Second
Week Of The Spiritual Exercises -- Chapters 10
and 11
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Chapter
Ten
Some Perspectives
On The Kingdom Exercise
Different perspectives concerning the Kingdom Exercise inevitably affect
the different ways of proposing the Second Week and vice versa. Often the
way we view the Kingdom Exercise affects the way we understand the text
of the Exercises in general and apply Ignatian spirituality in our present
cultural setting.
In the closed retreat according to notation [20], this Kingdom Exercise
has come to represent the material for pondering that directees are given
for the day of rest after the First Week is over and just before the Second
Week begins. Some commentators and many directors of the Exercises understand
this exercise as a kind of Principle and Foundation for the rest of the
Exercises journey. Just as the P & F is related to the Exercises journey
as a whole, the Kingdom Exercise is related to all of the exercises from
this point onward. The Kingdom Exercise is connected to the decision-making
process and the Election. which, in turn, are crucial to the understanding
of the perspective from which the Exercises text is written. The Kingdom
Exercise is the kernel of all the exercises of the Second Week which are
cast in the theme of responding to a call to follow Jesus.
The Kingdom Exercise is supposed to mirror a directee's interior desires
at this point in the Exercises journey. As such, it can function as a tuning
fork to check the quality of generosity in a directee's heart. Throughout
the Exercises journey, it can also function as a predominant musical theme
which keeps recurring throughout the whole of the musical work. By now,
it is expected that a directee has received a deep-felt sorrow for his
sins and has experienced God's overwhelming love saving him now from the
destructive forces in his own heart. It is frequently expected that, as
it was for Ignatius, a directee's response will be one of gratitude and
generosity filled with desires to serve.
When you consider the text of the Exercises from certain points of view,
and when you recall the experiences of certain types of directees, such
expectations may be appropriate. Here is a listing of the different perspectives
which give these insights validity:
A thematic and cognitive
understanding of the Exercises text;
The frequent experiences
of directees who are in the Call
Mode in the closed retreat setting of notation [20];
The life and times of
Ignatius of Loyola;
A similarity of the directee's
archetype to the archetype that influenced Ignatius;
The Kingdom Exercise images
the charism of the Society of Jesus; (Historically, most of the commentators
giving insight into the meaning of this exercise have been Jesuits.)
A male spirituality.
Theoretically,
therefore, the expectation is that your directee has experienced God's
overwhelming love saving him now and that your directee's response is analogous
to that of Ignatius in his personal conversion story. And so it is with
many directees whose journey coincides with several of the perspectives
listed above.
Nevertheless. when you attend to many directees' actual experiences
of the Exercises journey both in the notation-[20] and -[19] modes, many
of the variables implied in the perspectives listed above are not verified.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the experiences resulting from doing
the Kingdom Exercise often do not measure up to the theoretical assumptions
of prayer guides and directors of the Exercises. With this in mind, here
are different approaches from which you can choose to propose this exercise.
In some ways this is the simplest approach. When the First Week comes to
an end, you would instruct your directee to ponder the Kingdom Exercise
prayerfully for his daily prayer exercise on the three or four days before
your interview. This is the context suggested in Supplementary Prayer Unit
1. You would encourage your directee to apply the parable to his situation
by using the example of a charismatic person he finds inspiring, one who
could capture his imagination and allegiance. Then you would suggest that,
if he cannot make the offering towards the end of the Kingdom Exercise
[98],
he formulate his own personal offering expressive of his own desires at
this time. This approach presumes that after the First Week the directee
is definitely in the Call Mode with an archetypal energy similar to that
of a warrior Queen or King.
Mythic
Approach
I have been using the mythic approach for some years -- sometimes with
surprising success, sometimes with frustration! In some ways, this is a
more difficult approach because it requires your directee to use symbols
and imagery which he probably has not been using in any conscious way.
Coming from a more technological culture of our computer age, the directee
would be asked to create something out of the energies that have been within
him all along below his consciousness. However, when done properly, this
approach can be more rewarding because it has the power to evoke a directee's
heart-felt desires just as the Kingdom Exercise evoked Ignatius' heart-felt
desires with the myth of
the king [91]-[98].
The exercises that you might propose to your directee are found in Supplementary
Prayer Unit 3. The theoretical explanation behind this mythic approach
is discussed in Chapter 25.
The goal in this approach is that your directee express in a personal myth
his innermost and often less-than-conscious overarching symbol(s) that
give energy and meaning as he confronts his future living in God's love.
What
is the story, parable, image, or myth that captures his way of cooperating
with others in the fulfilment of God's desires for humankind?
This approach presumes none of the cultural and ideological variables listed
above. Nor does it presume that your directee is in the Call
Mode. It respects where the directee is spiritually situated at this
point in the Exercises journey and the personal culture and archetype that
your directee brings to his prayer. Even if your directee were in the Call
Mode, this approach can enhance the dream of his heart.
I find that many directees in our culture are not in the Call Mode by the
time they finish the First Week. The sign of this is the way they make
the Gospel Contemplations on the Incarnation, Nativity, and the Early Years
of Jesus before his ministry. They enter into them from the position of
their own personal growth and healing rather than from the position of
how they can better cooperate with others in the development of God's realm.
They enter these gospel mysteries primarily from the stance of their own
personal growth and brokenness; not primarily from the stance of the brokenness
of their environment.
A
Combination Approach
I have chosen to present the Kingdom Exercise according to an approach
that attempts to bring together several issues that are, more often than
not, present in our culture. In order of priority, these issues are:
1) The Healing
Mode which continues well into the Second Week;
2) The mythic approach
which is more in keeping with a directee's personal archetype;
3) The logistics of
the church calendar if a directee begins the notation-[19] Exercises journey
in September or October. This would place the material proposed for the
Incarnation and early life of Jesus around the Christmas holiday season.
The design of Prayer Units 10-15 facilitates some necessary adaptations
for the inevitable interruptions.
Though not in the Exercises text, my design(2)
respects both the intent of the Kingdom Exercise and the practical reality
of many directees. Hence, after the First Week, it moves directly into
the Incarnation Exercise followed by the exercises on the early life of
Jesus. I give more time to the early life of Jesus than a student of the
Exercises text might expect. Only after these exercises on Jesus' early
life, do I present the Kingdom Exercise and, then, with the mythic approach.
If
you would prefer to use more creativity for the mythic approach than that
suggested in Prayer Units 10-15, consult Supplementary
Prayer Unit 3, p.265ff.
The
Incarnation -- Conception, Birth, And Childhood Of Jesus Comments
For Prayer Units 10-14 Prayer
Guidance And Gospel Contemplation
This section begins with our foundational Christian belief that God became
human in Jesus -- the Incarnation. We should keep in mind that the Incarnation
does not refer only to the moment of the human conception of Jesus but
also to the whole reality of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. The
historical way by which the early church began to enunciate the belief
in the Incarnation did not begin with a knowledge of the historical moment
of Jesus' conception in Mary's womb. It began with the eyewitness accounts
of Jesus' public life, of the disciples' experience of Jesus' death and
Resurrection, and of the early Christian church's reflection which has
been codified in the early Christian creeds. This mystery of the Incarnation
is expressed beautifully in the ancient Christian hymn about how God emptied
God's self to become human (Phil 2:1-11). Our belief is also interwoven
with the mystery of God as Triune. Not only has God become fully human
in Jesus, but it is the second person of our Triune God that is the person
of Jesus.(3)
The
overall Christian worldview is both incarnational and trinitarian, at once
immanent and transcendent. It is a worldview basic to Christianity and
particularly stressed in Ignatian spirituality. The owning or appropriation
of this worldview is important for both you and your directees.
For directees in the Call Mode, this worldview is important for the decision-making
process so that they will make "correct and good"(4)
choices more in harmony with God's overall vision and movement of creation
rather than for some lesser goal and objective. For directees in the Healing
Mode, this worldview, appreciated appropriately, can assist a realistic
acceptance of their limitations and brokenness which is significant for
their personal-growth processes. In addition, this worldview is important
for you as a prayer guide in your work of helping your directees interpret
their prayer experiences. The relevance of this worldview to discernment
will become more evident later in this manual.
Incarnation
Exercise. A meditative approach helps to establish the context for the
Gospel Contemplations that follow.
When you introduce Prayer Unit 10, emphasize the First Prelude of the Incarnation
Exercise [102]:
"... In the
First Prelude, note how our God is unfolding God's love.... The title,
Trinity, is the great historical way by which we Christians have attempted
to grasp both God's personhood and mystery and the multiple ways God desires
to relate to us -- creating, redeeming, sanctifying...."
At some point, it may be helpful to read the instructions together. For
exercises a)-c), suggest more of a meditative approach, a reflection that
combines thought with the listening of the heart. Without too many instructions,
encourage the use of imagination in prayer for d)-f) exercises.
Why a more reflective prayer method for the first three exercises on the
Incarnation? This is helpful to establish the overall and ongoing context
for all the subsequent prayer exercises on the life of Jesus. This is true
even though the literal text of the Incarnation presumes an explicit use
of the method of Gospel
Contemplation. However, directees seem to lose the impact and meaning
of the Incarnation Exercise when they struggle to re-establish the Gospel-Contemplation
method with this material. I would suggest that you spend time stressing
this method only when you introduce the next prayer unit.
Here you may want to engage your directee in a discussion around some of
these questions: "... How do you image God's relationship to our human
activity in the world? ... How do you image God's concern for the life
of the planet itself? ... How do you understand your own role with respect
to God's concern at this time in human history? ... In what ways is God
present or absent in the world? ... In what ways do our human activities,
along with ourselves personally, need saving? ..."
Help your directee re-image the notion of salvation as a communal need
as well as a private individual need. You can do this by introducing the
notion of God's dream for the world. One of the motifs of this dream is
in the gospel of John where Jesus prays for us to be one as he and his
Father are one (Jn 17). In Jesus' prayer, we get a glimpse of the dream
in God's heart. God desires that God's own inner life be made manifest
among us. The intimacy that God experiences in God's self is a primordial
symbol of how we are called to live in mutual cooperation and respect with
our companion human beings and with creation itself.
Then explain the meaning of intimate or deep-felt knowledge which is essential
in the Grace
being sought. For the same reasons given above, Prayer Unit 10 enunciates
this Grace differently from the Grace enunciated in notation [104]
and in the rest of the Second Week. In the Incarnation Exercise, suggest
to your directee that he pray for an intimate knowledge of how God has
made a choice to fulfil the dream of God's heart through Jesus' conception.
Invite him to enter into the yearning of God's heart by asking for an intimate
knowledge of the Trinity's deep desires for our planet and ourselves.
In fostering your directee's growing awareness of God's dream and desires
for the world, you are encouraging him to appreciate more deeply his own
deepest desires and dreams. Hopefully this will be expressed in some form
by Prayer Unit 15 where he will be encouraged to develop his own personal
myth. Thus, as he releases his imagination with the mysteries of Jesus'
early life within the context of God's dream for the world, the foundation
for the mythic approach to the Kingdom Exercise is being laid.
Before introducing
Prayer Unit 11, listen for some of the following aspects of your directee's
prayer experiences from the Incarnation Exercise on the dream of God:
How has he attempted to
comprehend the dream of God? How has this dream been involving for him?
If he is in the Call Mode:
How is he relating the
questions concerning his need for decision-making at this time in his life
to God's dream for the world through the mystery of Christ in the Incarnation?
Discuss those preliminary
issues of call and/or decision-making that he will need to begin to pray
over more intentionally. Consult the section, "Walking Around The Question,"
in Chapter 27, pp.373-376, 383ff.
If he is in the Healing
Mode:
How has he attempted to
grasp the relationship of God's dream, implemented through the story of
Jesus' conception, with his own life issues? Here are some examples:
Mary's unexpected pregnancy
intersects with God's dream.
Mary's dream is shattered
and shifted by unexpected circumstances, yet fulfilled differently.
A directee's own personal
brokenness is related to the world's brokenness.
Correct Use Of Imagination
In Gospel Contemplation
Also note the manner in which your directee has or has not been able to
use his imagination. If he is using Gospel Contemplation correctly, that
is, if he has entered into the mystery of the Annunciation passage,
then simply point out that he is doing Gospel Contemplation and that this
will be the key method that he will be invited to use most of time on the
Exercises journey. Note whether he is in Consolation or Desolation. If
he is in Consolation and if he recognizes what has been happening in prayer
and has a basic understanding of how it fits for himself, then there is
no need for `interpretation' at this point. Just propose the next prayer
unit.
Nativity
Exercise. This is a more practical place to give a teaching on the method
of Gospel Contemplation and on the Grace.
If your directee has not been using his imagination correctly in d)-f)
exercises of Prayer Unit 10, it might be time to give some instructions
on the use of imagination and its importance in the Exercises journey.
However, for a directee who cannot easily do Gospel Contemplation, too
many instructions may interfere rather than help.
For directees who are definitely in the Call Mode, the purpose of the exercises
on the early years of Jesus is to learn better how to do the method of
Gospel Contemplation before entering explicitly and intentionally into
the decision-making process. As notation [162]
indicates, facility or the lack of facility to do Gospel Contemplation
is one of the reasons given for shortening or lengthening the number of
weeks assigned to these exercises on Jesus' early years.
If you want to explore Gospel Contemplation, consult Chapter
23. Here is a short summary of some points from that chapter that may
have relevance for you here:
The best place where Ignatius
gives a very clear approach of this method is the Nativity Exercise which
is featured in Prayer Unit 11 [110]-[117].
Note what the method of
Gospel Contemplation is and what it is not. It is the use of imagination
on a text of a gospel event of Jesus' life. It is not the `steps' in the
Ignatian `model.'
The Exercises text presents
only one model of the method.
Do not confuse imagination
with only image-making visually or pictorially. Everyone has imagination
and can be present somehow to a past event through memory in various
ways -- some people imagine through feelings, others through hearing,
others through picturing, others through a combination of these.
You can explain this method
in many different ways.(5)
Explain the Grace being
sought. Here are a few ideas that might help:
This Grace will be used
for all the Second-Week Gospel Contemplations.
Deep-felt knowledge means
experiential and real as opposed to merely notional knowledge -- as real
as the knowledge of a parent of one's own child, or of long-time lovers,
or of best friends. It is both affective and effective; it is a deep-felt
knowledge that is expressed in the decisions of one's life and the actions
that flow from them [230].
This deep-felt knowledge
implies intimacy which is manifested by a deep respect for each other's
differences but in a context of mutuality [231].
The following of Jesus
is not the following of some past historical ideal, but the following of
Jesus living now by the work of the Spirit in the context of the
directee's present history. This following is expressed in his discerned
decisions and in the actions that flow from these.
For a directee who is
more in the Healing Mode, this following of Jesus is expressed in the intentional
choices he makes to take concrete steps which foster his growth in the
acceptance of his true self -- concrete steps which imply the embracing
of his life as it is, not as he would like it to be.
For a directee in the Healing Mode, you will certainly have to give some
instructions on Gospel Contemplation and the Grace. After all, these will
become helpful instruments for his healing. However, you may need to do
much more work in listening to him at ever-deepening levels -- the different
aspects of his story and the unresolved feelings about his past personal
life which affect the way he makes choices and follows Jesus now. When
a directee feels safe enough to allow the gospel stories to engage his
imagination, unresolved issues surface. The stories of Jesus' birth, infancy,
and early life may touch off memories that have been affecting his present
life. Usually these memories are from the area of the psyche just below
the conscious level.
In the Exercises journey according to notation [20], the text suggests
three days on the early life of Jesus. For the Exercises journey according
to notation [19], this could translate into three weeks. However, Healing-Mode
directees may need more time -- even longer than the five weeks suggested
in this manual.
Prayer Unit 11 invites the directee to use the Application of Senses. Do
not spend time introducing this until you discover that your directee is
doing both the Gospel Contemplations and Repetitions correctly. In a later
session, perhaps in the next couple of weeks, you may judge that a teaching
on this method will be helpful.
The
Naming of Jesus; The Visit of the Magi; The Presentation of Jesus in the
Temple. This might also be a good time for a teaching on the Application
of Senses. The interpretation and discernment of Gospel Contemplations
can only follow after the directee has learned how to do Gospel Contemplation.
Why
is Gospel Contemplation difficult for some directees? Here are some
typical difficulties a directee might manifest:
Fear of giving up control
on some level: conscious or less-than-conscious fears, unresolved conflicts
such as personal-relationship issues that need to be resolved, etc.;
Belief that he has no
imagination and unaware of how he is constantly using it;
Too many distractions;
Some confusion and false
assumptions about Gospel Contemplation:
Imagining the gospel story
needs the creativity of a movie director and has to progress as a story
line does,
Lack of appreciation of
the nature of dreaming and of how Gospel Contemplation is `awake-dreaming'
on scripture;
Difficulty with accepting
Jesus as truly human -- not taking the Incarnation seriously enough;
Belief that Gospel Contemplation
is not for him because he prefers centering prayer.(6)
Generally many directees
have difficulties because they are typical products of our scientific culture.
They give more credence to conscious and controlled thinking rather than
to the realities that arise from their spontaneous and ambiguous imagination.
At times you need to teach your directees the value of allowing distractions
to surface in prayer.(7) Distractions are
not always distractions; there are some advantages in allowing them to
surface with God:
Unresolved conflicts get
resolved.
`Healing of integration'
and `healing of meaning' take place.(8)
Directees begin to face
issues which God's Spirit or their own psyches have been nudging them to
consider.
Directees are liable to
experience prayer more deeply and to resolve important concerns and issues
for their lives.
Gospel
Contemplation And Prayer Guidance
There are many facets involved in the art of guiding Gospel Contemplations.
If you think through carefully all the facets in the guidance process and
list these according to the chronological order in which you are likely
to do them, they break down into these three basic activities -- instruction,
interpretation, and discernment:
Instruction
1) Is your
directee using his imagination correctly both passively and actively? Passively
he should be allowing his imagination to flow in a spontaneous manner;
actively he should be remaining within the ambience and sense of the gospel
story.
2) Is he asking for
the Grace and how?
3) Is he allowing his
real life to be affected by the gospel story in some way?
4) Has he allowed himself
to be part of the story in a spontaneous manner without too much self-monitoring?
Interpretation
5) Then note
how he enters the story -- the manner in which he takes part in the mystery.
Is he his own age or is he another age and what is the significance of
this? Is he outside looking in or does he interact as a participant in
the gospel event? In this interaction, does he dialogue with or does he
"talk at" the persons in the story while just thinking about what their
responses could be?
6) After all of this,
you still need to discover how he is affected in his real life. Is there
some connection between his personal life story that you have heard thus
far and the awarenesses, trends of feelings and scenarios of his prayer?
The "imagination logic" of the prayer in time should reveal itself as fitting
into the "logic" of his personal life story.
Discernment
7) Following
the above, you need to note how central Jesus is in his Gospel Contemplations.
8) Ultimately what
you are doing is trying to recognize whether what you are hearing is an
expression of Consolation or Desolation:
If your directee is in
Consolation, leave the movement alone [15].
If you recognize that
your directee is experiencing Counterfeit Consolation or Desolation, help
him discern appropriately.
If you are not sure whether
the Consolation is authentic or counterfeit, let the movement be and wait.
Any counterfeit aspects will generally become more evident as the movement
is allowed to unfold.
When we use the word discernment in a more generalized way, we imply all
the above facets together. When we use the term discernment more technically,
we primarily denote activities 7) and 8), particularly as they affect the
decision-making process. However, you cannot discern Gospel Contemplations
unless you do activities 1)-6) listed above. Furthermore, with Healing-Mode
directees, most of your time will be spent in these first six activities.
Perhaps the chart below will help pull together some of this discussion.
The
chart illustrates how the discerning context often shifts, as
a directee moves through the Second Week, The arrow
in the diagram illustrates the flow of the Call-Mode directee's interior
experiences as it passes through the various contexts of the Exercises.
The variety of shading in the arrow indicates how the directee's experience
is affected as he moves through the different contexts. The columns show
how the prayer guide's role shifts as discernment, more strictly speaking,
is required.
FROM more of
a healing/identity** context with the
interpretation of Gospel
Contemplations:
Is
the directee -- — in or
out of the mystery? — close
or far from Jesus? — up or
down with respect to Jesus
and the other persons in the event;
that is, younger, older, his own age,
etc.? — realistic
or unrealistic in bringing
his personal life experiences into
the Gospel Contemplation? — consistent
or inconsistent with the
graces received thus far or with
what you know of him? — in Consolation
or Desolation?
TO more of
a call context of the Second Time [176]
with discernment more strictly speaking:
Is
the directee -- — in Consolation
or Desolation? — in true
Consolation or Counterfeit
Consolation [331]? — receiving
the experience like water
on a sponge or water on a rock
[335]? — experiencing
Spiritual Freedom or
counterfeit freedom?
Is
the directee's response part of the Consolation Without Cause or
did it come after the reception of that Consolation in the Afterglow [336]?
Use
Of First Set Of Guidelines and through
the above there often takes place:
— Left-over healing; — Development of readiness for
a decision; — Appropriation of being a loved sinner; — Growth in the ability to use
Gospel Contemplation; — Putting on the mind and heart
of Jesus; — More acceptance of himself
and his personal
history; — Rudimentary practice in using Guidelines
for Discerning Spirits in day-to-day
living
Use
Of Second Set Of Guidelines and through
the above there often takes place:
— Some awareness of the important touchstones
of directee's personal history
that can help to recognize freedom
and present call; — Consciousness of deceiving
forces in directee's
interior experiences; — Development of readiness and Spiritual
Freedom; — Discernment of the Unconfirmed Decision; — Consolation Without Cause; — Grace of Confirmation in the decision-making
process; — Familiarity with and ability
to use of Guidelines
for Discerning Spirits.
** A directee
is in touch with his `identity' when he knows deeply that he is a loved
creature, and a saved sinner -- and this awareness is living and empowering
because of his personal relationship with Jesus. Consult the Glossary.
Flight into Egypt; Slaughter of the Infants; Jesus' Boyhood before Age
Twelve. Continue to monitor whether the directee is making the Gospel Contemplations
appropriately. As required, interpret and
discern the Gospel
Contemplations. This is a good time to monitor how the directee uses the
Application of Senses.
With
a Call-Mode directee who has come into the Exercises journey with a
significant issue around which a choice needs to be made, now is the time
to deal with the preliminaries of the decision-making process if you have
not yet done so. Confer the section, "Walking Around The Issue," in Chapter
27.
With
a Healing-Mode directee, this is a good time to deal with the memories
of past wounds that affect his adult day-to-day living as a mature Christian.
Confer Chapter 24, "Guiding Directees In The Healing Mode During The Second
Week."
When you introduce your directees to the early life of Jesus such as in
Prayer Unit 13, remember how the experiences and the events of Jesus' early
life mirror those of real people in human history. The trauma and fear
involved in escaping the slaughter of the infants would have left scars
on anyone. Living in a foreign land away from one's extended family would
bring with it some of the inevitable self-protective dysfunctions that
any political refugees might develop. Many directees have roots in immigrant
and refugee backgrounds. Many are living and working with people who have
been displaced from their birthplaces. One would hope that the graces of
this part of the Exercises journey would encourage a directee to embrace
the pain of his own past more fully and find within it the seeds of hope
for the future.
As explained more fully in Chapter
23, the Application of Senses is another form of Repetition through
which the directee is passively absorbed by some aspect of the mystery
to which he has returned. Sometimes you can give certain images or use
certain phrases to communicate the "how-to" of this method:
"Let the mystery
penetrate you like a person soaking leisurely in a bath tub ... like listening
and being carried by a very beautiful melody ... or fragrance ... or sunset.
Taste Joseph's faithfulness ... enter into Jesus' trust in Mary."
Sometimes it is helpful to share one or two of your own experiences of
the Application of Senses with your directees. Remember that the use of
the word `senses' in this method is more by way of analogy. Ignatius' meaning
is reflected in biblical phrases such as: "O taste and see the goodness
of the Lord," and "Your law is honey to my lips." The tasting and seeing
are beyond the veil of the material senses of tasting and seeing; they
are deeper tasting and seeing -- with the heart, with the soul.
In Ignatius' model of the Application
of Senses in notations [121]-[126],
he suggests that we "taste the virtues," not the food they eat; that we
"smell the divinity," not the stable's straw and scent of the animals;
that we "touch the place" where the persons sit or stand, not the persons!
This should not be confused with smelling the animals or feeling the warmth
of the swaddling clothes or the cold of the evening or the bumping along
of the donkey or holding the baby which belong more to the category of
Gospel Contemplation. These latter examples are usually not the profound
and receptive passivity that Ignatius envisaged as being the outcome of
the process of Repetition
in the method he names as the Application of Senses.
At the end of Chapter 23 there is a reflection exercise, with three different
Reviews of a directee's prayer, to help you distinguish Gospel Contemplation
from the Application of Senses.
Discovering One's
Personal Myth
Once your directee has developed a facility with Gospel Contemplations
and has begun to use the Application of Senses, it may be helpful to draw
his attention frequently to the development of his own personal myth. He
can do this by paying attention to how Joseph and Mary probably had to
re-interpret the events of their lives. Both Joseph and Mary had been looking
forward to the typical life and routine of a small village when Mary became
pregnant and when the topsy-turvy situation of the census forced them to
move to a strange region at the time of Jesus' birth. The circumstances
and birth of their child was unpredictable.
After Jesus' birth in a strange environment, further complications and
unexpected events along with the fear of violence forced them to flee by
night into a foreign country. Their understanding of what was happening
in their lives and the unfulfillment of their dreams for the future needed
to be adapted by shifting their personal paradigms. They would have had
to re-vision their own situations and develop a new personal way of imagining
how their lives might unfold into the future.
If your directee is like the lawyer in the hypothetical examples given
in the reflection exercise at the end of Chapter 23, it might be helpful
later in the decision-making for your directee to get in touch with his
operative myth to check whether it is still valuable or to discover a new
emerging one. Myths and dreams, whether they are conscious or less-than-conscious,
influence decisions. To be in touch with one's operative myth(s) facilitates
the gift of Spiritual Freedom in the decision-making process. If you desire
to encourage this approach, you may want to read Chapter
25.
On Dealing With
Healing Issues
However, your directee may be dealing with feelings and issues that leave
no space for developing his personal myth at this moment in his life.
Frequently
by this point in the Exercises journey, particularly with a Healing-Mode
directee, past wounds and deep yearnings begin to surface. Some examples
might include: feelings of abandonment accompanied by incapacity to relate
very significantly with others; a sense of inappropriate shame; an anxiety
of not performing well enough; etc.
Such directees experience wounds that need to be healed. Their stories
often indicate repetitious attempts to recapture missed experiences that,
theoretically,
would have taken place in the best of all worlds. Their wounds
interfere with their ability to embrace life fully and, consequently, with
their more complete following of Jesus. Our psychologically literate culture
offers us a multiplicity of concepts to understand and deal with some of
the issues of our wounded psyches. Among these concepts are toxic shame,
addictive behaviours, co-dependent relationships, adult child of the alcoholic,
dysfunctional family of origin, etc. Many of these concepts can be combined
with the techniques of the Exercises to facilitate a directee's inner healing.
Chapter
24, "Guiding Directees In The Healing Mode During The Second Week,"
deals with this more completely.
When such experiences begin to surface in a directee's prayer, a prayer
guide, influenced by her own unconscious needs, unwittingly may discount
her directee's experiences. This can be done in many less-than-conscious
ways such as when she projects her own stuff on her directee; or when she
unwittingly denies what is being expressed. A more complete listing, with
a brief explanation of ways we can trivialize, is given in Chapter 24.
By this point in your work of prayer guidance, you might use that listing
for your own Awareness Examen.
Is it always beneficial for a directee to deal with memories that surface
in Gospel Contemplations? Not always. Much depends on your own level of
self-awareness and skilfullness as a prayer guide and on your directee's
readiness. Certain signals will indicate this readiness and give you confidence
to rely on the techniques of the Exercises as the directee brings such
memories forward into the Gospel Contemplations. The faith context of meaning
and the personal presence of God during the Exercises journey may empower
him to face the pain of his past.
Jesus
is Lost and Found in the Temple; Jesus' Teen Years; Jesus' Years as a Young
Adult.
Chapter 10
and 11 stay here Chapters 12 click
here Chapters 13 and
14 click here
Complete section
Chapters 10 through 14 in a longer download
click
here.
Endnotes
For The Second Week
1.
William A. Barry, S.J., Finding God In All Things: A Companion to the
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1991).
Chapter 5, "God's Dream for Our World" (p.66ff), is a good, easy-to-read
explanation of the Kingdom Exercises as myth and is very helpful in explaining
the role of the Kingdom Exercise in relationship to the Second Week. Barry
deals with the use of the Kingdom Exercise with the classic approach which
encourages the directee to enter into Ignatius' myth of the King.
2.
This creative approach of placing the Kingdom Exercise after the exercises
on the early life of Jesus was first suggested to me by John English, S.J.,
for the "ad hoc" situation of giving the Exercises to individuals as part
of a large-group, training program in the early 1980s. We wanted to harmonize
the prayer material with the church calendar. As we were moving into the
Christmas season, we discovered that many directees needed to spend more
time on healing issues (surfaced during the First Week) and were not ready
for the Kingdom Exercise. But they were able to deal with these healing
issues with the Gospel Contemplations which were associated with the Nativity
season.
3.
In Roman, Anglican, and Orthodox theology, Mary is the mother of that person
who is God.
4.
The decision-making process within the Exercises is called the Election
which means "choice" [175].
The model used by Ignatius is based on a choice of a state of life involving
a permanent commitment -- marriage, some form of religious calling such
as the priesthood. In other words, Ignatius uses the example of a directee's
determining of a life-calling as the context for developing the principles
for the decision-making process.
He seems to view everything else as
being `Reformation of Life'[189].
A good, sound, well-discerned
Election can be referred to as a "correct and good choice" (as in Puhl's
translation). A correct choice is not necessarily a successful choice in
the future. It implies that, given the data the directee has while in the
process of discerning, his choice was the most loving and spiritually free
choice he could have made at the time.
5.
A very useful way of explaining Gospel Contemplation is in my revised
Orientations,
Vol. 1, pp.37-39. However, I have discovered that some people take
its encouragement for passivity too literally.
6.
Occasionally during the Exercises journey, particularly when a directee
is not involved in discerning a significant decision, Gospel Contemplation,
as a method of prayer, may not fit his needs at this time in his life.
The methods of the Exercises are made for the person, not the person
for the methods of the Exercises. Like other created things, the prayer
methods of the Exercises must be used inasmuch as they help, and not used
inasmuch as they hinder our praise, reverence and service of God [23].
7.
Not too long ago (certainly in the first half of this century), this would
not have been considered good advice. Distractions were considered an imperfection
and signs of Inordinate Affections because they took the directee's total
attention away from God. It was believed that, in prayer, the conscious
mind had to be riveted consciously on a God who was more transcendent than
immanent.
8.
Consult the section, "The Healing Connection" in Chapter
33 of this manual, p.520ff.
9.
John F. Wickham's article, "Ignatian Contemplation Today," in
The Way
Supplement 34 (Autumn 1978), shows that the fruit of Gospel Contemplation
for the contemporary directee often does not manifest itself in a societal
way as it did in the time of Ignatius. This article has been reprinted
more recently in The Way of Ignatius Loyola (St. Louis: Institute
of Jesuit Sources, 1991), edited by Philip Sheldrake, S.J., p.145ff.
10.
The issue here deals with Desolation, whether evident (as described in
notations
[315] and [317])
or less apparent. Also, the answer assumes that your directee has already
used Gospel Contemplation well; this means that he has been able to allow
the story to touch his real self. The assumption is that he is no longer
in the phase of learning how to use this method.
11.
Together
is key to everything on the Exercises journey. You are not a "guru" with
the magical, intuitive answer. The dynamic of the Exercises implies that
you and your directee work together. The directee knows the Grace being
prayed for and thus has the final say as to what may appropriately help
him be disposed for it.
13.
The habitual manner in which the directee relates to God and avoids the
deepening of this relationship can become more subtle as the Exercises
journey progresses. The Hidden Disordered Tendencies, illumined by the
Third Exercise of the First Week, become more elusive in the "riches" of
the Two Standards and the Temptation Under the Guise of Light during the
decision-making process. Perhaps you have been able to note with your directee
some relationship between the way he has got into trouble in doing the
prayer exercises and the ways he is likely to get into trouble in his day-to-day
living outside the prayer exercises and after the Exercises journey. For
illustrative cases and a more explicit discussion of this point, consult
Chapter 29, section C. Everyone
has a different capacity and need for self-awareness and the particular
correlation between the manner of handling the prayer exercises and the
manner of handling life may be too subtle for your directee at this point.
14.
What would be a distillation that would fit your directee's culture?
15.
When resistance to explicit decision-making occurs, you should monitor
your own resistance to this. Are you discovering in your directee what
you resist for yourself?
16.
Don't be misled by the Second-Week notation [161]
which proposes both the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus' Preaching in the
Temple for the directee's prayer exercises. The technique of Gospel Contemplation
is intended here, too! The directee is to pray these by being present with
Jesus as Jesus is teaching or preaching and not succumb to the temptation
of turning the exercise into an analysis of each beatitude.
17.
Mary, before the empty tomb (Jn 20:11), is a good example of the kind of
"upsetness" that comes from a heart-filled generosity and love. She cannot
understand what has happened. Here it is a question of misinterpretation,
not having the facts. Her distress does not flow from disordered affectivity
the way Desolation does. She is desolate, but not in Desolation.
