Initiation
Deepening
Spiritual Exercises
Materials made available with authorization from
Grupo de Comunicación Loyola, Bilbao, Spain
Centro de Espiritualidad "San Ignacio," Salamanca, Spain
for the experience of God
“To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances;
to seek Him, the greatest adventure;
to find Him, the most important human achievement.”
St. Augustine
Letter from Ignatius of Loyola,
to Manuel Miona, Nov, 16, 1536
Miona was a confessor to St. Ignatius at Alcala and Paris. The saint urges him to make the Spiritual Exercises for a month. Miona agreed, and made them at Paris under the direction of Father Jerome Domenech. As a result he entered the Society of Jesus.
Letter of St. Ignatius of Loyola
by Saint Ignatius
Selected and translated by William J. Young, S.J.
Loyola University Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1959
"If you have not, I beg of you, by the love and the bitter death He suffered for us, to begin them.
If you ever regret it, I not only accept whatever penance you may wish to impose on me, but you may look upon me as a mocker of the spiritual persons to whom I owe everything."
"... that the Spiritual Exercises are the best means I can think of in this life both to help a person to benefit herself or himself and to bring help, profit, and advantage to many others."
"Even though you felt yourself to be in no special need, you will see how they will help you to serve others beyond anything you ever dreamed off."
Welcome
Romans 8:26-27
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the [a]saints according to the will of God.