PRINCIPLES OF IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY

What is called Ignatian Spirituality is a practical way of looking at one's relationship to God and the his creation which is stamped by the peculiar insights of St. Ignatius Loyola (1491‑1556).

 1. Ignatian Spirituality is a marketplace spirituality.  It is a spirituality for lay people who live and work and play "in the world" and for religious and priests whose mission engages them with people where they live.

 2. Ignatian Spirituality is a viewpoint that cherishes the gifts which God has provided through nature and through human ingenuity as GOOD, and therefore believes that these gifts should be used in as much as they help in building up the kingdom of God and transforming the world into a "place of God" and shunned or changed in as much as they take us away from God or make the world a more unjust place in which to live.

 3. Ignatian Spirituality is very sacramental.   That is, it does not pretend that a human being can come to know God and the things of God without use of the senses, the mind, the imagination, and the affections (emotions).   The Ignatian forms of prayer always encourage use of the imagination and the "interior senses."

 4.  Ignatian Spirituality is contemplative in a very practical sense.  It aims at seeing God in all things and in all persons.   God is there in all both as the source of existence and also providing internal energy and directedness toward the Omega, that is fulfillment in the Christ of the Parousia (Teilhard de Chardin is very Ignatian in his thinking). 

 5. Ignatian Spirituality makes its adherents in actione complativi, "contemplatives in action".  It demands that one learn to contemplate the God in all things and persons, not from far or in the solitude of a monastery, but rather as one engages in such activities as education, administration, physical work, recreation, etc.  It is based on St. Paul's injunction to "pray always," because it is obvious that St. Paul was an extremely active apostle who spent time in the marketplace, in the courts, in the homes, and in jail and not in a secluded monastery.

 6. Ignatian Spirituality centers on the person of Jesus the Lord.  Because it is sacramental, signifying through signs and symbols, it puts great emphasis on the humanity of Jesus as the way in which we humans come to know God the Father.  Ignatian Spirituality recognizes that Jesus is the expression in human flesh of the Godhead, that in him we not only know an outstanding human genius, but the heart of God himself.

 7. Ignatian Spirituality promotes a love of societas, that is of people working in concert to work out their salvation by working to transform this world through common works of mercy, justice, and love.  By the same token, it sees damnation as a social event as well, that is, one usually chooses to give in to the temptations of Satan: the lust for riches, honors, and power, along with others.  Therefore what groups do and how they think is important in Ignatian spirituality, not just what individuals do and think.  This is especially true of group leaders.  Unexamined "groupthink" is as bad as the unexamined attitudes of individuals.

 8. Ignatian Spirituality calls for complete abandonment into the hands of God. "Pray as though everything depends on God and work as though everything depends on you."  Thus Ignatius joins prayer and activity in a unique way, for to him the spiritual life was not a problem of prayer or a problem of activity  but a fidelity to God and to the tasks he calls us to whether it be serving others (love your neighbor as yourself) or lifting the mind and the heart to God (love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, and mind).  Finding God and his will at all times and in all places was the principal preoccupation of Ignatius.

 9.  Ignatian Spirituality foments great desires in the soul.  Desires to serve generously.  Desires to be insignis, that is, outstanding in the following of Christ.  The magis (more) which is so characteristic of Ignatius' thinking, as when he says to the exercitant:  "Ask what more you should do for Christ," is also reflected in the Jesuit motto: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God).  It is not enough simply to do well, one needs to seek after excellence.

 10. A more recent feature of Ignatian Spirituality is to make more explicit the connection between justice and faith.  Justice is seen as being essential to the living out of Christian faith.   Ignatius says that love is shown in actions not in words, so he would clearly want those who seek God according to his insights to show their love by creating the underlying conditions for a world where love is possible, that is, a just world.

Some References:

            Bangert, William V., S. J., A HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 1986, the Institute for Jesuit Sources, St. Louis University

            Stanley, David M., S. J., A Modern Scriptural Approach to the Spiritual Exercises, 1967, Institute, St. Louis.

            Young, William J., S. J., Finding God in All Things, 1958, H. Regnery Co., Chicago, IL

Go Forth and Teach: The Characteristics of Jesuit Education, 1987, Jesuit Secondary Education Association, Washington, D.C.