What is Ignatian Spirituality?
- Dr. Karen Shields Wright
- Oct 11, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 19
Ignatian Spirituality is based upon the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the great mystic, who shared with us his methods of prayer, the Spiritual Exercises, and daily self-reflection called the Examen and the gift of Discernment of spirits. It is a way of proceeding.
Finding God in All Things
Ignatian spirituality"*is a spirituality for busy people with hectic lives, who cultivate the spiritual disciplines of reflecting on their days and noticing where God was present — and where God is leading..."
As we ask ourselves, where is God in this circumstance? We discover:
Who we are
Whose we are
What we are called to be
and do
Gratitude: for all is a Gift
Ignatian Spirituality is a way of proceeding in encountering and experiencing the world with deep gratitude for everyone and everything as a gift from God. A way of coming to know God who is actively at work in creating, Self-giving, and communicating personally to each person, moment by moment as His beloved. God who is Self-revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, guiding us in becoming a contemplative in action.
A Way to Act in the World
All for the Greater Glory of God
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (AMDG)
Finding God in all things
Life of Discernment
Contemplative in Action
Person for Others
Cura Personalis
Magis
A Spirituality of the Heart
What we do, we do out of love
A Reflective Spirituality
It is noticing and always discerning
The Daily Examen
The theological principles in Ignatian Spirituality are rooted in the great truths
in Scripture and Tradition.
God our Creator is the ultimate Truth and Way as Self Revealed in Jesus Christ, and the source of all beauty and goodness.
This spirituality emphasizes that God, who is Love loving, is constantly at work in creation and in us.
As a result of God's action, we come to recognize that we were dreamt into being and created out of that love, and are loved at each and every moment.
God invites us to co-labor to build a kingdom of love through the grace and gifts given to each one of us, uniquely in our time and place, to do that work.
We respond in gratitude with a love for actionable service.
It Is About
Falling in Love with Who Loves You
A Vision of Life, Work, and Love
A Way of Being and Acting in the World
Ignatian Spirituality is:
Quotes from Making Choices in Christ: The Foundations of Ignatian Spirituality by Joseph Tetlow, SJ. (p2-3 )
“Ignatian spirituality… is one of the more recent in the church. The spirituality took the great traditions of the interior life in the cloistered world and brought them to bear on everyday life in the home and on the street.”
“This spirituality was meant to empower a dynamic service of God out in the marketplace… (It) offers to those of us who live busy lives a way to God. It helps one find our own appropriate way in mental prayer and in an active life in the world and in the church.”
“It offers a way to discern what God wishes us to do, both with the whole of our lives as we focus down on a personal vocation and in the many concrete decisions (through discernment) we have to make every day.”
“The purpose of this spirituality is to help us find how we are to work along with God to bring the reign of Christ to human life in good order to the natural world to the everyday world as it is now…We are not trying to create an orderly life apart from the joys and sorrows of the everyday world as those spiritualities were a withdrawal from the world… (we are in) the world from which we come, in which we live, and to which we are called to bring justice, peace, and love now, in this place of ours and in our time.”
“Ignatian spirituality is not only a worldly spirituality but also a radically lay spirituality. It rose from the experience of a layman (St. Ignatius) and was developed for the sake of those who were busily engaged in everyday life…. All he knew at the beginning was that he had a preemptory call to find Christ in the world and thereby live a holy life…Gradually he discovered that certain materials and kinds of prayer helped him in specific ways to sort through the effects of sin in his life and discover honestly what God’s love demanded that he do next."
"The basic tenets of Ignatian spirituality come from St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), who wrote down notes about his prayer and the internal changes he noticed as he began to develop his own friendship with Jesus. Those notes became The Spiritual Exercises, which have been “made” (Jesuits typically say they “make the Exercises”), discussed, taught, and written about for five centuries."
Our Lady of the Way, Pray for us!
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