First Week Of The Spiritual Exercises                         Chapter 8

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Chapter Eight

Listening To The Second Exercise
Repetition
Hidden Sinful Tendencies
Introducing Prayer Unit 8

        By now your directee will have been praying the First Week for about fourteen days. Begin the interview in much the same way as you did the last one; that is, moving from the general to the specific. Note how he has entered into this Second Exercise on personal sin:

        Hopefully, your directee has been entering into the sin awareness exercises at ever-deepening levels. As the interview progresses, it is important that you encourage:

a) Concreteness

        This is opposed to vague generalizations. When your directee talks about coming to grips with his self-centredness, you might ask him: "What do you mean by self-centredness? Could you give some examples of what you mean? ..." Your directee's one or two examples might suffice to show that he is dealing with the real stuff of his life and that he is calling it by its right name. In these examples, you should also note whether he is beginning to recognize some relationship between his "self-centredness" and other departments of his life; for example, either taking too much responsibility or not taking enough responsibility at the job can be forms of self-centredness.

b) Realism

        This is opposed to seeing evil/sin where it does not exist or to exaggerating the unimportant. What is important is that your directee is dealing with significant aspects of his life. People have to make mistakes in order to develop as mature responsible adults. Wallowing in guilt over developmental mistakes may not dispose a directee for facing real guilt. Wallowing in guilt over the sins that we have committed in growing up may interfere with those more subtle contributions to evil now. This can be a form of avoidance or denial of one's present complicity in evil. Significant life-issues are connected inevitably to other significant life-issues. It is not important that he deal with everything in his life nor that he deal with what you yourself think he should be dealing with.

c) Growth In Self-Knowledge And Self-Awareness

        There is no growth in the spiritual life without a deepening appreciation of one's own sinfulness and the interior and exterior reactions that are influenced by it. The more intimate one is with the Holy, the more one recognizes one's own lack of holiness. They say that saints see themselves as great sinners. "Amazing grace" is experienced by "a wretch like me." Hence, you hope that your directee is beginning to grow in a meaningful knowledge of his sinfulness. At times, you will wonder whether this is taking place at all! However, proceed trusting that God, sooner or later, will reveal to your directee what needs to be revealed. This may take three months even though, according to our hypothetical plan represented in the prayer units, it should have taken place in one month!

        Now that your directee has entered into the dynamic of the Exercises, your listening style will encourage this self-knowledge and awareness. It will help to determine the content for the next prayer unit which involves a series of Repetitions. Now, even more than before, gently accent significant aspects that seem to be implied behind the words. For example:

        Through such active and reflective listening, you are beginning to encourage your directee to look at deeper issues behind some of the things he is saying. As well, you are preparing him for the next prayer unit. This unit involves a looking behind one's sins in order to be enlightened concerning the influence of the `world' and the consequent Hidden Disordered Tendencies in one's life. Now, you are not just feeding back what you are hearing; you are explicitly helping your directee to make tentative interpretations concerning what he has been expressing to you.(11)

d) Repetition

        As you listen and gently feed back what you hear, note how your directee returns to unfinished business from earlier prayer exercises. Is he using the Review to become aware of how he needs to spend more time on some emerging movement, an emerging insight, Consolation, or Desolation? Is the Review helping him notice where and how he is skirting some significant issue?

The Third Exercise

        The Third Exercise of this First Week is extremely important [62], [63]. It introduces the directee explicitly to the notion of Repetition which is a key technique that fosters spiritual reactions which make up the dynamic of the Exercises. Over a series of prayer exercises and days, Repetition allows the directee's interior reactions and responses to unfold their inherent meaning. This honours God's movements taking place in the directee's heart. By the time of the Third Exercise, Ignatius presumes that the directee has some ability to recognize, on his own, the need for Repetition.(12)

        The Third Exercise introduces the Triple Colloquy which always indicates a significant phase of the Exercises journey.(13) This instrument of growing enlightenment and freedom is a way for the directee to exercise himself so that he will become free enough to receive the gifts which God desires to give him. The Triple Colloquy can help a directee to remove blockages and to detect the below-the-surface, disordered tendencies in his heart which could undermine his decision-making process later in the journey.

        With respect to using the Triple Colloquy, directees from more Protestant traditions often have difficulty in making a Colloquy with Mary and saying the vocal prayer, the "Hail Mary." In this situation you might suggest some adaptation such as making a Colloquy with the Holy Spirit in addition to the one with Jesus and with the Father. Later on, the Triple Colloquy will be introduced again. But then it will be after the Gospel Contemplations on the early life of Jesus during which even directees from Protestant traditions will have found themselves conversing with Mary, with Joseph and with the shepherds! Through their own experiences of Gospel Contemplation, they usually come to understand that these conversations do not contradict our common Christian belief that Jesus is the only priest and mediator between themselves and God.

        The Third Exercise instructs the directee to ask for three Graces in addition to the other Graces which they are seeking. For the directee, this is very complicated, mechanical, and confusing. Nevertheless, if he follows these instructions carefully, something beautiful and simple usually begins to take place. The mechanics begin to fade away. The directee's prayer seems to become a continual conversation with genuine intimacy. The directee finds himself praying for things he was resisting a day or two earlier. Where before he did not even want to look at the evil in the choices of his life, now he is praying for the desire to look at this area with depth and to do something concrete about it.

        This exercise can heighten the directee's awareness of the influences of the `world' on the decisions he makes.(14) These influences range from the obvious to the more subtle -- all the way from the greed, competition, and materialism of our economic system to our unconscious mental structures.

        How do you introduce this Third Exercise? First, reflect with your directee upon his experience of attempting it in period f) last week and give instructions accordingly. At times it may be helpful to read the text of Ignatius together and to share, from your own experience, the meaning of a few relevant concepts, such as Repetition, greater Consolation, greater Desolation, interior knowledge, the `world,' Hidden Disordered Tendencies, etc. Take care not to destroy the interview by trying to discuss too much.

        It is helpful to introduce the concept of Hidden Disordered Tendencies because it accents the hidden quality of the directee's interior affections and tendencies that God must order if the directee is going to respond effectively. It also helps the directee to notice how the `world' is influencing his choices. This concept includes the underlying tendencies kept hidden not only by his own blindness but also by the subtle influences of the `world.' This concept can be introduced with a familiar image such as that of the iceberg.

        When I am in session with a directee, I usually draw the model of the proverbial iceberg of which only one-seventh is visible above the water line. This illustrates how the more invisible and submerged levels of the mystery of iniquity affect our hearts more profoundly than many of our more visible faults. Then I explain how the exercise invites him to begin to pray with those personal areas represented by Level 2. He already has some awareness of these. Using this level as prayer material will dispose him for the enlightenment he needs concerning Level 3. This third level is the level of our culture and institutions which have a profound influence on our choices.

Level 1

        These are the activities of which one is aware or semi-aware: "... the things I do, I don't want to do" (Rom 7:15). This is the area of one's sins, faults and actions which flow from the disordered tendencies in one's heart.(15) It includes those behaviours and approaches that directly affect others: being a nice person all the time, keeping the peace at all costs, being overly sensitive, expressing oneself in overpowering ways, rigidly expecting conformity, bullying, judging, grasping, cheating, nagging, demanding, working too hard, etc.
Level 2
        This level includes what are traditionally called the seven deadly sins. These are the underlying drives, tendencies and compulsions which energize the more obvious attitudes and actions of Level 1. Being just below the surface, they can usually be discovered by self-reflection. Other words and phrases may be more useful for disposing directees for the deep-felt understanding that is being sought: spirit of competition, individualism, fear of risking, grudges and resentments, holding on to hurts, drive to impress, drive to be prove oneself, etc.(16)
Level 3
        This is the area of our Hidden Disordered Tendencies. For the most part, they are often invisible to us. We lack awareness of their presence and their effects on the ways we behave and make choices. When we begin to recognize them, we do not fully appreciate their pervasiveness. Unaware of their influence in our lives, we think that some of the choices we make are in harmony with God's desires for us, but in reality these choices are sometimes skewed. Only God can reveal to us our Hidden Disordered Tendencies which may contaminate our decision-making processes. This holds true for our own private decision-making processes as well as the public decision-making processes in which we engage with others.
Level 4
        This is the sin that dwells within each of us (Rom 7:20). Christian theology calls it the effects of original sin.
Level 5
        This is the influence of the `world' on our psyches -- always subliminal, but sometimes conscious.

        Some guides suggest the use of the seven deadly or capital sins -- pride, lust, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, avarice -- to help a directee think about the deceptive dynamics of evil which are always influencing our decisions on Level 1. Even though this listing points to realities that are profound and very real, its use here may not yield the depth of awareness that the exercise intends. The religious language intended to name the basic tendencies behind our sinful behaviours may block a profound enlightenment that God desires to give. Thus, if your directee disposes himself by reflecting on his behaviours and attitudes only in terms of the seven deadly sins, the effectiveness of this First Week may be trivialized. Consult the endnote(17) for an example of this.

        The mystery of iniquity can never be understood by the focus of any one name. Traditionally we have recognized that most of our sins have the seven deadly attitudes as their underpinnings. We even name certain actions as pride, envy, lust, etc. However, other names for our sinful actions may help us to be more effectively disposed for the enlightening grace of God. To know oneself as a "seducer" in one's relationships to others is to say more than to say "lust." To recognize oneself as "needing always to be affirmed" is to say more than to call oneself "proud." To recognize oneself as "being overly concerned about status, dress and physical appearance" is to say more than to call oneself "envious" or "gluttonous."

        The goal of the Third Exercise is that a directee will come to understand how his own Hidden Disordered Tendencies affect his decision-making and choices. A perceptive prayer guide may even have a clue as to what a directee's hidden tendencies might be and how they may affect his choices. But remember that these tendencies are hidden from a directee. As humans with only partial knowledge -- because we can never be totally self-reflective -- and with the effects of our own sin and that of others, we are blind to our Hidden Disordered Tendencies even though our friends and colleagues experience their symptoms. We are not aware of these tendencies even when people have been pointing them out to us for years. Only God can reveal them effectively to us!

        When you encourage your directee to pray this exercise, you are inviting him to gather and understand the different parts of his life. It is like assembling the parts of an old puzzle. Encourage him to work on that small corner of the puzzle for which he seems to have a number of significant pieces. Some of the pieces do not belong because they come from a different puzzle! Some of the pieces may be lost. Others might be found if he were to look hard enough for them. One memory touches off another. The other brings to mind a significant remark from years ago that someone made about him. As he looks over the pieces one at a time, he may suddenly locate an unexpected piece. But he will never be able to put all the pieces together -- our personal mystery is such that no one is ever able to do so! In dialogue with God through the Colloquies, hopefully some discovery will be made together:

"... and as you do this, you will find another piece that you will be able to place in the picture.... Simply wait and pray. Hold up these pieces and ask for the gifts of enlightenment and a deep-felt understanding with a sense of abhorrence. Then, hopefully, at some time, God will pull all the pieces together for you. It may only last for a short while. Only then will you be able to appreciate how much we are caught in a web of evil ... and yet God is continuously protecting us."


Summary

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Endnotes For The First Week

10. Trivialization takes place on many different levels -- with humour, with repetitive news reporting, with talk shows which reveal people's private worlds, with gossip columns, etc. On the other hand, the media has also created righteous expectations of our leaders in public life.

11. In human relations theory, you have moved from feeding back and clarifying what the directee is expressing, to helping him notice the meaning that lies behind what he is expressing.

12. It is for this reason that Repetitions are placed in the very first prayer unit.

13. Compare the various places in the Exercises where the Triple Colloquy is recommended: [63], [147], [156], [157], [167], [199].

14. The world affects us in many ways, some more obvious and others more subtle. In an obvious way, the term `world' refers to our environment of greed, competition, materialism, workaholism, and our affluent need to possess things. More subtly, `world' implies the influence of our culture which prejudices the way we listen to God's word and, hence, the way we choose to act upon it. This is the world that keeps us trapped in our mind-sets and mental structures. These, in turn, govern the way we help prevent our social and economic structures from being more responsive to grace -- a vicious circle. Through our mental structures, we make choices that support the institutions that influence our thinking and choosing. It is important to realize that a directee usually receives enlightenment about the `world's' influences on his Hidden Disordered Tendencies only when he is already conscientized to this possibility. Only then can God's word influence him more deeply. When there has been teaching and cultural awareness before the Exercises journey, some breakthrough on this deeper level is likely to occur. Your role is to attend to those gentle hints and glimmers surfacing in your directee's prayer experiences and to help your directee notice them. They may be God's attempt to challenge his worldview.

15. It would be interesting if a directee were to invite his spouse, children or close friend to list his faults.

16. At times, the use of tools like the Enneagram can help to communicate a heightened awareness around the existence of a pattern of characteristic compulsions which influence our private and public choices. Take some examples:

Naming such a pattern can help a directee connect the more subtle aspects that are associated with the pattern. It can give a directee a way of thinking, provided that he does not reduce all the aspects into one cause or root which would be a variation of the basic-disorder approach and a false kind of psychology.

17. Take this hypothetical example of Jim Acoa, a directee who is an adult child of an alcoholic. He has learned to socialize by attending to the needs of others in an over-responsible way. He tends to overwork. Jim talks about negative experiences of life in somewhat intensive ways. He is a good mimic. He perceives his relationships with others in terms of hurt, pain and frustration. The descriptions he gives and uses to reflect on his own experiences are usually exaggerated. He takes things too personally and is defensive when anyone appears to differ from his positions. Behind this is a fear of making mistakes. Jim needs to be so good that he won't be abused by others in the way he was by his alcoholic mother.

        Jim Acoa is somewhat psychologically aware of the historical dynamic rooted in his family of origin. He has grown in some practical self-knowledge through twelve-step groups and some occasional counselling. He is aware of his resentments and also aware that he doesn't always know how he feels. He has not sufficiently understood his need for overwork. More importantly, he seems to have little awareness that he always seeks the affirmation of others. Whenever he engages others in a conversation, he focuses the attention on himself.

        Jim Acoa doesn't recognize that, in the choices he makes both in his public and private worlds, he has to be the centre of attention. He has to take centre stage. He has extreme difficulty in letting others be acknowledged. This quality has interfered with working cooperatively with others at work. At home his feelings and needs have to be put before those of his wife and his children.

        He entered the Exercises journey with the question whether he should seek a different career opportunity which entails team work and working with volunteers. The point is that if Jim Acoa were to pray for the gift of enlightenment by using only the capital sin of pride, it would likely be of little help in disposing him for the understanding of the Hidden Disordered Tendencies which probably will affect his career choices later on in the Exercises journey.
 

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