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TAN Books - St. Ignatius Of Loyola

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40 pages

English

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Description

We are proud to introduce The TAN Classics Made Simple - a brand-new companion series to our bestselling TAN Classics collection.TAN Classics Made Simple booklets are designed to give you an orientation course before you embark on an exploration of the great works of Catholic literature found in our best selling TAN Classics line.Each full-color booklet covers the highlights of TAN Classics in 32 easy-to-read pages. Designed to provide you with the vital facts and features about the life of the Saint, their work, their call to Holiness and the events of their time.Including: Introduction to the TAN Classic, Major Events Timeline, Author Biography, How to Read a TAN Classic section, Words to Know, And much more!Perfect for parishes, schools, or simply a personal introduction to the TAN Classics, these booklets will provide you with a map and compass for navigating the best of Catholic writing!

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Christian theology

Catholic Church

Christianity

Informations

Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	21 septembre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781618901897
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0174€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Robert Gallagher
Publisher
Saint Benedict Press, LLC
TAN Books
Publisher’s Preface
You will discover a treasure in this little booklet—for God wishes all of us to examine our lives in order to grow ever closer to Him. Our Lord is calling us—through the teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola—to stretch our souls toward Him using the Ignatian exercises as countless millions have before us. This booklet will introduce you to St. Ignatius and his methods—it’s a perfect place to begin training your soul or to retrain a soul that has strayed.
The Classics Made Simple series aims to introduce the great works of Catholic literature to a wide readership. The Classics of the Faith are not meant only for saints and scholars: they’re meant for everyone. They’re wise, human, practical, and they have something important to say to each of us.
The Classics are also timeless. Other books come and go, passing with the tastes and fads of each generation. But the Catholic Classics remain and God has used them to teach and sanctify men and women of every age.
We hope this TAN Guide will stir within you a desire to read The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius , or if you’ve already read it, to re-read it with a renewed interest. You’ll discover each TAN Guide is a perfect vehicle to introduce your newest favorite Classic to your friends and family. Give this little booklet a few minutes of your time and see what happens!

Introduction to— The Spiritual Exercises
St. Ignatius of Loyola wrote The Spiritual Exercises as a retreat manual to be used by a director in leading a retreatant or “exercitant” (one who is practicing the exercises) through a four-week series of spiritual practices designed to help him amend his life and elect to follow a defined path of holiness and apostolic service in the Kingdom of God.
St. Ignatius defines the phrase “Spiritual Exercise” as follows:
“By this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant every way of examining one’s conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions, as will be said later. For as strolling, walking, and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise.”
The exercises form the lesson plan for a school of spiritual discipleship whereby students learn how to live the gospel in a profound way while being personally transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. They are a training course for spiritual warfare under the banner of Christ the King—much like a military boot camp. Instead of physical training, however we exercise through imagination and prayerful meditation the often dormant or misdirected powers of our soul—our memory, understanding, and will—and reorient them towards God’s purposes.
The Origin of The Spiritual Exercises
Some 500 years before people began to discuss and write self-help books, St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) sought to answer for himself the question of life’s purpose. After a young adulthood filled with worldly successes and pleasures, a battlefield injury led him to a deep conversion. Slowly but surely, he began to realize that there was glory beyond this world that was worth attaining and from that point forward, attaining that greater heavenly glory became his all-encompassing and lifelong resolution. Encouraged by like-minded companions, he began to record his spiritual insights and experiences. Eventually, out of a desire to help others to share those same experiences of God and conversion, Ignatius organized his notes into a book: The Spiritual Exercises . First published in 1548, this manual would guide countless thousands of souls through a transformative encounter with God.
The Structure and Content of The Spiritual Exercises
The book is divided into four sections or “weeks” representing four distinct periods of time (usually over the course of thirty days) in which an exercitant, preferably under the guidance of a spiritual director, leaves the concerns and activities of the world for a time of solitude and silence alone with God. Even during Ignatius’s lifetime, it was recognized that such a retreat from the world for a length of time was not always possible for all—especially the laity—and thus accommodations could be made in the form of shortened retreats.
The four weeks focus on several central tenets of the Christian Gospel as revealed by God and taught faithfully by the Catholic Church, including:
• God’s work of creation with man as His image and likeness whose vocation is to praise, reverence, and serve God as priest and steward of this world.
• Mankind’s ancestral fall from Paradise and the loss of the grace of full communion with God.
• The coming of the Redeemer through the Incarnation of God’s only Son for the salvation and life of the world.
• The restoration of all things in Christ through His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and second glorious coming, and His announcement of the Kingdom of God.
• Mankind’s call to eternal salvation in Christ and the ultimate fulfillment of his destiny in beholding the Face of God.
These common themes are woven into the spiritual tapestry of the Exercises. Ultimately, the Exercises reveals the face of Christ in salvation history and the place of the exercitant in that history, so long as he is willing to undergo an ever-deepening conversion to Christ and to follow the vocation which he prays will be revealed to him during this time of retreat. By entering fully into the “mystery of Christ” (cf. Ephesians 3:1-21) as taught by these exercises, the exercitant’s soul will share in the wonder of the Incarnation, the redemptive power of the Cross, and the glory of the Resurrection.
Each of the four weeks has a particular spiritual purpose, emphasizing certain themes with a view to leading the soul to a concrete resolution. Let’s briefly review each of the weeks and their respective spiritual themes, purposes, points, and practices.
First Week:
Restoration of the Soul to God
The main theme of the first week is the fundamental reorientation of the heart away from any attachment to sin, and thereby spiritual death, and towards Jesus Christ. In a sense, its purpose is to “reform what is deformed” in the soul, purging away the things that are not given completely over to God.
The main points in the first Week are as follows:
• God in His infinite love has created us with a purpose: to praise, reverence, and serve Him and thus behold Him in Heaven for eternity.
• The tragedy of sin runs contrary to God’s loving purpose for our lives. By our own thoughts, words, and deeds we are deserving of His punishment.
• In His loving mercy, however, God calls us now to repent of our sins, to give ourselves entirely to Him by ordering our lives according to His will, and to live in the freedom of the Gospel.
• We must consider what we have done in the past for Christ, what we are now doing for Christ, and what we ought to do in the future for Christ.
The exercises practiced during this period are meditations on “Sin and Its Punishments,” “Death,” “Particular Judgment,” and “Venial Sin.”
One practice in particular which is emphasized throughout the Exercises is the “Examen (or Examination) of Conscience,” which is described further in this booklet. These meditations, combined with the Examinations, help to lead us to leave behind all that is not of God so that we might more fully and radically give ourselves to God.
Second Week:
Knowledge, Love, and Imitation of Jesus Christ the King