January 2006 Christian Spirituality By George A Lane SJ

Continue from ...... JESUIT PRAYER SECOND GENERATION Within the context of sixteenth-century piety, we have noted that Ignatian spirituality is characterized by an interior disposition of soul by which one's union with God is centered about whole-hearted action for the greater glory of God and the Kingdom of Christ. The interior aspect of union of wills is exteriorly manifested by tireless, loving service of the Church, whatever her immediate needs may be. In Ignatius' vision it is precisely this ceaseless and unselfish labour that detaches the apostle from himself and centers him more and more on Christ, and so the work becomes an exercise of prayer and union with God. Now this orientation towards apostolic labour produces a challenge of its own. Ignatius' emphasis on action might be taken as a de-emphasis on formal prayer. Ignatius held that both prayer and action done according to God's will are basically two aspects of the same thing, the love of God. But while this was clear to Ignatius himself, one might ask how he expressed this in the Constitutions of the Society and how the fathers who followed him interpreted and altered this Constitution. In the Constituions of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius prescribed that every applicant to the order make the thirty-day Spiritual Exercises. This would culminate in a personal conversion and commitment. The exercitant was educated in a school of prayer and became a 'mortified' man, not one who fasted twenty-four hours, but one who was oriented towards God and saw Him above everything else. But the mental prayer of the Exercise was not to be a permanent or universal form of prayer for all followers. It was rather a point of departure. For Ignatius, prayer was a style of life, something organic that grows under its own power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, something which issues in a life of prayerful action. The Constitutions of the Society, approved in 1558, did outline a certain varied and flexible programme of spiritual exercises; but no single programme was obligatory on all. For scholastics, the programme called for weekly communion and confession, and daily Mass, plus one hour of prayer which was to include the two examens, the office of the Blessed Virgin, and other prayers of their liking. All this was to be under the direction of the spiritual father. For those fathers who had been admitted to final vows in the Society, "it must be taken for certain that they will be spiritual men . . . so progressed in the way of Christ our Lord that they can run in it as much as their care for health and external works of charity and obedience will allow . . . For chastisement of the body it does not seem necessary that any regulation be written down except that mature charity will dictate whatever is necessary for each one. Nevertheless, let each one's confessor always be consulted and whenever any question comes up about what should be done, let the matter be brought to the superior." Thus mature charity under direction is the universal principle.

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2006. All rights reserved.