The Nature and Purpose of the Spiritual Exercises (Part Four)

This is the fourth part of some reflections on the nature and purpose of the Ignatian Exercises. If you haven't read the previous parts, simply scroll down and read them first.

******************************

TWELVE: A Spirituality of Prayer
When I did the Exercises for the first time, it was stressed over and over that these Exercises are exercises of prayer. Prayer was to be central. My director, over and over asked me about my experiences of prayer as I did the exercises. He was not that interested in me studying the exercises or what I learned about a biblical text. He wanted to know about my experience of God through particular exercises.

The Ignatian Exercises are an experience of prayer and that is both good news and bad news for evangelicals. It is bad news in that we are much more use to the study of the Bible and the rational understanding of the meaning of the text. So this prayer focus is stretching for us. It can be somewhat awkward at first. And that is why it is good news for us also. For our great need is not to find another intellectually oriented technique for study, but to find ways to connect intimately with the Presence, Work and Will of God for us.

(By the way, don't think the Jesuits were not interested in the mind. They were and are. They were some of the most brilliant and learned of scholars their world knew. Their intellectual triumphs are legendary. They produced outstanding theologians and scholars in a wide variety of fields.)

Throughout the Exercises, a retreatant uses Centering Prayers for preparation. I also learned to "ask for what I desire" at the beginning of each exercise. The exercise itself is a time of attentiveness to what God is doing in the biblical story, in the world around you and in your life. This attentiveness, itself, is a form of prayer. Our prayer response to God arises out of our time of noticing.

For example, Week One is the focus on sin. The retreatant is invited into the muck and mire of human existence. This is for the purpose of discovering what is in the depths of one's heart and then moving through "purgative" responses of sorrow, conviction, confession and repentance. This summer I spent about six weeks working through the series of Week One exercises, some right out of the Ignatian Exercises and some others which were my own design. I had many very significant times of prayer arising out of this.

Central to the Exercises is the practice of (at least) twice a day Examens based on the initial spiritual exercise one did. While I had learned how to the Daily Examen prior to doing the Annotated Retreat, my retreat deepened my ability to do the Examen and likewise the benefits I received from them. The Examen has remained a consistent part of my Spiritual Regula over the last decade, and it has led to another wonderful result, and that is the ability to Practice the Presence of God in the Moment. (That will be another post later.)



THIRTEEN: A Missional Spirituality
This aspect of the Exercises is one that totally intrigues and jazzes me. All the other dynamics of the Exercises are alone, make this approach a deeply vital way of spirituality, but this one, for me, makes it exponentially powerful. And I think it is "a" key that made the Jesuits who they were.

What is interesting for me is that I completely missed this idea, going through the Annotated Retreat. I don't know if it was my fault that I missed it... Or, if this is one of the features that nuances the difference between an Ignatian spirituality and a Jesuit spirituality. (I'll come back to this idea at the end of this point.)

Bear with me for just a moment as I take you on a brief "monastic" detour.

While there are many Catholic monastic orders, let me show you a simple way to see the differences between the Benedictines, the Franciscans and the Jesuits (by the way, I am interested in all three of these societies and study them, and seek to emulate their best practices).

Benedict created a monastic order that was a cloistered order, living behind the "walls" of a monastery. Benedict developed his Rule, which carefully governed the life of the Benedictine monk. The hours of the day were mapped out with specific responsibilities. And central to the mapping of the day was the practice of the eight canonical hours. This just means, the monks would gather together for community (or private) prayer throughout the day. The practice of prayer was central to their community life and many hours were spent in this work of prayer.

In essence, the life of the Benedictine revolved around proximity to their "house" (monastery) and the rhythm of work, study and prayer in that "house."

The Franciscans also had "houses" but they were a missional order at heart. They would spend much of their day outside their house, doing the work of ministry to the poor and needy around them. They were, as you will see, kind of a midway step between the Benedictines and the Jesuits.

The Jesuits have as a "tag line" for their "monastic brand" - "The world is our house." In other words,the Jesuits have no house. They are fundamentally, a missional order, whose house is the world in which they minister. The Jesuits were a dispersed order, sent as missionaries to live and work among the people. Even when it was possible to send several Jesuits to one location, their focus was not on cloistered living, but on work and service in the world.

If the Francis knocked a hole in the wall of the monastery, then Ignatius knocked down the wall. (This is a paraphrase of a statement I read somewhere, but no longer remember its source.)

The Jesuit did not have a "house" in which he spent long hours of prayerful contemplation. In fact, Ignatius severely rebuked some of the early Jesuits who were spending too much time in private prayer, because they were withdrawing from the world and their mission in the world.

Therefore, the Jesuits needed a Missional Spirituality they could practice while they did their work. This has led to several ideas which aptly describe the Jesuits and their approach to spirituality.

Contemplation in Action

Reflection on the Run

The Jesuits were fundamentally activists who developed a spirituality that would shape and nurture all their action. They were not fundamentally contemplatives who then did service to the world in their left over time. I am not saying that one way is right and the other is wrong. I am just pointing out the different monastic ways. And this distinction is pretty important.

This Jesuit approach will have a strong appeal and lasting benefit for those who are highly activist and for whom missional engagement in the world is a passion.

The Jesuits developed a spirituality that empowered them for some of the most fruitful missional activity the world has ever seen. The results they saw were enormous. The fruit they generated was staggering in its depth and breadth. The Jesuits had some of the original BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals, Jim Collins). And they had a spirituality that made it possible.

In another post to come, I will share why I think Ignatian spirituality is well suited for all activists, and especially for men, who tend to be activist in orientation. It is within reach for such individuals to become contemplatives in action, who reflect on the run, and who turn the world upside down.

As I already mentioned, I missed this entirely, when I did the Exercises in the form of the Annotated Retreat. And it may be because Jesuit spirituality, which was designed for the Jesuit Order, which was essentially a missional order, has been adapted and morphed for non-Jesuits. Jesuit spirituality, so morphed, becomes a bit more generic Ignatian spirituality, which uses the spiritual methodologies developed by Ignatius, but outside of the Jesuit context of mission. And to borrow the title of a somewhat recent movie, something is Lost in Translation when this happens.

I didn't make this connection until I began to study the history of the Jesuits and read biographies of Ignatius and the other Jesuits. Then, this principle was simply everywhere. I think this is a much needed corrective to some of the contemplative spirituality today that seems to lack a missional outcome. But, more on this down the road.

FOURTEEN: Indifference and Freedom
I suppose I could go on for many more posts on features of Jesuit spirituality, but I'll do this as the final one...and I'll do this one briefly, for this is a central theme which I'll blog about later.

The Jesuits, like the other monastic orders, had strong learnings toward obedience. The classical vows for most monastic orders were vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. The Jesuits needed to foster a radical obedience in the heart of their members, for they were a highly mobile missional society who needed to "go" at a moments notice.

Ignatius wanted his Jesuits to be so ready to move at a moment's notice, that if they were in the midst of writing a letter, and were given a command, they would stop writing the letter and go. What is striking about this, is that Ignatius did not mean, act in obedience before they even finished their letter. He meant, stop in the very act of writing out a specific "stroke of a letter." Instant, whole-hearted obedience.

The only way such obedience would be possible, such readiness and willingness in place, was if the Jesuit was free from all attachments. And the way to such freedom was to learn "indifference" to all things, save obedience to Christ's will.

This is one of the most troubling of all the features of Jesuit/Ignatian spirituality for me. It is among the most difficult. It is at odds with many other things I believe about leadership and ministry. It creates a tension for me as I help leaders develop personal mission and vision, and as I encourage them to search out the deepest longings of their heart. And then to be highly intentional and strategic about all this. Then Ignatius comes along and tells me that holy indifference and a surrendered will is the way.

Especially since we live in an age where the individual is supreme and God is mainly viewed as a means to an end we desire - this is a substantial theme, essential to Ignatius, that we can overlook. And we do so to our great detriment.

Ignatian spirituality has been described as a Spirituality of Freedom... and it truly is for those who have learned to hold all things loosely.

***********************************

Next week, we'll look at some of the main criticisms of Ignatian spirituality.


Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com