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.
7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Psalm 139:23–24 (NIV)
23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Luke 14:28 (NIV)
28“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
Points of the Mystery from St. Ignatius
What ‘Spiritual Exercises’ mean (Exx. 1): As strolling, walking, and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all disordered affections—and, after they are removed, of seeking and finding the Divine Will—is called a Spiritual Exercise.
The 19th Annotation—The Retreat in Daily Life (Exx. 19): Anyone occupied with public affairs or family duties who cannot take thirty days apart in silence may spend an hour and a half each day across several months, walking through the exact same movements while remaining in ordinary life.
The Presupposition (Exx. 22): Every good Christian is to be more ready to save his neighbor’s proposition than to condemn it; and if he cannot save it, let him inquire how he means it.
Step 1 · Entering the Hour (2 Minutes)
Before You Start
Before beginning Day 1 of the Exercises, set aside one quiet place and one reliable daily hour (such as early morning before the household wakes) that belongs solely to God. Keep a simple notebook nearby to record movements of consolation and desolation after each prayer period.
Step 2 · Orienting the Heart & Imagination (5 Minutes)
The Preludes
First Prelude · The Context
Recall how St. Ignatius wrote these Exercises not to be read like a treatise from cover to cover, but to be done—one step at a time, letting the Creator deal directly with the creature (Exx. 15).
Second Prelude · Composition of Place
See yourself standing at the threshold of a quiet retreat house or desert cell with Christ your Lord, setting down the noise of ordinary ambitions so you can listen openly.
Third Prelude · Grace to Ask For
Ask for the grace of a magnanimous and open heart (Exx. 5)—willing to enter the Exercises with great courage and generosity toward your Creator and Lord, holding nothing back.
Step 3 · The Body of the Exercise (30–40 Minutes)
Four Dispositions for Walking Through the Exercises
Take 30 minutes to prayerfully read and absorb the four foundational rules Ignatius gives before the First Week begins:
1. Savoring Internals, Not Many Ideas (Annotation 2, Exx. 2)
Ignatius warns against rushing through many concepts: “For it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.” Whenever a single verse, image, or point moves your heart with love, grief, or peace, stop right there. Do not hurry to finish the page. Stay at the well until it runs dry.
2. Entering with Magnanimity (Annotation 5, Exx. 5)
It helps greatly to enter the Exercises with large-hearted generosity toward God—offering Him all your will and liberty, that His Divine Majesty may make use of your person and of all you possess according to His most holy Will. Notice today: is there any corner of your life where you have hung a ‘Do Not Enter’ sign? Simply name it honestly before the Lord.
3. Allowing the Creator to Deal Immediately with the Creature (Annotation 15, Exx. 15)
Whether you have a human spiritual director or are walking through these pages prayerfully before God, remember that the true Director of the Exercises is the Holy Spirit. You are here so that “the Creator and Lord Himself should communicate Himself to His devout soul, inflamming it with His love and praise, and disposing it for the way in which it could better serve Him in future.”
4. Keeping the Ten Additions (Exx. 73–82)
Ignatius frames every single contemplation with practical bodily and mental habits: (1) As you fall asleep, think briefly of the hour you will rise and the mystery you will pray; (2) When you wake, turn your mind immediately to that mystery; (3) Stand a step or two from where you will pray for the space of an Our Father, raising your mind on high to consider how God our Lord is looking upon you; (4) Enter prayer in the posture—kneeling, sitting, standing, or prostrate—that best helps you receive the grace you seek; (5) After finishing the hour, spend 15 minutes reviewing how the prayer went.
Step 4 · Friend to Friend & Looking Back (15–20 Minutes)
Colloquy, Post-Prayer Review & Repetitions
1. The Colloquy (5 Minutes)
Speak to God our Lord as one friend speaks to another. Tell Him plainly why you have come to these Exercises, what you hope for, and where you feel afraid or hesitant. Offer Him your time and fidelity for this journey. Close with an Our Father.
2. The Post-Prayer Examen of Prayer (15 Minutes · Exx. 77)
After finishing the Our Father, remain quiet for ten to fifteen minutes (sitting or walking slowly) to examine how your prayer went. Ask: Where did my heart feel warmed, expanded, drawn to trust, or moved to tears (consolation)? Where did I feel dry, distracted, defensive, or negotiating with God (desolation or resistance)? Write down two or three honest sentences in your notebook.
3. Repetitions & Carrying the Mystery Through the Day
Today’s practice is practical as well as prayerful: decide on your daily time and place for prayer, and tonight before sleep practice the First Addition—taking sixty seconds before closing your eyes to look ahead to tomorrow’s exercise (Principle and Foundation).
Primary Text · From St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises (Exx. 1–22, 73–90)
[1] The first Annotation is that by this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant every way of examining one's conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions, as will be said later. For as strolling, walking and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one's life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise.
[2] Because, as the person who contemplates, takes the true foundation of the narrative, and, discussing and reasoning for himself, finds something which makes the history a little clearer or brings it home more closely—whether this happens through his own reasoning, or In so far as his intellect is enlightened by the Divine power—he feels more delight and spiritual fruit, than if he who is giving the Exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the history. For it is not knowing much, but realizing and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.
[5] It helps much for him who is receiving the Exercises to enter into them with magnanimity and generosity towards his Creator and Lord, offering Him all his will and liberty, that His Divine Majesty may make use of his person and of all he has according to His most holy Will.
[22] In order that both he who is giving the Spiritual Exercises, and he who is receiving them, may be more helped and benefited, let it be presupposed that every good Christian is to be more ready to save his neighbor's proposition than to condemn it. If he cannot save it, let him inquire how he means it; and if he means it badly, let him correct him with charity. Should that not suffice, let him seek all the suitable means to bring him to mean it well, and save himself.