This is the time for resolutions to accomplish great things in the year ahead, so it’s a good time to think about what the word magis means. Magis is one of the more mysterious Ignatian terms. It’s a Latin word meaning “the greater, the excellent, the best,” as the tagline for the masthead for this [...]
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Something to think about | Much of the reflection in the Exercises is geared to an effort to share the vision of Jesus and understand what he was and is trying to do in the world and its history. The meditations are very clear in their implication that the task that Jesus received from God [...]
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I’d like to propose a juxtaposition of two ideas that emerge from the Spiritual Exercises: practice and love. Without getting into too much insider baseball on how Ignatius’ text emphasizes these themes, let me suggest a brief thought exercise that you might take into prayer. 1. We learn anything by practicing: the piano, soccer, algebra. [...]
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If you would like to make a retreat, but can’t get away for a weekend at a Jesuit retreat house, take a look at the online retreats offered by the team at Creighton Online Ministries. You can choose from among retreats by Larry Gillick, SJ, Dennis Hamm, SJ, Jim Kubicki, SJ, Rob Kroll, SJ, and [...]
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The Spiritual Exercises were originally given in a month-long retreat of about 30 days. Today, the most common way to make the Exercises is a nine-month program usually called “The Exercises in Daily Life.” One leader of these is Judge Franciso Firmat of the Orange County (California) Superior Court. He has a a ministry of [...]
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Something to think about | “For Ignatius, and preeminently in the Spiritual Exercises, something is always happening. Most important, it is of ultimate significance, for myself, for others, for the whole human race. What is happening is the drama of God’s continuing creation of all reality and God’s undying love for me, fully shown forth [...]
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A friend sent me the link to a series of excellent “conversations” about Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises led by Howard Gray, SJ, an esteemed theologian and spiritual director. They are eight talks at John Carroll University several years ago. They focus on modern writers, most of them Jesuits, who have interpreted the Spiritual Exercises [...]
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The Call of the King is a meditation in the Spiritual Exercises that invites us to join Christ in his work of healing the world. Christ is a king leading an army, but he’s a leader who works alongside his troops. He says, “I want to overcome all diseases, all poverty, all ignorance, all oppression [...]
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Something to think about | The purpose of the Exercises is both freedom from inordinate attachment and union with God and God’s way. . . Facing “disordered affections” and “ordering one’s life with God at the center” are two sides of the reality, much like a coin. The energy absorbed in compulsive, obsessive, disordered, fixated [...]
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During this week of Pentecost I have been thinking about the Church as an institution, a community launched by Christ and gifted with the Holy Spirit. Our beginning, we profess, is through God’s own activity, and our continuing life is through grace. This was certainly Ignatius’ understanding, a point underscored by Michael Buckley in a [...]
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