The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

Threshold (Steps 1–3) First Week (Steps 4–7) Second Week (Steps 8–24) Third Week (Steps 25–30) Fourth Week (Steps 31–36)

How to Use This Guide

Praying the Exercises in Everyday Life (19th Annotation)

St. Ignatius wrote the Spiritual Exercises not as a book to be read straight through, but as a structured journey of prayer to be walked step by step. While originally given as a 30-day silent retreat, Ignatius explicitly designed the 19th Annotation (Exx. 19) for men and women with families, jobs, and responsibilities who cannot leave home for a month: by giving one dedicated hour of prayer each morning (plus a 15-minute Daily Examen), you can walk through these 36 steps over several weeks or months right in the middle of ordinary life.

Do I Need a Specific Decision to Discern?

No. While the Second Week includes tools for making a major life choice (Election), Ignatius explicitly states in Paragraph 189 that for those already settled in marriage or vocation without an open state-of-life decision, the Exercises are given to deepen intimacy with Christ, rid the heart of disordered attachments, and amend and reform one’s daily life for the love of God.

The Shape of Every Daily Prayer Hour

1. Before You Start (2 mins): Read the assigned Scripture passage slowly so the story is in your memory. Stand a step or two from your chair or kneeler for the length of an Our Father, considering how Christ our Lord is looking upon you (Exx. 75), and pray the Preparatory Prayer (Exx. 46).
2. The Three Preludes (5 mins): Recall the narrative (Prelude 1), build the physical setting in your imagination—Composition of Place (Prelude 2), and ask for the specific grace of that Week (Prelude 3).
3. The Body of the Prayer (30–40 mins): Walk slowly through the Three Powers (Week 1) or the three imaginative rounds of See the Persons · Hear Their Words · Watch Their Actions (Weeks 2–4), pausing wherever your heart is moved.
4. Colloquy & 15-Minute Review: Speak to the Father, to Christ, or to Our Lady “as one friend speaks to another” (Exx. 54), close with an Our Father, and jot down two or three lines on where you experienced consolation or desolation.

Exx. 1–44, 73–90 · Steps 1–3

Threshold · Preparation, Foundation & The Daily Examen

How to enter the Exercises with generosity, discover the Principle and Foundation of holy indifference, and practice the five-step Daily Examen.

Step 01 · Step 1 · Entering the Exercises Exx. 1–22, 73–90

The Presupposition & How to Enter the Exercises

What Spiritual Exercises are, how to adapt them to daily life (the 19th Annotation), the Presupposition of charitable interpretation, and the ten Additions that frame every hour of prayer.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:7–8 · Psalm 139:23–24 · Luke 14:28

Step 02 · Step 2 · The Foundation of All Things Exx. 23

Principle and Foundation

Why we exist, how all created things are gifts to help us reach our end, and the freedom of ‘holy indifference’—holding health or sickness, riches or poverty, honor or dishonor with open hands.

Scripture: Psalm 139:13–18 · Isaiah 43:1–7 · Romans 8:28–39 · Philippians 4:11–13

Step 03 · Step 3 · The Daily & Particular Examen Exx. 24–44

The Daily & Particular Examen

The heartbeat of Ignatian spirituality: the five-step General Examen of Consciousness to notice how God has been present through your day, and the Particular Examen to uproot one specific disordered habit.

Scripture: Psalm 139:1–6, 23–24 · Lamentations 3:40 · 1 Corinthians 11:28

Exx. 45–90, 313–327 · Steps 4–7

Movement I · The First Week (The Purgative Way)

Beholding the disorder of sin in light of God’s relentless mercy, kneeling before Christ Crucified (‘What have I done for Christ? What am I doing? What ought I to do?’), ending in an exclamation of wonder and the First Week Rules for Discernment.

Step 04 · Step 4 · Week 1, Exercise 1 Exx. 45–54

Meditation with the Three Powers on the First, Second & Third Sin — Ending at the Cross

Seeing the tragedy of sin across cosmic history (the angels, Adam and Eve, and a single mortal sin) only to discover the stunning truth at the foot of the Cross: Christ hanging there for me.

Scripture: Genesis 3:1–19 · Isaiah 14:12–15 · Romans 5:6–21 · Galatians 2:20

Step 05 · Step 5 · Week 1, Exercise 2 Exx. 55–61

Meditation on Personal Sins & The Exclamation of Wonder at God’s Mercy

Walking through the places you have lived, the relationships you have held, and the work you have done—not to end in despair, but to end in an exclamation of wonder at how all creation and God Himself have sustained you in love.

Scripture: Psalm 51:1–17 · Luke 15:11–32 · Ezekiel 36:25–27 · 1 Timothy 1:12–17

Step 06 · Step 6 · Week 1, Exercises 3 & 4 Exx. 62–64

Repetitions of the First & Second Exercises with the Triple Colloquy

How to pray an Ignatian Repetition—returning only to the places where you felt consolation or desolation—and praying the Triple Colloquy to Our Lady, the Son, and the Father for three deep graces.

Scripture: 1 John 2:15–17 · Psalm 130:1–8 · Romans 7:15–25

Step 07 · Step 7 · Week 1, Exercise 5 & Discernment Rules Exx. 65–72, 313–327

Meditation with the Five Senses on Ultimate Separation — & First Week Rules for Discernment

Gazing realistically at the ultimate trajectory of a will closed in upon itself apart from God, giving thanks for the myriad times Christ rescued us from ruin, and learning the Fourteen Rules for Consolation and Desolation.

Scripture: Luke 16:19–31 · Psalm 116:1–9 · 1 Corinthians 15:10

Exx. 91–189, 261–288, 328–336 · Steps 8–24

Movement II · The Second Week (The Illuminative Way)

Walking day by day with Jesus from the Incarnation and Nativity through Nazareth, the Jordan, the Desert, and Galilee—anchored by the Call of the King, the Two Standards, the Three Pairs of Men, the Three Manners of Humility, and the Election or Reform of Life (Exx. 189).

Step 08 · Step 8 · Week 2, Prelude Exx. 91–100

The Call of the Temporal King & The Oblation to the Eternal King

The gateway into the Second Week: hearing Christ’s personal call—‘Whoever would come after Me, let him labor with Me’—and offering the Eternal King the desire to imitate Him even in poverty of spirit and bearing insults.

Scripture: Luke 9:23–25 · John 12:26 · Revelation 3:20–21 · 2 Timothy 2:11–12

Step 09 · Step 9 · Week 2, Day 1 (First Contemplation) Exx. 101–109, 262

The First Contemplation: The Incarnation

How the Three Divine Persons look down upon the whole round earth full of human beings and decree: ‘Let Us work the redemption of the human race’—while in a quiet room in Nazareth, the Angel Gabriel greets Mary.

Scripture: Luke 1:26–38 · John 1:1–14 · Philippians 2:5–8

Step 10 · Step 10 · Week 2, Day 1 (Second Contemplation & Senses) Exx. 110–126, 264–265

The Second Contemplation: The Nativity & Application of the Five Senses

Walking the ninety-mile road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, making yourself a poor little unworthy servant in the cave to tend to Joseph, Mary, and the Infant Jesus, and praying with the Five Senses.

Scripture: Luke 2:1–20 · 2 Corinthians 8:9

Step 11 · Step 11 · Week 2, Day 2 Exx. 132–133, 268–269

The Presentation in the Temple & The Flight into Egypt

Two pairs of turtle doves offered by the poor in Jerusalem, Simeon’s prophetic sword, and Joseph rising in the night to carry the Child and His Mother into exile as refugees in Egypt.

Scripture: Luke 2:22–39 · Matthew 2:13–23

Step 12 · Step 12 · Week 2, Day 3 Exx. 134–135, 271–272

The Hidden Life at Nazareth & Finding the Boy Jesus in the Temple

Ignatius’s Preamble to Consider States of Life: thirty quiet years of ordinary obedience, family life, and manual labor in Nazareth, side by side with the twelve-year-old Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem for ‘My Father’s business.’

Scripture: Luke 2:40–52 · Mark 6:3

Step 13 · Step 13 · Week 2, Day 4 (Part 1) Exx. 136–148, 328–336

Meditation on the Two Standards & Second Week Rules for Discernment

Unmasking the enemy’s three-step chain (Riches → Vain Worldly Honor → Pride) against Christ’s three-step standard of liberation (Spiritual/Actual Poverty → Bearing Contempt → Humility), plus the Rules for the Angel of Light.

Scripture: Philippians 2:5–11 · 2 Corinthians 11:14 · Luke 6:20–26

Step 14 · Step 14 · Week 2, Day 4 (Part 2) Exx. 149–157

Meditation on the Three Pairs of Men

Ignatius’s razor-sharp parable of the 10,000 ducats: diagnosing the First Pair (procrastinators), the Second Pair (negotiators who try to pull God over to their attachment), and the Third Pair (open-handed freedom).

Scripture: Luke 18:18–27 · Matthew 6:19–24 · James 1:8

Step 15 · Step 15 · Week 2, Day 5 Exx. 158–160, 273

Departure from Nazareth & Baptism in the River Jordan

Christ taking leave of His Mother at age thirty, stepping down into the muddy waters of the Jordan among sinners, and hearing the Father’s voice from heaven: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.’

Scripture: Matthew 3:13–17 · Luke 3:21–22 · Mark 1:9–11

Step 16 · Step 16 · Week 2, Day 6 Exx. 161, 274

Christ Fasting & Tempted in the Desert

Forty days and forty nights of solitude and fasting in the Judean wilderness, where the Beloved Son faces the enemy’s three temptations—appetite, spectacle, and worldly power—and answers with the Word of God alone.

Scripture: Matthew 4:1–11 · Luke 4:1–14 · Mark 1:12–13

Step 17 · Step 17 · Week 2, Day 7 Exx. 161, 275–276

The Call of the Apostles & The Wedding at Cana

How Christ calls Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew in three patient stages—from ‘Come and see’ along the Jordan to leaving their nets by the Sea of Galilee—and turns water into wine at Cana.

Scripture: John 1:35–51 · Luke 5:1–11 · Matthew 4:18–22 · John 2:1–11

Step 18 · Step 18 · Week 2, Day 8 Exx. 161, 278

The Sermon on the Mount (The Eight Beatitudes)

Sitting on the grassy hillside above the Sea of Galilee as Christ opens His mouth to speak the constitution of His Kingdom—blessing the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and the pure in heart.

Scripture: Matthew 5:1–48

Step 19 · Step 19 · Week 2, Day 9 Exx. 161, 279–280

Calming the Storm & Walking on the Waters

Two nights of wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee: Christ asleep on a cushion in the stern until He commands a great calm, and Christ coming across the dark water in the fourth watch of the night saying, ‘It is I; be not afraid.’

Scripture: Matthew 8:23–27 · Matthew 14:22–33 · Mark 4:35–41

Step 20 · Step 20 · Week 2, Day 10 Exx. 161, 281–284, 288

Sending the Apostles, The Sinful Woman Forgiven, Feeding the 5,000, The Transfiguration & Preaching in the Temple

Christ’s radiant compassion in action: sending His friends two by two in poverty, defending the weeping woman who washes His feet with her tears, multiplying five loaves for the hungry crowd, shining on Mount Tabor, and teaching daily in the Temple.

Scripture: Luke 7:36–50 · Matthew 14:13–21 · Matthew 17:1–9 · Luke 19:47–48

Step 21 · Step 21 · Week 2, Day 11 Exx. 162, 285–286

The Raising of Lazarus & The Supper at Bethany

Christ weeping at the tomb of His friend in Bethany, crying with a loud voice ‘Lazarus, come forth!’, and sitting at table six days before Passover as Mary anoints His feet with costly spikenard, filling the whole house with fragrance.

Scripture: John 11:1–45 · John 12:1–8 · Matthew 26:6–13

Step 22 · Step 22 · Week 2, Day 12 Exx. 162–163, 287

Palm Sunday: The Humble Entry into Jerusalem

The final Gospel contemplation of the Second Week: the Eternal King riding into His royal city not on a warhorse, but on a borrowed colt, weeping over Jerusalem as the crowds spread their cloaks and palm branches.

Scripture: Matthew 21:1–17 · Luke 19:28–44

Step 23 · Step 23 · Threshold of Election Exx. 164–168

The Three Manners of Humility

The summit of the Ignatian heart: moving from First Humility (obedience that never breaks trust with God), through Second Humility (pure indifference of the balance scale), to Third Humility—desiring poverty and foolishness with Christ purely out of love.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 · Philippians 2:5–8 · 2 Corinthians 8:9 · Luke 9:23

Step 24 · Step 24 · Culmination of the Second Week Exx. 169–189

Making an Election — or Amending and Reforming One’s Own Life and State

How to discern a major decision through the Three Times of Election (Exx. 175–188)—or, if you are already settled in marriage and vocation without a specific decision to make, how to use Ignatius’s Exercise 189 to amend and reform your life.

Scripture: Romans 12:1–2 · Ephesians 5:15–17 · Psalm 25:4–5

Exx. 190–217, 289–298 · Steps 25–30

Movement III · The Third Week (The Passion of Christ Our Lord)

Accompanying Christ from the Last Supper and Gethsemane through the houses of Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod to Golgotha and the silence of Holy Saturday—seeing how the Divinity hides Itself and how much He suffers out of love for us.

Step 25 · Step 25 · Week 3, Day 1 Exx. 190–207, 289–290

The Last Supper, Washing the Feet & The Agony in Gethsemane

Entering the Third Week: how Christ washes the feet of His Apostles (even Judas), institutes the Eucharist as the greatest mark of His love, and sweats blood in Gethsemane while the Divinity hides Itself.

Scripture: John 13:1–35 · Matthew 26:17–46 · Luke 22:14–46

Step 26 · Step 26 · Week 3, Day 2 Exx. 208, 291–292

Betrayal, Arrest & The Night at the Houses of Annas and Caiaphas

Judas’s kiss in the torchlight, Jesus healing the high priest’s servant, Peter’s triple denial by the charcoal fire as the Lord turns and looks at him, and Jesus left bound all that night.

Scripture: Luke 22:47–71 · Matthew 26:47–75 · John 18:1–27

Step 27 · Step 27 · Week 3, Day 3 Exx. 208, 293–294

Christ Before Pilate & Before Herod

Dragged at dawn from Caiaphas to the Roman Praetorium and to Herod’s palace: the King of Truth standing in majestic silence while Herod’s court clothes Him in a white fool’s garment.

Scripture: John 18:28–40 · Luke 23:1–25 · Matthew 27:11–26

Step 28 · Step 28 · Week 3, Day 4 Exx. 208, 295

The Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns & ‘Ecce Homo’

Pilate delivers Jesus to be scourged; the soldiers crown Him with thorns, clothe Him in a purple rag, and place a reed in His hand; and Pilate brings Him out before the crowd saying, ‘Behold the Man!’

Scripture: John 19:1–16 · Matthew 27:26–31 · Isaiah 53:3–7

Step 29 · Step 29 · Week 3, Day 5 Exx. 208, 296–297

Carrying the Cross & The Crucifixion (The Seven Last Words)

Walking the Via Dolorosa with Christ and Simon of Cyrene to Golgotha, standing with Mary and John beneath the Cross through the three hours of darkness, and hearing the Seven Last Words of the Crucified Lord.

Scripture: John 19:16–37 · Luke 23:26–49 · Matthew 27:32–54

Step 30 · Step 30 · Week 3, Days 6 & 7 Exx. 208–217, 298

The Descent from the Cross, The Burial & The Silence of Holy Saturday

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking down the sacred Body into Mary’s arms, anointing Him with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes, rolling the stone across the new garden tomb, and keeping vigil in the great silence of Holy Saturday (plus Ignatius’s Rules on Eating).

Scripture: John 19:38–42 · Luke 23:50–56 · Matthew 27:57–61

Exx. 218–260, 299–312 · Steps 31–36

Movement IV · The Fourth Week (The Unitive Way & Contemplation to Gain Love)

Rejoicing in the joy of the Risen Christ as He consoles His Mother, Magdalene, the Emmaus disciples, Thomas, and Peter on the Galilee shore—culminating in the Contemplation to Gain Love (the Suscipe) and the Three Methods of Prayer.

Step 31 · Step 31 · Week 4, Day 1 Exx. 218–229, 299–301

The Resurrection: Christ Appears to His Mother & to Mary Magdalene

Entering the Fourth Week: asking for the grace to rejoice intensely at the joy of the Risen Christ—not for our own comfort, but purely because He whom we love is glorious—and watching how He performs the office of Consoler, as friend consoles friend.

Scripture: Matthew 28:1–10 · Mark 16:1–11 · John 20:1–18

Step 32 · Step 32 · Week 4, Day 2 Exx. 302–304

The Road to Emmaus, The Appearance to St. Peter & The Upper Room

Walking the seven miles to Emmaus as our hearts burn within us while He opens the Scriptures and is known in the breaking of the bread, followed by ‘Peace be to you’ behind locked doors in Jerusalem.

Scripture: Luke 24:13–49 · John 20:19–23

Step 33 · Step 33 · Week 4, Day 3 Exx. 305–306

St. Thomas’s Confession & Breakfast by the Sea of Galilee (‘Feed My Sheep’)

Eight days later: Christ inviting doubting Thomas to touch His wounds (‘My Lord and my God!’), and waiting on the beach of Galilee at dawn around a charcoal fire with bread and roasted fish to ask Peter three times, ‘Lovest thou Me?’

Scripture: John 20:24–29 · John 21:1–24