and that we are in immediate personal relationship
to another, an Other who ‘speaks’ and can be spoken to, who really affects our
lives.”72 In this sense, making an election is about maintaining a vital personal
relationship with God. Thus the election made in this stage is “not externally
determined but internally determined.”73

The Third Week: Sharing Mutual Empathy in Suffering

The contemplation of the Passion serves as a means of developing
empathic interaction between the retreatant and Jesus Christ. In the
contemplation on the Last Supper, the grace asked for is “grief, deep feeling
and confusion because it is for my sins that the Lord is going to the Passion
[193].” In contemplating the narratives of the Passion, the retreatant asks for
“grief with Christ in grief, to be broken with Christ who is broken, and for
tears and interior suffering on account of the great suffering that Christ has
endured for me. [203]” These phrases describe a strong emotional connection,
which engages with each other’s deep and authentic feeling and thus conveys
a mutual empathy between the two parties. Ignatius insists that through
following Jesus Christ, people are not simply to be led into all truth but also
“into the vulnerability of Jesus’ way.”74 Jesus’ way is through poverty, insult,
and contempt, to true humility [147], thus it is like what Katherine Dyckman
and Patrick Carroll expound, “To really love others means to become

72
Conn, Women’s Spirituality, 50.
73
Aggeler, “Women’s Metaphors for Freedom,’ 22.
74
Philip Sheldrake, “Befriending our desires.” The Way 35, no. 2 (1995): 93.

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progressively more vulnerable to them.”75 Christ’s way is riskier, losing what

one possesses, rather than gaining any personal benefit or success. In this sense,
the God-image of an exalted father has been changed into a vulnerable person,
which is easier for women to resonate with.

A woman retreatant steps into Christ’s experience in suffering in the

Third Week; meanwhile, she is empowered by Christ to face the experience of
suffering in her life. Thus, her election made in the previous Week is
confirmed and she is strengthened as well. This mutual empathy is activated,
validated, and sustained through sharing in each other’s suffering.

Compassion: Maintaining a Faithful Presence to the Beloved one

Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert note difficulties for women, for instance,
in contemplating the victim image of Christ and considering the Cross as a
sign of domination and violence. They suggest a woman retreatant might pray
over the passage on the unnamed woman anointing Jesus Christ prior to his
death (Mark 14:3–9; Matt 26:6–13), because he recognizes the significance of
her action and values her enthusiastic spirit. Another alternative might be to
pay attention to the women who helped Jesus out of their resources (Luke 8:3),
Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42), the daughters of Jerusalem (Luke 23:28),
to say nothing of Jesus’ mother and other women at the foot of the Cross
(Mark 15: 40-41). These women described in the Bible “communicated
eloquently by their faithful presence at the death and burial of Jesus.” 76
Therefore, faithful presence to the beloved embodies women’s authentic love
and deep compassion even in a dreadful situation.

Adaptations like these might increase a woman retreatant’s commitment

to discipleship and friendship with Jesus Christ. The point is, after being with

75
Dyckman and Carroll, Inviting the Mystic, 9.
76
Dyckman, Garvin, and Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 221.

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Jesus in his suffering, they might encounter the suffering Jesus in their own
experience of suffering too. This will eventually deepen the union with Christ.
In the light of such understanding, presence at Christ’s suffering and facing
one’s own suffering might teach one the true meaning of compassion.

In brief, women could deal with suffering through having faith that God
has not abandoned them. The capacity for compassion helps women to feel
with Jesus—to be flesh of his flesh and blood of his blood—thus manifesting
mutual empathy.

The Fourth Week: Union in Relational Empowerment

Mutual empathy in the Third Week has deepened the relationship

between the retreatant and Christ, thus an authentic interaction is confirmed.
Both persons are connected and united in each other’s suffering. Now in the
Fourth Week, the retreatant asks for the grace to “feel gladness and to rejoice
intensively over the great glory and joy of Christ Our Lord [221].” All grief
and tears are replaced by rejoicing in the Fourth Week. The resurrection of
Christ gives power to the woman retreatant for renewing her self. In this sense,
relational empowerment is a process in which one could “enlarge vision and
energy, be stimulated through interaction, in a framework of emotional
connection.”77 That is, the woman retreatant connects with Jesus Christ and
shares the view of the risen Christ; she could see the world in an enlarged
vision to the extent that she could find God in all things.

In the Tomb: Waiting with Tenderness and Connection

In the first contemplation of the Fourth Week, Jesus Christ appears to
his mother Mary. However, before his appearance, Mary was waiting quietly.
Ronald Mercier interprets Mary’s waiting very well. He notes, “waiting in the

77
Surrey, “Relationship and Empowerment,” 171.

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transition—a transition into, not out of, emptiness—allows for creation of the
space into which the Risen Lord comes, if we let the quiet ripen.”78 The
transition from suffering into emptiness deepens and widens one’s soul to
welcome the risen Christ. Mary shows us the significant meaning of waiting:
let the quiet ripen till it bears fruit. Furthermore, her waiting manifests a
beautiful way that characterizes a female’s tenderness and connection that
interrupt even death.

Resurrection: Generating Life and Giving Birth

God the Father raises Jesus Christ from the dead and somehow renews
his self through resurrection. Contemplation on the narratives of resurrection is
like meditating on the process of generating life and giving birth to a renewed
self. In this sense, for a woman retreatant, resurrection is similar to pregnancy
and giving birth, yet it is generated by the Holy Spirit, not by human power.
Union with the risen Christ is a powerful yet gentle paschal experience.

The spiritual companion might help the woman retreatant to put any
“dead experience,” for example, an unfinished business or an unrealized dream,
beside Jesus Christ’s body in the tomb in her contemplation. Then the
retreatant can ask God the Father to touch it when he raises Jesus Christ. Thus
the woman retreatant might share the joy of his resurrection, experience a
renewed self-generation within, and give birth to new possibilities for an
enlarged world.

Furthermore, the narrative of appearance in which the risen Christ

appeared to his followers strengthens disciples in various ways. He is truly a
consoler who bestows comfort abundantly, as Ignatius writes, “To observe
how Christ Our Lord fulfills the office of consoler, and to draw comparisons

78
Ronald Mercier, “Without the Drama: The Transition from Third to Fourth Week of
the Spiritual Exercises,” Review for Religious 71, no. 1 (2012): 30.

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with the way friends are accustomed to console one another.” [224] Jesus
Christ consoles people according to their needs, and touches them deeply. At
this stage, a desire to see him again, listen to him again, and encounter him in
one’s life, might grow intensely in the heart of the woman retreatant. She
desired to be a faithful companion in the previous Week; similarly, now she
desires to share Christ’s gladness and joy in his resurrection. Margot Donovan
asserts, “In the accounts of resurrection-appearances, the risen Christ is
described as giving joy, confidence, and peace”79 to people who remained open
to him. She also highlights, “The Lord is portrayed as consoling primarily by
reassuring his friends of his identity in difference; the consolation that he gives
is that he is alive and with them.”80 The retreatant also receives this assurance
as a gift onwards: The risen Christ’s newborn self is always dwelling in one,
thus renewing one’s self.

The Contemplation to Attain Love: Practicing Mature Intimacy

The dynamic here is what Ignatius terms “love (which) ought to find its
expression in deeds more than in words; love consists in mutual
communication [230-231].” This statement expresses the very essence of love
and gives the retreatant a lens to contemplate all creatures and life events. That
is, mutual understanding, giving and receiving, speaking and listening, calling
and responding, namely mutual communication is exactly the fruit of this
contemplation.

God is always the one who initiates an invitation, loves creatures first,
and then waiting for humans to cooperate with him. Ignatius suggests, “To
consider how God works and labours on my behalf in all created things on the
face of the earth…” [236] Schemel and Romer expound, “God the Worker is

79
Margot Donovan, “Contemplating Christ Risen.” The Way Supplement 46 (1983): 80-
81.
80
Ibid., 81.

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at work and myself as yoke-fellow, the co-worker with God in building the
kingdom.” 81 That is, God and humans are reciprocal partners in building a
redeemed earth. 82 This is the effect of the Paschal Mystery, it leads the
retreatant all the way to attain love, which means to “reach to or arrive at” a
growing love on our part for God.83

In this sense, the Contemplatio is not a conclusion of the Spiritual

Exercises. Rather it serves as a transition from the Exercises to daily life. It
invites one to discover new meanings in current reality after making the
Exercises. The retreatant would realize that God’s essence is love, “who freely
conceives and creates, whose peculiar mode of being is compassion and mercy
for both women and men.”84 Particularly for most women, their belief is that
mature intimacy includes not only interdependence but also belonging to each
other, thus in the Contemplatio women might find not only their whole selves
belong to God but also they could find God in all things.

Conclusion
As a comprehensive world-view, feminism addresses all human
experiences. It concerns men as well as women.85 If a spiritual companion
understands the way one’s psychological dynamics moves in each Week, this
understanding might apply to attending the experience of both genders. For a
feminist spiritual companion focuses on how men and women differ in terms
of the way they develop the self; however, it does not neglect cultural factors
that impact both sexes. In other words, psychosexual development is a process

81
George J. Schemel, S. J. & Judith A. Roemer, “The Fourth Week and the
Contemplatio ad Adorem,” Beyond Individuation to Discipleship (Private Printing), 288-
289.
82
Ruether, “Feminist Critique and Re-visioning of God-Language,” 142.
83
Ivens, Understanding The Spiritual Exercises, 172.
84
Elizabeth A. Johnson, Abounding in Kindness: Writings for the People of God (New
York: Orbis Books, 2015), 144.
85
Fischer, Women at the Well, 2.

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of growth that embraces all aspects of our human reality, including physical,
cognitive, emotional, social, moral, and spiritual dimensions.86 Hence in giving
the Exercises, the feminist spiritual companion should be aware of the
psychosexual development of the retreatant and understand how the dynamics
of the Exercises might influence psychosexual dimensions, particularly in
regard to self-development. Besides, a feminist spiritual companion always
focuses on the graces the retreatant asks for, and adapts a language that is
easier for the retreatant to resonate with, thus fostering a more relational self
and building up a more authentic connection with Christ—a desire that God
has for all humans.

Gilligan rejects autonomy as the only appropriate goal for human

maturity, instead, she argues that both men and women equally value
relationships as a goal.87 It is possible that autonomy and relationship are both
important drives to develop a healthy self. A feminist spiritual companion can
be aware of socio-cultural contexts that shape genders. Therefore, giving the
Exercises from this broader viewpoint might increase the possibility of
experiencing God’s desire to equally relate to humans, as well as humans’
desire to love him back. Making the Exercises facilitates the retreatant’s self to
grow, change, transform and transcend through the dynamic of each Week, to
liberate the oppressed self of both sexes and become a reborn self-in-relation
with the ultimate One, and thus to respond to the call to be whole and holy.

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86
Ibid., 38.
87
Conn, Women’s Spirituality, 60.

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(accessed December, 2018).
Gallagher, Timothy M. The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for
Everyday Living. New York: Crossroad, 2005.
Guillén, Antonio. “Deceptions in Discernment.” The Way 49, no. 3 (2010): 81-
93.
Ivens, Michael. Understanding The Spiritual Exercises. Herefordshire:
Gracewing, 1998.
Jordan, Judith V. and A. G. Kaplan, J. B. Miller, I. P. Stiver, J. L., Surrey.
Women’s Growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone Center. New
York: The Guilford Press, 1991.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Jordan, Judith V. “Empathy, Mutuality, and Therapeutic Change: Clinical

Implications of a Relational Model.” In Women’s Growth in Connection:
Writings from the Stone Center, 283-289. New York: Guilford, 1991.
Lee-Pollard, Dorothy. “Feminism and Spirituality: the Role of the Bible in
Women’s Spirituality.” The Way, 32, no. 1 (January 1992): 23–32.
Liebert, Elizabeth. “Discernment for Our Times.” Studies in Spirituality V18
(2008): 333-355.
Mercier, Ronald. “Without the Drama: The Transition from Third to Fourth
Week of the Spiritual Exercises.” Review for Religious 71, no. 1 (2012):
30.
Miller, Jean B. Toward a New Psychology of Women. Boston: Beacon Press,
1976.
Miller, Jean B. “The Development of Women’s Sense of Self.” In Women’s
growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone Center, 11-26. New
York: Guilford, 1991.
Miller, Jean B. “Women and Power.” In Women’s Growth in Connection:
Writings from the Stone Center, 197-205. New York: Guilford, 1991.
Pilkinton, Melinda. “Self-in-Relation Theory: A Model for Helping,”
Perspectives, 5, 1 (2007): 28-31.
Rosenblatt, Marie-Eloise. “Women and the Exercises: Sin, Standards and New
Testament Texts.” The Way Supplement 70 (1991): 16-32.
Ruether, Rosemary R. “Feminist Critique and Re-visioning of God-Language.”
The Way, 27, no. 2 (1987): 132-143.
Rulla, Luigi M. “The Discernment of Spirits and Christian Anthropology,” 2,
Class resource.
Sheldrake, Philip “Befriending our desires.” The Way 35, no. 2 (1995): 93.
Schemel, George J. and. Roemer, Judith A. “The Fourth Week and the
Contemplatio.” In Beyond Individuation to Discipleship, 288-289.
Institute for Contemporary Spirituality, University of Scranton, 2000.
Surrey, Janet. L. “The Self-in-Relation: A Theory of Women’s Development.”
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Connection: Writings from the Stone Center, 162-180. New York: The
Guilford Press, 1991.
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Margaret Shu-Fen, Chang “Claiming the Spiritual Exercises for Contemporary
Women: A Feminist Perspective Based on the Self-in-Relation Theory”

[摘要] 本文探討如何依據女性主義觀點的靈修輔導幫助現代女性進
行神操，希冀從女性主義找到符合現代女性心理需求的輔導方法。
本文首先討論提供神操給現代女性時，調整方法的必要性; 其次探討
關係自我理論的重要概念，最後闡述這些概念如何融入神操的逐週
動力中。具體而言，第一週是幫助避靜者更新與天主關係中的自
我，在操練中碰觸扭曲自我形象的罪，而在天主的慈悲中體驗被賦
能。第二週目標是幫助避靜者跟耶穌基督彼此參與對方的生活，經
驗彼此互為主體。第三週對基督苦難的默想，幫助避靜者在相互同
理中共赴苦難。第四週則是分享耶穌基督的復活，經驗新生命的誕
生，與基督加深連結，而能以更廣的眼光在一切事中找到天主。

關鍵字：女性主義，神操，關係自我理論，靈修輔導

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

An Ignatian Perspective of Tension

in Spiritual Direction

Stephen Tong, SJ

Abstract: Being indifferent towards all created things for the greater glory of
God is the core of Ignatian Spirituality. This attitude cannot help but put a
person inherently under tension in making good decisions. In spiritual
direction the director is, under this similar tension, offering help to the directee
so that the latter can also grow to become indifferent in one’s life for the
greater glory of God. This article is to delineate and explore five kinds of
tension which are commonly present in the process of doing spiritual direction.
The heightening of one’s being conscious of these tensions during the
conversation would be conducive to accompany the counterpart in the journey
towards God.

Keywords: tension, Ignatian Spirituality, First Principle and Foundation,

indifferent, operations

Introduction
The request for and practice of spiritual direction has become a
widespread phenomenon within the Church the last two decades. More
encouraging is that a good number of qualified lay people take this service as
their calling and receive corresponding formation to become spiritual directors.

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

This ministry is no longer limited to religious or clergy. Having worked in an

Ignatian retreat house for almost twenty years, I witness that many Christians
are yearning for a personal and deeper relationship with the Lord, and they
appreciate the help of spiritual direction during Ignatian retreats to respond to
this inner desire.

In this context, the formation of competent spiritual directors is

necessary. However, different from other disciplines or professions, spiritual
direction presupposes faith and a personal relationship with God which cannot
be scientifically or academically measured and produced. Although books and
lectures are helpful and necessary in training, being a spiritual director is
fundamentally a vocation. One discovers this in personal prayers and retreats,
and then it is affirmed by the larger Church community. Similar to a religious
vocation, personal conviction in the Lord and communal affirmation are
correlated, constantly interacting with each other as a way of proceeding,
which we call discernment. That process is not without tension. On some
occasions, personal appropriation is more significant, especially in moments of
life crisis; at other times, communal feedback becomes crucial in deciding
whether one’s calling is authentic or beneficial to the common good. Such
tension was evident in the journey of St. Ignatius after his conversion in 1521,
in discerning between his personal desires and the responses of the church.
“God treated him at this time just as a schoolmaster treats a child he is
teaching.”1

This symbol of tension also depicts the dynamics of spiritual direction.

As a Jesuit formed in the Ignatian tradition and inspired by Bernard

1
In this work, the numerated paragraph in the text of the Autobiography will be
designated as A, followed by the paragraph number in square brackets, for example
[A19]; the numerated paragraph in the text of the Spiritual Exercises will be designated
as SE, followed by the paragraph number in square brackets, for example [SE 23]. The
Autobiography quoted in this work is from Barton T. Geger ed. A Pilgrim’s Testament:
The Memoirs of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. (Boston: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2020).

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Lonergan’s transcendental method of self-appropriation, I can see both

Ignatius and Lonergan put their money on the importance of and prioritizing
operations. While Ignatius structures his Spiritual Exercises to operate within
the four Weeks, Lonergan explores the operation of human consciousness and
differentiates it into experience, understanding, judgment and decision. Human
transcendence and transformation depend on how one has sincerely and
authentically operated in this process. In both kinds of operation, tension is
present. Ignatius sees the perennial struggle between the good and evil spirits,
while Lonergan realizes that human authenticity is precarious, fluctuating
between progress and decline.

Borrowing from their insights, this paper delineates some dimensions of

tension in spiritual direction. As Lonergan advises the heightening of
consciousness in knowing and doing, a spiritual director’s heightened
awareness of tension in one’s interaction with the directee would facilitate a
better discernment process in the ministry.

Before illustrating the five fundamental—but by no means

comprehensive—tensions, I would like to invite the Ignatian readers to ponder
on the first Principle and Foundation in the Spiritual Exercises from the
perspective of tension.

First Principle and Foundation from the Perspective of

Tension
St. Ignatius created this masterpiece of consideration to begin the
Spiritual Exercises. Howard Gray understands it as the content of conversation
between the retreatant and spiritual director in entering the Exercises, spending
a few days to ponder and converse what it means to the life of the retreatant.2

2
Howard Gray, Dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises Lecture 2: Principle and Foundation
(Georgetown University, November 7, 2012),

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

The text itself contains three parts, namely, the purpose of human life as being
God-centered, an indifferent attitude towards all created existence, and the
retreatant’s appropriating the Magis in fulfilling that purpose.3 The process of
conversation in spiritual direction brings flesh and blood to the text, echoing
the transcendental process that Lonergan describes as moving from experience
to understanding, from understanding to judgment, and from judgment to
decision and so to complete one’s self-appropriation.

The religious worldview as being God-centered gives birth to a tension

in how one sees the world and things, that is, a process of becoming indifferent
towards all created goods as a universal worldview. If one does not desire
health over sickness, wealth over poverty, success over failure, and a long life
over a short one [SE 23], this attitude implies the readiness of putting the two
opposite options into consideration, that is, holding the stronger inclination in a
phenomenological epochē, while letting the lesser one emerge and be attended
to. Spiritual life means making an effort to have a disciplined awareness of
these opposites since human consciousness tends to disregard the less desirable
inclinations, such as negative emotions, sickness, poverty, etc., in one’s
spontaneity.

Therefore, there are three levels of healing or freedom,4 as graces from

the Lord. First, the emergence and acceptance of unfavorable emotions and
unattended inclinations. Second, to hold the favorable and unfavorable ones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk0F7CVtKFI&list=PL5k0yYNwcTkaG-
MQI7Smcm5Qy5HbgN3Ph&index=2 (accessed June 7, 2021).
3
Magis, Latin, literally meaning "more" or "greater." In Ignatian tradition, magis is
related to ad majorem Dei gloriam, a Latin phrase meaning "for the greater glory of
God."
4
Healing and freedom are understood in the context of Spiritual Exercises as “every
way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and,
after their removal, of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life
for the salvation of our soul” [SE 1].

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

together so that one can understand and discern for the greater glory of God.
Finally, the determination to choose one over the other for the Magis. All three
processes are in tension.

Following Gray’s suggestion, the conversation at the beginning of the

Spiritual Exercises on the first Principle and Foundation is partly to elicit the
awareness of the presence of such ongoing tensions in one’s life and past
decisions, apart from eliciting the joy and gratitude in one’s relationship with
God. New images of similar tensions from memory come out as the
conversation goes on, giving way to more and deeper insights into self-
understanding and the dialectical worldview or spirits, which permeates in the
dynamics and content of the four Weeks in the Spiritual Exercises.

An Understanding of Spiritual Direction

Spiritual direction has many facets. There are various modes of
delivering.5 A spiritual director may emphasize one approach over another; the
content and dynamic of the conversation between the two parties is neither
rigid nor limited to one level of meaning. In fact, the catchwords of Ignatian
tradition are accommodation and flexibility, which are the fruits of being
indifferent towards one’s own preferences in giving spiritual direction. The
starting point of the conversation is open to all kinds of possibilities, according
to the interest and need of the directee.6 For Ignatius, the purpose of a spiritual
conversation is to help souls. But the condition of possibility in achieving this

5
David L. Fleming, “Modes of Spiritual Direction” in The Christian Ministry of
Spiritual Direction, ed. David Fleming (St. Louis, MO: Review for Religious), 106-112.
There, spiritual direction can be functioned as institutionalized, as interpersonal
relationship, as charismatic, as sacramental, and as incarnational.
6
Howard Gray, Dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises Lecture 1: Presupposition and
Introductory Annotations (Georgetown University, November 7, 2012),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gMTEYHB130&list=PL5k0yYNwcTkaG-
MQI7Smcm5Qy5HbgN3Ph&index=1 (accessed June 7, 2021).

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

purpose is, in the contemporary understanding, to build up a good rapport by

attentive listening and empathy.

On the one hand, the goal of spiritual direction as relating oneself with
the Lord may not be emphasized in the first place. On the other hand, any
specific service has its own meaning and purpose. According to William Barry,
spiritual direction is “a help given by one Christian to another which enables
that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to
respond to this personally communicating God, …” This purpose is to be kept
in mind, disregarding the accommodation that one is facilitating in the process.
The holding of this purpose bears a kind of tension in the inner movements of
a spiritual director.

In a wider sense, even in doing spiritual direction proper, this helping

service itself can create a tension of various degrees due to their difference in
horizons. According to Lonergan, horizon defines one’s boundary of knowing,
including the known known and known unknown. When two persons interact,
their horizons can overlap so that they are in congruence during the
conversation and proceeding. No tension is implied. The two parties become
different when their horizons are either complementary, developmental, or
dialectic.7 For example, the spiritual and professional practice of a married
person is basically different from that of a religious. Their difference is
complementary, and they can learn from each other and widen mutual
horizons. The tension is usually not apparent.

However, in the process of spiritual direction, it can happen that the

director discovers the inconsistency between what the directee has pronounced
versus what was operational. For example, a directee may pronounce God as
merciful and forgiving but the director hears an operational image of a

7
Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996),
236.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

judgmental and punishing God in the former’s prayer and life experiences.
Then the help is to develop one’s awareness of this discrepancy and to invite
him/her to bring this to prayer. The interaction can imply a certain degree of
tension. Finally, it sometimes happens that the two parties are at loggerheads
on certain beliefs related to moral teachings or values. This becomes dialectical
and the tension is keenly felt. More delineation and understanding on these in
spiritual direction will be explored subsequently.

Tension #1: Conversation versus Silence

This contrast presupposes the intention of moving into a personal depth
in the direction process. At the beginning of spiritual direction, by free
conversation the directee expresses one’s outer and inner experiences in certain
historical events or personal prayers. The spiritual director’s attentive listening
and empathy help the person connect, understand, and own oneself, and relate
deeper to oneself, others, and God. Afterwards, the conversation usually
moves into another level under the guidance from the spiritual director, who,
according to one’s own understanding of the purpose of spiritual direction,
raises questions to help the directee into further discovery and understanding of
oneself and God so that proper judgment and decision can be made
accordingly.

When and why does silence come into the picture? According to
Lonergan’s transcendental analysis of human consciousness, experience itself
is a complex phenomenon, including both conscious and unconscious
dimensions. When a person says that the room is too hot, the very person may
not yet be aware of the itchiness of his/her sole, although both are the
simultaneous experiences of the body. Conversation seems to mediate
between human conscious and unconscious intentionality. An ongoing
conversation allows many related but unattended dimensions of one’s
experience to unfold, especially the inner experiences of feelings, ideas,

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expectations, etc. so that one receives a more comprehensive attentiveness to

the personal experience. Otherwise, the narrowing of oneself to partial
experience leads to prejudiced opinion and judgment. For example, only
focusing one’s hatred and anger towards someone may ignore the
simultaneous appreciation and love towards the same person. Although not
immediately, to elicit the awareness of unattended feelings is necessary. Here,
the capacity to create space and time and to allow the directee to explore other
inner dimensions in silence becomes significant in spiritual direction.

Beyond noticing experience, receiving insights into one’s own reality

and deciding on values to serve God is the fundamental meaning of spiritual
direction, especially in the Ignatian tradition where election for the greater
glory of God is emphasized. But the emergence of possible insights greatly
relies on relevant and inspiring images from one’s psychic censorship which
governs the selection of images into our consciousness. 8 According to
Lonergan, “Just as wanting an insight penetrates below the surface to bring
forth schematic images that give rise to the insight, so not wanting an insight
has the opposite effect of repressing from consciousness a scheme that would
suggest the insight.”9 Lonergan implies here that due to the human dramatic
experience of trauma or other reasons, the psychic censorship represses
relevant and useful images to understand the reality and allows the person to
live in fantasy and illusion. He calls this aberration of understanding a
scotosis,10 a blind spot. Furthermore, “primarily, the censorship is constructive;
it selects and arranges materials that emerge in consciousness in a perspective

8
Lonergan uses the dramatic instance of Archimedes rushing naked from the baths of
Syracuse with the cryptic cry ‘Eureka!’ (I find it!) to begin his milestone book Insight.
Archimedes was overjoyed because he received the insight to calculate the density of the
golden crown when he saw the image of water being displaced in his own bath.
9
Bernard Lonergan, Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1992), 215.
10
Ibid.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

that gives rise to an insight.”11 This belief justifies the importance of silence
during interaction between the two parties. Silence is an important pre-
requisite for penetration through such psychic censorship. Our psyche needs
sufficient space and security to organize and censor the related materials to
give way to insights. Through raising relevant and significant questions for
deeper exploration of the inner self, the spiritual director is helping the
directee’s psychic censor to organize various images within to prepare for
receiving further insights.

The child Jesus asked our Lady, “Why were you searching for me? Did
you not know I had to be in my Father’s house?... but his mother treasures all
these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:49, 51) At first they were in conversation
after finding Jesus, but a significant question from the Lord immediately put
his mother in silence. Jesus’ question and body language were to stimulate
certain images, like “Father,” “His House,” “Staying,” in Mary that up to that
moment were not obvious to her. Our lady needed the inner space and time to
digest the meaning of this question so that she could understand her son and
herself. She was in a way waiting for insights to this question. More
conversations or explanations here would not help. This kind of silence seems
to be the most precious and prayerful moment in spiritual direction. However,
this moment comes from the previous flow of engaging conversation in the
first place.

My own watershed experience in spiritual life confirms this

understanding. When I was a Jesuit scholastic, i.e., before being ordained as a
priest, I was sent to a secondary school to teach. Once, I complained to my
spiritual director, a Jesuit companion, about the unedifying behaviors of the
school principal. I lamented, “I don’t mind what he has done, but acting like
that is not a good model in front of the teachers; I don’t mind what he has said

11
Ibid., 216.

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

but speaking in such manner before the students would certainly upset them…”
My spiritual director gazed at me and remarked, “Stephen, you mind!” I was
stunned and could not utter a word. I did not expect that the spiritual director
picked up a casual word in my articulation, which was unconscious or
unintentional. The spiritual director’s mirroring of the word “mind” helped me
to be aware, and notice the affective dimension that I had ignored or bypassed.
In Ignatian tradition, the affective dimension is often the raw material for
discernment and self-knowledge in conversation with God. Despite the
emphasis on authenticity in spiritual life and human formation in
contemporary times, its appropriation cannot simply rely on personal effort
and determination. Rather, it is a dynamic or journey of co-discovery and
exploration between two parties or in a community.

These two examples illustrate the significance and contribution of an

insightful remark or evocative question raised to the counterpart in
conversation. Such confrontation mediates between speaking and silence,
leading to helpful insights for deeper self-knowledge and intimacy with God.
However, this initiative causes tension first in the heart of the spiritual director,
asking oneself to discern whether it is appropriate or timely to respond in such
a way to this very person here and now. Then the response itself may cause
tension between the two parties since the directee is usually not ready to digest
or understand the remark or question addressed to oneself. The director needs
the capacity at this moment to hold the tension of silence itself.

Ideally, conversation and silence become a rhythm during the spiritual

direction. After a certain moment of silence, the directee can usually speak out
and share deeper feelings, new images, previous unattended memory, or
insights. This discovery leads to another level of conversation toward further
exploration, which is extremely fruitful and a rewarding moment in spiritual
direction. Sometimes the spiritual director may think it appropriate to break the

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silence, especially if it lasts too long, and to ask the counterpart what was
happening in such a moment of silence, and the conversation goes on.

Tension #2: Affectivity versus Rationality and their Stages

The contrast between conversation and silence brings the mutual
dynamic between the spiritual director and directee to a deeper level of self-
discovery and understanding in the Lord. The contents to be engaged are one’s
affectivity and rationality in certain events or happenings. The director has a
greater responsibility to be aware of which content is more helpful to deepen
the process, following the First Principle and Foundation.

Rationality is usually related to our capacity to recall, understand, and

interpret the events in one’s natural attitude,12 while affectivity is like a kind of
step back from such rationality and to explore the feelings towards those
events and corresponding understanding. However, both dwell within the
greater horizon of one’s own development in religious faith, namely, in one’s
institutional, critical, and mystical stage that Gerard Hughes explains in a lucid
way from the contribution of Von Hugel.13

According to Von Hugel, each stage has its own attached rationality and
affectivity. The Institutional stage represents the logic and need of our senses
and memories in developing trust, stability, conviction, authority, security, and
sense of belonging through sacraments, words, and teachings of the Church.
Being critical in our development signifies the need to find meaning to
integrate the world with one’s own self-appropriation to make sense of life.
One is no longer satisfied with the ready-made answers from others, including

12
Natural attitude, according to phenomenology, is a way of seeing the world and
oneself without putting it in parenthesis. It is similar to Heidegger’s use of “ready at
hand” which connotes a lack of authenticity in the first place.
13
Gerard Hughes, God of Surprises (London: Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1985), 11-
24.

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

doctrines and moral stipulations of religious belief. Convictions are formed

and owned through the process where one questions, criticizes, and
systematizes with intellectual strength and passionate vigor.

Finally, the human is called to be mystical as well, a sense of being

united with the world, the others, and God. It is an interior path where one is
interested and absorbed in one’s inner movements, such as feelings, feelings
about feelings, thoughts, hidden beliefs, expectations, desires, and yearnings.
These movements become the knowing objects to be explored. Although this
is also a process of finding meaning in one’s life, this stage dwells on the
unifying nature of the mystical yearning. The individual’s claim of truth and
meaning is no longer significant, rather the harmony and union with others or
the Other is predominant. While the rationality of the critical stage avoids and
lessens sufferings, a person in a mystical vision is willing to choose suffering
and loss for the sake of love. That is the tension between Peter and Jesus in His
prediction of the coming suffering and death in the Gospels (Mt 16:21-28).
The rationality of the former tended to be black and white, bending towards
binary thinking, while the latter was fond of paradoxical, pluralistic, and
inclusive language.

How are these kinds of distinctions related to spiritual direction? As

succinctly mentioned above, the relationship between the director and directee
can be in a development process due to the difference of their horizons. The
spiritual director is to help the counterpart explore oneself for greater and
deeper discovery. Gerard Hughes illustrates an example in God of Surprises.14
Fred, a retreatant contemplating the Gospel scene of the Wedding in Cana,
saw Jesus holding a staff, wearing a thorny crown, showing disapproval of the
merriment of the celebration. At least two things are at stake there.

14
Ibid., 36.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

First, Fred was a fervent and model Christian whose image of God was
the God of love and mercy, but his prayer showed the Lord as a demanding
judge. In fact, Fred has not found joy in his good works of serving the Lord.
This discrepancy indicated the tension between Fred’s affectivity and
rationality that Hughes, as a spiritual director, acknowledged and took as a
theme to help Fred to explore further. Second, Hughes’ telling this story
reveals that the director is helping the directee to move from a limited
institutional stage to a freer critical and mystical one. A Christian is called to
find balance and maturity in these three stages, without prejudice towards one
or the other two of the stages. Again, this is the perspective of the first Principle
and Foundation.15

Another example is Ignatius’ letter to Sr. Rejadell.16 He quoted her

words saying, “I am a poor religious, and I think I have a desire of serving
Christ our Lord,” following his explanation in the previous lines on false
humility. The evil spirit uses this tactic to prevent the soul from saying any of
the blessings and strength the Lord has bestowed on him or her.17 By this
rationality Ignatius expounded that she had been deceived by the devil and did
not dare to say clearly, “I have a desire of serving Christ the Lord.” Here
Ignatius’ attention was on her affective movement rather than on the rationality
such as eliciting her ideas on what and how to serve the Lord. Ignatius felt the
hesitation and timidity behind those words which rendered the possible what
or how to serve the Lord irrelevant. Here, Ignatius has demonstrated the

15
The spiritual director has also his/her moment of tending towards the institutional,
critical or mystical stage during the conversation. It is important to be aware where one is
and which stage of language and values that one is engaging.
16
Ignatius of Loyola, “To Sister Teresa Rejadell,” Letters of St. Ignatius of Loyola
(Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1959), 18-23
17
Ibid., 20

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

spiritual director’s discernment between affectivity and rationality during the

conversation.

The above two Illustrations do not imply that affectivity should always
be dominant or emphasized during spiritual direction. Although the
significance of affectivity is easily ignored and difficult to detect, Ignatian
pedagogy on discernment of spirits is more of an affective movement,
signified by consolation and desolation, than a rational calculation in the first
place. On the contrary, when a retreatant is overwhelmed by feelings or strong
inclination towards a certain preference, its rationality is to be explored. Jesus
had a similar concern when someone was so keen to follow him, he tells the
person, “… the foxes have dens and the birds have nests, but the son of man
has no place to rest his head.” (Luke 9:58) It presents a cool and rational
calculation for such a passionate candidate to consider whether one is ready.
Each moment has its own priority in how best to help a person.

Tension #3: Mundane Life versus Spiritual Experience

It was not uncommon to hear the comment that the Spiritual Exercises
are like a rigid model which everyone is required to fit into, such as the fixation
to go through the four Weeks of the whole Spiritual Exercises even in the
length of an eight-day retreat. At the opposite extreme, some Ignatian guides
just tell the retreatants to do repetition after hearing their sharing over the
prayed passages. The lack of clear explanation and indication impressed the
latter that they did not fulfil the expectation of getting the corresponding fruits
of the Exercises.

Undoubtedly, these are grey areas to judge whether such proceedings

serve simply to fit into the preconceived model. The structure of the four
Weeks is the perennial Christian dynamic in spiritual life, while the purpose of
repetition is to elicit greater fruits through the same passage of prayer, or to let
the retreatants have more time to dispose themselves to such prayers. However,

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there are various ways the original intent can be distorted into unhelpful
practices. The following articulation on the tension between mundane life and
religious experience has no intention to tackle the complaints but to shed light
on it so that hopefully the guides will become more contemplative to avoid
such Procrustes’ temptation.

The keyword is contemplation.18 Since its meaning is rich in Christian

spiritual tradition, the term becomes elusive to some people. The following
discussion limits the understanding of contemplation to focus on the tension
between what is seen versus unseen, revealed versus concealed, known versus
emerging to be known, and finally, what is already versus what is not yet.
When I contemplate a flower, by senses I firstly see its various parts and
appreciate its color, angle, brightness under the sun, movement in the breeze,
and smell its fragrance. Slowly when I immerse in this gaze and appreciation, I
feel the flower seemingly telling me, “You are as beautiful and blessed as I am.”
I am amazed by this sudden voice which is a kind of revelation to me beyond
my expectation before my contemplation. Upon hearing this I tend to ask
related questions, such as whether it is true, whether it is the voice of the Lord,
etc. This illustrates the movements of contemplation when a simple human
appreciation of flowers can move into a religious horizon and possible
engagement with the Lord.

On the other hand, a person may converse a lot about one’s interaction
with the Bible passage in a spiritual direction, full of religious language or
concepts, but the spiritual director does not discern interior movement at all in
the directee’s articulation. In fact, the conversation becomes dry and shallow as
it goes on. Being aware of his or her own affectivity, the director is able to

18
The two complaints, namely, being rigid in giving all the Four-Week themes in the
Spiritual Exercises or demanding repetition, in the above paragraph, are actual
illustrations of lacking the capacity of contemplation.

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contemplate the movements. They indicate that the religious thoughts or ideas
of the directee may be concealing certain blind spot, struggle, or resistance that
the counterpart has not been aware of. The director who is able to contemplate
those possible traces, begins to raise certain questions to engage with the
counterpart.

In the above illustrations, the contrast between the director and directee
is filled with tension because passively the director must be indifferent towards
certain elements in one’s consciousness, be open to the inquiries by the
counterpart, and patiently wait for the answer or revelation. But at the same
time, one is also actively making an effort to ask related questions to
understand, to judge and to decide what is more helpful to the directee.

The Ignatian motto of finding God in all things implies everything of the
mundane life can be a fulcrum towards religious experience. One of the
challenges for the spiritual director is how to engage the directee in a thematic
religious experience, as the purpose of spiritual direction. Religious experience
is sometimes confused with religious language. It is not uncommon for people
to have such a misconception that if the conversation is about God, Scriptures,
pious thoughts and feelings, charity service, etc., they are the facets of religious
experience, whereas sharing of one’s workaday life stories is not a religious
experience. Certainly, this kind of judgment has a grain of truth in it, but
fortunately it is not the whole picture.

The first two rules of discernment of spirits give some illumination. [SE
314-315] These rules show that the dynamics of the evil spirit and the good
spirit are different, according to the moral states of the human soul. The guide
is to contemplate the presence of spirits, a kind of religious experience, behind
the orientation of one’s mundane life even without the awareness of the very
person on it. Analogically, the guide is called to have a connatural sense of
God’s presence or absence when one listens with contemplative love to the
stories, feelings, thoughts, desires, etc., of the directee. This fruit of

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contemplation, in many such occasions, becomes the entry point to help the
directee connect one’s personal experience with a clearer sense of God or the
spirits.

For example, a directee shared the complaints and accusations due to

her acute suffering from the injustice in her life; the guide was touched by her
closeness with the crucified Jesus and sensed the love of Christ towards her.
Through his contemplative love, the guide went beyond the directee’s
suffering to see the other side of the story and the grace in that person, even
though such accusing language of mundane life also bothers the listener. This
insight and confidence prompted the guide to invite the directee to attend to
and appreciate God’s possible presence and support in those sufferings in due
time.19 Often in spiritual direction, the guide can be the crucial mediator to
facilitate a spiritual illumination from a merely secular perspective.

This contemplative attitude is also a remedy to the above-mentioned

rigidity in giving the Spiritual Exercises. If being indifferent to worldly things,
including the structure of the Spiritual Exercises, represents the fruit of being
God-centered according to the first Principle and Foundation, then
contemplative love is the other side of the same coin.

Tension #4: Total Acceptance versus Thinking with the Church

This tension is not always a specific concern in spiritual direction. It
presumes certain revelations of the directee whose living norms or beliefs are
somewhat in opposition to those of the spiritual director in terms of biblical

19
A tension or caution needs to be addressed here. Contemplation can be distorted to
become a top-down instruction towards the directee, due to the director’s preoccupation
to change the person, insisting that God’s love is always present in the sufferings when
the counterpart is not yet ready to digest this.

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teachings or church doctrines.20 Normally it creates the two pulling forces

within the guide, namely God is all merciful and forgiving in accepting sinners
on the one hand, and the followers are to obey the commandments of the Lord
on the other. The former leads to an accommodating and sympathetic attitude
while the latter implies a need for instruction and expectation of change.
Christian conscience is to be formed in a healthy sensibility of guilt and
remorse as well as a trustful surrender to God’s love and forgiveness. The
horizon of conversion and hope is commonly present in the sacrament of
confession, pastoral counseling, and spiritual direction. However, the concern
of spiritual direction is not so much with the instruction or explanation of
church teachings as helping the person achieve a greater self-knowledge and to
facilitate one’s closer relationship with God even amid one’s moral defects in
behavior or intellect in Christian belief.

Honoring the complementarity of different horizons, the director is to

acknowledge one’s own ignorance and possible bias, and the need to discover
certain history and life stories of the directee so that the cause of wrongdoings
can be better understood and empathized. This understanding provides a
bigger picture for further contemplation and elaboration of respective
affectivity and rationality as conversation, silence, and prayers go on during
the spiritual direction.21

This kind of exchange and conversation facilitate the process of

development, helping the directee elicit mutual affection between oneself and

20
No doubt in the discussion below, the aberration is basically assumed to be on the side
of the directees. But it does not deny the possibility of aberration on the part of the
directors. But supervision of the directors and its related concerns are beyond the
capacity of this paper.
21
Moral or intellectual defects have several layers, including one’s motivation, reason,
circumstances, responsibility, etc. whose exploration is beyond the capacity and purpose
of this paper. The complementary aspect simply draws out the necessity for the director
to put this tension into thematic awareness.

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the Lord in one’s life stories, and to enhance one’s self-understanding in the
defective religious beliefs or moral behaviors. The former facilitates the
experience of God’s love for religious conversion;22 the latter is about the
discernment of spirits in Ignatian tradition, or about receiving insights into
one’s judgments and actions in Lonergan’s paradigm. Even in tackling one’s
unfreedom in beliefs or behaviors, spiritual direction does not focus on
immediate behavioral change but a deeper experience, understanding and
judgment of the presence of the good and evil spirits in one’s values, beliefs, or
actions. This pedagogy has at least two implications.

First, it differentiates the reflective self in discernment from the

workaday self in action with a healthier distance and more realistic
objectification. The confusion of these two selves happens either in defensive
reaction or self-blame. On the one hand, the reflective self protects or justifies
the workaday self beyond proper proportion due to fear or shame; on the other
hand, the reflective self blames the workaday self out of guilt and remorse.
Neither stance facilitates a deeper self-understanding and a closer relationship
with God. Through differentiation, the reflective self can shift its attention to
feel and name the presence and influence of various spirits and one’s
inordinate attachments. Proper guidance from the director may help the
directee to stay in a calmer and more reflective disposition.23

Meanwhile, discernment of spirits allows the guide to focus less on the

demand for change but more on eliciting experience and understanding of the

22
According to Lonergan who is fond of the quote “the love of God has poured into our
heart through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5), religious conversion is the person falling in
love unreservedly with the transcendent, which becomes the foundation of one’s moral
and intellectual conversion. Method in Theology, 243.
23
Again, it is beyond the capacity of this paper to illustrate the ways of doing
discernment of spirits in spiritual direction. This reflection presumes the director has had
the knowledge of the rules of discernment and skills to apply them in facilitating such
understanding for the directee.

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tactics of the spirits. Under less burden, the guide is freer in accompaniment
which is itself a helpful modeling for the counterpart. Such discernment
provides a religious perspective in mundane life that is typically human and
belongs to spiritual direction proper.

However, this director-directee operation can become dialectical when

the mutual difference becomes irreconcilable. Lonergan names them position
and counter-position.24 This can lead to an end of the mutual relationship,
when either party would propose to terminate it or refer to someone else. It
may not be a bad outcome, but this needs discernment too. If that is not the
case in consideration, it is still meaningful to continue and explore the mutual
engaging. Here is a tension at stake! On the one hand, the interaction seems to
be going nowhere as both parties are at loggerheads; on the other hand, there
are rich dynamics in the movements of various spirits between the two parties.
The spiritual director is to be gently aware of the temptation towards
desolation, and to recognize the natural inclination towards desolation in the
counterpart.

According to St. Ignatius, desolation is a formation process that needs to

be handled patiently and delicately as the soul is suffering from inner turmoil.25
Again, contemplation and compassion render the guide capable of holding the
counter-position of the directee at ease and with hope. Even when the
conversation goes nowhere for the time being, the guide is to trust the power of
prayers and silence that God works on the soul. In this process, the director is
the ambassador of Christ and the Church, whose horizon is to hold the rapport
with the directee and the salvific end of the latter together according to the
spirit of the first Principle and Foundation.

24
Cf. Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology, p. 21
25
Cf. Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, #7 on treating those in desolation, and #322 on
reasons of encountering desolation.

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Tension #5: Human Effort versus God’s Grace

This concern has nothing to do with the doctrinal controversy of
Pelagianism, God’s salvific and sanctifying grace has always come first before
any human merits. Rather, this is a practical inquiry of striking a balance
between making effort to help souls as spiritual director versus leaving it to
God to achieve the intended fruits for the directee. How is the guide to
understand whether one is doing too little or too much in one’s awareness,
reflection, and evaluation?

Ignatius adopts the principle of “less is more.” He emphasizes that what

satisfies the soul is the heart and not the length of exhortation or explanation
[SE 2]. He reminds the giver to let the exercitant have direct contact with God
rather than relying on the giver. [SE 15] In a good number of letters as
Superior General, Ignatius instructs his fellow Jesuits to keep quiet and listen
first and keep the speech succinct while speaking. All this drives home the
point that the guide is always to have the vision of God in front of oneself even
when one is trying to offer help to the counterpart.

How does this vision of God differentiate from doing too little or being
incompetent as a guide? Leaving the result and change to God can become a
convenient excuse of avoidance, procrastination to confront one’s inadequacy.
These questions have become more acute since our modern world values and
even demands professional standards in service. The more professional and
competent one is, the more sophisticated skills and guidance are expected, and
thus the helping effects are more significant. Christians who are trained and
formed within this horizon naturally feel the need to live out the same standard
in doing spiritual direction.

Ignatius is neither stunned nor upset by this modern development. That

corresponds exactly to the tension in the first Principle and Foundation which
reminds us to remain indifferent towards changes. To be professional and to
rely on God is not contradictory; the difficulty lies in one’s preoccupied

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attachment without enough awareness, just as humans have attached easily to

health, honor, richness, and long life in the first place. Their opposites can
become strange, despised, and non-sensible. When Peter pulled Jesus aside
and advised him of the unnecessity of sufferings (Mt 16:22-23), his attachment
towards the political Messiah caused him to say too much to the Lord. On the
other hand, the parable of the rich man’s aloofness towards the basic need of
the poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-22) right outside his house elicited the danger of
doing too little. Spiritual directors need to be aware of one’s own tendency and
temptation of certain values that can lead one to go astray in guiding the
directee.26 However, some differentiations might be helpful here.

Ignatius, in his quoted advice above, assumed that retreatants have

developed a certain degree of relationship with God in spiritual life, whose
willingness to pray or engage in colloquy with the Lord is not a major block.
The question of whether the directee has a healthy self-image and image of
God was not in the religious and cultural horizon of the Medieval period.
Contemporary understanding of spiritual psychology shows that a distorted
self-image and image of God hinder one’s deeper conversation and
relationship with the Lord. A capable director may deem it helpful to lead the
counterpart to explore deeper the human condition and one’s history in such
distorted dimensions before bringing those discoveries to prayers. This is
simply one example of making a human effort which is like the work of
counseling in contemporary practice.

Considering individual differences in gift and calling, it is impossible to

draw a boundary line of human efforts for all spiritual directors, but some
parameters are worthwhile to consider. The prominent ones are consolation

26
Nowadays, this kind of values can apply to being the left wing or right wing of the
Church; being conservatives, traditionalists or liberals; homophobes or LBGT activists,
etc.

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and desolation for both director and directee during the interaction and
afterwards. When Jesus reacted to the point of violently pulling down the
tables of those merchants and even using a whip to drive away the cattle in the
temple area, His passion for the temple consumed Him entirely. (John 2:13-17)
It is a way to express His connection and love with the Father. His human
effort was not simply to clean up the temple for better worship or to change the
scandalous conditions, but to live out His love for the Father. This interior
passion can be empirically felt and articulated beforehand, during the action or
later in Examen. Analogically, the director is to have the felt sense and
connection with the Lord in one’s effort of helping. The formative familiarity
with consolation and desolation in one’s spiritual life is crucial to detect the
interior signal whether one is doing too much, too little or hitting the bull’s eye.
Consolation is always related to true love and other-centered, not centered on
one’s achievement or self-satisfaction. On the other hand, the felt sense of
desolation reminds us of self-centeredness, relying on oneself too much or
falling prey to timidity and avoidance.

Moreover, the human effect of facilitating changes in the directee is not

the main purpose of direction. All the help intends to prepare the counterpart to
encounter the Lord and receive consolation from Him. This interior journey is
to form the directee to gain familiarity with oneself and the Lord, and with the
working of the good and evil spirits. This is the hallmark of genuine spiritual
direction, in contrast to relying on the director or getting his/her approval.

Conclusion
I would like to conclude this paper with a personal experience. It has
taken me more than a year to finish this article. In addition to daily
responsibilities in the retreat house and with the Jesuit community, an
unexpected sickness and operation have diminished my focus and energy to
write. In fact, I am still in the recovery process as I finish writing this article.
Reflecting on this incident, I feel providential that this year sees the Jesuits and

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Stephen Tong “An Ignatian Perspective of Tension in Spiritual Direction”

our collaborators around the world celebrating the 500th anniversary of

Ignatius’ conversion. I am in a mysterious way sharing his cannonball
experience, greatly shocked and heavily upset by this physical illness beyond
my imagination. But amid all this, I have learnt to keep in touch deeper with
my vulnerability and become more patient and trustful in the Lord.

Javier Melloni, a Spanish Jesuit, in his lectures on the life of St. Ignatius,
likes to capture the hallmark of God’s leading this saint as “fertile tension.”
Tension represents the pulling forces between two powers that renders a
person under its domain to feel uncomfortable, disturbed, and even painful.
From the event of the cannonball onward, Ignatius could not settle on certain
paths, ideas or decisions that would render God’s will clear to him. Moment by
moment, the established conviction was suddenly challenged or shattered so
that he needed to ask the Lord’s guidance again. This process is forming a
person of faith, and a man or woman of God for the divine mission, as St.
Ignatius has shown us.

This image of tension is helpful in forming a spiritual director and doing

spiritual direction. From a cognitive perspective, tension represents a state of
confusion or unknowing in confronting two possibilities that one cannot
immediately rely on previous knowledge to proceed. Whether for the director
or the directee, at certain points of the conversation one needs to pause and
humbly be led, in God’s guidance, by shifting our use of faculties, by the felt
sense of consolation and desolation, or by the habit of differentiating the good
and evil spirits. It is a normative and formative process that one becomes
closer and familiar with the Lord, which is the purpose of spiritual direction.

The Ignatian dictum affirms “finding God in all things,” yet the
privileged one among all things is the fertile tension in our life and service.

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[摘要] 依納爵靈修的要義是人為了天主更大的光榮，對世間的種種
能達致平心。有了這份態度，想作出好的決定的人自然處身於張力
之中。放在靈修輔導的處境來看，陪伴者是在這種張力中提供幫
助，使受輔者同樣在生命中邁向平心來愈顯主榮。本文嘗試探討普
遍臨在於靈修輔導中的五種張力。若在彼此交談中加強這些張力的
意識，會對陪伴受輔者走向天主很有幫助。

關鍵詞：張力，依納爵靈修，第一原則與基礎，平心，操作

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Sally Law “Lonergan’s Operations of Consciousness as a Framework in
Spiritual Direction”

Lonergan’s Operations of Consciousness as a

Framework in Spiritual Direction

Sally Law

Abstract: Ignatian spirituality, following the dynamics of the Spiritual

Exercises, is an interior journey on which the exercitant embarks to reclaim
one’s true and authentic self, and thereby to live out one’s authentic desires
which are also God-given. In the Ignatian tradition, spiritual direction plays a
key role as the director accompanies the directee through a series of
conversions moving from inauthenticity towards authenticity. Besides
empathetic ears, supporting words, giving meditations and contemplations, in
what ways can spiritual direction be helpful to the fervent soul?

Bernard Lonergan’s study on the operations of consciousness provides a clear

and systematic account of how the human mind and heart can operate in an
integrated way. This paper explores how attention to the operations of
consciousness may contribute to spiritual direction, beginning with an
elaboration on Ignatian Spirituality as a journey towards authenticity, how
such a journey moves through conversions, and affirms that attending to the
operations of consciousness facilitates spiritual direction to accompany people
on this journey.

Keywords: Ignatian Spirituality, Spiritual Direction, Bernard Lonergan,

Operation of Consciousness, Conversion

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1. Introduction
Spiritual direction plays a key role in Ignatian spirituality. St. Ignatius of
Loyola helped many of the people he met through spiritual conversations.
William Barry and William Connolly define Christian spiritual direction as
“help given by one believer to another that enables the latter to pay attention to
God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally
communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the
consequences of the relationship.” 1 Ignatian spirituality, following the
dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises, is a journey on which the exercitant
embarks to reclaim one’s true and authentic self, and thereby to live out one’s
authentic desires which are also God-given. James Connor has remarked, “[i]n
modern terminology, the aim of the Ignatian Exercises is to help a Christian
become an authentic human being.”2 In the Ignatian tradition, the director
accompanies the directee on this journey through a series of conversions
moving from inauthenticity towards authenticity. Besides empathetic ears,
supporting words, and giving the meditations and contemplations in the
Spiritual Exercises, in what ways can spiritual direction be helpful to the
directee?3

Bernard Lonergan’s study on the operations of consciousness provides

spirituality with a clear and systematic account of how the human mind and
heart can operate in an integrated way, and has been of most help to

1
William Barry and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction (New
York: HarperOne, 2009), 8.
2
James L. Connor, The Dynamism of Desire: Bernard J.F. Lonergan, S.J. on the
Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Saint Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources,
2006), 28.
3
As a basis to the present work, I use the translation in George E. Ganss, The Spiritual
Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Translation and Commentary (Chicago: Loyola Press,
1992). The Spiritual Exercises in italics is a reference to the actual text, and Spiritual
Exercises refers to the actual prayer exercises.

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Sally Law “Lonergan’s Operations of Consciousness as a Framework in
Spiritual Direction”

spirituality.4 According to Lonergan, it is in the autonomous human subject

that self-transcendental stages of experiencing, understanding, judging, and
deliberating occur. The authentic subject follows the transcendental precepts to
be attentive, intelligent, reasonable, and responsible. Conversion occurs when
one shifts from biases and self-absorption to following these transcendental
precepts. However, this transcendental method involves a heightening of one’s
consciousness, which not everyone is at home with, and where spiritual
direction may help. This paper explores how attention to the operations of
consciousness may contribute to spiritual direction, beginning with an
elaboration on Ignatian Spirituality as a journey towards authenticity, how
such a journey moves through conversions, and affirms that attending to the
operations of consciousness facilitates spiritual direction to accompany people
on this journey.

2. Ignatian Spirituality: A Journey towards Authenticity

Human beings have a restless longing for God. The person who
embarks on a spiritual journey has a desire to find and live out God’s will, to
praise, reverence and serve God. However, spirituality is not something that
operates independently and divorced from other realms of humanity; on the
contrary, grace builds on human nature and interacts with our humanity as we
struggle towards wholeness. God’s will is not a pre-determined plan which the
human soul can only achieve by following commands. Rather, God’s will for
us is that we respond in freedom to God’s love, which gives shape to both our
individual and common lives in freedom by the choices that we make. As
Saint Irenaeus proclaimed, “the glory of God is a human fully alive,” the
essence of spirituality lies in the revelation of a person’s authentic self through

4
Raymond Moloney, “Conversion and Spirituality: Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984)”
The Way, 43 no. 4 (2004), 123.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

a personal experience of the love of God, and the person’s response by

choosing to live out one’s meaning of life, thereby to glorify God. Instead of
looking outward to seek and find God’s will, spirituality is an inward journey
into one’s own self. As we reach into ourselves at the deeper level, we
experience authentic desires which are “uniquely our own but also God-
given.”5

How do we understand authentic desire? Unlike other animals whose

lives are driven by basic instincts, human lives are driven by purpose,
meanings, and values. The search for meaning and purpose of one’s life is the
deepest desire in the human soul. Edward Kinerk proposed that such authentic
desires come from a person’s true-self instead of superficial false-self, and that
the question “what do I want” is closely related to “who I am.”6

Although finding God’s will is coherent with living out one’s

authenticity, the journey is not straightforward. Our true-self is often hidden or
concealed under other images, often referred to as our persona, masks, or false-
self. Michael Ivens has cautioned that “even in our more seemingly innocent
creative desires, radical egocentricity, values inconsistent with the gospel,
crippling images of God, and elements of psychological unfreedom readily
find shelter under the cover of moral neutrality.” 7 In other words, not all
desires are authentic. Robert Doran described that “[a]uthenticity is achieved in
self-transcendence, and consistent self-transcendence is reached only by
conversion.”8

5
Edward E. Kinerk, “Eliciting Great Desires: Their Place in the Spirituality of the
Society of Jesus,” Studies in the Spirituality of the Jesuits 16, no. 5 (1984), 4.
6
Ibid.
7
Michael Ivens, “Desire and Discernment,” The Way Supplement 95 (1999), 32.
8
Robert M. Doran, “What Does Bernard Lonergan Mean by ‘Conversion’?”
(Milwaukee: Marquette University, 2011),
https://lonerganresource.com/pdf/lectures/What%20Does%20Bernard%20Lonergan%2
0Mean%20by%20Conversion.pdf (accessed January 2019), 2.

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Sally Law “Lonergan’s Operations of Consciousness as a Framework in
Spiritual Direction”

3. Conversion
Ignatius described spiritual exercises as a name “given to any means of
preparing and disposing our soul to rid itself of all its disordered affections and
then, after their removal, of seeking and finding God’s will in the ordering of
our life for the salvation of our soul.”[1] 9 Michael Ivens explained that
conversion in the Spiritual Exercises is “both a ‘turning to’ and a ‘turning
from’. ‘Turning to’ in the language of the Spiritual Exercises consists in
seeking and finding the will of God, while the correlative ‘turning from’ is the
process of getting free from the influence of ‘disordered’ drives and
attachments that stifle love and impede integrity of intention.”10

3.1 Religious, Moral, Intellectual and Psychic Conversions

Lonergan identified three forms of conversions: religious conversion,

moral conversion and intellectual conversion. Doran further suggested the
psychic dimension of conversion. Conversion as turning to self-transcendence
and authenticity implies turning away from some degree of self-absorption or
self-enclosure.

Religious conversion is other-worldly falling in love, as one is being

grasped by ultimate concern.11 It frees one from the self-enclosure of radical
lovelessness to a total surrender without reservations as a being-in-love. Doran
remarked that conversion is a process occurring in incremental steps, and
religious conversion is “a process of ever-deepening withdrawal from ignoring
the realm of transcendence in which God is known and loved, and of ever

9
In this work, the numerated paragraph in the text of the Spiritual Exercises will be
designated by a number in square brackets, for example [19] is paragraph 19 of the
Spiritual Exercises.
10
Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises: Text and Commentary: A
Handbook for Retreat Directors (Leominster: Gracewing, 1998), 1-2.
11
Bernard Lonergan, Method in Theology, ed. Robert M. Doran and John D. Dadosky
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017), 226.

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deeper entrance into that realm.”12 God’s love flooding our hearts is a gift of
grace, replacing the heart of stone by a heart of flesh. Ignatius described how it
is the prerogative of the Creator alone to enter the soul and cause a motion in it
which draws a whole person into His love.[330] Religious conversion is a
twofold process: the operative grace of being loved unconditionally results in a
cooperative grace as one’s own loving becomes unconditional. Therefore,
religious conversion leads to moral conversion.

Moral conversion is self-transcendence in one’s decisions, opting for the

objective value even if it conflicts with one’s own satisfaction. There are two
kinds of questions for deliberation: the self-regarding questions that concerns
what is in it for oneself or for the group one belongs to, and the moral
questions that ask what is worthwhile, what is truly and not merely apparently
good. There is moral transcendence when one’s basic question for deliberation
regards not satisfaction but values.13 The Spiritual Exercises move one from
the egocentricity of self-regarding deliberation to Christo-centricity when one
chooses and follows the values of Jesus Christ.

Moral conversion is a shift in the criterion of decision, whereas

intellectual conversion is a shift in the criterion of truth. Concerning reality and
knowing, there exists a myth that knowing is like looking and the real is what
is out there, which then regards knowledge as a matter of taking a good look at
what is already out there. Operating from this stance is staying in the world of
immediacy, but the real world is a far vaster world that is mediated through
meaning. There is intellectual conversion when one shifts to regard knowledge
“as a matter of raising and answering questions for intelligence and

12
Doran, “What Does Bernard Lonergan Mean by ‘Conversion’?” 5.
13
Bernard Lonergan, “Self-transcendence: Intellectual, Moral, Religious,” in
Philosophical and Theological Papers 1965-1980, ed. Robert C. Croken and Robert M.
Doran (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 324-325.

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reflection.” 14 Intellectual conversion opens the horizon of questions and

transforms one’s cognitional life so that questions regarding meaning and truth
are pursued for their own sake.

If intellectual self-transcendence is about taking possession of one’s own

mind, then psychic conversion is about “appropriating the operations of the
psyche.” 15 One’s inner movements provide raw materials for insights,
judgments, evaluations, and deliberations. Attention to inner movements helps
us to notice ways in which our psyche hinders or helps in the search for
meaning, truth, and value. Psychic conversion is considered affective self-
transcendence as the affective and imaginal components are being brought into
harmony with one’s operations of consciousness and there is a sense of
opening communication between one’s conscious-intentional orientation as a
cognitive, moral and religious being, and the underlying neural and psychic
manifolds. Here’s an example to illustrate psychic conversion when the
retreatant’s affectivity is in harmony with her religious conversion: Lucia had a
traumatic experience when she was young; therapeutic and psychological
intervention could not help much.16 Whenever she recalled the experience, she
was deeply trapped in the threat of the trauma and exhibited vomiting. During
an eight-day retreat, she experienced a strong sense of security in the love of
God to the extent that her vomiting reactions to the memory had stopped, and
she was able to receive therapeutic help after the retreat. Her religious
conversion of experiencing God’s love brought a change in her psyche and led
to a change in somatic reactions.

14
Doran, “What Does Bernard Lonergan Mean by ‘Conversion’?” 8.
15
Neil Ormerod and Christiaan Jacobs-Vandegeer, Foundational Theology: A New
Approach to Catholic Fundamental Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), 131.
16
In this paper, pseudonyms are used in the case illustrations.

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3.2 Conversions in Ignatian Spiritual Journey

The self-transcending journey towards authenticity is often not smooth

but laden with fertile tensions, even capsizing the stability of self-reassurance
one has built up over the years.

Although created in the image of God as a true-graced self, each

individual has a unique story subject to various influences both biologically
and environmentally. Psychic wounds were inevitably created through one’s
life journey in this world, twisting and crippling the soul since infancy. As a
consequence, the human soul is far from wholeness, but rather influenced by
unconsciously operating false images of self and the beliefs that I am not loved,
that I am less than good or that I am insecure. Out of such wounds, survival
strategies were developed to deny the lack of love in relationships, to
compensate for the inferiority experienced, and to defend a sense of security.
Throughout the years these survival strategies become persistent, gradually
evolving into fixed beliefs and interpretations of self, others and life.

An ideal self, a picture of the kind of person one should be, is developed,
and parts consistent with such image are retained and developed as one’s
persona, whereas those unacceptable parts we considered inappropriate are
pushed into the shadow. The self is attached inordinately to masks that give an
illusory counterfeit of the true-graced self. For example, instead of a healthy
development of one’s potential, a perfectionist lives in a myth identifying
oneself with performance and pursuing excellence ceaselessly; being perfect
provides a sense of recognition, worthiness, or lovability. This false ideal
creates paradoxes of illusion: at a surface level, one may feel a certain sense of
goodness in the masks and cover-ups, but it inevitably implies that one has to
gain one’s own security or recognition, which further reinforces the notion that
one is not being cherished.

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Religious conversion is thus a turning away from this hidden belief in

radical lovelessness to an experiential knowing oneself as being loved by God.
Receiving and allowing God’s love to fill up one’s heart strengthens one’s
capacity to reclaim and own one’s authentic self as a true-graced person.
Religious conversion frees a person from being trapped in inordinate
attachments to false reassurance. Despite such a vision, to receive God’s love
often involves a struggle between love and fear, approach and avoidance.
Ignatius defined the contrary movements of the soul as spiritual consolation
and spiritual desolation: the former describes interior movements of the soul
towards God, whereas the latter movements in the opposite direction, both
originating from the dynamics of love and fear respectively. William Barry
described that such bipolar motivations of love and fear result in a rhythm of
withdrawal and return which characterizes all our relationships, including our
relationship with God.17 When the soul is dominated by fear, it withdraws into
the familiar false self-images, and when fear is subordinated to love, it has the
courage to step into the mystery. Ignatius introduced the rules for the
discernment of spirits as “rules to aid us toward perceiving and then
understanding, at least to some extent, the various motions which are caused in
the soul: the good motions that they may be received, and the bad that they
may be rejected” [313]. The definition implies that the discernment of spirits is
highly correlated with the operations of consciousness, which will be
elaborated in the following section: love motivates a person to follow the
transcendental precepts in operations of consciousness while fear fuels one’s
biases and leads to decline.

There are two movements in the dynamics of the Ignatian journey: one
is the receiving of the gift of one’s authentic self, another is the living out of

17
William A. Barry, Spiritual Direction and the Encounter with God: A Theological
Inquiry (New York/Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1992), 59-72.

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one’s capacity to love by the giving of self in Christ and with Christ. The first
movement to reclaim one’s authentic self brings the second movement, to live
out the capacity of love by the giving of oneself in Christ and with Christ.
Authentic desires are uniquely personal but at the same time apostolic:
authentic desires lead the individual out of oneself into the human community.

Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises are set to widen and challenge the

retreatant’s horizon, thereby initiating movement away from self-referential
criteria towards objective value step by step, to be shaped by religious value. In
Ignatian anthropology, the objective value and good in an absolute sense is
referenced to Jesus Christ Himself and other exemplars such as Mary and
Joseph. For example, some retreatants were attracted by the responses of Mary
in her “fiat,” but were stunned when they were invited to the same level of
faith and trust in God. Mary’s invitation challenges retreatants’ belief that “fiat”
is for Our Lady only. The contemplations and meditations are designed to
bring a series of conversions to an authentic indifference. Through the
dialectical processes of the Spiritual Exercises, the spiritual desires undergo
further purification, mounting to a total and positive indifference,
singleheartedly for the glory of God. Ivens described that the personal love of
Christ is “a love which changes and re-orientates the whole person. It is the
love by which we allow the loved-one to take over our lives, to lead us along
his own ways towards his own objectives, the love by which we trust
ourselves to the other’s power to change us.”18

The purification of the soul reaches an apex when the exercitant enters
into a union with Christ through his passion, death and resurrection. It brings
out the greatest paradoxes that the human mind cannot comprehend, such as
the freedom in loving obedience, that the sacrifice of love can fill the abyss of
death, and that death has no power over Jesus’ powerlessness. The dialectic

18
Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 75.

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confronts the greatest darkness to bring out the greatest light of humanity,
enhancing one’s capacity of strength, fidelity and courage. However, this
conversion is only possible through “com-passion,” standing with Jesus in His
Passion. The intimate and participatory grace of compassion also brings the
grace of confirmation to the exercitant.
Conversion is a vertical exercise of freedom involving a movement to a
new horizon, the limit of one’s field of vision. It repudiates characteristic
features of the old horizon and begins a new sequence that reveals a greater
depth and breadth.19 The gift of oneself for Christ and with Christ is a choice
out of the freedom to love. Reaching human authenticity is a matter of
achieving self-transcendence both in the field of knowledge and in the field of
action. The authentic realization of human potential takes one beyond oneself.
The fruit of reclaiming one’s authenticity is the vision of apostolic soteriology,
one’s capacity to see the Imago Dei, the supreme dignity, which is a redeemed
dignity of each person within the vision of the crucified Christ.

4. The Operations of Consciousness as a Framework for

Spiritual Direction

4.1 The Operations of Consciousness

Lonergan’s intentionality analysis distinguishes four levels of

consciousness and intentionality beyond the states of sleeping, dreaming and
waking: experiencing, understanding, judging and deciding. Experiencing
includes seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, feeling, etc. Beyond
sensitivity, one starts to ask questions such as what, why, how, and what for in
order to understand, and the answers to these questions “unify and relate,
classify and construct, serialize and generalize.”20 Understanding constructs a

19
Lonergan, Method in Theology, 223-230.
20
Ibid., 100.

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world by imagination and intelligence, which is mediated by words and

meaning. The diversity of constructions brings questions of reflection to judge
whether the understanding is real and true. Moreover, there is doing besides
knowing. Therefore, beyond questions for intelligence and reflection, there are
questions for deliberation when one considers objective value: namely,
whether this is truly good and worthwhile.

The human spirit has its natural tendency to observe the transcendental
precepts of being attentive in experiencing, intelligent in understanding,
reasonable in judging, and responsible in deciding. Human authenticity is a
matter of following such a built-in law of the human spirit. Such authentic
upward movement from one level to another (from experiencing to
understanding, from understanding to judging, and from judging to deciding)
is a transcendental movement, and one’s consciousness and intentionality
expand as one journeys towards authenticity. Lonergan described how one’s
capacity for self-transcendence becomes an actuality when one falls in love,
and being in love with God is the basic fulfilment of one’s conscious
intentionality. It “sets up a new horizon in which the love of God will
transvalue our values and the eyes of that love will transform our knowing.”21
Operations of consciousness are authentic when they are in tune with the
downward movement descending from being in love unrestrictedly to
experiencing. Surrendering oneself as a being-in-love, one desires to follow
Christ the Lord and allows His value to take over one’s self-regarding value in
decision; likewise love influences the intelligent questions and reasonable
questions one raises in understanding and judging, and eventually the
experiences one attends to. Moloney further described that when each level of
conscious intentionality comes into harmony with God’s primordial gift and
culminates in the fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy and peace, “[o]ur

21
Ibid., 102.

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affective development from above downwards is matched by a cognitive and

affective development from below upwards, as we learn to understand, assess
and implement our experience.”22 In other words, when one surrenders to
ultimate love, the grace of religious conversion brings intelligence to
understanding, reasonability to judging and responsibility to deciding.

There is progress when the transcendental precepts are observed, but the
operations are also prone to decline, when transcendental precepts are violated
and one becomes inattentive, obtuse, irrational, and irresponsible. Lonergan
defined flight from understanding and flight from responsibility as biases
which block continuous growth in authenticity and leads to inauthenticity.

Conversion happens when one shifts from the biases and blocks of self-
absorption to observing the transcendental precepts in one or more domains of
one’s operations of consciousness. While redemption is God’s grace, spiritual
direction helps to heighten the directee’s awareness of their biases, and to
enhance their openness to bring biases and blindness in prayer, which are
dispositions for the grace of conversion. The operations of consciousness offer
a helpful framework, by inviting attentiveness to the overlooked, raising
questions of intelligence and reflection, pointing out the biases, and even
challenging the flights. This framework contributes to spiritual direction in
accompanying the retreatant’s conversion journey.

4.2 Self-Appropriation

Despite the fact that operations of consciousness are built into human
nature, Lonergan iterated that it is quite difficult to be at home in this
transcendental method, as it requires a heightening of consciousness by
objectifying it, a matter of “applying the operations as intentional to the

22
Moloney, “Conversion and Spirituality,” 130-132.

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operations as conscious.”23 Such self-appropriation begins with noticing and

registering one’s inner movements. This is where spiritual direction may
contribute, by raising questions that focus on one’s operations to help the
directee to turn from focusing on the incidents outside to self-appropriation of
one’s own inner operations. To illustrate this, consider a directee, Patrick, who
remembered an argument with his boss during his prayer. On the one hand, he
reflected that his boss had not intended to hurt him and he desired to let the
issue go; on the other hand, he felt an overwhelming sense of anger and was
preoccupied with thoughts about the argument. The focus of his operations
was on the external happenings: the issue, the situation, his boss, and what to
do. During spiritual direction, questions focusing on his own operations were
raised that helped him to shift his focus from the issue to self-appropriation,
where Patrick realized there was hurt behind the anger. As he pondered the
question “what were the thoughts that have aroused the feelings of hurt?”, he
realized that he felt hurt when he could not convince his boss that he was right,
and further noticed an inner voice that said “I am of no use unless I am right.”
Focusing on his own interiority brought further questions for intelligence and
reflection, such as “is this inner voice a single occurrence or a recurrent
pattern?” “How did this pattern develop?” “Is this belief true? “Who am I in
the eyes of God?” These questions led Patrick to embark on a journey of
interiority towards authenticity that eventually gave him the freedom to forgive.
Connor remarked that Spiritual Exercises are exercises in self-appropriation,
being present to oneself and grasping what goes on in consciousness.24

Ignatian spirituality focuses on God’s presence in and through a

person’s humanity. It is quite common and helpful for people to recall issues in
their lives during their prayers. However, spiritual direction distinguishes itself

23
Lonergan, Method in Theology, 18.
24
Connor, The Dynamism of Desire, 19.

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from counseling: while spiritual directors explore with the directees their
personal experiences, the focus is not to alleviate one’s problem but to unpack
the human dimensions of experiences as dispositions for prayer. The emphasis
of self-appropriation in operations of consciousness also serves as a reminder
for spiritual directors to be attentive. To illustrate, Eva was attacked by utter
loneliness and frustration as a middle-aged single woman. She shared her
prayer experience when she asked God why she had to suffer such loneliness.
Instead of counseling on the pressing issue of loneliness in single life, spiritual
direction from the perspective of self-appropriation noticed that despite her
complaints, she did not interact with God in the prayer. When this was
reflected and counterchecked with her, Eva noticed that she had refused to
converse with God, out of her anger and bitterness. Such reflections helped
Eva to realize a contradiction: although she considered God as most important
in her life, she demanded God to love her in the way she had wished. This
operating blindness is powerful yet hidden. Unconsciously, she had placed her
wish in a higher order than God. Realizing, understanding and judging such
“dis-order” triggered her real desire for God’s love. This religious conversion
started Eva’s journey to reclaim her authentic self, with the capacity to bear
loneliness in life.

4.3 Framework for Spiritual Direction

Observing the transcendental precept to be attentive in experiencing

encourages one to move from the concepts of God’s love to an experiential
knowing. It is not uncommon to see directees “touch and go” while
encountering God’s love. Spiritual directors often invite directees to stay in the
experience of love and to relish it. Questions to prompt directees’ attention to
their felt sensations such as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, as well as
their inner movements such as feelings, thoughts, and beliefs are often helpful.
Consider an experience of accompanying Anna who described her prayer

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experiences when she shared with God the difficulties in her life, and
remarked that God was present but did not respond. When she was invited to
describe how she had sensed God’s presence, she described a sensation that
God was right next to her. Upon the spiritual director’s curiosity on what God
was doing, Anna replied, “God was listening to me.” A further explorative
question “How did God listen?” prompted Anna to pause, close her eyes for a
moment and to sense before she replied, “God looked at me.” The exploration
continued, “and how is this gaze?” “The gaze is gentle…and reassuring…as if
telling me that God does not forsake me.” Attentive questions prompt the
directees to notice, stay with and pay attention to God’s encountering, which
directees may have overlooked.

While it is natural for a person to interpret and understand one’s

experience, one may at one time ask intelligent questions, but other times may
be biased and obtuse. Questions from the spiritual director may inspire the
directee to reflect on such beliefs. Consider Linda who had experienced abuse
in her childhood and became a psychotherapist specializing in child abuse. She
has a long-held belief that God had allowed her to be abused in order to train
her to be a therapist. As the spiritual director invited her to explore her belief,
she realized that the thought offered her a reason to account for the innocent
suffering. Encouraging her to listen to the inner voice “why did I have to suffer”
revealed the anger that had been buried deeply. It was not easy for Linda to
face the wounds covered by the false image of a tyrannical God, but this
opened up a journey of healing for her.

Spiritual direction also helps by raising questions out of a different

horizon. Consider sin which is a common theme in prayers. Most people
would normally try to cover up the feelings of shame when facing one’s sin,
but Ignatius suggested that retreatants ask for the graces of shame and
confusion, sorrow and tears for one’s sins. [48, 55] Such graces are
challenging and we naturally avoid such feelings. In this Ignatian horizon,

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shedding tears of sorrow opens the person’s heart to experience God’s

unconditional love at a deeper level. Spiritual direction with Tony in a retreat
illustrates this. The memory of a fault that he had committed decades ago
surfaced in his prayer, with an image of a big dark hole enlarging enormously.
Tony was worried that all his previous efforts of repentance and confession
were in vain. Shame over his sin turned into anger at God for not protecting
him from falling into the sin. Instead of comforting words to alleviate the
shame and reassure his repenting efforts, the spiritual director operated from a
horizon which understood shame as a possible window for grace, and thus
emphasized the shameful feeling. Tony stared at the spiritual director in
disbelief as the latter invited him to experience God’s love in this shamefulness.
In his prayer that evening, after pouring all his anger towards God, Tony
suddenly experienced a peaceful “silence” and an indescribable “lightness,” he
described as if he was floating on the surface of a vast and deep ocean without
limit. He broke into a smile when the spiritual director asked, “in this infinity,
how big is the dark hole?” The spiritual director’s understanding of shame as
grace helped to dispose Tony to experience what Ivens has described, “there
can be no profound sense of God’s mercy without a profound sense of sin.”25

A felt knowing of one’s identity as God’s beloved challenges a person’s

belief of lovelessness. Therefore, a crucial point in conversion is the judgment
of who I really am, the distinction between what appears to be me and what is
really so. It is not easy to make reasonable judgments: some people brush the
question aside, others allow themselves to remain in a state of confusion, or
make irrational conclusions. For example, one of Martha’s beliefs was “I’m
not loved” as she felt neglected by her mother since childhood. At the same
time, she was affirmative of God’s love as she prayed her personal salvation
history. When asked who she really was, she replied, “I’m loved, and I’m not

25
Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 44.

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loved.” The spiritual director clarified the difference between feeling and
identity. While feelings of being loved (by God) and not being loved (by
mother) are both very real to her, the identities of “I’m cherished” and “I’m not
cherished” are contradictory and could not coexist. Such clarification
prompted Martha to face the reflective question on what her true identity was.
The criterion of truth shifted as she prayed over this question: in spite of
intense emotions, feelings of not being loved were not the criteria of her
identity; the word of God was gentle but firm.

Relevant questions help the directee to shift from regarding truth as what
was already out there in one’s history to a fuller sense of reality through
reasoned argument, allowing religious conversion to bear fruit in intellectual
conversion. As Lonergan has iterated, “[f]or a judgment that this or that is so
reports, not what appears to me, not what I imagine, not what I think, not what
I wish, not what I would be inclined to say, not what seems to be, but what is
so.” 26 This can be illustrated by Debbie who suffered gross neglect in
childhood and also had a traumatic experience of being molested. She
articulated her anguish, “I prefer to believe that God did not exist when that
incident happened, I could not accept God’s presence and allowing an
innocent child to suffer!” Spiritual direction, allowing her to articulate the
anguish, exposed her hidden belief and disposed Debbie for God to address the
question if her belief is true. Amazed that she neither died nor went astray
despite all the sufferings, Debbie saw God’s grace not in the reality “out there,”
but in her persistence to survive the sufferings and in the faith she had kept
since childhood. God’s presence in her heart was so real that despite historical
happenings that remained unchanged, Debbie chose to believe what was true
for her. This freedom disposed her to experience a deeper intellectual
conversion in another retreat a few years later. In a contemplation on Jesus’

26
Lonergan, Method in Theology, 100.

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childhood, Debbie saw herself as a young child growing up together with

Jesus. Gradually, her memory brought back the incident of sexual abuse, but
this time she experienced Jesus’ accompaniment. A phrase surfaced in her
heart, “I was helpless but I was not abandoned,” which brought her deep
consolation. Debbie experienced intellectual conversion when she could
distinguish the feeling of helplessness versus the reality of not being
abandoned. The power of this phrase was beyond her own capacity which
proved to her this was a grace from God to free her from her anguishes.

The process of moral self-transcendence when one inquires, answers

and lives by objective values is also filled with fertile tensions. Despite the
desire to follow Christ to the point of poverty, humiliation and humility,
directees filled with awe and fear may exhibit various kinds of reactions during
the process such as avoidance, subjecting the ends to the means, rash
decisions, illogical judgments, deceptions, indecisiveness, etc. The operations
of consciousness are helpful reference points for accompaniment during this
process. For example, Teresa, during the Second Week of the Spiritual
Exercises, avoided the consideration of election and convinced herself with
various justifications that discerning God’s will would imply a mistrust in God,
or that discernment would distract her from contemplating the life of Christ.
Exploring how she understood her justifications revealed her fears, and
bringing these fears to prayer disposed her to greater indifference. Another
illustration on the application of the operations of consciousness is Sylvia, a
teacher with tremendous love for her students who had great spiritual
consolations when she saw Jesus entrusting lambs to her care. But she became
confused when she recalled the frustrations and tiredness from her teaching.
Questions during the spiritual direction session helped to explore the cause of
the frustrations such as time management, and clarified that these issues
required further attention but they were technical problems and do not weigh
equally with love for students. Sylvia was able to make reasonable judgments

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as she remarked, “some voices, despite their loudness, are not so important at
all.” There is moral conversion when love became her referential value in
decision-making, which in turn led her to ask further intellectual questions
about setting priorities and making better time arrangements.

5. Conclusion
Lonergan’s cognitional theory is a practical framework for spiritual
direction to accompany the directee’s Ignatian journey through conversions to
authenticity. An Ignatian journey is full of fertile tensions between movements
and counter-movements. Growth in relationships requires not only paying
attention to the other, but also awareness of what is happening inside oneself.
Similarly, in one’s relationship with God, conscious presence to oneself is a
foundation for presence to the Other. By asking relevant questions in line with
the transcendental precepts of being attentive, intelligent, reasonable and
responsible, spiritual direction helps the directee to focus on the pivotal point in
self-appropriation, so that one is disposed to allow “the Creator to deal
immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord.” [15]

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〔摘要〕依納爵靈修是建基於神操的動力，行神操者展開一個向內
走的心靈旅程，重遇真我，並重獲和活出一己真誠的渴望，分辨天
主的旨意。在依納爵靈修傳統中，靈修指導或靈修陪伴扮演著一個
重要的角色，陪伴著避靜者走過連串的皈依，從不自由中釋放出來，
活出真實的生命。那麼，除了同感的聆聽、鼓勵的說話、給予默想
的材料之外，靈修指導可以怎樣才對避靜者更有神益？

朗尼根對意識的操作的研究提供了一個清晰而有系統的架構，關於
人的思想和情感如何整合地操作。本文探討這「意識的操作」框架
對靈修指導的貢獻。文章先闡述依納爵靈修作為一個邁向真我的旅
程，期間通過重重皈依，繼而討論和肯定「意識的操作」對靈修指
導於陪伴路上的貢獻。

關鍵詞：依納爵靈修，靈修指導，朗尼根，意識的操作，皈依

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The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the

Discernment of Spirits in Spiritual Direction

Veronica Lai

Abstract: St. Ignatius of Loyola, wrote the Spirit Exercises with the purpose to
save souls. From his own conversion experience on the recovery bed, he
discovered two opposite forces in operation– the good and bad spirits. He
wrote down the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits for spiritual directors.
Discernment is not a linear process.

Five centuries have passed since the birth of this saint; thanks to the diligent
work of many experts and practitioners in different disciplines, and the
breakthrough in medical technologies like imaging, we acquired more
knowledge and understanding of human beings, able to see what was invisible
inside the human bodies – the energy flow, the movements of neurons, blood
flow, brain cells, etc.

This paper articulates the development of significant neuroscience findings

and the use of Somatic Experiencing, a body-based trauma healing model
developed by Peter Levine in the process of discernment of spirits in spiritual
direction. Two case studies are included to illustrate the examination process.

Keywords: Spiritual Exercises, Discernment of Spirits, Somatic Experiencing,

Neuroscience

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Veronica Lai “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the Discernment of Spirits
in Spiritual Direction”

St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) wrote the Spiritual Exercises with

the purpose to save souls. From his own conversion experience on the
recovery bed, he experienced and discovered two opposite forces in
operation—the good and bad spirits. By revisiting and re-examining the
details of his dreams, he detected and differentiated the dynamics of the two
spirits, hence he formulated the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits for
spiritual directors. Discernment is not a linear process; “one needs to be
generally sensitive to the whole fluid and elusive realm of one’s feelings and
reactions.”1

As noted in the Fifth Rule of “Rules for the Discernment of Spirits” in

the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises [SE 333],2

We must pay close attention to the whole course of our thoughts: if

the beginning, middle and end are entirely good and tend towards
what is wholly right, this is a sign of the good angel. But if the course
of the thoughts suggested to us leads us finally to something bad or
distracting, or less good than what one had previously intended to do,
or if in the end the soul is weakened, upset or distressed, losing the
peace, tranquility and quiet previously experienced—all this is a clear
sign of the bad spirit, the enemy of our progress and eternal well-
being.3

How to pay close attention to the whole course of our thoughts? What
are the things to look out for? What are the signs to be aware of? What are the
elements of the movements?

In the past century, psychology was the major scientific discipline that
studied the human mind and behavior. Thanks to the dedication and diligent
work of experts and practitioners in different disciplines, plus the breakthrough

1
Michael Ivens, SJ., Understanding the Spiritual Exercises (London: Morehouse
Group, 2000), 206.
2
References to the text of the Spiritual Exercises in this article are given in square
brackets [SE, followed by the numbered paragraph(s)].
3
Ibid., 232.

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in medical technologies like imaging, these advances enable and encourage

more inter-disciplinary collaboration to study the human being as a whole
organism, not as individual parts or systems. In the 1950s, Francis Schmitt
established the first neuroscience research program in the Biology Department
at the Massachusetts of Technology, bringing together biology, chemistry,
physics, and mathematics. Since then the scope of neuroscience has been
broadened, embracing different approaches to study the biological basis of
learning, memory, behavior, perception and consciousness. These new
findings of the functions of the brain and of the nervous system enable a new
paradigm for the seemingly non-related disciplines to collaborate together, to
name just a few: neuroethology, neuropsychology, neuroeconomics… even
neurotheology. Peter Levine, developer of Somatic Experiencing received his
doctoral degree in medical biophysics and holds a doctorate in psychology; he
devoted his passion and time to study the impact of trauma on the nervous
system. Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented trauma healing model based
on a multidisciplinary knowledge of physiology, psychology, ethology,
biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices and medical biophysics.4

In this paper, I am going to examine some significant milestones of

findings in neuroscience to explain some Ignatian terms such as sentir, and the
“application of the senses” and how to apply Somatic Experiencing as an
approach to the discernment of spirits in spiritual direction.

I. Significant Milestones of Neuroscientific Findings

The Word became flesh.

A mystery.

4
“What is Somatic Experiencing?” accessed June 18, 2020,
https://traumahealing.org/se-101/.

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in Spiritual Direction”

How much do we understand how the human body functions? From

basic survival for food, safety and procreation to more sophisticated abstract
thinking, creativity and searching for the meaning of life?

Many people know Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published his theory

of evolution in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859, but few know that
he was also among the first psychologists to study human psychology. In
1872, he published The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals; his
findings inspired many psychologists to conduct research in this area and
today “many agree that certain emotions are universal to all humans,
regardless of culture: anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness and sadness.”5

1. How Does the Brain Function?

It is a long and winding road to understand the human brain and behavior.

For centuries, René Descartes (1596-1650), a French philosopher,

whose idea that human beings are “a thinking thing” and that there exists a
body-mind dualism had a significant influence on earlier philosophers,
theologians and physicists. However, in 1948, Paul Ivan Yakovlev (1894-
1983), a Russian-born neuropathologist, published a paper titled Motility,
behavior and the brain; stereodynamic organization and neural coordinates of
behavior, challenged the traditional Cartesian view that the thinking brain was
the control center. Yakovlev argued that “the innermost and evolutionarily
most primitive brain structures in the brain stem and hypothalamus are those
that regulate the internal states through autonomic control of the viscera and
blood vessels.... The most primitive system forms the matrix upon which the

5
Ferris Jabr, “The Evolution of Emotion: Charles Darwin’s little-known psychology
experiment,” Scientific American, May 24, 2010,
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-evolution-of-emotion-charles-
darwins-little-known-psychology-experiment/.

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remainder of the brain, as well as behavior is elaborated.”6 His theory upset

the top-down model that it was the “higher” thinking brain that controlled the
“lower” functions of the body, such as the digestive system. His research
opened a whole new dimension to understanding how the human organism
functions, how the mind and body are interconnected instead of being distinct
parts, and that “we feel and think with our guts.”7
The human nervous system conducts stimuli from sensory receptors to
the brain and spinal cord, and conducts impulses back to other parts of the
body. It has two main parts: the central nervous system (the brain and spinal
cord) and the peripheral nervous system (the nerves that carry impulses to and
from the central nervous system).

2. The Triune Brain Model

Another important figure who provided a new map for modern
neuroscientists to study brain functions was Paul MacLean (1913-2007), an
American physician and neuroscientist, who formulated the Triune Brain
Model in the 1960s.

Figure 1. Paul Maclean’s Triune Brain8

6
Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2010), 252-253.
7
Ibid., 254.
8
Credit: PAFCA, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via
Wikimedia Commons

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His research showed that the human brain was in reality three brains in
one: neo-cortex, limbic system, and reptilian complex. “Although these
fundamental brain structures show differences in structure and chemistry, all
three intermesh and are meant to function together as a unitary (triune) brain.”9

The basic functions of the triune brain:

i. Neocortex: thinking, conscious memory, symbols, planning and

inhibition of impulses
ii. Limbic system: feelings, motivation, interaction and relationship
iii. Reptilian complex: sensations, arousal-regulation (homeostasis) and
initiation of movement impulses.10
This simple model illustrated the functions of different parts of the brain.
The implication is that each part requires different languages for
communication. For the limbic system, we use the language of feelings such
as happy, delighted, excited, panic, anxious, surprise, shock, sad, lonely,
disgust, being loved, angry, etc. For the reptilian complex, we use the language
of sensations such as tingling, shaking, hot, cold, warm, dry, wet, sticky,
electric shock, goose bump, open, numb, expanding, constricting, burning,
itchy, sweaty, etc. 11 When we engage the triune brain to describe one
experience, it may sound like this: when I remember the first trip to Paris with
my good friends, I still feel the excitement and joy; my chest relaxes, the heart
beats a little faster; I take a deep breath with a smile on my face.

3. The Five Senses

How do we understand and perceive the world? It is through the five

senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. The stimuli from each sensing

9
Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice, 256.
10
Ibid., 256.
11
Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing Beginning Year Manual (Boulder, CO: Somatic
Experiencing Trauma Institute, 1997), 28-29.

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organ in the body are relayed to different parts of the brain through the nervous
system.

The limbic system plays a vital role in sensory perception, sensory

interpretation and motor function. The amygdala, for example, receives
sensory signals from the thalamus and uses the information in the processing
of emotions such as fear, anger, and pleasure. It also determines what
memories are stored and where the memories are stored in the brain.12

“The limbic lobe”; OpenStax College, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>,

via Wikimedia Commons
The Invention of Medical Technology

The medical invention of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in the

1960s and other imaging technologies like functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI) provide an important tool for researchers to ‘observe’ that the
triune brain is in action throughout the whole body via the nervous system, not
just in the head. Any thoughts in the mind, feelings or sensation in the body
are interconnected and affect each other. We can now actually see what was
invisible inside the body—the energy flow, blood vessels, how and which
neurons are “fired or charged” and where in the body when a thought arises, or

12
See the senses’ map figure in R. Bailey, Overview of Five Senses, Thought Co.,
updated July 16, 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/five-senses-and-how-they-work-
3888470/.

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when there is a sensation—that leads to many studies on body processes like

the one mentioned below—a bodily map of emotions.

5. A Bodily Map of Emotions

In 2014, Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and Jari K.

Hietanen conducted a research using a topographical self-report tool to reveal
how different emotional states are associated with distinct bodily sensations as
shown in the following figure13:

Figure 3: Bodily topography of basic (Upper) and non-basic (Lower) emotions associated
with words. The body maps show regions whose activation increase (warm colors) or
decreased (cool colors) when feeling each emotion.
(P < 0.05 FDR corrected; t > 1.94). The color bar indicates the t-statistic range.

13
Lauri Nummenmaa et al. “Bodily Maps of Emotions,” Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, January 14, 2014,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1321664111. (Editor’s note: The Bodily Map of Emotions
is originally in color. You can visit the reference link to view the original image which is
Fig. 2 in that article.)

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The findings suggest that emotions are in motion. Emotions are not
something to talk about, they are processes happening on different body levels;
they are whole body experience.

These researches continue to reveal that the mystery of the brain is not
hardwired or fixed, but is plastic and changes in structure with changes in
thoughts, feelings and behaviors. This neuroplasticity of the brain brings new
hope for healing diseases, trauma and the well-being of human being.

II. Why are these Neuroscientific Findings about the

Functions of the Brain Important in Spiritual Direction?
St Ignatius of Loyola who lived in the 16th century did not have access
to our knowledge of neuroscience today, but when he wrote the Spiritual
Exercises, he put much emphasis on sentir which covers a combination of the
bodily senses, the affectivity and the understanding14 (now we know they are
the functions of the triune brain). He emphasized the essence of obtaining
“interior knowledge—for it is not much knowledge but the inner feeling and
relish of things that fills and satisfies the soul”15 and the Prayer of the Senses 16
in the Spiritual Exercises. It is the full body experience both inside our bodies
and of events from the outside that are important in the spiritual journey. What
St Ignatius deemed to be important in our human experience is now proven by
neuroscientists and psychologists.
When St. Ignatius was lying on his sick bed dreaming about following
Christ to save souls and chasing the young lady for his personal glory, he

14
Antonio Guillen, ‘Imitating Christ our Lord with the Senses,’ The Way 47, no. 1
(2008), 225-241.
15
Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercise, 4.
16
Ibid., 97.

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experienced two forces working within him—the good and bad spirits. They
pulled him in different directions and affected him differently as regards his
feelings, bodily sensation and the meaning of his life. He spent months, not
days or weeks during his recovery to examine, re-visit, and re-examine the
details of his dreams, then he could detect and differentiate the dynamics of the
two spirits. He gradually identified the behaviors of the good spirits “like a
drop of water penetrating a sponge” or the bad spirits “like a drop of water
falling upon a stone.”17 The more we are familiar with the knowledge of these
spirits’ dynamic, the better we can discern and follow in the footsteps of Jesus
Christ.

1. How to Track the Directee’s Emotions and Body Behavior in

Spiritual Direction?
In spiritual direction, we usually listen and pay attention to the directees’
stories, without taking notice of their bodily experience. Fr. William Johnston,
S.J., in his book The Mirror Mind (1981), observed on the spiritual direction
process, “Now let me add that this process of listening is not complete until
one learns to listen also to the body.”18 He also said, “Language/word, beliefs
affect our body/posture… look at a very pious one obeying the ten
commandments…, the Pharisees…even Paul, how rigid they were in action,
no flexibility, only in the extreme, muscle and joints are locked.” 19 The
question is “How to listen to the body?”

2. Somatic Experiencing
Since the 1960s, there are more and more body-based psychotherapy
models developed to heal trauma and resolve stress disorders. Eugene

17
Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 234-235.
18
William Johnston, The Mirror Mind: Spirituality & Transformation (London: Fount
Paperbacks, 1983), 60.
19
Ibid, 75.

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Gendlin developed the Focusing Psychotherapy approach, and introduced a

new term “felt-sense” which provides a language to describe the innate body-
felt experience.20

Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented trauma healing method

developed by Peter Levine in the 1970s. Somatic Experiencing focuses on the
“felt sense” in the present moment to relieve the physical, emotional and
physiological effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and other stress- and
trauma-related health problems.”21 This model is based on other research
findings such as the Triune Brain theory by Paul MacLean and the Polyvagal
theory by Stephen Porges. Levine explains how the autonomic nervous
system behaves in different fight-flight-freeze situations and developes
different ways to resolve trauma. I find some of the techniques of Somatic
Experiencing, namely SIBAM (to be explained below), the Tracking and the
Vocabulary of Sensations useful in spiritual direction, especially in the
discernment of spirits. Other psychological and counselling models like
Cognitvie-Behavioral therapy, or Person-Centered therapy do not emphasize
bodily sensations which we now know in neuroscience constitute a significant
part of the human experience. In addition, Somatic Experiencing addresses the
elements of voluntary and involuntary, conscious and unconscious, individual
and collective experiences that are essential in examining the whole process of
the movements of the soul:

By the term movements of the soul the Exercises refer to the

interactions of feelings, thoughts and impulses of attraction and recoil,
which occur spontaneously in consciousness. It should be
remembered that these movements consist in thoughts as well as
feelings, “thoughts” in this context being not dispassionate or solely

20
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. “Eugene T. Gendlin,” accessed June 18, 2020,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Gendlin/.
21
“What is Somatic Experiencing?” accessed October 11, 2021,
http://www.seaustralia.com.au/what-is-somatic-experiencing/.

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in Spiritual Direction”

speculative thoughts, but thoughts as it were “charged” with feeling.

In the vocabulary of the Exercises, “thoughts” also include the activity
in the imagination.22

SIBAM
Peter Levine developed this framework to “track” his clients when they
were processing experiences. SIBAM stands for Sensation, Image, Behavior,
Affect and Meaning. The SIBAM model incorporates the neurophysiologic,
somatic, sensory, behavioral and affective aspects of an individual’s
experience:

SIBAM is the essence of “bottom-up,” sensorimotor processing aimed

at guiding the client through different “languages” and brain systems, from the
most primitive to the most complex; from physical sensations to feelings,
perceptions and finally to thoughts.23

When we attend to the phenomena of these five elements both inside

and outside the body, we can gain important information to process our
experience in greater detail. One particular sensation is always connected to
that image, to that behavior, to that affect and to that meaning.

Figure 4: SIBAM Model 24

22
Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercise, 210.
23
Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice, 139
24
Pedro Prado, Lecture notes on Hong Kong Somatic Experiencing Training Beginning
II Level (November 14-22, 2020).

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Among the five elements of SIBAM, except for the Behavior level that
can be observed directly, other elements are reported by the clients. In brief,
SIBAM covers the following:

Sensation refers to interoceptive (from receptors lying in the interior of our

organisms), physical sensations that arise from within the body (from the most
conscious to the least conscious) including:

 Kinesthetic – muscle tension patterns

 Proprioceptive – awareness of our position in space
 Vestibular – acceleration and deceleration
 Visceral – sensations from the viscera (guts, heart, and lungs) and
blood vessels which involve the functions of the vagus nerve that
connects the brain stem to most of our internal organs. According to the
Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges, “this vagus nerve is second only
to the spinal cord in total number of neurons. Over 90% of these fibres
are afferent, relaying information from our guts upward to our brains.
Thus, the colloquialisms ‘gut instinct,’ ‘gut feelings’ do have a robust
anatomical and physiological basis. For example: When we feel
relaxed, our blood vessels and viscera gently pulse like jellyfish, causing
sensations of warmth. When the vessels and viscera are constricted, we
feel cold and anxious.”25 Please refer to the above-mentioned “Bodily
Map of Emotions” in which different emotional states are associated
with distinct bodily sensations.
 The Vocabulary of Sensations26 are used to describe different bodily
sensations, such as hot, cold, numb, tight, raw, chilled, electric,
expanding, energized, shaking, trembling, soft, strong, tingling etc. This

25
Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice, 141.
26
Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing Beginning Manual (Boulder, Somatic
Experiencing Trauma Institute), 28.

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is often the part that is overlooked and neglected in our daily

conversations and spiritual direction.

Image refers to both external stimuli (which include the five senses of sight,
taste, smell, hearing and tactile) and internal images (such as thoughts, dreams,
etc.). For example, the image of a full moon may evoke pleasant memories
with the taste of moon cakes and the sounds of a friend’s laughter, or it may
bring up feelings of loneliness, missing loved ones and experience heartache or
headache. The image affects how we feel, which memory surfaces, how we
sense in the body and what meaning we attach to that particular image.

Behavior is the only channel that the observer is able to observe directly. One
can sometimes “infer the speaker’s inner states from reading his/her body
language, the unspoken language of his/her actions/inactions or tension
patterns.”27 These elements refer to any observable behavior:

 Voluntary gestures – such as hands and arms movements when

communicating
 Emotional or facial expressions – generally are considered to be
largely involuntary, like changes in the muscle tension of the face, jaw
tightening, smiling, sobbing, laughing, twitching of the lips, etc.
 Posture – the platforms from which intrinsic movement is initiated;
typically refers to the spine—rigid, collapsed, braced, twisted; retraction,
expansion, openness, preparatory movement of fight/flight, etc.
 Autonomic signals – includes the cardiovascular and respiratory
systems, like breathing rates, heart rate by observing the carotid pulse in
the neck, pupil size, skin tone, etc.
 Visceral behavior – digestive shifts can be “observed” via changing
sounds in the gut.

27
Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice, 143.

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 Archetypal behavior that includes subtle involuntary hands and arms

gestures or postural shifts that are similar to hand/finger/arm movements
in sacred dances, known as mudras that convey universal meanings
across the spectrum of the human experience. “These archetypal
movements arise at unique moments when the instinctual is seamlessly
wedded with one’s conscious awareness—when the primitive brain
stem and the highest neocortical functions integrate.”28

Affect refers to the categorical emotions of fear, anger, sadness, joy and
disgust, as well as contours of feelings. Contours are the nuanced, sensation-
based (felt sense) feelings of attraction and avoidance, of “goodness” and
“badness,” that guide us through the day.

Meaning refers to “the labels we attach to the totality of experience—the

combined elements of sensation, image, behavior and affect.”29 These include
trauma-based fixed beliefs, distorted values, bias, prejudice, such as “I can trust
no one,” “I am bad,” “all step-mothers are cruel,” etc.

Our beliefs and values are influenced by our families, societies, cultures,
technologies, religions and personal experiences; some of them may not be
relevant anymore; some need to be updated or upgraded. By examining the
first four elements of Sensation, Image, Behavior and Affect thoroughly, it is
probable for fresh new meaning to emerge with a heightened awareness and
consciousness.

Tracking

When we read about St Ignatius’s experience during his first

discernment of spirits at Manresa, he did so by repeatedly tracking the

28
Peter Levine, Trauma and Memory (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015), 47.
29
Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice, 151.

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in Spiritual Direction”

movements of the two different spirits—how different thoughts created

different feelings, sensations and meanings inside his whole body.30
In spiritual direction, we track the sensations of our directee by
observing how their body and nervous systems respond to whatever is being
spoken, felt or remembered. By listening to how they tell their stories, we
observe their SIBAM. We track for changes and shifts; we observe their
gestures, postures, tone of voice and facial expressions. Like a detective, we
follow the trail all the way back to the source—is it from the good or bad spirit?
Note that when we check the sensations, we need to give as much time as is
needed, as it takes much time for the body to sense; and sometimes we need to
provide or suggest to the directee a vocabulary of sensations.
In general, we ask open-ended questions to track SIBAM:

 As you are talking about this person/event/memory/prayer

experience, what do you feel? (May need to help the directee to name
the feelings.)
 As you feel sad/angry/frustrated/excited, where is this feeling in your
body? (May need to guide them to check: in your
chest/belly/hands/jaw/face…?)
 What is the sensation like in your chest? (May need to provide
suggestions like heavy, light, cold, warm, heart beat faster, sweating,
tingling…?)
 When you feel sad/angry/frustrated/excited, what else do you notice?

In the process, the spiritual director does self-tracking in order to be

aware of any provocation from the directee’s story. It is important to

30
Joseph A. Munitiz & Philip Endean. Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings
(London: Penguin Group, 1996), 15.

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develop self-awareness as the bad spirits are active all the time in both
the spiritual director and the directee.

III. Session Sharing

Don’t try to interpret, analyse, or explain what is happening: just
experience and note it, observe them and let them go. “Take it as it
comes” is the best way to learn the language of felt sense.
Information will come in the form of words, pictures, insights, and
emotions, which invariably will be accompanied by another layer of
sensations.31

I would like to share two spiritual direction sessions to show how I use
the SIBAM to deepen the directees’ religious experience and to discern the
movements of the spirits. It may sound “odd or even weird” as this is not the
usual way we converse in daily life. Both directees had participated in
previous Ignatian workshops and shorter retreats. The sessions were part of
the eight-day retreat.

1. Directee A:

A had worked for a financial company for over 15 years. Due to the
financial crisis, the company had to restructure and downsize, A had to take up
more job duties and worked long hours everyday. He had lost his enthusiasm
and love for God. He found both working and family lives stressful and
demanding. He had no particular desire for the retreat but wanted to be free
and longed for simplicity in life.

On the first day of the retreat, I invited him to rest and enjoy the
environment of the retreat house. I invited him to read the first day of Creation

31
Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1997), 73.

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in Spiritual Direction”

(Genesis 1:1-5). I suggested that he could do anything, such as drawing,

swimming and sleeping to rest and relax himself.

On the second day, he told me that he was very happy when I suggested
that he could draw.

A: Directee A V: Veronica
A: When I read the second day of Creation, I noticed how God did things
step by step. God was not in a hurry. I went up to the rooftop to look at
the sky, the ocean, the land. It’s so beautiful. I haven’t felt so relaxed
for a long time. I started to appreciate the beauty of nature. I took out
the crayons to draw the trees, flowers, mountains…I felt a deep joy in
my heart. (A gentle smile on his face; his eye sparkle.) When I was a
kid, I loved drawing and I drew well. But my father was very strict, he
forbade me to draw when I started secondary school. He said drawing
was not productive and a waste of time. He expected me to get good
grades at school, and then find a good job. (A sad look on his face, face
falls, and a flat tone of voice.) I remembered my father’s face and then
heard a voice in my mind, “See, you are so lazy and just want to play,
you haven’t changed since you were a boy. You are on a retreat, you
should read the Bible and pray!” So, I stopped drawing…blaming
myself for not taking the retreat seriously! (His body immediately
collapses on the chair.)
V: What else do you notice?
A: I feel sad and guilty because I am wasting time here. (His head lowered,
he tears up, his shoulders brace and his eyes look down on the floor.)
V: Let’s pause and go back a little. When you said that you realized God is
not in a hurry, doing things step by step, what was your experience?
A: (Starts to sit up a little bit, wiping the tears) I felt relaxed, a sense of relief
and a little surprised. I pushed myself and worked very hard all my life,
but on the contrary, God was not in a hurry!
V: Where in your body did you feel this relief?
A: My chest. I can breathe more easily. I can even smell the roses, sensing
the breeze blowing over my body. I feel like melting in the arms of God.
I am very touched. My image of God was like my father, strict and

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demanding, but this time I experience God’s tenderness and gentleness.

Quite a surprise. (His tone lifts, his eyes open wider and his hands rest
on the armrest.)
V: When you started to draw the trees, flowers…what happened?
A: Oh, it was a wonderful feeling to hold the crayons in my hand. It was
such a joy. I felt the little boy inside me becoming alive again. (Moving
his fingers and wrist like he is drawing.)
V: What is it like to feel alive again in your body?
A: There was a warmth throughout my body, my heart beats faster, my
whole body feels much lighter. I feel energized (He lifts his head up, a
smile on his face, his eyes sparkle, his right hand on his chest.) and feel
there is hope in life. I am 47 years old, hmmmm… mid-life crisis, it’s
about time to think about what’s important in life.
V: You feel hopeful and want to explore what’s important in life. Then,
what happened when you recalled your father’s face and heard his voice?
A: In a way, I regressed to a little boy. The voice reminded me that my
father always scolded me for being “lazy and unproductive”…I had to
obey my father…otherwise he would beat me and there’d be no dinner.
I had no choice.
V: What did you feel when you heard the voice scolding you?
A: It was loud and mean, just like my father’s voice. It was scary. My
heart began to pound and beat very fast. My limbs felt numb and weak,
felt like my father was going to beat me and I could not escape. I told
myself, “I have made a mistake again! I have made father angry again!”
So, I felt guilty and sad. (Body slightly collapses, his head down,
breathing heavily.)
V: These are two very different experiences. Let’s review them. What is
the impact of each experience on you? How are they different?
A: Yes, they were very different, but they happened so fast. The first one
made me feel relaxed and hopeful. It gave me a new understanding and
experience of God. I did not expect this. It’s a pleasant surprise. The
other was heavy and depressing. It pulled me back to the past and kind
of reminded me that I had no choice, I was still under my father’s power.
I was still trapped.

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Veronica Lai “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the Discernment of Spirits
in Spiritual Direction”

The good spirit touched A with “tenderness and gentleness” but the bad
spirit did the contrary “to bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false
reasons, that one may not go on.” [SE 315]32

In the following table, I use SIBAM to illustrate how the movements of

the good and bad spirits manifested themselves and the corresponding Rules
for the Discernment of Spirits that are observed in the last row of the table.

Good Spirit Bad Spirit

Sensation Open chest Heart pounding
Deeper breathing Limbs numbed and
Warmth in the body powerless
Energized
Image Nature: flowers, Strict, punitive father
mountains, breeze scolding him: “lazy and
unproductive”
God is not in a hurry
Behavior Draw pictures Head down
Smile on his face Body collapses
Affect Relaxed, hopeful, joy, Guilty, scared, sad,
enjoying himself trapped
Meaning I have grown up I made mistake again
I can make my own I was trapped like the
choices little boy
I had no choice
New image of God: gentle
and tender
Guidelines
for First Week [313-327]33
Discerning
Spirits

32
Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 212.
33
Louis J. Puhl, S.J., The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (Chicago: Loyola Press,
1950), 141-146.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

2. Directee B
B was in her early 60s. She served as an evangelist for over 25
years. The church hired a new pastor last year and she had difficulties working
with him. She felt rejected and despised. One of her brothers had committed
suicide one year ago and her mother died of a heart attack two months ago.

On the third day, I suggested that she pray on the scriptural passage
“Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son at Nain.” (Luke 7:11-17)

B: Directee B V: Veronica
B: I could not pray on the scripture you gave me yesterday. I was too upset.
V: Tell me what happened.
B: I was angry. Jesus would show up in the scene to comfort the widow
and resurrect the boy. But in my prayer, I only saw two hands. I want
to see Jesus in my prayer, but he never answers my prayer. I heard so
many others say that Jesus would sit beside them or hug them, but it
never happened to me. I know I am not welcome. From the day I was
born, my parents did not like me because I am a girl. Even Jesus does
not want to come close to me.
V: I see that you are very angry and upset.
B: Yes, I am angry, upset and sad. (Tears rolling down her cheeks, her
jaws clenched, her right hand in a fist.)
V: I am curious when you said that you always saw two hands in your
prayer. Can you recall this experience?
B: Yes, they are right in front of me. (She shows me the position of the
hands, then bursts into tears.) Jesus does not like me. I disappointed him.
V: How about you look at the hands for a little longer? (Glad that she
agrees.)
B: (Staring at the spot she showed me just now)…Oh, I saw the hands
moving towards me (A sense of wonder on her face, her tears stop, her
eyes open.)…I saw the holes on the palms…Oh! They are the hands of
the resurrected Jesus…They are touching my broken heart… (She
lowers her head slowly and becomes more attentive and still.)…the

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Veronica Lai “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the Discernment of Spirits
in Spiritual Direction”

hands tenderly wiping the blood, soothing and comforting my

wounds…then the hand put a band-aid on the wounds…(Suddenly she
looks up in the air.)…I hear a song in my mind, it’s one of my favourite
hymns. The lyrics are about following God till the end of my life
because he is my only saviour…(Then she starts to sing it…head up,
body straight, stronger breathing.)
V: Oh, you heard a song in your mind…but let’s go back to your
heart…let’s see what happens next when the hand put a band-aid on the
wounds? (Glad that she is willing to stop singing and brings her
attention back to the heart.)
B: (She lowers her head again and put her hands on her chest.)… I feel the
hands are embracing my broken heart…My heart can finally
settle…there is an anchor for my heart to land…I feel being comforted,
Jesus understands my pain.
V: Jesus comes in person to embrace your heart, what is it like?
B: Amazing. I have never thought Jesus would do this to me…I thought
when I saw the band-aid, that’s it…now I feel safe and not alone…now
I know why God only lets me see the hands…God wants to come and
heal my wounds in person…wow, it’s beyond my imagination.
V: (I let her settle and savor the experience. We sit silently for a while.)
V: Let’s review what happened just now. What happened when you heard
the hymn in your mind?
B: I left Jesus’ healing work on me…As I started to sing, I felt there was
heat in my body, feeling so energized and good. Then I started to think
that the lyrics are true…The theology is right that God alone is my
Savior…There was a voice telling me, “Now Jesus has healed you, you
should go and serve God more.”…then I started to think about the
project I am working on at church…I focus on myself more. I left Jesus.
V: Then what happened when I invited you to come back to the healing
work?
B: The experience was much deeper. I could feel the presence of Jesus. I
could sense God’s tender love and total acceptance of my
unworthiness…I was overwhelmed with joy and surprise…I have never

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

thought that Jesus would come so close to me. I felt the anchor in my
heart. Jesus knows what I need now is healing, not just do do do…
V: What is it like when your heart finds the anchor? What changes do you
notice in your chest?
B: I feel more relaxed, my chest becomes lighter and more spacious
inside. I can breathe better and deeper. My whole body is calming
down. I am safe now. Oh! My God! God really loves me. I am the
beloved daughter. (Tears rolling down her cheeks, she sits back in
silence.)

Good Spirit Bad Spirit

Sensation Warmth Heartbeat faster
Heart settled and calm Heat in the body
Chest relaxed, lighter and Feel energized
more spacious inside Stronger breathing
Breathe better and deeper

Image The two hands Other people could

see Jesus, not me

Jesus’ resurrected hands Hear the hymn

with the holes

Hear “Now Jesus

Jesus puts a band-aid on has healed you, you
her broken heart should go and serve
Jesus’ hands embracing her God more.”
broken heart
Anchor in her heart Her projects at
church
Behavior Eyes open Holding right fist
Body becomes still and Tight jaw
attentive Sing the hymn
Sit back

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Veronica Lai “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the Discernment of Spirits
in Spiritual Direction”

Affect Amazed Angry, upset and

sad

Being touched, comforted, Feel energized and

soothed and understood good

Feel safe and not alone

Joy and surprise
Meaning Jesus understands my pain I am not welcome

Jesus knows what I need is

I disappointed Jesus
healing now

God really loves me as I Jesus does not like

am, not because of how me
much I do

Need to do all the

I am the beloved daughter time
Rules for the
Discernment of Second Week [328-336]34
Spirits

The bad spirit tried to tempt Directee B with her favourite hymn with
good meaning to take her away from the intimate moment with Jesus. As
Guillen suggests, “a full examination that covers all stages of the experience
will finish up revealing the ‘serpent’s tail’ of the Tempter, the evil end to
which he leads.”35

34
Louis J. Puhl, S.J., The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (Chicago: Loyola Press,
1950), 147-150.
35
Antonio Guillen, ‘Deceptions in Discernment,’ The Way 49, no. 3 (2010), 81-93.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Conclusion:
Five centuries have passed since the time of St. Ignatius, with advances
in sciences, technologies, neurosciences and other disciplines of studies on
human and our universe; there are more tools available to widen and deepen
our self-understanding and the knowledge of God. This self-knowledge and
knowledge of the spirits are essential to guide us to discern if our decision
leads us to follow God or away from God.

There are many voices in our daily lives, not just when we pray. The
ability to recognise God’s voice like the sheep recognising the shepherd, and
how the bad spirit stirs us up are vital in developing personal relationship with
God and to strengthen us to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Somatic
Experiencing, a body-based trauma healing model, provides an appropriate
tool to examine the movement of the spirits and to “detect across the whole
spectrum of our activity and consciousness the movements through which the
Holy Spirit leads and enlightens us, and those through which other influences,
if given their head, work against that guiding and light.”36 The more we learn
to pay attention to the SIBAM, the more skilful we can be to discern the spirits
and to follow Christ closer and better.

Like St. Ignatius, we review, re-visit and re-examine the details of our
experiences, engaging in “every way of preparing and making ourselves ready
to get rid of all disordered affections so that, once rid of them, one might seek
and find the divine will in regard to the disposition of one’s life for the
salvation of the soul.”37

36
Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 207.
37
Ibid., 1.

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Veronica Lai “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the Discernment of Spirits
in Spiritual Direction”

Bibliography:
Barrett, Lisa F. How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017
Damasio, Antonio. Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human
Brain. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
Damasio, Antonio. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling
Brain. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc., 2003.
Ekman, Paul. Emotions Revealed. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.
Gendlin, Eugene T. Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: A Manual of the
Experiential Method. New York: The Guildford Press, 1998.
Guillen, Antonio. “Deceptions in Discernment.” The Way 49, no. 3 (July
2010): 81-93.
Guillen, Antonio. “Imitating Christ our Lord with the Senses.” The Way 47, no.
1 (January/April, 2008): 225-241.
Guillen, Antonio. “What We Learn from Desolation.” The Way 43, no. 3 (July
2004): 35-48.
Ivens, Michael. Understanding the Spiritual Exercises. London: The
Morehouse Group, 2000.
James, Walsh. “The Discernment of Spirits.” The Way 16, no. 2 (Spring, 1972):
54-66.
Johnston, William. Silent Music: The Science of Meditation. New York:
Fordham University Press, 1997.
Johnston, William. The Mirror Mind: Spirituality & Transformation. London:
Harper & Row Inc., 1983.
Johnston, William. Christian Zen. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1971.
Legavre, Paul. “Discerning Joy: The Ignatian Way.” The Way 47, no. 1-2
(Jan/April 2008): 143-153.
Levine, Peter. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Berkeley: North Atlantic
Books, 1997.
Levine, Peter, & Kline, Maggie. Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes. Berkeley:
North Atlantic Books, 2007.

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Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies (2021) No. 12

Levine, Peter. In An Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and
Restores Goodness. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2010.
Levine, Peter. Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the
Living Past: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Working with
Traumatic Memory. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2015.
Marcher, L. and S. Fisch. Body Encyclopedia: A Guide to the Psychological
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2010.
Pert, C. Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body
Medicine. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1999.
Porges, Stephen W. The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations
of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. New
York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.
Puhl, Louis J. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Chicago: Loyola Press,
1951.
Sapolsky, Robert M. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. New York: St. Martin’s
Griffin, 1994.
Schemel, George J, and Judith A. Roemer. Beyond Individuation to
Discipleship: A Directory for Those Who Give the Spiritual Exercises of
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Siegel, Daniel J. Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation.
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Van der Kolk, Bessel. The Body Keeps the Score. New York: Viking, 2014.

- 322 -
Veronica Lai “The Use of Somatic Experiencing in the Discernment of Spirits
in Spiritual Direction”

【摘要】 聖依納爵寫神操的目的是為拯救靈魂。他從自己皈依的經
驗當中，留意到有兩種不同的神類在他的幻想中出現: 一種是天主的
靈感，另一種由魔鬼以來；並且寫下了「辨別神類的規則」。辨別
神類不是一個簡單的過程。

聖依納爵誕生在 15 世紀，距今五百多年，隨着科技上不斷突破，和
不同專家在不同領域的專業知識增長，我們對於人類的生理、心
理、思想、行為都有更深的了解，能透過儀器觀察身體內部結構和
狀態，例如能量、神經元、血液運行、腦細胞活動等等。

本文透過介紹一些重要的神經系統科學發展里程碑，和由彼德列汶
博士建立的「體感創傷療法」，指出可以利用「體感創傷療法」的
技巧幫助神操過程中辨別神類，並分享兩個靈修指導的個案作為例
子。

關鍵詞：神操，辨別神類，體感創傷療法，神經系統科學

- 323 -
 對話論壇

為強化大中華地區和國際間對華人天主教團體的學術
研究工作，雙語性質的《天主教研究學報》接受以中文或英
文的投稿，並附以相對語文的摘要。《學報》偶爾或包括書
評及本中心的活動簡訊。本刊每年出版一次，主要以電子方
式發行。我們鼓勵讀者及作者以本刊作互動討論的平台，並
歡迎對本刊批評及提出建議。
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實證考察的研究。本刊歡迎個別投稿及建議期刊專題。本
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香港中文大學天主教研究叢書主編
林榮鈞博士（香港中文大學）
譚偉倫教授（香港中文大學）

學術顧問團
古偉瀛教授（國立臺灣大學）
夏其龍博士（香港中文大學）
譚永亮博士（香港中文大學）
勞伯壎教授（聖神修院神哲學院）
Prof. Philip CHMIELEWSKI, SJ ( Loyola Marymount University, USA )
Prof. Leo D. LEFEBURE ( Georgetown University, USA )
Prof. Peter C. PHAN ( Georgetown University, USA )
Prof. Nicolas STANDAERT, SJ ( Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium )
Prof. Gerard Kevin WHELAN, SJ ( Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome )

General Editors of the Series

Dr. LAM, Anselm Wing Kwan (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Prof. TAM, Wai Lun (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Advisory Committee
Prof. CHMIELEWSKI, Philip, SJ (Loyola Marymount University, USA)
Dr. HA, Louis E. Keloon (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Prof. KU, Weiying (National Taiwan University)
Prof. LEFEBURE, Leo D. (Georgetown University, USA)
Prof. LO, William, S.J. (Holy Spirit Seminary College of Theology &
Philosophy)
Prof. PHAN, Peter C. (Georgetown University, USA)
Prof. STANDAERT, Nicolas, SJ (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)
Dr. TAVEIRNE, Patrick, CICM (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Prof. WHELAN, Gerard Kevin, SJ ( Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome)
香 港 中 文 大 學 天 主 教 研 究 中 心
《天主教研究學報》〈神操與依納爵靈修指導的當代實踐〉

叢書編輯： 林榮鈞、譚偉倫

本期主編： 董澤龍

執行編輯： 潘惠敏

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ISSN： 22197664

Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies

Issue no. 11: Ignatian Spirituality and the Contemporary World
Centre for Catholic Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Series Editors: Anselm LAM, TAM Wai Lun
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