The purpose of Spiritual Exercises is to help us overcome our false needs so that we make better decisions that follow God’s will. “The Exercises” are different forms of prayer, meditations, contemplations, and considerations on the life, ministry, passion, and resurrection of Jesus. They are divided into four stages called “weeks.” It also has modified forms for those whose lifestyles cannot accommodate a 30-day stretch.
The First Stage
The first stage or week of the Spiritual Exercises calls us to our true identity to God, to one another and the world, before good and evil. We realize that we are created for a specific purpose. Our ultimate happiness (the salvation of our soul) involves praising and doing reverence to serve God. Everything else is to aid us in choosing to the Good and living in the light of this choice.
But there also are shadows. We are confused, slowed down, stopped, and diverted from the Good by the effects of evil (our sins, our disorders, evil in the world). We are called to see the gap between our lives and what we are called to be. But we are NOT drawn into shame and guilt, rather the awe that comes from seeing how God’s grace has protected and nourished us, in spite of our darkness. It is as a person profoundly grateful for and awed by God’s limitless mercy for us that we are called to move on to the other stages of the Exercises.
The Second Stage
In the Second Week, the focus is on an ongoing and deepening commitment to the person and mission of Jesus. As we become present to the stories of Jesus we are guided to a progression that goes from bystander to fan, to sometime participator to collaborator, to disciple to companion, to close associate to friend. In this progress of roles, the person is drawn into an ever deeper identification with Jesus and his mission. At the same time, one is called to see how the decisions of one’s life reflect this deeper relationship with the Lord.
The Third Stage
Most of us have had the experience of wanting to suffer with someone we love. We hurt when they hurt. We feel their pain. We also get to know them more deeply and feel the loves and commitments that motivate them to encounter great difficulty. Through it we also encounter our own deep values and weaknesses.
In the Third stage, we are drawn to suffer with Jesus. We get to know him as well as ourselves by this prayerful presence to his passion and death. There are many fruits of this experience, but perhaps the most outstanding is that we see and feel with Jesus the great love for both God and the inspiration of His self-emptying for our sake.
The Fourth Stage
At this stage we ask “to rejoice and enjoy intensely the Joy of Christ.” Having been united to Him in suffering we are now living in union with His joy and glory. Just as our union with Jesus in friendship enabled us to suffer and die with him for love – now our friendship with Jesus enables us to participate in His Saving resurrected presence in the world. All these reflections lead to a life lived with an awareness of God present in all things, even amidst the ordinary stuff of our days.
~from notes by Fr. Kevin Ballard, SJ
For more information, visit the Ignatian Spirituality Center.