Adventure in The Exercises

The word "exercise" used as a title for St. Ignatius of Loyola's spiritual methodology gives one the idea of challenge, rigor, and regimented repetition. While the outline for prayer and meditation does include those, it also has much more. It is, in fact, more of an adventure than anything.

The word 'discernment,' even for what is supposedly Ignatian-style discernment, is often used as a synonym for decision. But the two things could not be more different. Discernment in prayer is about relationship, and relationships are not problems that are resolved or issues that are decided, but entrances into mystery that cause us to stretch and grow. They are areas of tension and ambiguity, which inherently include discomfort exactly because of imprecision and indecision.


Thus adventure. The Exercises is about encounter; shedding everything non-essential that prevents encounter with God and initiation into the mystery of the Trinity, an encounter that can absorb me deeper and deeper and never be exhausted.

God's proposal to me during this novitiate has not been to solve the problem of the future or to reach a decision, but to embark on an adventure; to enter deeper into his mystery and discover myself more fully by sharing in my Creator's knowledge of me. 

When I begin contemplating the Gospel, I begin with a map and have some idea of where I want to go, but often I reach an unexpected fork in the road and have the opportunity to surrender to the Holy Spirit. I am the receiver of prayer, not the initiator; the follower on the adventure, not the leader. It has been a wonderful experience of learning to listen and follow.

It is a process of growing in knowledge and freedom: knowledge of myself and of God, of who he is creating me to be and how he is calling me to follow him; freedom of knowing God as the Master of creation and the One who draws all to fullness in himself.