The
Complete Section Chapters
10 through 14 of
Orientations Vol 2: Part A
From this point onward, I depart from the format of a running commentary
that I used in the preceding chapters. By the time directees reach this
point on their Exercises journey, they have begun to move far more uniquely
than either in the preliminary or in the latter phases of the Exercises.
The following image will help to explain this.
When people enter some of the more interesting national parks of North
America, they approach through gates leading to an initial area with a
communication centre welcoming them to the park. Larger parks may have
a central pavilion here to help visitors become familiar with the park.
Information is available about parking areas, picnic areas, washrooms,
telephones, hiking paths and other features.
For people who want to hike, several unique paths are usually laid out.
Some paths are straightforward and leisurely. Other paths wind around a
variety of landforms. Other paths present greater challenges -- close to
high banks of a river or through a densely wooded area. Some paths might
lead through inviting caverns.
In some parks, past a mid-point along the way, these paths converge on
some interesting feature. After this point, the paths may become fewer
in number leading away as they circle around the park and end quite close
to the point where the paths initially began. By analogy, the Exercises
journey is like a journey through such a national park.
The Second Week is like a section of the park with different paths with
their special features corresponding to the unique needs of the hikers.
As the Second Week ends and moves into the Third and Fourth Weeks, the
Exercises
become like the last portion of our park. The exercise, Contemplation To
Gain Love, is like the return to a point close to the entrance.
Up until now, each chapter with its practical comments coincided with one
prayer unit. From this point, I continue the practical comments but with
a different format. Each chapter now deals with a cluster of prayer units
indicated in the chapter heading. Then at those points in the commentary
that a new prayer unit is likely to fit, I indicate the new unit and its
general content in a box.
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 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
Twelve
Jesus
In His Public Life And Mission -- The Beginnings Comments
For Prayer Units 15-18 General
Remarks On Discernment
Introductory
Remarks
If you have followed the structure suggested in this manual and if you
have not made use of the adaptations of the Kingdom Exercise as suggested
earlier and in Supplementary Prayer Units 1 and 3, you will now be finishing
the events Jesus' life before his public ministry. By now your directee
probably will:
Know how to do Gospel
Contemplation well and would even have experienced moments of the Application
of Senses;
Have some idea of what
it means to be in Consolation or Desolation along with some sense of how
he gets into Desolation;
Be relating intimately
with Jesus;
Be individualizing the
general Grace "to follow Jesus more closely" according to his unique circumstances.
Probably he will also be desiring to know how he should carry this out
and what choices he needs to make.
Also by this time, in all likelihood, you will have judged whether or not
he is in the Call Mode. Your directee may even have begun to make some
attempt at re-dreaming his own dreams in the light of God's dream. In
any case, I am assuming that he is ready to look at Jesus' mission and,
hopefully in the light of that, to discern his own unique mission.
And so he is ready to enter into the mysteries of Jesus' public life and
mission.
---- Towards Prayer
Unit 15 And The Kingdom Exercise ----
Kingdom
Exercise; Jesus Leaves Home; Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan River.
The Kingdom Exercise presents Ignatius' image of Jesus revealing God's
dream for the world. The themes of this exercise give the context for the
Gospel Contemplations on Jesus' public life:
Call to act against one's
Sensuality and one's `false self.'
Hopefully, by attending to Ignatius' personal image/myth transformed in
Jesus, your directee will be more disposed to hear God's call during this
Exercises journey. You may need to reread Chapter Ten and consult Chapter
25 (p.349f) to gain further insight into Ignatius' personal myth of
the Kingdom. Because this is featured in Prayer Unit 15, your directee
may need more time than usual to complete this unit.
Note how the different exercises of Prayer Unit 15 encourage your directee
to develop his own personal myth. If he has not already begun to do so,
gently encourage him to consider doing this:
"You may not
be able to come up with your own personal story but be open to it and at
least try to discover what image or dream captures you at this time....
When you are walking towards the Jordan with Jesus, talk this over with
him. Listen to him telling you about his dreams and tell him about your
dreams...."
Draw your directee's attention
to the offering of the Kingdom Exercise. If he senses that he cannot make
this offering at this time, suggest that he write out his own personal
offering.
Suggest that your directee bring into all the prayer exercises whatever
practical decision-making issues he may be aware of at this time.
General Remarks
On Discernment
Since your directee is now making the Gospel Contemplations on the Public
Life of Jesus, there are some further comments on Consolation and Desolation
that might be relevant at this point.
On Peace And Consolation
Whenever you listen to the experiences of the Gospel Contemplations during
each prayer unit, note how your directee relates to Jesus. You can recognize
Consolation by the quality of intimacy with Jesus in the directee's prayer
exercise and the quality of freedom in his daily life. Even if there is
struggle or pain in the exercise, the texture of the experience is in consonance
with notation [316]. Your
sense and intuition reverberate like a tuning fork with a harmonious sound.
The texture is like a drop of water on a sponge [335].
The free-flow of the Contemplative
Attitude is in evidence. The focus is on Jesus. Even though the directee
may be taken up with someone else in the mystery, you recognize that Jesus
is still present and this presence makes a difference. As with human intimacy
in general, the directee is not afraid to be himself. He is engaged in
the prayer exercise with his real "stuff."
Consolation can be expected to affect a directee's handling of day-to-day
life situations. The ability to choose to be more serene in the midst of
fast-changing family and work situations is one of the manifestations of
consoling prayer: "By their fruits you will know them."(9)
However, this quality of Consolation in daily life does not imply freedom
from external stress. Human creativity presumes stress of a certain kind.
Prayer guides sometimes mistakenly associate inner peace with external
equanimity. Often inner peace may manifest itself in external equanimity,
but a more reliable sign of inner peace is an acceptance of what is.
Our psyches are like bricks of Neapolitan ice-cream with different coloured
layers. Inner peace is like one of the layers; another layer may be a layer
of stress. We can experience upset about something at one level but, at
the same time, be basically peaceful on another level. However, like melting
ice-cream, the peaceful layer might melt into and have an effect upon the
layer of stress. In other words, Consolation from one's prayer exercise
often helps a directee to be more responsive and less reactive in the midst
of impinging situations.
Another sign of inner peace is a more or less habitual awareness and ability
to judge the fluctuations of Consolation and Desolation in one's heart
and to make choices accordingly. Hopefully the Exercises journey will so
help a directee to experience this that he will grow in the ability to
judge Consolations and Desolations in his day-to-day living. As a prayer
guide, you can observe this growing ability when your directee begins to
recognize the Graces being sought in daily situations and events, rather
than expecting their reception only during the prayer exercises.
Some Thoughts On
Incipient Desolation
The beginnings of Desolation often do not immediately look like Desolation
at all. Here are some examples:
The directee's prayer
just repeats the story line of the gospel passage that was used in the
exercise. As you listen to his report of what went on, you probably get
bored!
During the prayer experience,
the directee seems to have spent all his time making applications of the
gospel passages to his own life.
The directee has been
able to enter the gospel story but has spent his time focused away from
Jesus. Earlier when the directee was learning how to do Gospel Contemplation,
we could consider this to be a sign of not making the Gospel Contemplation
properly. But by this time in the Exercises journey, this phenomenon represents
a beginning type of Desolation or Consolation from the Bad Angel [331]
which we can call Counterfeit
Consolation.
The directee is making
the Gospel Contemplation well, is able to enter the story, but Jesus has
turned his back on him. Here, it is not so much that Jesus has turned away
from the directee, but that the directee has noticed it. It has become
a question for the directee. This can actually be Consolation
but, by not understanding that this could be a call to deal with some issue
in his life, the directee can easily move into Desolation.
We can name these beginnings Incipient Desolation. The reason why these
phenomena are hard to recognize as Desolation or as its beginnings is because
the directee experiencing them seems to be happy enough and appears to
be getting something out of the prayer exercise. Given time, these beginning
forms of Desolation usually become Desolation in the more recognizable
ways described in notation [317].
In closed retreat settings, a prayer guide may decide to wait until the
directee begins to experience this more recognizable Desolation. If time
for this desolating symptom to unfold itself is given, this is usually
a better way for a directee to recognize and learn how to deal with these
things on his own. However, in the setting of the notation-[19] Exercises
journey, this may not be as appropriate; the process may take too much
time and the intensity of the Desolation may be less noticeable.
How do you help your directee handle Desolation at this time in the Exercises
journey?(10) At this point, it is usually
important to help your directee recognize his experience as Desolation
and then engage him in discussion of what it might mean. Together(11)
you try to isolate the issue behind the Desolation. For Healing-Mode
directees, this work of isolating the issue can become God's way of training
the directee to handle his compulsions and fears not only during the Exercises
journey but even later. Consult Chapter
24, "Guiding Directees In The Healing Mode During The Second Week," p.330ff.
The three suggested reasons in notation [322]
and the spiritual therapy of notation [319]
establish a general approach. You can use them quite literally. Note the
warning in notation [319]
that the directee not make any change but stand firm in the decision to
which he adhered in the preceding Consolation. With that instruction, Ignatius
presumes that the directee is in the middle of a decision-making process.
However, changes in certain aspects of the prayer exercises and his daily
routines may certainly be appropriate:
Change posture during
the prayer exercise. Notation [76]
suggests experimentation until he finds the Grace he is seeking.
Change from Gospel Contemplation
to more of a reflective approach [319].
When a directee is upset and in Desolation, it is often impossible to use
his imagination freely. Sometimes all he can do is to read, reflect, and
pray vocally.
Stay faithful to his time
commitment for the prayer exercise and extend it a little [12],
[13].
Change in doing or not
doing penance [82]-[84] or
in his style of eating [210].
For the directee of notation [19], this principle of experimenting can
be done by changing some activities of the day over which he has some control:
answering the phone, watching television, going to bed on time, etc.
Remember that the basic psychological principle behind the Exercises according
to notations [19] and [20] attempts to bring harmony between body and spirit.
We
do what we can to dispose ourselves for a grace that only God can give.
The observation within notation [319],
"much examination of oneself," may not work for those directees who, when
things go wrong, either obsess or fall into addictive behaviours. For them,
it would be far better not to argue with the temptation by trying to figure
its source when they are in a downward spiral. Rather, it would be better
to take notation [325]
literally by refusing to make an analysis which would further the obsessive
fears or anxieties. Later when the desolating experience has subsided,
this type of directee may be able to analyze what has been going on.
In order to help your directee understand the issues that triggered the
desolating experience, you may have to draw from many possible scenarios
at the back of your mind. For example, perhaps the directee:
Is resisting something
that the gospel event triggered;
Has distanced himself
from a specific challenge or enlightenment that the Spirit is trying to
give;
Does not appreciate Jesus'
relationship to the Father;
Has trouble appreciating
how human Jesus is and/or does not accept something about his own humanity.
Often what a directee
is dealing with in prayer is a reflection of what he is dealing with in
day-to-day living. Therefore you could be asking yourself: "What are the
similarities between the difficulties my directee experiences in daily
life and those surfacing in his Gospel Contemplations?"
When your directee started to use Prayer Unit 15, he began the Public Life
and Mission of Jesus, the overall theme of the major portion of the Second
Week. If he is still developing his personal myth significantly, you may
need to give him more time on this unit. But if developing a personal myth
is not something that you judge to be fruitful for him at this time, simply
move ahead with the next prayer unit and encourage him to include his image
for the future and/or his dreams in the Gospel Contemplations.
What you introduce and what you emphasize will depend on what you are hearing
and the next little step that your directee is being invited to make. As
indicated in many different ways elsewhere, the map needs to be adapted
to the terrain and not the terrain to the map! And so, by now you should
be adapting and departing from the materials suggested in these running
commentaries.
This manual, however, has been written from the perspectives(12)
of
Learning-Formation and of the Exercises as an Instrument of
Decision-Making for a directee in the Call
Mode. These perspectives will be more evident from here on.
Jesus'
Temptations in the Desert; Jesus Announces His Mission in the Synagogue
and Is Rejected; Introducing the Two Standards Exercise.
With
this unit, you could include some
of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
A Call-Mode directee, who has come into the Exercises journey with a significant
issue around which a choice needs to be made, should continue to deal with
the preliminaries of the decision-making process during the interview with
you and later in his prayer exercises. With Prayer Unit 16, you will be
giving the Two Standards Exercise. Give the prayer material without too
much explanation [2] so that
your directee will grapple with the literal text and discuss it with you
in the next interview. However, you might stress:
The Graces to ask for
in the Third Prelude [139]
and in the Triple Colloquy;
This prayer exercise is
written in the context of Ignatius' culture and that your directee should
try to understand this from the perspective of his own culture;
There are two parts to
the exercise of which the second -- the standard of Jesus -- is the important
part and should be given more emphasis than the first;
How Ignatius intends that
a directee continue to engage his imagination in this prayer exercise even
though it is a meditation;
That your directee reflect
upon the meaning of Actual Poverty and highest Spiritual Poverty in his
own unique circumstances.
Listening to Prayer
Unit 16
After your directee has completed Prayer Unit 16, help him notice his own
reactions and responses to the Two Standards Exercise. What are his "riches
and honours" [142]; that
is, the attitudes, approaches, things, etc. which he needs for his false
security and by which he bolsters his false self? These are traps and some
of them are like Temptations Under the Guise of Light [332]
because he keeps on being caught by what he thinks are useful riches. Hopefully,
as the Exercises journey has been proceeding, you have been able to help
your directee notice those traps or deceits present in his prayer exercises
and life experiences.
---- Towards Prayer
Unit 17 And Two Standards Exercise ----
Where We Are Going
And Why
By this time some directees will have explored the specific way God is
calling them in their life. Now is the time in the Exercises journey to
deal with this more intentionally. As a help to do this, the Exercises
present us with the Two Standards and the Three Classes. Chapter 26 explains
how and why these two particular exercises are an important part of the
decision-making process.
Two
Standards Exercise; Jesus Teaches the Beatitudes; Introducing Three Classes
of Persons. The Triple Colloquy is used from now on.
With
this unit, you could include some
of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
We have been using different lenses, contexts or structures in the Exercise
journey: the events of Jesus' life, the dream of God, the Guidelines for
Discerning Spirits, some basic psychological insights, the directee's personal
history, etc.
The lens through which Ignatius now asks the directee
to consider his experience is that of the standard of Jesus.
The first part of the Two Standards Exercise is intended to help your directee
become free from Deception
in the decision-making process and in his consequent choices for Jesus
here and now in the Exercises journey. There are different categories of
Deception:
a) Temptation
to sin always involves a Deception; a person chooses to accept the temptation
because of some perceived good or advantage.
b) Hidden
Disordered Tendencies involve a Deception; often they are subjectively
perceived as helping one gain security, status, etc. [62],
[63].
c) Being dominated
by an Inordinate
Attachment involves a Deception; the object to which one is attached
appears to have some advantage to the one who is attached [16],
[154].
d) Temptation
Under the Guise of Light is the Deception of spiritually mature and
generous persons. They usually perceive the more obvious deceptions contained
in any movement towards a), b) or c) almost immediately. However, with
the Temptation Under the Guise of Light, they are deceived by some seductive
idea or thought which attracts them, by appearing to be in harmony with
their generous and loving desires [332].
It is their goodness that is used to deceive them.
The categories above differ from each other according to subtlety. The
particular type of Deception that the exercises on the Two Standards and
the Three Types of Persons address is c) above. However, because good people
unwittingly weave a life tapestry spun from some threads of Lucifer's standard,
Ignatius is especially concerned about the d)-type of Deception throughout
the Exercises as a whole and, particularly, during the Second-Week decision-making
process [10], [328],
[332].
The image of the Two Standards is a medieval image of two warring factions
of knights in full armour on horses. Each group was led into battle by
a knight carrying a large flag or standard. Once the hand-to-hand combat
began, the two factions became almost indistinguishable as the knights
from one side inevitably were mixed up with the knights from the other
side. In this mass confusion, an onlooker would hardly be able to distinguish
which knight belonged to which standard. Through this image, the Exercises
attempt to convey how good and evil are often intertwined and that it is
often difficult to distinguish one from the other. In notation [141],
Lucifer is pictured as issuing a summons to innumerable demons and as scattering
them "... some to one city and others to another, and so through all the
world, not omitting any provinces, places, states, nor any persons in particular."
In other words, no one is untouched by the enemy's temptations.
This is the same truth that Jesus gives us through the parable of the weeds
mixed up with the wheat. The Two Standards Exercise is not an exercise
concerning a choice between the standard of Satan and the standard of Jesus;
it is way of entering more deeply and following more radically the standard
of Jesus.(13)
Directees become very aware of Deception when they learn to recognize how
they go into Desolation when the enemy enters their fortification by the
weakest side [327]. Here
are some examples of traps that may have already occurred or are occurring:
Over-analyzing and making
sure, and thus preventing oneself from a more spontaneous, intimate and
mutual relationship with God;
Seeking consolations rather
than the God of consolation;
Laying plans and doing
something special for God without taking into account one's own evident
duties and talents [14];
Pretence that one is too
insignificant to respond in any responsible way;
Fears in exercising or
letting go of responsibility ... possessiveness ... protectiveness ...
lifestyle;
Needing always to be significant.
When You Give Prayer
Unit 17
As you continue to discuss the Two Standards Exercise, hopefully your directee
is making connections between the traps he has already experienced and/or
recognized and the prayer material for the coming week. In this way the
awarenesses from the Graces of the Triple Colloquy of the First Week --
namely, the influence of the world on one's Hidden Disordered Tendencies
-- may have some connection with his present prayer experiences.
Since most directees tend to focus so much on the problematics and negative
aspects of their lives, it is wise for both you and your directee to spend
more time with the second part of the exercise which distils the basic
characteristics (in terms of Ignatius' era) of Jesus' call to discipleship.(14)
The Exercises text instructs the directee to use the Triple Colloquy during
each prayer period from now on at least until the end of the Second Week.
When you explain the prayer exercise on Jesus teaching the Beatitudes,
instruct your directee not to turn this material into an Examination
of Conscience. Here the directee is being asked to continue with Gospel
Contemplation -- to listen, see, feel, and be present while Jesus is giving
his teaching to his listeners about what it means to be a disciple.
Introduce the Three Classes of Persons without much explanation: "... Pray
on this during the f) period and we'll talk about its meaning next week."
Listening To Prayer
Unit 17
After your directee has completed Prayer Unit 17, listen to his interior
reactions and movements with respect to the Two Standards:
Find out what things your
directee learned about himself -- his riches? his habitual traps in life?
the ways he might be deceived in the decision-making process?
Note whether the Triple
Colloquy is becoming concrete and what desires seem to be emerging.
Note whether the Two Standards
Exercise had impact. Are his desires related to his character and life
or are they unrealistic or discontinuous with what has gone on before?
If there is Desolation in reaction to the standard of Jesus, it could be
the Desolation of the challenge of discipleship or the Desolation of some
Inordinate Attachment. Perhaps he needs to pray for ongoing freedom as
suggested in notation [16]
or [157]. Such reactions
can be a sign that your directee is dealing with something significant.
Note whether there is any unfinished business that needs Repetition; if
so, adapt the material as you give the prayer unit. Sometimes the suggested
additional scripture readings from the previous prayer unit can help you
make this adaptation.
Note whether any significant items surfaced from the Three Types of Persons
Exercise. If nothing, ask a question or two, something like: "How did you
react to the Three Types of Persons Exercise? ... How do you see the three
types as relevant to where you are now? ... What class of persons are you
in now? ... Why do you say that? ... Perhaps you could pray that exercise
again but now with respect to such-and-such that you have been mentioning
in the past few weeks."
Discovering
Material for Decision-Making; The Three Classes of Persons; Call of the
Apostles; Call of Peter.
With
this unit, you could include some
of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
Please note how the Grace enunciated in this prayer unit differs from the
general Grace of the Second Week. The purpose of Prayer Unit 18 is to help
surface the material that needs to be considered before the decision-making
process is begun. Remember your directee may have started the Exercises
journey without some issue requiring a decision. However, he still needs
to inquire how God is calling him now in the concreteness of his ongoing
personal and private life. The experience of the Exercises would seem to
be wasted unless your directee has somehow incarnated it into his life.
The formal decision-making process may not involve issues around changing
of one's state of life, which is the main example used in the Election.
Instead, it may involve some other significant material. Your judgement
will depend on your initial covenant with your directee. If he has entered
the Exercises journey with the desire to experience and understand Ignatian
spirituality, and if you are giving the Exercises with the formation paradigm
in mind hoping that your directee not only have a good experience but be
able to use it later after the Exercises journey is over, then it may be
important to confront the issue of conscious decision-making with him even
at the risk of setting up some misunderstanding or resistance.(15)
Hopefully, the actual experience of consciously discerning a decision during
the Exercises journey will give the directee a felt understanding for the
discernment of a decision so that he will be able to use discernment in
the future. This follows the formation paradigm which is the context of
this manual. If the Exercises are to be a useful instrument in the directee's
ongoing life in the private, public, and more societal spheres, he must
understand the spirituality of the Exercises from a decision-making perspective
-- the standpoint from which Ignatius wrote them.
Is it too much of a generalization to assert, from common observation,
that most people resist making consciously discerned decisions? We humans
make decisions all the time and in so many different ways but less frequently
with conscious and intentional discernment. Implicit in being human is
the ability to make choices and everyone has developed his/her own style
for this process. Being accustomed to making decisions automatically, many
people resist bringing their own modes of decision-making to reflectively
discerned consciousness. Many relegate prayerfully-made decisions to the
private sphere of life. Hence, most directees consider discernment as applying
only to the private sphere and, then only, to larger situations such as
a career change brought about by external forces such as a shift in the
economy, a mid-life crisis, a need to make a living, etc.
If, at this juncture, you recognize that this prayer unit will not benefit
your directee, then adapt it or skip it. However, it may still be important
that your directee deal with the material on the Reformation of Life [189]
discussed in the next chapter. You may need to refer him to notation [189]
at this time.
As always, it is more important that you and your directee deal with what
has been emerging in prayer rather than imposing on the Exercises experience
the need for some decisions which may or may not be supported by God's
grace. In other words, some decision may logically fit at this time but
God may not be granting the grace for it. You may hope that some decision
should be made on such-and-such but the such-and-such may not be surfacing
within your directee's prayer experience. As prayer guide, you can suggest
that he look at such-and-such, but you must always respect his own response
to your suggestion [15].
You might introduce Prayer Unit 18 by reading the theme and the Grace with
your directee and giving some needed explanations. Here are some suggestions:
"The imagination
exercises during the a) and b) periods can be a real help in clarifying
for you what items or matters in your life with God that may need some
discernment. In the a) exercise, note that the person you imagine before
you is a person exactly like yourself who has gone through an experience
similar to your own during this Exercises journey, with the particular
insights and graces that you have received thus far. What kinds of data
would you recommend that this person look at? ... Perhaps that is the very
data God is asking you to look at. Please make sure that you do this exercise
in a prayer context using your imagination ... as the exercise thus directs
you!"
... or ...
"Over the past few
weeks, we have been discussing that some decisions may need to be made
in the area of such-and-such. You can use these two exercises in a) and
b) to check that out."
If fitting, draw your directee's attention to notation [157]:
"If you find that you resist looking at some data or you experience that
you are not free when you are challenged by them, then pray the note [157]."
If your directee is already involved in the decision-making process, you
will need to adapt this prayer unit and continue to foster the process
that has been taking place. Consult Chapter 27, "Decision-Making And The
Five Steps."
Listening To Prayer
Unit 18
After your directee has prayed Prayer Unit 18, you will be listening for
his reactions to a), b) and c). Hopefully a) and b) exercises helped to
surface the material which he needs to enter into the decision-making process,
and hopefully c) indicates his readiness. Here are some questions you might
be asking yourself:
Does he have the dispositions
of the Third Class?
How was he affected by
the prayer material on discipleship?
Is he still praying the
Triple Colloquy which is to be used during every prayer exercise throughout
the Second Week?
Has the request for "highest
poverty of spirit" taken on more concreteness?
What are the emerging
threads that need to be taken into account for the decision-making process?
Chapter
Thirteen
First
Phases In The Decision-Making Process Prayer
Unit 19 Three
Kinds Of Humility
Where We Are Going
And Why
If you gave your directee Prayer Unit 18 to pray over, it was probably
because of one or more of the following:
He was not yet working
on the preliminaries of a decision;
He did not judge that
there was any need to make a decision and he required something to surface
that need if it were really there;
He felt the need to make
some decision for Christ but was unclear as to the questions that he needed
to look at;
You were following this
manual too slavishly;
You wanted him to have
a good experience of discerning a decision so that he would understand,
more deeply and from experience, what the Exercises are about so that he
will be able to use them in his daily life later.
We are now moving or continuing to move in the decision-making process.
If your directee has arrived at this point either because he was already
working on the preliminaries of the decision before now or because of Prayer
Unit 18, some of the following comments may be very useful. As prayer guide
you will need to read and refer to Chapter 27, "Decision-Making And The
Five Steps: Theory -- Process -- Procedures."
Helpful Questions
On Facilitating A Directee's Readiness
To Discern A Choice
On clarifying the
general problem -- What do you do when the context or general problem
that requires some solution or decision is so confused that the precise
issue seems buried with a wealth of secondary issues?
First, realize that confusion often happens when significant material that
requires decision-making begins to surface. Then, begin to engage your
directee in a conversation which helps him talk out the matter in order
to isolate the primary issues from the secondary issues. If your directee
needs to do this at home, then you might encourage him to do this during
a couple of prayer periods in the coming week. One way of doing this would
be to have him generate on paper all the possibilities that occur to him
and then, later after a little prayerful reflection, strike out what appear
to be secondary or non-essential.
What do you do when you hear a what-should-I-do-about-something question,
such as: "How should I engage more effectively in political life?" ...
or ... "What studies should I take?" ... or ... "I need to grow in the
art of listening and handling meetings. What's the next step?"
Explore whether any concrete
possibilities have been emerging.
Brainstorm together the
possibilities and start to generate these on paper. Then suggest that he
continue this at home with some significant persons and bring it to prayer.
Perhaps he will have to investigate more facts before any key issues can
be determined for the possibility of discernment!
On prioritizing the
issues involved -- What do you do when the context contains several
essential issues?
Help your directee prioritize the issues by trying to isolate the key issue
that either contains the other key issues or comes logically or chronologically
prior to the others. On the other hand, if several key issues seem to have
equal importance, then suggest that your directee line them up in order
of preference. If there appear to be too many items that need decision-making,
then have him prioritize and choose the first three.
On keeping an eye
on consistency and realism -- What do you do when the material your
directee brings forward for decision-making does not seem to harmonize
with what you have perceived to be emerging in the past couple of months?
Discuss this with your directee. Perhaps you will have to suggest that
he spend another week trying to discover the proper matter for decision-making
at this time of the Exercises journey. Ultimately, however, you must go
with the prayerful perceptions of your directee. Hopefully the material
for decision-making that emerges:
a) Has something
to do with his present state of life;
b) Has emerged out
of his prayer;
c) Is consistent with
the graces he has already received;
d) Is in the realm
of the possible;
e) Is focused on the
cooperation with others in harmony with God's designs.
"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
When no significant
material has surfaced -- What do you do when no significant issue for
decision-making has surfaced from your directee's prayer?
Suggest that he pray for enlightenment on this matter. He can return to
the prayer material of the last prayer unit. On the other hand, he could
move to the next prayer unit and spend some time within the prayer exercises
themselves investigating where and how he is called to be a better Christian.
You could give him the directions on the Reformation of Life contained
in notation [189]. You
could ask him to update the material with such topics as:
relationships
in and outside the family, work, ministry, political involvements,
reading,
recreation, gifts, money, stewardship,
prayer-life,
television watching, use of periodicals,
possessions,
lifestyle, volunteer work, parish involvement, etc.
Perhaps you could give him the Guidelines for Distributing Alms [337] and
ask him to apply the principles contained in them to some of the above
topics. In other words, you would be asking him to develop and make practical
a way of life for the near future.
Wedding
Feast of Cana; Cure of Centurion's Servant; Healing of the Woman with a
Hemorrhage; The Three Kinds of Humility.
With
this unit, you could include some
of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
As you introduce Prayer Unit 19, give your directee the Exercises text
on the Three Kinds of Humility. Suggest that he spend one prayer exercise
on this in the f) period during the week and that "... in the next interview
we'll discuss this together." On the other hand, if you sense that it would
be more helpful, say a few words of introduction about the Three Kinds
of Humility. Remember the following points which are explained more fully
in Chapter 26:
a) They are
not steps on the ladder of perfection.
b) They are moments
of response. Remember the First Kind is a very
generous way of responding -- for some, it means martyrdom.
c) They will help
to judge your directee's level of freedom and the
deeper desires of his heart now in the present.
You might want to choose alternate scripture texts on Jesus' public life
that are more suited to the needs of your directee at this time. Generally
whenever you make adaptations, choose concrete events rather than discourses
or parables so that your directee will be able to use Gospel Contemplation.(16)
If you do make shifts in the prayer pattern, continue to value the use
and need for Repetition.
Incorporate the decision-making step or phase that your directee needs
at this point. Chapter 27 explains the Five Steps and shows how to incorporate
them into the decision-making process.
Listening To Prayer
Unit 19
After your directee has done Prayer Unit 19, you will listening for the
experience, desires and understanding emerging from his prayer on the Three
Kinds of Humility with the Triple Colloquy. What level of freedom has he
received? In theory, a directee is ready to make the actual
decision and complete the Election when his affectivity is in harmony with
the Third Class of Persons and the Second Kind of Humility. A gauge of
a directee's interior freedom is the presence of a real desire for the
Third Kind of Humility.
However,
in practice, it is only in the
actual working through of the decision-making process and the actual making
of a choice that the experience of Spiritual Freedom is received.
How is your directee relating to Jesus in the Gospel Contemplations? Over
the past weeks has there been any significant way that his relationship
with Jesus has shifted: From less human to more human? ... From less closeness
to greater closeness? ... From greater enthusiasm in following Jesus to
less enthusiasm? ... From Desolation to Consolation? ... From Counterfeit
Consolation to true Consolation [316],
[331]-[334]?
... From a hectic quality to a quiet quality? ... From a drop of water
on stone to a drop on a sponge
[335]?
If you have noticed such a change in his experience, this may have some
bearing on the decision-making process.
Chapter
Fourteen
Prayer
Units 20-22 Observations On
Second Set Of Guidelines For Discerning Spirits
Where We Are Going
And Why
By this point I am taking for granted that you are in the heart of the
Second Week of the Exercises. Your directee is praying over the mysteries
of the public life and mission of Jesus. He is using Gospel Contemplation
while, at the same time, incorporating some aspect(s) of the decision-making
process. Also I am taking for granted that the need for `interpretation'
(discussed in Chapter Eleven) of what is going on in the Gospel Contemplations
is lessening but that the need for discernment (in the strict sense) is
increasing. Hopefully your directee is moving ahead in Consolation and
you are allowing his Creator to deal directly with him [15]
as you are discerning that the Consolation remains authentic. Also, I am
taking for granted that your directee may be needing the Second Set of
Guidelines for Discerning Spirits around this time.
Because the path for each directee becomes unique with so many variables
in this part of the Exercises journey, a running commentary, if it is to
stay true to the dynamisms of the Exercises, cannot describe what is needed
in your unique circumstances. Therefore, the materials offered in this
running commentary will be far less detailed and far less programmatic
than they have been. You may need to consult Part B, Sections III and IV
of this manual, particularly Chapters 26 through 29, far more now perhaps
than you have already done.
The Many Faces Of
Counterfeit Consolation
The first face is really the Incipient Desolation described earlier in
Chapter Twelve. As mentioned before, the directee may seem to be happy
enough with this Incipient Desolation. He still has an ability to pray
and there is a felt presence of God; but, left to its own dynamic, there
will likely be a growing arduousness, distancing, or boredom within the
prayer. For example:
A directee is pleasantly
involved with learning lessons when he should have been involved in the
story; or
Jesus walks away from
the directee in the prayer exercise; or
The directee walks away
from Jesus in the prayer exercise; or
Jesus turns his back on
him.
The second face would more likely fit notation [331].
There is an ability to pray and the directee experiences God as present.
The prayer is free-flowing enough and unaffected,
BUT:
There is no evident relationship
with Jesus; and/or
It seems to be going nowhere.
The prayer guide's inner reaction is probably one of being bored. A prayer
guide feels like saying, "So what! Why are you telling me this?"
The third face is the one designated in notations [331]-[334].
This face is manifested more frequently when a generous directee is filled
with a sincere enthusiasm and desires to follow God's call. It manifests
itself when he is making decisions. There is an ability to pray with a
felt presence of God. The directee experiences intimacy with Jesus. The
prayer is free-flowing enough and it is sincere,
BUT there are some
dissonances:
There is a certain frenetic
quality that is part of it [335],
like a drop of water on stone rather than on a sponge; and/or
It leads to something
distracting or less good. For example, as the directee is beginning to
accept an emerging decision [332]
while, at the same time experiencing a heart full of love for God, he is
being led to plan without God; and/or
In time, it weakens the
soul -- headaches, tension, irritability in his daily public world at home
and at work between the times of the prayer exercises [334].
With respect to these three faces, the Second Set of Guidelines for Discerning
Spirits instructs a prayer guide to help her directee to:
1. Notice
the deceits that are emerging in the experience.
2. Analyze the beginning,
middle and end; that is, how they began and how they developed to the point
where he recognized the Deception. (Usually the Deception is connected
with his own goodness, exaggerated gifts or unwitting weakness.)
3. Understand the pattern
of the temptation.
4. Make a written journal
entry about his understanding of this pattern.
5. Exercise watchfulness
because this same temptation will often follow a similar pattern in the
future.
It is often advisable for you to wait until the movement becomes a little
more evident as when the temptation rears its ugly head or is detectable
by "the serpent's tail." Here are two examples:
In one prayer exercise,
a directee is filled with gratitude and desire to serve God in a simple
lifestyle and feels very free that this is where he is being led. Then
after several other prayer exercises, he ends by planning how he can convince
others how worthwhile this is. Jesus is no longer in his prayer. The directee
shows signs of over-enthusiasm.
The prayer guide notices
that there has been a movement in her directee that started --
the
beginning -- with a desire to be rejected with Jesus. In conjunction
with this movement, he was led -- the middle -- during one
of the Gospel Contemplations, to include something that he thought would
be more desirable. Two days later -- the end -- he became
upset in a significant way about being misunderstood at the office [333]!
A fourth face of Counterfeit Consolation [336]
takes place almost immediately after a direct Consolation from God, i.e.,
Consolation Without Cause. This experience will often show effects similar
to the other counterfeit forms above. Sometimes it is accompanied by a
type of loving anxiety, being upset or distraught. This kind of "upsetness"
is different in quality from the anxiety of Desolation, described in notations
[315]
and [317], and is consistent
with a stance of generous love. Yet it is disharmonious with the direct
experience of God's Consolation that has just happened.(17)
The advice for the prayer guide is outlined in notation [336].
It is important to distinguish the actual thoughts of the authentic direct
Consolation during the moment it was being received from the interpretation
after it was just received in the time of the Afterglow. Therefore she
has to help her directee distinguish between:
b) Thoughts
and interpretations immediately after the actual receiving of the
Consolation Without Cause.
Thus, the prayer guide is to help the directee distinguish what was actually
given from what he immediately interpreted after the reception of
this Consolation.
Introducing Prayer
Units 20 And 21
When you introduce the next prayer units, continue to incorporate the decision-making
step(s) or phase(s) that your directee needs at the time.
Jesus
Feeds the Five Thousand; Jesus Walks on the Water; Jesus is Transfigured.
With
this unit, you could include some
of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
Approaching
The End Of The Second Week
Thus far you have been guiding your directee through the Second Week and
are approaching the mysteries of Jesus' public life and mission which are
directly connected to his passion and death (Prayer Unit 22). By going
to the home of Mary and Martha and to Lazarus' committal services, Jesus
intentionally decides to let himself be caught by the religious leaders;
he signs his own death warrant.
Further, these three passages are filled with symbolic meaning. In the
raising of Lazarus, the full passover mystery of the death and resurrection
of Jesus is revealed. With the anointing at Bethany, Jesus is being prepared
for his own burial. The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem symbolizes the
underlying meaning of his mission to the people.
Read Chapter Fifteen to help you reflect upon your directee's readiness
for the Third Week of the Exercises. If you judge that your directee is
not ready for the Third Week, you may want to spend more time on the mysteries
of the public life of Jesus which come prior to those in Prayer Unit 22.
Raising
of Lazarus; Supper at Bethany and the Anointing; Entrance into Jerusalem.
With
this unit, you could include some
of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
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.
