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                         THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES OF

                           ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

	Section RTFToC10

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Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola



ANNOTATIONS



TO GIVE SOME UNDERSTANDING OF THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES WHICH FOLLOW, AND TO

ENABLE HIM WHO IS TO GIVE AND HIM WHO IS TO RECEIVE THEM TO HELP THEMSELVES



First Annotation. 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.



Second Annotation.[1] The second is that the person who gives to another

the way and order in which to meditate or contemplate, ought to relate

faithfully the events of such Contemplation or Meditation, going over the

Points with only a short or summary development. For, if the person who is

making the Contemplation, takes the true groundwork of the narrative, and,

discussing and considering for himself, finds something which makes the

events a little clearer or brings them a little more home to him -- whether

this comes through his own reasoning, or because his intellect is

enlightened by the Divine power -- he will get more spiritual relish and

fruit, than if he who is giving the Exercises had much explained and

amplified the meaning of the events. For it is not knowing much, but

realizing and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the

soul.



Third Annotation. The third: As in all the following Spiritual Exercises,

we use acts of the intellect in reasoning, and acts of the will in

movements of the feelings: let us remark that, in the acts of the will,

when we are speaking vocally or mentally with God our Lord, or with His

Saints, greater reverence is required on our part than when we are using

the intellect in understanding.



Fourth Annotation. The fourth: The following Exercises are divided into

four parts:



First, the consideration and contemplation on the sins;



Second, the life of Christ our Lord up to Palm Sunday inclusively;



Third, the Passion of Christ our Lord;



Fourth, the Resurrection and Ascension, with the three Methods of Prayer.



Though four weeks, to correspond to this division, are spent in the

Exercises, it is not to be understood that each Week has, of necessity,

seven or eight days. For, as it happens that in the First Week some are

slower to find what they seek -- namely, contrition, sorrow and tears for

their sins -- and in the same way some are more diligent than others, and

more acted on or tried by different spirits; it is necessary sometimes to

shorten the Week, and at other times to lengthen it. The same is true of

all the other subsequent Weeks, seeking out the things according to the

subject matter. However, the Exercises will be finished in thirty days, a

little more or less.



Fifth Annotation. The fifth: It is very helpful to him who is receiving the

Exercises to enter into them with great courage and generosity towards his

Creator and Lord, offering [2] Him all his will and liberty, that His Divine

Majesty may make use of his person and of all he has according [3] to His

most Holy Will.



Sixth Annotation. The sixth: When he who is giving the Exercises sees that

no spiritual movements, such as consolations or desolations, come to the

soul of him who is exercising himself, and that he is not moved by

different spirits, he ought to inquire carefully of him about the

Exercises, whether he does them at their appointed times, and how. So too

of the Additions, whether he observes them with diligence. Let him ask in

detail about each of these things.



Consolation and desolation are spoken of on p. 170; the Additions on p. 22.



Seventh Annotation. The seventh: If he who is giving the Exercises sees

that he who is receiving them is in desolation and tempted, let him not be

hard or dissatisfied with him, but gentle and indulgent, giving him courage

and strength for the future, and laying bare to him the wiles of the enemy

of human nature, and getting him to prepare and dispose himself for the

consolation coming.



Eighth Annotation. The eighth: If he who is giving the Exercises sees that

he who is receiving them is in need of instruction about the desolations

and wiles of the enemy -- and the same of consolations -- he may explain to

him, as far as he needs them, the Rules of the First and Second Weeks for

recognizing different spirits. (P. 177).



Ninth Annotation. The ninth is to notice, when he who is exercising himself

is in the Exercises of the First Week, if he is a person who has not been

versed in spiritual things, and is tempted grossly and openly -- having,

for example, suggested to him obstacles to going on in the service of God

our Lord, such as labors, shame and fear for the honor of the world -- let

him who is giving the Exercises not explain to him the Rules of the Second

Week for the discernment of spirits. Because, as much as those of the First

Week will be helpful, those of the Second will be harmful to him, as being

matter too subtle and too high for him to understand.



Tenth Annotation. The tenth: When he who is giving the Exercises perceives

that he who is receiving them is assaulted and tempted under the appearance

of good, then it is proper to instruct him about the Rules of the Second

Week already mentioned. For, ordinarily, the enemy of human nature tempts

under the appearance of good rather when the person is exercising himself

in the Illuminative Life, which corresponds to the Exercises of the Second

Week, and not so much in the Purgative Life, which corresponds to those of

the First.



Eleventh Annotation. The eleventh: It is helpful to him who is receiving

the Exercises in the First Week, not to know anything of what he is to do

in the Second, but so to labor in the First to attain the object he is

seeking as if he did not hope to find in the Second any good.



Twelfth Annotation. The twelfth: As he who is receiving the Exercises is to

give an hour to each of the five Exercises or Contemplations which will be

made every day, he who is giving the Exercises has to warn him carefully to

always see that his soul remains content in the consciousness of having

been a full hour in the Exercise, and rather more than less. For the enemy

is not a little used to try and make one cut short the hour of such

contemplation, meditation or prayer.



Thirteenth Annotation. The thirteenth: It is likewise to be remarked that,

as, in the time of consolation, it is easy and not irksome to be in

contemplation the full hour, so it is very hard in the time of desolation

to fill it out. For this reason, the person who is exercising himself, in

order to act against the desolation and conquer the temptations, ought

always to stay somewhat more than the full hour; so as to accustom himself

not only to resist the adversary, but even to overthrow him.



Fourteenth Annotation. The fourteenth: If he who is giving the Exercises

sees that he who is receiving them is going on in consolation and with much

fervor, he ought to warn him not to make any inconsiderate and hasty

promise or vow: and the more light of character he knows him to be, the

more he ought to warn and admonish him. For, though one may justly

influence another to embrace the religious life, in which he is understood

to make vows of obedience, poverty and chastity, and, although a good work

done under vow is more meritorious than one done without it, one should

carefully consider the circumstances and personal qualities of the

individual and how much help or hindrance he is likely to find in

fulfilling the thing he would want to promise.



Fifteenth Annotation. The fifteenth: He who is giving the Exercises ought

not to influence him who is receiving them more to poverty or to a promise,

than to their opposites, nor more to one state or way of life than to

another. For though, outside the Exercises, we can lawfully and with merit

influence every one who is probably fit to choose continence, virginity,

the religious life and all manner of evangelical perfection, still in the

Spiritual Exercises, when seeking the Divine Will, it is more fitting and

much better, that the Creator and Lord Himself should communicate Himself

to His devout soul, inflaming it with His love and praise, and disposing it

for the way in which it will be better able to serve Him in future. So, he

who is giving the Exercises should not turn or incline to one side or the

other, but standing in the center like a balance, leave the Creator to act

immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord.



Sixteenth Annotation. The sixteenth: For this -- namely, that the Creator

and Lord may work more surely in His creature -- it is very expedient, if

it happens that the soul is attached or inclined to a thing inordinately,

that one should move himself, putting forth all his strength, to come to

the contrary of what he is wrongly drawn to. Thus if he inclines to seeking

and possessing an office or benefice, not for the honor and glory of God

our Lord, nor for the spiritual well-being of souls, but for his own

temporal advantage and interests, he ought to excite his feelings to the

contrary, being instant in prayers and other spiritual exercises, and

asking God our Lord for the contrary, namely, not to want such office or

benefice, or any other thing, unless His Divine Majesty, putting his

desires in order, change his first inclination for him, so that the motive

for desiring or having one thing or another be only the service, honor, and

glory of His Divine Majesty.



Seventeenth Annotation. The seventeenth: It is very helpful that he who is

giving the Exercises, without wanting to ask or know from him who is

receiving them his personal thoughts or sins, should be faithfully informed

of the various movements and thoughts which the different spirits put in

him. For, according as is more or less useful for him, he can give him some

spiritual Exercises suited and adapted to the need of such a soul so acted

upon.



Eighteenth Annotation. The eighteenth: The Spiritual Exercises have to be

adapted to the dispositions of the persons who wish to receive them, that

is, to their age, education or ability, in order not to give to one who is

uneducated or of little intelligence things he cannot easily bear and

profit by.



Again, that should be given to each one by which, according to his wish to

dispose himself, he may be better able to help himself and to profit.



So, to him who wants help to be instructed and to come to a certain degree

of contentment of soul, can be given the Particular Examen, p. 21, and then

the General Examen, p. 25; also, for a half hour in the morning, the Method

of Prayer on the Commandments, the Deadly Sins, etc., p. 125. Let him be

recommended, also, to confess his sins every eight days, and, if he can, to

receive the Blessed Sacrament every fifteen days, and better, if he be so

moved, every eight. This way is more proper for illiterate or less educated

persons. Let each of the Commandments be explained to them; and so of the

Deadly Sins, Precepts of the Church, Five Senses, and Works of Mercy.



So, too, should he who is giving the Exercises observe that he who is

receiving them has little ability or little natural capacity, from whom not

much fruit is to be hoped, it is more expedient to give him some of these

easy Exercises, until he confesses his sins. Then let him be given some

Examens of Conscience and some method for going to Confession oftener than

was his custom, in order to preserve what he has gained, but let him not go

on into the matter of the Election, or into any other Exercises that are

outside the First Week, especially when more progress can be made in other

persons and there is not time for every thing.



Nineteenth Annotation. The nineteenth: A person of education or ability who

is taken up with public affairs or suitable business, may take an hour and

a half daily to exercise himself.



Let the end for which man is created be explained to him, and he can also

be given for the space of a half-hour the Particular Examen and then the

General and the way to confess and to receive the Blessed Sacrament. Let

him, during three days every morning, for the space of an hour, make the

meditation on the First, Second and Third Sins, pp. 37, 38; then, three

other days at the same hour, the meditation on the statement of Sins, p.

40; then, for three other days at the same hour, on the punishments

corresponding to Sins, p. 45. Let him be given in all three meditations the

ten Additions, p. 47.



For the mysteries of Christ our Lord, let the same course be kept, as is

explained below and in full in the Exercises themselves.



Twentieth Annotation. The twentieth: To him who is more disengaged, and who

desires to get all the profit he can, let all the Spiritual Exercises be

given in the order in which they follow.



In these he will, ordinarily, more benefit himself, the more he separates

himself from all friends and acquaintances and from all earthly care, as by

changing from the house where he was dwelling, and taking another house or

room to live in, in as much privacy as he can, so that it be in his power

to go each day to Mass and to Vespers, without fear that his acquaintances

will put obstacles in his way.



From this isolation three chief benefits, among many others, follow.



The first is that a man, by separating himself from many friends and

acquaintances, and likewise from many not well-ordered affairs, to serve

and praise God our Lord, merits no little in the sight of His Divine

Majesty.



The second is, that being thus isolated, and not having his understanding

divided on many things, but concentrating his care on one only, namely, on

serving his Creator and benefitting his own soul, he uses with greater

freedom his natural powers, in seeking with diligence what he so much

desires.



The third: the more our soul finds itself alone and isolated, the more apt

it makes itself to approach and to reach its Creator and Lord, and the more

it so approaches Him, the more it disposes itself to receive graces and

gifts from His Divine and Sovereign Goodness.