DISCIPLESHIP AND ITS FOUNDATIONS:
A JESUIT RETREAT
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I was privileged to be invited to conduct the Jesuit California Province retreat in August 2004. This book captures the basic presentation that I gave at that time, with the addition of the chapter on "The Standards." Even though I have allowed the presentations to remain as they were made to a Jesuit retreatant group, I hope that the sometimes male and Jesuit references will not prevent others from using this book for prayerful reading or their own retreat.
Because of the original Jesuit audience, I presume a certain familiarity ~with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. I hope that the many others who have a similar familiarity will feel similarly at home. The text of the Exercises, then, is a suggested accompaniment to this book.
At the beginning of each presentation, I led the group in a special prayer for the grace of that particular day. I also handed out a brief set of points for the prayer periods of the day. In this written form, I have included the prayer preceding the presentation, and, after the presentation, the set of points and a repetition of the prayer to reemphasize the grace we desire.
For all who read and hopefully pray the contents of this book, I hope that these practical prayer exercises may help toward a more deeply felt appreciation of the Ignatian Exercises that I have presented in other, more conceptual books.
I am grateful to my Jesuit companions and our colleagues with whom I have worked, particularly in this Jesuit retreat. May the graces that have been special to these retreatants and their directors overflow to all who now enter into this presentation of these prayer exercises.David L. Fleming SJ
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Ignatian spirituality is unique in the church because it finds its foundation in an exercise book. One cannot call his or her spirituality Ignatian without some familiarity with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. So for us Jesuits I think that I am safe in presuming our exposure to the Exercises book of Ignatius. But an exercise book is not written to be read, but to be worked with. We might say, then, that Ignatian spirituality is always a work in progress-which should tell you that we) Jesuits, too, are always a work in progress. Since our knowledge of the Exercises will differ among us-perhaps for some either because of a relatively brief time in the Society or due to a long history of making retreats or others because of serious study of the Exercises or its lack and still for others a lot of retreat giving or almost none-I will try to do my best to explain my Ignatian references and their meaning simply.
Again, another reflection about keeping us all together. How do we define or describe spirituality? For me, a spirituality is about relationships. A spirituality is a way of relating to God, relating to myself, relating to others, and relating to my world -- for us Christians -- in the light of Jesus Christ, the Gospels, and the church. Ignatian spirituality is a particular Christian spirituality seen through the prisms of Ignatius Loyola's gifts and graces shared with the church and the Society of Jesus he founded.For the most part, in a retreat we are dealing more often with spiritual practice -- our inner work -- rather than with a study or theory of spirituality. But I will confess that in these retreat conferences we may seem to be weaving back and forth between a kind of study of Ignatian spirituality through our reflections on certain exercises and our practical (praying) experience of it.
After these preliminaries, I want to add a prenote. My prenote deals with the emphasis I have given to these retreat presentations: my stressing that these are exercises for the heart. We likely are familiar that Ignatius begins his book with twenty notes or, as he calls them annotations. His very first note draws our attention to the comparison of physical and spiritual exercises. Just as there are various exercises we identify as physical, so there are exercises that we call spiritual. Just as there are many kinds of physical exercises, so, too, there are many kinds of spiritual exercises.
I would like to suggest that we might further refine the Ignatian reference to spiritual exercises to "exercises for the heart." Heart, in ancient biblical usage and even in our contemporary American usage, describe persons in their total response to other persons or events. Examples: "My heart goes out to you." "This situation speaks to my heart." Heart takes in my mind, my feelings, my body, and my soul.
When I speak of "exercises for the heart," I indicate that I believe Ignatius us not talking about spiritual exercises meaning only exercises of the mind or the will, but particularly he wants to exercise the heart. He wants us to have long ears, like a rabbit, so that we can listen to our heart. That is what happened to him. And yet sometimes the commentators on the Exercises and, perhaps we ourselves (often because of the way we were directed in a retreat) are trying to focus on a conversion of mind or of will, trying to change how we think or what we do. Ignatius would be concerned more about the heart. And I believe that if we look particularly at certain structural exercises of the Spiritual Exercises, we will discover a new richness if we consciously emphasize the heart.
Now, let me say what I hope that we might together pray for in this retreat. Back in June 2002, the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued an instruction with the captivating title of "Starting Afresh from Christ. This document alerted us that we as religious (let me say, as Jesuits) cannot be creative, capable of renewing ourselves and our communities, and opening new pastoral paths, if we do not feel loved by Christ. It is this felt love that makes us strong and courageous, that instills fire, and enables us to be daring in all that we do. This is where we always hope to be each day: starting afresh from Christ. In our Jesuit lives -- from early on, sometimes perhaps as shortly as after the 30-day novitiate retreat,
and as late as celebrating 50 years as a Jesuit priest or brother -- we can find ourselves with a need to "start afresh from Christ."
As you might expect, then, the focus of this retreat is Jesus, and more precisely our growth in relationship to Jesus, maybe with a feel or with the reality of "starting afresh." I am struck that in the Second Week of the Exercises Ignatius suggests that we consistently pray for one central grace. We pray to know Jesus more intimately. Sometimes we hear the English translation of praying for an "interior knowledge," but I think that our English word intimate better captures Ignatius's intent. We want to be given the grace of an intimacy with Jesus.
Everything else about our lives flows from such an intimacy. As an intimate relationship develops, we certainly will love him more, and then it follows that we will be able to follow him more closely. Of course, in addition, it is always because we have an intimacy with Jesus that we are enabled to discern. For Ignatian discernment, as we well know, is not about the head decision, but about the heart decision. So, as I will repeat each day, the general prayer intention that I am suggesting is that we pray for the grace of an intimate relationship with Jesus. Of course, you with your director may specify or restate the grace you need to pray for in this retreat. But, for me, "I want to know Jesus" is our prayer in this retreat, just as it was the plea of St. Paul's prayer.
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