WHAT SPIRITUALITY DID IGNATIUS TEACH?
He recommended us to be Contemplatives in Action.
Anyone who has made an Ignatian Retreat has been taught Imaginative Contemplation and has met Jesus at a new, more intimate level. The Contemplation for Obtaining Love, the very last exercise in Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, invites us to contemplate and see God present and lovingly working for us in everything. This is easy in His creation and salvation, in the Eucharist and the Scriptures. But, if God created everything, He is present and working in it, and the frequent But Jesus combined prayer with
‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I may preach there too. Because that is why I came’ (Mark 1:38)
Contemplation led Ignatius from his cave in Manresa towards helping people. Compassion seemed to motivate Jesus and Ignatius, and it will move us too, if we enter deeply into suffering around us. We find God then, through discovering and responding to our neighbour’s needs - having discerned how Jesus wants us to help him alleviate them. Contemplation leads to action, and action to contemplation. We find God making us aware, calling us and assisting us.injunction in the Gospels to ‘watch, stay awake and pray’ is an invitation to look at all reality, including even suffering in a new deeper way and to find our way to God through it.
Anyone who has made an Ignatian Retreat has been taught Imaginative Contemplation and has met Jesus at a new, more intimate level. The Contemplation for Obtaining Love, the very last exercise in Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, invites us to contemplate and see God present and lovingly working for us in everything. This is easy in His creation and salvation, in the Eucharist and the Scriptures. But, if God created everything, He is present and working in it, and the frequent But Jesus combined prayer with
‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I may preach there too. Because that is why I came’ (Mark 1:38)
Contemplation led Ignatius from his cave in Manresa towards helping people. Compassion seemed to motivate Jesus and Ignatius, and it will move us too, if we enter deeply into suffering around us. We find God then, through discovering and responding to our neighbour’s needs - having discerned how Jesus wants us to help him alleviate them. Contemplation leads to action, and action to contemplation. We find God making us aware, calling us and assisting us.injunction in the Gospels to ‘watch, stay awake and pray’ is an invitation to look at all reality, including even suffering in a new deeper way and to find our way to God through it.