"Remember, I am with you always to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20)

St Ignatius's Wise Counsel For Retreat Givers Against Being "Pushy"

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ccording to the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, "choice" or "election" is found at the core of the Spiritual Exercises, much like the Holy of Holies where the exercitant is directed by God and not by the spiritual director to choose God's choice, i.e., ultimately to a self-abandonment to God. In my reading of a 2012 issue from the "Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits"—a quarterly monograph series—Fr Barton T Geger SJ wrote so interestingly on a topic entitled "The First First Companions: The Continuing Impact of the Men Who Left Ignatius. I would like to highlight one touchy issue included by Fr Geger as regards St Ignatius's pet peeve on being "pushy."

He had it all safeguarded in that small paragraph (165 words) of Annotation 15 in the Spiritual Exercises. He did not mince his words when it comes to giving his opinion about the relationship between the retreat giver—the one giving the Exercises, and the exercitant—the one making the Exercises. He would remind retreat givers about their fundamental duty to “get out of the way,” and even in one case, about being a “walking contradiction” (Frank Wallace, “Spiritual Direction,” in The Christian Ministry of Spiritual Direction, The Best of the Review, no. 3, edited by David Fleming [St Louis: Review for Religious, 1988], 88–89).

God's divine persuasion is paramount. The immediacy of the communication between God and the creature must at all cost be safeguarded. Spiritual guides who actively encourage or discourage exercitants most specially to a particular "posture" risk contradicting the spirit behind Annotation 15 and, worst, interrupting ipso facto the immediacy of the religious encounter.

It was so sacred for St Ignatius for the exercitants not only to know but to be satisfied that the elections they made were truly theirs, and not their spiritual guides’. In 1554 Dr Bartholomé de Torres (an early friend of the Society) defended Annotation 15 in just this manner.
[F]or the one giving the Exercises, it is indeed licit to persuade and counsel the one who makes the Exercises to enter religious life. Fr Ignatius does not deny this. He does not say that one who gives the Exercises acts wrongly in counseling one to enter religious life, but rather he says that one should not push him [impellere] into religious life. He wants to say that one should not force or compel aggressively [forçar e induzir con alguna violentia], but rather leave him in freedom. 
Source: Exercitia Spiritualia Sancti Ignatii de Loyola et eorum Directoria, 2 vols., vol. 19 of MHSI (Rome: IHSI, 1919), 1:657 (translation by Barton T Geger SJ, Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits: First First Companions The Continuing Impact of the Men Who Left Ignatius, 2012). See also Dr Vergara’s explanation of annotation 15 (ibid., 672–73).

The following year, Ignatius made the same point to Fr Juan Vitoria. Quoting Vitoria, he said that for Fr Ignatius,

[the retreat giver should not urge an exercitant] to choose one or another state, unless the exercitant already feels himself inclined to a particular state and has told him this, then he may, after careful reflection (and supposing, as I have said, that he has permission) tell the exercitant what he thinks in the presence of the Lord, if he judges that saying it at that point might confirm the exercitant in his good resolve or help him to turn away from something that is less good and to place himself back in God’s hands to be guided by him. But, as I have said, he must constantly be on guard not to talk about anything which might suggest that he is trying to push him toward the Society. This would be against the rule of the Exercises [Annotation 15] and against the purity of the spirit of the Society, which does not want anyone to be moved to enter the Society otherwise than by free choice and at God’s will and prompting. . . . Moreover, with the exercitant having been moved at such a time by the advice or efforts of a mortal human, the door will always be open for the devil to tempt him by suggesting that had it not been for the influence of so-and-so’s advice, he would never have taken such a step, and that the idea came from a human being, and humans are nearly always wrong. And so the devil will always have this temptation at hand.

Source: Exercitia Spiritualia Sancti Ignatii de Loyola et eorum Directoria, 2 vols., vol. 19 of MHSI (Rome: IHSI, 1919), 2:95. See also Martin E Palmer, trans., “Directory Dictated to Father Juan Alonso de Vitoria,” in Giving the Spiritual Exercises: The Early Jesuit Manuscript Directories and the Official Directory of 1599 (St Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996), 18.

Fr Juan Alfonso de Polanco, St Ignatius's secretary, later wrote: “Although in the beginning Ignatius did not make it difficult to admit persons to the Society, later he began to clench his hand, and to say that, if there were one thing that made him want to live longer . . . it would be to make it more difficult to receive men into Society.”

Fr JM Manzano SJ

Comments

  1. Is there online SD ? Or it must be face to face?

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    1. Yes online SD is the call of the times now. GBU!

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    2. How is it done? Do you have online "directees"? Tama ba yan term?

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    3. Yes that is true. But because of the pandemic it is done virtually but still face-face using either Google meet or Zoom! If you are interested to try having a spiritual direction session you can send an email of request to 8thworker@phjesuits.org

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  2. How come it takes time to have your final vows? Just a question that pops out after reading this...I have attended once the final vows of your brother priest and there I learned that ordination is different from final vows...This is something unique for you Jesuits.

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    1. Thanks so much for sharing and also your question. Actually, there are two "professions" throughout our Jesuit life, viz, First Perpetual Vows (after our 2 years of novitiate) and the Final Vows (after a long and arduous process or period of testing or observing the character or abilities of a member in a certain role, for example, a "Partner" as the world of business might put it. There are initial periods (at least 2) of "probation" that one's person will closely monitor God's constant invitation. The call is not a once and for all thing but a process. Not just personal discernment process but a communal one. Finally, our Final Vows—when one is eventually "called" or "invited" and is really a decision on the part of our superiors, starting off from the Jesuit Superior General—is apostolic in nature, that is, it is aimed at greater availability for mission and mobility. We also have a special vow of obedience to the Pope on top of others. Again, just to stress why it may take a long time, it is because getting the confirmation from God takes time and much prayer. GBU!

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    2. Thank you for enlightening me. Much prayers for all Jesuits especially undergoing this process. GBU!

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  3. Thanks po for this reminder, Fr. Jomari... After my 30-day retreat, I develop the habit every morning to consciously express my desires to the Lord and it helps me to see clearly what are His desires for me... An Election is a heart to heart encounter and discernment between I and the Lord... My relationship with Him is the driving force to choose Him and Him alone as He have chosen me first to be His own... Thanks much to my guide who led me in this way of freedom...

    Thank you very much po, Fr. Jom... :')

    GBU! Amping...

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  4. Hi! After listening to Fr. Mon talks (still continue listening...di pa tapos..) and rereading your sharing, I can see the richness, beauty and the efficacy of the Spiritual exercises...How I wish to undergo the 30 days retreat...but di pala basta basta na magretreat nyan...may mga considerations...sa pakiwari ko, it will be nice to encounter our Lord in those long days...I hope the Lord will grant me this opportunity someday...Nakakainspire yung sharings ninyo for me to deepen more my relationship with my Beloved in taking time more frequently with Him...to stay and dwell more in His lovng presence kahit dumating yung time na walang consolation...Just stay and be.
    With assured prayers and prayers requested... Salamat ng marami, Fr JM! I`m learning a lot... GBU!

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    1. Thank you for your sharing. And I admire your thirst and longing for the interior life which is a calling given to everyone by God. Keep listening to the Spirit that is firing this desire in your heart... trust that your heart is being formed along the way as you read and reread the materials here and watch and rewatch Fr Mon's lectures (he formed as my novice master 20 years ago)... you will become eventually what you are contemplating... slowly in God's hands... trust and with mutual prayers of course! GBU!

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    2. Thanks so much Fr! Now, a new journey has began...God bless you and TC! GN!

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