Welcome
"... that the Spiritual Exercises are the best means I can think of in this life both to help a man to benefit himself and to bring help, profit, and advantage to many others."
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
A Brief History
In 2000, pastors in Spain contacted the Ignatian Spiritual Center in Salamanca for an Ignatian spiritual program suitable for any parishioners. They saw that their parishioners truly had the desire to have a deeper experience of God, but they only know of living the faith by devotion. More than 60 religious and lay people came together with their experiences and knowledge. In 2013 they published their works in 5 volumes called Itineraries. One and Two are the initiations of the experience of God. Three and Four are the deepening of the experience of God. Five is the full Spiritual Exercises. The Itineraries were first translated into Vietnamese in 2015. The English translation started in 2018. But the starting point that brought this outside of Spain is worth a reflection on how God is at work . In 2015, Father Elizalde, S.J., a Jesuit from Spain, who was in mission in Vietnam, came back to Salamanca for a visit. He came across these Itineraries in display in the hallway. Found them to be interesting, he brought them to the US and gave them to a layperson friend, who does not know Spanish, and asked for his opinion. The friend was touched deeply by what he read in Itinerary 1 because it is a departure from other Ignatian program, in which one prays with Scriptures. Itinerary 1 is about praying and finding God's in one's life; God is alive in one's life. Father Elizalde brought the Itineraries to Vietnam and with helps from others the books were translated into Vietnamese. Then the Itineraries found interests in Father Alan Yost, S.J and Father William Noe, S.J. Together with Father Elizalde, they translated the text into English.
Permission
The Centro de Espiritualidad "San Ignacio," the publisher Sal Terrae and the Loyola Grupo De Comunicacion of Spain have granted permission to The Translation Group to distribute the Vietnamese materials in all fornats, and English materials in digital format only for the personal and non-profit use of viewing and printing.
Any other use of the available materials is strictly prohibited.