Easy Consolation
A phrase developed by John Govan, S.J., to denote the kind of Consolation that is easily recognizable. See Hard Consolation.

Ecological Worldview
The worldview that has been taking root in the last part of the twentieth century. It acknowledges how we are participants with other life-forms on planet earth and it stresses how we are responsible for cooperating with other human beings to protect the environment for the future. See Developmental Worldview.

Election (*) (!)
From the Spanish meaning "choice." Since the primary example or analogy used in the Exercises for discerning a choice is that of choosing a major and permanent way of life, the word Election has come to mean the choosing of a permanent way of life -- a calling or a vocation as in notations [169]ff. See Vocation.

Empathy
The quality by which a helper, such as a prayer guide or spiritual director, has imaginative participation in the experience of another person without the loss of objectivity. It is an essential element in the process of listening and understanding (adapted from Wulff and Frigo). See Noticing, Grace of Inadequacy.

Enthusiasm (!)
Notation [14] refers to a directee who experiences what seems like intense consolation and, as a result, is likely to make impulsive and inappropriate judgements and decisions. Actually this enthusiasm may be Consolation, Counterfeit Consolation, or even Desolation. Psychologically it may represent a state of euphoria. Whatever it may be, it is safer for the director of the Exercises to judge it as Counterfeit Consolation [331] or Consolation like a drop of water on a stone [334]. If the directee is naive and/or emotionally immature, it should not be interpreted as a sign of Spiritual Freedom. Historically, in all religions, enthusiasm has been the context for decisions and movements that have led to various kinds of fanaticism.

Eucharist (*)
This terms comes from the Greek and means "thanksgiving." In churches of the Catholic tradition, the term Eucharist means Communion itself or the worship service that leads up to and includes Communion. The latter is often referred to as the liturgy, the Mass, or the eucharistic liturgy. See Mass.

Evangelical Perfection (*)
Traditionally, this phrase has been used to communicate a radical discipleship and a more complete following of Jesus. It is similar in meaning to the phrases "life of the beatitudes" and "life of the counsels" used in Roman Catholic literature of the 1900s. Like these other designations, the term Evangelical Perfection implied a life dedicated to God through the making and practice of vows. In notation [135], this is referred to as "the second state -- that of evangelical perfection." See Life of the Commandments, Life of the Counsels, Perfection, Vows.

Evil Spirit (*)
A demon; that is, a fallen angel of lesser rank than Lucifer. In notation [141], Lucifer is pictured as sending demons to all places and persons to lay traps to lead them away from God. In the medieval understanding of the psyche, spontaneous feelings and thoughts were thought of as being caused by good and bad spirits. In Roman Catholic teaching, the term 'spirit' can mean a good or bad angel.

Examen (*)
See Examen of Conscience, Particular Examen.

Examen of Conscience (*)
This is not the same as the Awareness Examen. It is the activity a person does when one reflects upon oneself in the light of one's "conscience" to judge whether one has acted/not acted in thought, word, or deed according to one's Christian values. Before going to bed, many people reflect over the day in this way as part of their nightly prayer ritual.

Existentialism
The existentialist maxim is "existence precedes essence" (Jean-Paul Sartre). The point is that we are what we make of ourselves and we are responsible for the self we create. Existentialists can be divided roughly into the theistic and atheistic wings; they understand some of key issues of 20th-century philosophy from one or other of these perspectives (adapted from Creamer).

First Kind of Humility (*)
See notation [165].

First Set of Guidelines for Discerning Spirits (+)
The phrase for what spiritual directors refer to as "First-Week rules." It includes the guidelines [313] and [315]-[327] which are relevant for all persons and directees who are going from good to better; that is, who are earnestly seeking to develop their loving relationship with God. Many of their interior attitudes and affectivities are aligned with God's desires even though they may be a long way from being spiritually free. The aspect that distinguishes the First Set from the Second Set is subtlety; the First Set envisages a good person "who has not been versed in spiritual things, and is tempted grossly and openly" -- having, for example, temptations of fear which present obstacles to persevering in God's service, such as laborious work, shame, human respect, and fear of losing human status [9].⁽¹²⁾

Four Weeks of the Exercises (*)
The four major phases of the Exercises journey according to either notation [19] or [20].

General Examen (*)
This is an all-embracing Examen of Conscience -- a searching inventory of all the thoughts, words and actions by which a person has compromised oneself with evil -- much like the practice of the Fourth Step of the Alcoholics Anonymous program and similar twelve-step programs. A person can make this General Examen daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc., depending on one's needs. The detailed explanation of how to determine exactly the nature of one's sins, described in notations [32]-[42], is based on some of the ascetical practices in Ignatius' time.

Good Angel (*)
See Angel. In our present cultural language, the Good Angel of the Second Set of Guidelines for Discerning Spirits can be understood as a manifestation of God's Spirit or the Holy Spirit.

Good Spirit (*)
See Spirits. In our present way of speaking, the good spirit can be understood as the spontaneous influences for good which originate from within a person's own psyche.

Gospel Contemplation (+)
The prayer method whereby a person takes a passage from the gospels and participates imaginatively in the event just as if it were happening in the present moment. Some people refer to this method as Ignatian Contemplation. Ignatius himself simply uses the word "contemplation." Further distinctions and working definitions are given in Chapter 23, "Concerning Gospel Contemplation."

Grace (*) (!)
The word which Christians have used over the centuries to denote and connote God's personal relationship and consequent activity with humankind as a whole and with each person individually. Since earliest times, we Christians have believed that anything we do that has any relationship whatsoever to our salvation or to our growth in God's love comes as a result of God's initiatives. "It is by God's favour [grace] that we have been saved" (Eph 2:5). "It is not we who love God but God loved us first..." (1Jn 4:10; Rom 5:8). Grace is a freely given and unearned gift. It refers to the abiding presence of God's life within us, which, in Roman Catholic theology, has been called sanctifying grace. It also refers to those impulses, initiatives, inspirations, etc., that ultimately encourage us into deeper involvement in God's life which, in Roman Catholic theology, has been called 'actual grace(s).' See Asking for a Grace.

Grace I Desire (*)
Or its Latin equivalent, "Id quod volo" (!), is a concept used frequently throughout the Exercises: "The Second Prelude is to ask God our Lord for what I want and desire" [48]. Ignatian spirituality could be called a spirituality of passionate and ordered desires. Frequently during the Exercises journey, a directee is asked to attend carefully to his/her desires because, in some ways, the process of the Exercises can be understood as a purification of one's desires.

Grace of Inadequacy
Standing before a directee, a spiritual guide often finds him/herself unable to comprehend fully the other's mystery. This can be due to the guide's own darkness, shadow, or limitation, etc. But it can also be due to a recognition that grace is not yet been given on either side to unpack or unfold the mystery (Whelan). See Spiritual Poverty.

Guidelines for Discerning Spirits (+)
The phrase for the "rules for perceiving and knowing in some manner the different movements which are caused in the soul; the good, to receive them, and the bad, to reject them" [313].

Hard Consolation
This term was developed by John Govan, S.J., to denote the kind of Consolation that is not easily recognizable because it involves unpleasant and difficult experiences such as suffering, grief, worried concern, being distraught, etc., which can be misinterpreted as Desolation. This type of Consolation fits the description of the last sentence of notation [316]. See Easy Consolation.

Healing Mode (<)
Directees are in the Healing Mode when their primary focus is upon their own personal growth issues. Their predominant desire is for God's continuing help in dealing with these personal growth issues. This focus prevents them from entering into a discernment concerning their more public role as disciples. Directees can be in the Healing Mode at one time in their life and then in the Call Mode at another. See Call Mode.

Hell (*)
A definitive stance and choice of non-response to love (Frigo). The final and eternal separation from God.

Heuristic Structure
The word 'heuristic' comes from the Greek meaning "discover." In modifying the word model or structure, heuristic more clearly denotes how such a model or structure can be used not only to understand and explain but also to discover. See Dynamic Model.

Hidden Disordered Tendencies (+) (<)
This is the term I use for Ignatius' phrase "disorder of my actions" [63]. It contains his meaning about the non-relationship-to-God aspect inherent in certain of one's actions. In addition, my phrase stresses the hidden, the dynamic, and the affective aspects implied in Ignatius' phrase. All these aspects influence conscious and less-than-conscious choices behind one's actions.

Id
In Freud's model of the psyche, the Id is the unconscious and enduringly influential reservoir of instinctive and irrational tendencies (Wulff).

Identity (<)
In Erik Erikson's usage, identity on a psychological level is the feeling of an enduring and integrative inner sameness that is affirmed by others with whom a person has a sense of solidarity (adapted from Wulff). Spiritual directors sometimes use this word to mean the above along with an enduring inner conviction and felt sense that one is both a sinner and a beloved child of God.⁽¹³⁾

Ideology
An integrated system of ideas and values that serve to define reality and to unite individuals in a common cause (Wulff). Sometimes this word is used in a pejorative sense when an institution's or person's founding myth is no longer effective.

Illuminative Way (*)
In the traditional understanding of the lifelong spiritual journey towards complete union with God, after a person has completed the more basic Purgative Way and before one enters the Unitive Way, one enters the Illuminative Way. "Once the soul is purified from past faults by a long and arduous penance in keeping with the number and gravity of these faults, once it has been grounded in virtue through the practice of meditation, of mortification, and resistance to the disordered inclinations and to temptations, then it enters into the Illuminative Way. This stage of the spiritual life is thus named because the great aim of the soul is now the imitation and the Following of Christ by the positive exercise of the Christian virtues..." (from Tanquerey⁽¹⁴⁾). Jesus is the light of the world, and whoever follows Jesus shall have the light of life (Jn 8:12).

Imagination (*)
Imagination is that power within each of us which equips us to make present what is not present. Imagination is intimately connected with our senses which take in the data coming to us from our environment. Imagination is also linked intimately with our memory by helping the memory to access data from within us. Enmeshed with our cognitive powers, imagination is essential to our grasp of meaning and to the communication of the same.⁽¹⁵⁾ In conjunction with our power of memory, imagination can be a gateway to the unconscious and to deep feelings. The imagination is key to our ability to use and to create symbols that are essential to us as rational beings.

Imitation of Christ (*)
The Christian practice of imitating in one's own life the values manifested in Jesus' life. Ignatius uses this phrase for the close following of Jesus [104], [167]. This is also the title of a famous, small book containing insights of practical spirituality and attributed to the fifteenth century German monk, Thomas à Kempis (died circa 1471) [100].

Incarnation (*)
The name given for the Christian teaching on the Word become flesh; namely, that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took on human nature -- the person of the historical Jesus had both the nature of God (was completely God) and the nature of a human being (was completely human).

Incipient Desolation (+)
The beginning of Desolation which is not recognized because the directee is still able to pray, seems happy enough, and at the same time, is not aware of a lack of God's presence. Left to its own dynamic, a growing arduousness, distancing or boredom within prayer will probably develop.

Indifference (*)
Described in the Principle and Foundation [23], and with greater precision in the Second Kind of Humility [166], and more dynamically, in the Third Kind of Persons [155]. See Spiritual Freedom, Detachment.

Inordinate Affection (*) (!)
See Affection, Hidden Disordered Tendencies.

Inordinate Attachment (*) (!)
See Disordered Attachment.

Intentional/Intentionality
Intentional or intentionality for Bernard Lonergan (Jesuit philosopher, 1904-1984) does not mean deliberate or wilful. By intentionality, he means that the operations of experiencing, understanding, judging and deciding, in their very operation, intend objects -- i.e., when I open my eyes, seeing is an intentional operation (Creamer). A directee's interior reactions, to which he/she attends in spiritual direction, have intentionality; they have some meaning which can be understood.

Interpretation(+)
The word 'interpretation,' written with single quotes, denotes that level of judgement made before, and implicit in, discernment in the strict sense. Often, particularly in sessions of ongoing spiritual direction, only this activity is required without the need for the interrelated skill of discernment.

Intimate Knowledge (*)
A deeply felt knowledge that escapes analysis, but nonetheless, deeply impresses itself upon our hearts and minds. For example, the farmer who has worked the family farm for many years may have more intimate knowledge of the land than one who is a scientist and/or agriculturalist.

Lectio Divina
A method of prayer in which a person listens with one's heart to God's word in the scriptures or to some other manifestation of God such as in a personal experience, or in a sunset, etc. Unfortunately, some spiritual directors often explain Lectio Divina as meditative reading only (which can be one way of going about it), but it was practised in early Christian times by monks who often who could not read. It developed as a key form of meditation in the monasteries. It is a natural process which, when one begins to listen with the heart ('lectio'), moves through a pondering or reflection with the heart ('meditatio'), through a response of the heart ('oratio') to a resting in God ('contemplatio'). In some instances in the classicist worldview, Lectio Divina was the name given for the divine office which, in the Roman and Anglican traditions, is read alone or is chanted with others in choir.

Less-than-conscious (+)
My term to denote all those areas of the psyche that are not fully conscious.

Life of the Commandments (!)
A moral life basic to what it means to be a good, moral person. In the Roman church before the Second Vatican Council, this was understood as the ordinary calling of every Christian. On the other hand, the life of Evangelical Perfection was understood as the more extraordinary calling of those who were chosen by God to follow a special form of discipleship, such as a vowed life in a religious order or monastery. In notation [135], the 'life of the commandments' is referred to as "the first state of life -- that of observing the Commandments." See Evangelical Perfection, Perfection.

Life of the Counsels (!)
A life dedicated to radical discipleship and holiness expressed in the beatitudes. See Evangelical Perfection, Life of the Commandments.

Mass
The central Catholic worship service which celebrates the paschal mystery -- the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus -- through the reading of God's word in the scriptures and through the presence of the body and blood of Jesus with the symbols of bread and wine. In the time of Ignatius, the Mass was celebrated daily in early morning. During the Exercises journey of notation [20], a directee would usually attend Mass each day. Consult notations [20], [72]. See Eucharist.

Medieval Worldview
In the medieval worldview, everyone took for granted that God not only existed but was also intimately involved in our world. One Christendom was the ideal. The whole cosmos was understood as being interconnected in a hierarchical order which was more than an ordering of hierarchic logic. The hierarchical order represented a metaphysical reality of inclusion; for example, animals included everything that vegetables had but went beyond them; humans included everything that animals had but went beyond them; etc. Even the choirs of angels were ordered hierarchically. This hierarchic perspective, in conjunction with the truths of the bible, was believed to foster understanding of the nature of things. In this worldview, each person had his/her appropriate place in the scheme of things. In this worldview, everything was filled with powers, mystery and transcendence; miracles could always be expected to happen; spirits influenced our thoughts; gold could be made from iron. In this worldview, people automatically made use of intuitive logic⁽¹⁶⁾ to understand the world. This intuitive logic differed from the rational logic embraced and emphasized by the classicist worldview. See Classicist Worldview.

Meditation Using the Three Powers of the Soul (*)
The powers of the soul to which Ignatius refers are Will, Memory, and Understanding. He calls each prayer exercise of the First Week a Meditation Using the Three Powers [45]. This is NOT a method of discursive prayer. For a person of the medieval worldview (as psychologists and philosophers are once again rediscovering!), imagination was considered very much part of a person's memory and enmeshed with one's reasoning powers leading to a felt understanding. When exercising oneself in this meditative practice, a person decides (WILL) to attend and to focus on an image or truth that arises from some scriptural or personal story (MEMORY with imagination presumed), in order to come to a felt understanding (UNDERSTANDING). See Imagination.

Model
A structure which helps illustrate or explain, in some analogous way, a complex reality; for example, the juxtaposition of billiard balls connected by wire can illustrate and explain the ways certain molecules are bonded together in a unit of matter. See Dynamic Model, Heuristic Structure, Paradigm.

Modern Worldview
Is one that values objectivity and has its roots in the 17th century. In its early inception, it insisted that such objectivity be obtained through experience mediated by rational logic. Later on, what was to count as objective had to be submitted to scientific research. In time as science developed, the notion of objectivity was found not to be a univocal concept. This gave rise to an historical consciousness about knowledge in general. Further, with the discovery of the theories of relativity and of quantum physics, with the knowledge of the expanding universe, and with the evident failure of science to understand and manage planet earth for the benefit of humankind, this modern worldview has been giving way to a postmodern worldview. See Cartesian Mind, Classicist Worldview, Postmodern.

More (*) (!)
In Jesuit spirituality which developed from the spirituality of the Exercises, and after the Society of Jesus was established, this word has come to take on great significance. Its source is primarily in the personal life of Ignatius as recorded in the spirituality of the Kingdom Exercise [97] where the medieval knight who, just newly converted as a follower of Jesus and filled with the passion of courtly love, desires to do more than anyone else as a proof of his love, loyalty and dedication. With the constitutions of the Society of Jesus, this theme became a criterion for the choice of ministries according to which Jesuits were encouraged to choose what was for the greater good of the church. The phrase, "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" (for the greater glory of God), encapsulates this spirituality. The theme of the 'more' runs through the Exercises.

Mortal Sins (*)
Serious sins that, when done freely -- with sufficient reflection and with full consent -- are death-dealing. These sins separate us from God's life of grace. The Christian teaching, which is that of the Exercises, is that if someone dies in the state of mortal sin without repentance, that person is divorced from God forever. See Hell, Venial Sins.

Movement(s) of Spirits (*)
Our interior and spontaneous reactions -- thoughts, feelings and their various combinations -- considered in a faith context in terms of the direction they are leading. These interior reactions include all the feelings and spontaneous thoughts that occur within us -- boring, angry, exciting, fearful, depressed, anxious, challenging, insightful, meaningful, etc. What makes these very human interior experiences 'spiritual movements' is their meaning through the perspective of faith along with the direction that is perceived as part of or within them. See Intentionality, Movements, Spirits.

Movements (*) (!)
From the Spanish, "mociones," literally "motions," is the term Ignatius uses from scholasticism. It means interior experiences, such as thoughts, impulses, inclinations, moods, urges, Consolations, Desolations, etc. (Ganss).

Mystery (*) (!)
As in the phrase, "contemplating a Gospel mystery." To contemplate an event from Jesus' life is "to enter into the mystery." In the Roman Catholic practice of praying the rosary, one contemplates a different mystery for every cluster of ten beads. Jesus is the revelation of God's mystery as Paul frequently teaches (Eph 1:1-23). In the memory of the risen Lord Jesus, all the events of his life are present. These are mysteries for they reveal, in a more concrete fashion, aspects of the Christ who reveals God's mystery.

Myth
Myths can be expressed in stories, songs, images, etc. They operate on both the conscious and the less-than-conscious levels of our psyche. Myths can give direction to our lives and help us to connect with the world of ultimate meaning, the sacred, and the ineffable. As a working definition, a myth is a significant image or story that incorporates values, images, insights, dreams, plots, meanings, etc., which, together in this image or story, give energy and focus to our lives.⁽¹⁷⁾ Myths are a form of symbolic discourse. See Analogy, Symbol.

Notation (*)
One of the numbered paragraphs in the edited texts of the Exercises. These numbers have been standardized and commonly accepted by editors to permit easy reference to the different parts of the Exercises.

Notice/Noticing (<)
The fundamental help that a spiritual director gives a directee in order to establish the possibility of discernment. In listening to the experiences of a directee, a spiritual director helps the directee to notice his/her deeper interior reactions and how, through these interior reactions, expressed or implied, God has been influencing his/her heart. This word has been introduced as a technical term by Barry and Connolly.⁽¹⁸⁾

Order and Disorder (*)
According to Ignatius' thinking, to order one's life is to bring its details into harmony with the Principle and Foundation (Ganss). As expressed in notations [1] and [21], the whole purpose of the Exercises is to help a directee to become ordered or spiritually free so that one's desires, choices and actions are aligned with God's desires.

Paradigm
In science, a paradigm is a prototype of scientific protocol -- including theory, principles, methods, results, and applications -- that guides the continuing research of a community of adherents (Wulff). In general parlance, a paradigm is a particularly clear example of something. Often this word is used to connote the mind-set or pattern by which a person perceives the data of experience. Paradigms act as filters that help screen or illuminate the data of one's reflections. See Model.

Particular Examen (*)
A more particular Examen of Conscience in which a person focuses (frequently and more intently) on one fault, one attitude, or one pattern of behaviour that one desires to modify. As a help, one can tabulate the frequency of successes or failures in a little book. During the Exercises journey, Ignatius recommends that the directee use the Particular Examen to monitor how well he/she is keeping the Additions; that is, keeping oneself in harmony with the graces of the Exercises. See notations [24]-[31].

Penance (*)
Exterior penance [82]-[90] is usually a self-imposed discipline to help develop a greater harmony between body and spirit. Exterior penance ranges from bodily discomfort (such as fasting, making a vigil, etc.) to the performance of good works (such as visiting the elderly, donating to charities, etc.) that a person does for a variety of reasons:

To make up to God for one's sins [87];

To discipline one's inappropriate sensuality in order to be aligned with the desires of the true self [87];

To dispose oneself for the Grace that one is seeking [89];

To help rid oneself of faults [90].

Ultimately, exterior penance is the externalization of one's interior penance (such as a desire for the gift of gratitude or forgiveness, etc.).

Perfection(*)
Perfection is the name Ignatius gives to the state of those who habitually love God with their whole heart, mind and will. Persons growing in perfection are those who earnestly strive to cleanse their hearts from all evil and align their choices and their lives, based on these choices, with the desires of God. The more they live in harmony with God's desires, the more they manifest this love towards their companion human beings. Thus it can be said that they are "progressing to greater perfection" [335]. See Evangelical Perfection, Life of the Commandments.

Pietism
Goes back to the reactionary times of the great theological debates after the Protestant Reformation when theology became abstruse and was separated from the experience of ordinary people. It is a way of thinking and speaking about God's mystery from a more devotional and tender point of view. It can be uncritical in reflecting about life because it may emphasize one's personal, private and devotional experiences in separation from, or not integrated with, one's societal experiences. See Critical Reflection, Theological Reflection, Theological Thinking.

Pleasure Principle
The Id's blind dedication to maximizing pleasure and to minimizing displeasure without regard to reality. Although eventually displaced by the reality principle, it remains a strong disposition within the psyche throughout life, sometimes even overcoming the reality principle (Wulff). See Carnal and Worldly Love, Sensuality.

Postmodern
Broadly, it means that which takes us beyond the failed assumptions of the modern worldview (Creamer).

Poverty (*)
In the time of Jesus, the vast majority of people were poor and had a very low standard of living. There was no middle class while only a minority of people were rich. Jesus called his followers, whether rich or poor, to have Poverty of Spirit; that is, interior detachment from material goods whether they possessed them or not. In Matt 6:25-33, Jesus teaches us about the spiritual value of the real poverty of the devout poor and how to view it. Poverty can be sign of, and a means to, interior detachment when inspired and accompanied by trust in God (adapted from Ganss). See Actual Poverty, Spiritual Poverty.

Poverty of Spirit (*)
See Spiritual Poverty.

Prayer Guide (+) (<)
One who has made the Exercises journey, has received training in listening skills, has made some workshops on the Exercises, and is able to guide the Exercises according to a more program-type approach under qualified supervision. Further, he/she is able to design short, prayer programs (one day, weekend, etc.) for congregational settings.

Preconscious
Not in immediate awareness but can be re-called by conscious effort.

Preludes (*)
Each of the prayer exercises has preludes. They come before the 'points' and are part of the settling-in phase as a directee begins a prayer exercise. Often a directee has to "de-mechanicalize" them in order to appreciate the natural flow which they are meant to foster. Asking for a Grace is given as one of the usual preludes.

Principle and Foundation (P & F) (*)
The overall theological and philosophical framework for understanding the thrust of all the spiritual exercises in the Exercises text [23].

Private Thoughts (*)
Thoughts that a person chooses as one's own thoughts, not the spontaneous thoughts that come and go. When one is "in one's head" and out of touch with one's heart and feelings, one is expressing what Ignatius calls Private Thoughts. During the Exercises journey, these are not the primary focus for spiritual direction. Consult notations [17], [32], [33].

Projection
A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which what is emotionally unacceptable in the self is unconsciously rejected and attributed to (i.e., projected on) others (Psychiatric).

Psyche
The whole mind which includes both the conscious and less-than-conscious aspects, all of which are connected to a person's spontaneous thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. Scripture refers to the thoughts and feelings that arise in the psyche as the "thoughts of our heart." We can refer to this sphere as "our depths," which is the gathering-place in us for our deeper values, hopes, dreams, desires, etc.

Psychological Literacy (+)
A person who has the following awarenesses and skills is psychologically literate:

An ability to listen to another's deeper feelings with empathy and basic, human-relations skills;

Sufficient self-awareness that one is able to recognize and control, to some extent, one's own and another's projections;

A habit of recognizing how we are motivated by the less-than-conscious psyche and an awareness of the value and need for defenses;

Some facility in making use of the language of symbols and feelings.

 

Psychologism
Exaggerated belief in the use of psychology as a way of dealing completely with the human person.

Psychotherapeutic Counselling
Basically, it is a process in which a person, who wishes to relieve symptoms, or to resolve problems in living, or to seek personal growth, enters into an implicit or explicit contract to interact in a prescribed way with a psychotherapist. Throughout this manual, I use this term as a generalized category for anyone -- whether psychiatrist, psychotherapist, family therapist, social worker whose degree includes a large psychiatric component, etc. -- who, in a trained way, applies the focused insights of psychology to help another grow and appreciate aspects of the psyche whether conscious or less-than-conscious.

Purgative Mode (+)
The term 'purgative mode' is the terminology suggested by Elaine Frigo, CSSF, to denote one who is in need of forgiveness (hence, purification), at any time, no matter where one is on the path of the lifelong spiritual journey.

Purgative Way (*)
See Illuminative Way.

Purgatory (*)
In Roman Catholic teaching, this is the realm in which one may need to be purified after death before entering heaven -- the full enjoyment of God's presence. Purgatory is the realm after death where one deals with the unfinished business of this earthly life. In Hindu theology, this concept is embodied in the belief in reincarnation.
 

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 Endnotes 1. This glossary is made up of my "working definitions" of words and concepts actually used or implied in the manual. I have used the following as a help:

David Wulff, Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Views (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1991); referred to as (Wulff).

American Psychiatric Association, A Psychiatric Glossary, 5th ed. (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1980); referred to as (Psychiatric).

David G. Creamer, Guides For The Journey (Lanham: University Press of America, Inc., 1996); referred to as (Creamer).

Mark Muldoon and John Veltri, "From Symbolic Rapport to Public Rhetoric in the Roman Catholic Church," Grail: An Ecumenical Journal, vol. 11, no. 4 (1996), pp.25-43; referred to as (Muldoon).

Alan Richardson, ed., A Dictionary of Christian Theology (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1972); referred to as (Dictionary).

Also from conversations with Elaine Frigo, CSSF (Frigo), Mark S. Muldoon, Ph.D. (Muldoon), Frank H. Whelan, S.J. (Whelan).

2. Consult Ian G. Barbour, Myths, Models and Paradigms: A Comparative Study in Science and Religion (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1976).

3. Commentators with a more classicist worldview explain the rationale for this method by suggesting how it is an easy method to use after the directee is tired out at the end of a full day of prayer. Their comments refer to the Exercises according to notation [20] in which four one-hour prayer exercises come before the daily Application of Senses suggested for the latter part of the day. Since, in a classicist worldview, these four prayer exercises were considered to be primarily 'discursive,' this would make sense. Why would their conclusion be a valid one for them?

However, in the light of a developmental worldview and with a more profound understanding of the medieval worldview, we have rediscovered and appreciated the importance of the imagination in its intimate connection with memory, intuition and reason. Consult the closing pages of Chapter 23 of this manual.

4. This phrase was created by John English, S.J., in Choosing Life: Significance of Personal History in Decision-Making (New York: Paulist Press, 1978).

5. Consult endnote¹ page 1 of this manual. The ISECP group (Ignatian Spiritual Exercises for the Corporate Person) contributed a great deal to the development of this concept. The ISECP group called this concept "Graced History." Its manual, Focusing Group Energies, Volume 1: Structured Resources for Group Development (Scranton: University of Scranton, 1992). In it participants are asked to pray over their own "Personal Graced History" and, then, by making use of the group's "History Line," to pray over its "Communal Graced History."

6. For me, this term means the same thing as the term or phrase, "communal spirituality," which is being introduced into the working vocabularies of spiritual directors by John English, S.J., Spiritual Freedom (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1995), p.275ff. The difficulty with using "communal" by itself as an adjective describing spirituality is that communal connotes any interpersonal faith-sharing group or a religious group that lives together as in a monastery or a village such as an Amish settlement. For me, the adjective "societal" in association with the adjective "communal" draws our attention to a spirituality that also includes the social justice, political, and systemic aspects. The use of the adjective "communal," without another adjective, can lead to much confusion in our psychologically literate culture.

7. Consult endnote 34 in George E. Ganss, S.J., The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Translation and Commentary (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1992). Ganss translates Ignatius' Spanish as: "A composition, by imagining the place...." This is quite close to Mullan's translation used in this glossary.

Other translations, such as Puhl's, which render the Composition as "a mental representation of the place," may contribute to the continuation of a classicist interpretation. In the classicist worldview, the context for many commentators prior to 1960s, the Composition was presented as a separate step in which a directee had first to imagine the place like a stage on which the play was to be enacted. This led to the teaching that a directee was to imagine first the place and then, while still imagining the place, continue with the rest of the prayer exercise -- and all this was to keep the mind from being distracted. I have never met anyone who was capable of doing such a mental gymnastic. Have you? Why would such a teaching be consistent with the classicist worldview?

8. "Immediately" here means "without mediation" -- "without any previous sense or knowledge of any object through which such Consolation would come, through one's acts of understanding and will" [330] or through some outside influence that could explain the experience.

9. John J. English, S.J., "Mysterious Joy of the Poor and the Complex Causes of Consolation," Review of Ignatian Spirituality [CIS], no. 85 (Rome: 1997), pp.74-75.

10. So when you read traditional works on meditation that go back to the 16th century, do not interpret them with a Cartesian Mind.

11. The Spiritual Exercises, according the notation-20 closed retreat setting proper, begin with the First Exercise of the First Week.

12. Note the kind of temptations which Ignatius considers "gross and open." They are not the same as those associated with notation [314].

13. In the mid-1980s, some directors of the Exercises began to speak of directees going through part of the Exercises in an 'identity mode' and receiving the graces of the Exercises in an 'identity mode.'

14. Adolphe Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life: a Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology (Paris: Desclee & Co., 1930), p.454.

15. I am grateful to Mark Muldoon, Ph.D., for many conversations around how our powers of imagination are enmeshed with our powers of intellect.

16. Intuition is the function by which we perceive things as a whole rather than in parts. Intuition is the sense or hunch we have about a situation or some partial data even before we have the complete data for the judgment. Jesus used intuitive logic when he gave the parable of the sower and when he explained it.

17. Some myths are quite conscious. We name them ideologies. When a personal ideology no longer has positive power over us, it is time to renew our personal myths.

18. William A. Barry, S.J., and William J. Connolly, S.J., The Practice of Spiritual Direction (New York: The Seabury Press, 1982).

19. The analogy that Ignatius employs for the Election process is that of choosing a major state of life or "calling" which involves a permanent commitment -- an unchangeable state of life.

20. Why would it be inconceivable for Ignatius to write the Exercises text from the viewpoint of the First Time [175] or the Third Time?