Anima Christi

In January I will start to blog on key themes that are essential to the Spiritual Exercises. These are the spiritual, theological and biblical perspectives that are woven throughout the Exercises.

For this first post in January, I am introducing you to the Prequel Prayer of Ignatius that is provided before the Exercises begin. (I know I said I would do the First Principle and Foundation today, I'll do that next week.)

I have provided the Ignatian text as it appears in the Puhl translation. Tomorrow I will have another post providing the Puhl text along with two more contemporary renditions of this prayer. One by David Fleming and the other by Joseph Tetlow, both outstanding Jesuit spiritual directors, authors and interpreters/translators of Ignatius and his Spiritual Exercises

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Anima Christi (Soul of Christ)

Soul of Christ, sanctify Me

Body of Christ, save Me

Blood of Christ, inebriate Me

Water from the side of Christ, wash me

Passion of Christ, strengthen me

O Good Jesus, hear me

Within Thy wounds hide me

Permit me not to be separated from Thee

From the wicked foe defend me

At the hour of my death call me

And bid me come to Thee

That with Thy saints I may praise Thee

For ever and ever.

Amen

I love to read some of the great and "famous' prayers that have been written and prayed by followers of Christ through the centuries. Some of them are so powerful in their wording, they have sustained their place amid the devotional literature of our heritage.

The Anima Christi by Ignatius is one of them.

I pray this prayer often.

I am moved by how this prayer is so Christ-centered. Ignatius had a strong Trinitarian spirituality AND at the same time, his Spiritual Exercises are Christo-centric. Christ is supreme throughout the Exercises.

One way to describe the DESIRED OUTCOMES of going through the Exercises is that the retreating will come to know, love and follow Christ with great desire and surrender, wanting only what Christ wants, and therefore, fully devoted to Christ and dedicated to the mission of Christ in the world.

The Anima Christi prayer is the foretaste of what is to come in the Exercises.

I am also struck by how this prayer is so Christ-dependent.Sometimes, evangelicals make a careless and unfortunate mistake in ascribing to Roman Catholicism, a works oriented spirituality.

Well, yes, there are strong works that are a part of (for our example) Ignatian spirituality. But these works are absolutely grounded in dependence on Christ and His empowering grace that makes all things possible.

Ignatius is utterly dependent on Christ. Ignatius knows he cannot even desire Christ fully and rightly, unless Christ first gives Ignatius this desire. This will be seen all throughout the Exercises. And it is a wonderful corrective to some of our own self-focused, pragmatic, "get'er done" evangelical practices.

Ignatius has captured the spiritual balance of the Apostle Paul:

". . . continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." Philippians 2:12-13

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." 1 Corinthians 15:10

Finally, I notice how devotion to Christ is in this prayer. Ignatius loves Jesus. Ignatius wants to love Jesus more. Ignatius does not merely have good theological notions about Christ. Ignatius wants to experience Christ, and this prayer if for the Person of Jesus in all His splendor, to be with Ignatius in all his need.

As I said above, this prayer is the foretaste of what is to come.

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