Aug 2005 Christian Spirituality By George A Lane SJ

Continue from ...... IGNATIAN PRAYER: FINDING GOD IN ALL THINGS This notion of God gives rise to a different spirituality. If previous writers conceived of the spiritual life as a union with God in interior prayer, Ignatius, being so taken by God's action in the world, was convinced that a person could achieve a union with God in action just as well as in contemplation. The operative principle then would be a union of will, man's with God's. Ignatius operated on the principle that to find God's will is to find God, and to do God's will, even in total activity, is to be totally united with God. Thus the man of Ignatian spirituality is one who works with God the worker. And this union with God in action Ignatius calls prayer. What he does here is to expand the notion of prayer to include activity; or better, what he does is recommend that a person "find God in all things." The object is a union with God which for Ignatius can be achieved either in prayer, in the traditional sense, or in action by a union of will with God. And so this "finding God in all things" is the epitome of Ignatian prayer and spirituality. The expression "finding God in all things" is a technical term which embraces several different aspects of the spiritual life. Thus one may find God in formal prayer, in activity by union of will, and one may sometimes find God by an awareness of His presence in the world. Ignatius never denies the necessity of formal prayer. In fact, the Spiritual Exercises are a whole series of meditations, contemplations, and vocal prayers which Ignatius required all of his followers to make. The time of formal prayer could be used for the discernment of spirits, for finding God's will, or for fostering one's sense of the grandeur of God's action in the world, or for simple conversation or presence. Prolonged prayer of this type as a daily practice was always discouraged and generally suspect to Ignatius. That this type of prayer was a means in and not the end of the spiritual life was Ignatius' radical departure from the contemplation ideal of other spiritualities. The second aspect of "finding God in all thing" is the Ignatian prayer of direct action based upon a union of will. "We have a formula in Ignatian prayer, in actione contemplativa, wholly different from the contemplata tradere of St Thomas. Casting off the last vestiges of the Neo-Platonic techniques, Ignatius affirms that the Christian mystical union is essentially the union of love where correspondence to the divine will is more important than psychological techniques and which can therefore be acquired no matter what the circumstances."

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2005. All rights reserved.