> > Second Week Of The Spiritual Exercises -- Chapters 13 & 14 Chapter 10 and 11 click here Chapters 12 click here Chapters 13 and 14 stay here Complete section Chapters 10 through 14 in a longer download click here.
> C hapter T hirteen First Phases In The Decision-Making Process Prayer Unit 19 Three Kinds Of Humility Where We Are Going And Why If you gave your directee Prayer Unit 18 to pray over, it was probably because of one or more of the following: He was not yet working on the preliminaries of a decision; He did not judge that there was any need to make a decision and he required something to surface that need if it were really there; He felt the need to make some decision for Christ but was unclear as to the questions that he needed to look at; You were following this manual too slavishly; You wanted him to have a good experience of discerning a decision so that he would understand, more deeply and from experience, what the Exercises are about so that he will be able to use them in his daily life later. We are now moving or continuing to move in the decision-making process. If your directee has arrived at this point either because he was already working on the preliminaries of the decision before now or because of Prayer Unit 18, some of the following comments may be very useful. As prayer guide you will need to read and refer to Chapter 27, "Decision-Making And The Five Steps: Theory -- Process -- Procedures." Helpful Questions On Facilitating A Directee's Readiness To Discern A Choice On clarifying the general problem -- What do you do when the context or general problem that requires some solution or decision is so confused that the precise issue seems buried with a wealth of secondary issues? First, realize that confusion often happens when significant material that requires decision-making begins to surface. Then, begin to engage your directee in a conversation which helps him talk out the matter in order to isolate the primary issues from the secondary issues. If your directee needs to do this at home, then you might encourage him to do this during a couple of prayer periods in the coming week. One way of doing this would be to have him generate on paper all the possibilities that occur to him and then, later after a little prayerful reflection, strike out what appear to be secondary or non-essential. What do you do when you hear a what-should-I-do-about-something question, such as: "How should I engage more effectively in political life?" ... or ... "What studies should I take?" ... or ... "I need to grow in the art of listening and handling meetings. What's the next step?" Explore whether any concrete possibilities have been emerging. Brainstorm together the possibilities and start to generate these on paper. Then suggest that he continue this at home with some significant persons and bring it to prayer. Perhaps he will have to investigate more facts before any key issues can be determined for the possibility of discernment! On prioritizing the issues involved -- What do you do when the context contains several essential issues? Help your directee prioritize the issues by trying to isolate the key issue that either contains the other key issues or comes logically or chronologically prior to the others. On the other hand, if several key issues seem to have equal importance, then suggest that your directee line them up in order of preference. If there appear to be too many items that need decision-making, then have him prioritize and choose the first three. On keeping an eye on consistency and realism -- What do you do when the material your directee brings forward for decision-making does not seem to harmonize with what you have perceived to be emerging in the past couple of months? Discuss this with your directee. Perhaps you will have to suggest that he spend another week trying to discover the proper matter for decision-making at this time of the Exercises journey. Ultimately, however, you must go with the prayerful perceptions of your directee. Hopefully the material for decision-making that emerges: a) Has something to do with his present state of life; b) Has emerged out of his prayer; c) Is consistent with the graces he has already received; d) Is in the realm of the possible; e) Is focused on the cooperation with others in harmony with God's designs. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When no significant material has surfaced -- What do you do when no significant issue for decision-making has surfaced from your directee's prayer? Suggest that he pray for enlightenment on this matter. He can return to the prayer material of the last prayer unit. On the other hand, he could move to the next prayer unit and spend some time within the prayer exercises themselves investigating where and how he is called to be a better Christian. You could give him the directions on the Reformation of Life contained in notation [189]. You could ask him to update the material with such topics as: relationships in and outside the family, work, ministry, political involvements, reading, recreation, gifts, money, stewardship, prayer-life, television watching, use of periodicals, possessions, lifestyle, volunteer work, parish involvement, etc. Perhaps you could give him the Guidelines for Distributing Alms [337] and ask him to apply the principles contained in them to some of the above topics. In other words, you would be asking him to develop and make practical a way of life for the near future.
> Features Of Prayer Unit 19 Wedding Feast of Cana; Cure of Centurion's Servant; Healing of the Woman with a Hemorrhage; The Three Kinds of Humility. With this unit, you could include some of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
> As you introduce Prayer Unit 19, give your directee the Exercises text on the Three Kinds of Humility. Suggest that he spend one prayer exercise on this in the f) period during the week and that "... in the next interview we'll discuss this together." On the other hand, if you sense that it would be more helpful, say a few words of introduction about the Three Kinds of Humility. Remember the following points which are explained more fully in Chapter 26: a) They are not steps on the ladder of perfection. b) They are moments of response. Remember the First Kind is a very generous way of responding -- for some, it means martyrdom. c) They will help to judge your directee's level of freedom and the deeper desires of his heart now in the present. You might want to choose alternate scripture texts on Jesus' public life that are more suited to the needs of your directee at this time. Generally whenever you make adaptations, choose concrete events rather than discourses or parables so that your directee will be able to use Gospel Contemplation.(16) If you do make shifts in the prayer pattern, continue to value the use and need for Repetition. Incorporate the decision-making step or phase that your directee needs at this point. Chapter 27 explains the Five Steps and shows how to incorporate them into the decision-making process. Listening To Prayer Unit 19 After your directee has done Prayer Unit 19, you will listening for the experience, desires and understanding emerging from his prayer on the Three Kinds of Humility with the Triple Colloquy. What level of freedom has he received? In theory, a directee is ready to make the actual decision and complete the Election when his affectivity is in harmony with the Third Class of Persons and the Second Kind of Humility. A gauge of a directee's interior freedom is the presence of a real desire for the Third Kind of Humility. However, in practice, it is only in the actual working through of the decision-making process and the actual making of a choice that the experience of Spiritual Freedom is received. How is your directee relating to Jesus in the Gospel Contemplations? Over the past weeks has there been any significant way that his relationship with Jesus has shifted: From less human to more human? ... From less closeness to greater closeness? ... From greater enthusiasm in following Jesus to less enthusiasm? ... From Desolation to Consolation? ... From Counterfeit Consolation to true Consolation [316], [331]-[334]? ... From a hectic quality to a quiet quality? ... From a drop of water on stone to a drop on a sponge [335]? If you have noticed such a change in his experience, this may have some bearing on the decision-making process. C hapter F ourteen Prayer Units 20-22 Observations On Second Set Of Guidelines For Discerning Spirits Where We Are Going And Why By this point I am taking for granted that you are in the heart of the Second Week of the Exercises. Your directee is praying over the mysteries of the public life and mission of Jesus. He is using Gospel Contemplation while, at the same time, incorporating some aspect(s) of the decision-making process. Also I am taking for granted that the need for `interpretation' (discussed in Chapter Eleven) of what is going on in the Gospel Contemplations is lessening but that the need for discernment (in the strict sense) is increasing. Hopefully your directee is moving ahead in Consolation and you are allowing his Creator to deal directly with him [15] as you are discerning that the Consolation remains authentic. Also, I am taking for granted that your directee may be needing the Second Set of Guidelines for Discerning Spirits around this time. Because the path for each directee becomes unique with so many variables in this part of the Exercises journey, a running commentary, if it is to stay true to the dynamisms of the Exercises, cannot describe what is needed in your unique circumstances. Therefore, the materials offered in this running commentary will be far less detailed and far less programmatic than they have been. You may need to consult Part B, Sections III and IV of this manual, particularly Chapters 26 through 29, far more now perhaps than you have already done. The Many Faces Of Counterfeit Consolation The first face is really the Incipient Desolation described earlier in Chapter Twelve. As mentioned before, the directee may seem to be happy enough with this Incipient Desolation. He still has an ability to pray and there is a felt presence of God; but, left to its own dynamic, there will likely be a growing arduousness, distancing, or boredom within the prayer. For example: A directee is pleasantly involved with learning lessons when he should have been involved in the story; or Jesus walks away from the directee in the prayer exercise; or The directee walks away from Jesus in the prayer exercise; or Jesus turns his back on him. The second face would more likely fit notation [331]. There is an ability to pray and the directee experiences God as present. The prayer is free-flowing enough and unaffected, BUT: There is no evident relationship with Jesus; and/or It seems to be going nowhere. The prayer guide's inner reaction is probably one of being bored. A prayer guide feels like saying, "So what! Why are you telling me this?" The third face is the one designated in notations [331]-[334]. This face is manifested more frequently when a generous directee is filled with a sincere enthusiasm and desires to follow God's call. It manifests itself when he is making decisions. There is an ability to pray with a felt presence of God. The directee experiences intimacy with Jesus. The prayer is free-flowing enough and it is sincere, BUT there are some dissonances: There is a certain frenetic quality that is part of it [335], like a drop of water on stone rather than on a sponge; and/or It leads to something distracting or less good. For example, as the directee is beginning to accept an emerging decision [332] while, at the same time experiencing a heart full of love for God, he is being led to plan without God; and/or In time, it weakens the soul -- headaches, tension, irritability in his daily public world at home and at work between the times of the prayer exercises [334]. With respect to these three faces, the Second Set of Guidelines for Discerning Spirits instructs a prayer guide to help her directee to: 1. Notice the deceits that are emerging in the experience. 2. Analyze the beginning, middle and end; that is, how they began and how they developed to the point where he recognized the Deception. (Usually the Deception is connected with his own goodness, exaggerated gifts or unwitting weakness.) 3. Understand the pattern of the temptation. 4. Make a written journal entry about his understanding of this pattern. 5. Exercise watchfulness because this same temptation will often follow a similar pattern in the future. It is often advisable for you to wait until the movement becomes a little more evident as when the temptation rears its ugly head or is detectable by "the serpent's tail." Here are two examples: In one prayer exercise, a directee is filled with gratitude and desire to serve God in a simple lifestyle and feels very free that this is where he is being led. Then after several other prayer exercises, he ends by planning how he can convince others how worthwhile this is. Jesus is no longer in his prayer. The directee shows signs of over-enthusiasm. The prayer guide notices that there has been a movement in her directee that started -- the beginning -- with a desire to be rejected with Jesus. In conjunction with this movement, he was led -- the middle -- during one of the Gospel Contemplations, to include something that he thought would be more desirable. Two days later -- the end -- he became upset in a significant way about being misunderstood at the office [333]! A fourth face of Counterfeit Consolation [336] takes place almost immediately after a direct Consolation from God, i.e., Consolation Without Cause. This experience will often show effects similar to the other counterfeit forms above. Sometimes it is accompanied by a type of loving anxiety, being upset or distraught. This kind of "upsetness" is different in quality from the anxiety of Desolation, described in notations [315] and [317], and is consistent with a stance of generous love. Yet it is disharmonious with the direct experience of God's Consolation that has just happened.(17) The advice for the prayer guide is outlined in notation [336]. It is important to distinguish the actual thoughts of the authentic direct Consolation during the moment it was being received from the interpretation after it was just received in the time of the Afterglow. Therefore she has to help her directee distinguish between: a) Thoughts during the actual receiving of the Consolation Without Cause; and b) Thoughts and interpretations immediately after the actual receiving of the Consolation Without Cause. Thus, the prayer guide is to help the directee distinguish what was actually given from what he immediately interpreted after the reception of this Consolation. Introducing Prayer Units 20 And 21 When you introduce the next prayer units, continue to incorporate the decision-making step(s) or phase(s) that your directee needs at the time.
> Features Of Prayer Unit 20 The Three Kinds of Humility; Jesus Confronts the Pharisees; Jesus Confronts the Temple Marketeers. With this unit, you could include some of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
> Features Of Prayer Unit 21 Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand; Jesus Walks on the Water; Jesus is Transfigured. With this unit, you could include some of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
> Approaching The End Of The Second Week Thus far you have been guiding your directee through the Second Week and are approaching the mysteries of Jesus' public life and mission which are directly connected to his passion and death (Prayer Unit 22). By going to the home of Mary and Martha and to Lazarus' committal services, Jesus intentionally decides to let himself be caught by the religious leaders; he signs his own death warrant. Further, these three passages are filled with symbolic meaning. In the raising of Lazarus, the full passover mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus is revealed. With the anointing at Bethany, Jesus is being prepared for his own burial. The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem symbolizes the underlying meaning of his mission to the people. Read Chapter Fifteen to help you reflect upon your directee's readiness for the Third Week of the Exercises. If you judge that your directee is not ready for the Third Week, you may want to spend more time on the mysteries of the public life of Jesus which come prior to those in Prayer Unit 22.
> Features Of Prayer Unit 22 Raising of Lazarus; Supper at Bethany and the Anointing; Entrance into Jerusalem. With this unit, you could include some of the Five Steps in the decision-making process.
Chapter 10 and 11 click here Chapters 12 click here Chapters 13 and 14 stay here Complete section Chapters 10 through 14 in a longer download click here. Endnotes For The Second Week 1. William A. Barry, S.J., Finding God In All Things: A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1991). Chapter 5, "God's Dream for Our World" (p.66ff), is a good, easy-to-read explanation of the Kingdom Exercises as myth and is very helpful in explaining the role of the Kingdom Exercise in relationship to the Second Week. Barry deals with the use of the Kingdom Exercise with the classic approach which encourages the directee to enter into Ignatius' myth of the King. 2. This creative approach of placing the Kingdom Exercise after the exercises on the early life of Jesus was first suggested to me by John English, S.J., for the "ad hoc" situation of giving the Exercises to individuals as part of a large-group, training program in the early 1980s. We wanted to harmonize the prayer material with the church calendar. As we were moving into the Christmas season, we discovered that many directees needed to spend more time on healing issues (surfaced during the First Week) and were not ready for the Kingdom Exercise. But they were able to deal with these healing issues with the Gospel Contemplations which were associated with the Nativity season. 3. In Roman, Anglican, and Orthodox theology, Mary is the mother of that person who is God. 4. The decision-making process within the Exercises is called the Election which means "choice" [175]. The model used by Ignatius is based on a choice of a state of life involving a permanent commitment -- marriage, some form of religious calling such as the priesthood. In other words, Ignatius uses the example of a directee's determining of a life-calling as the context for developing the principles for the decision-making process. He seems to view everything else as being `Reformation of Life'[189]. A good, sound, well-discerned Election can be referred to as a "correct and good choice" (as in Puhl's translation). A correct choice is not necessarily a successful choice in the future. It implies that, given the data the directee has while in the process of discerning, his choice was the most loving and spiritually free choice he could have made at the time. 5. A very useful way of explaining Gospel Contemplation is in my revised Orientations, Vol. 1, pp.37-39. However, I have discovered that some people take its encouragement for passivity too literally. 6. Occasionally during the Exercises journey, particularly when a directee is not involved in discerning a significant decision, Gospel Contemplation, as a method of prayer, may not fit his needs at this time in his life. The methods of the Exercises are made for the person, not the person for the methods of the Exercises. Like other created things, the prayer methods of the Exercises must be used inasmuch as they help, and not used inasmuch as they hinder our praise, reverence and service of God [23]. 7. Not too long ago (certainly in the first half of this century), this would not have been considered good advice. Distractions were considered an imperfection and signs of Inordinate Affections because they took the directee's total attention away from God. It was believed that, in prayer, the conscious mind had to be riveted consciously on a God who was more transcendent than immanent. 8. Consult the section, "The Healing Connection" in Chapter 33 of this manual, p.520ff. 9. John F. Wickham's article, "Ignatian Contemplation Today," in The Way Supplement 34 (Autumn 1978), shows that the fruit of Gospel Contemplation for the contemporary directee often does not manifest itself in a societal way as it did in the time of Ignatius. This article has been reprinted more recently in The Way of Ignatius Loyola (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1991), edited by Philip Sheldrake, S.J., p.145ff. 10. The issue here deals with Desolation, whether evident (as described in notations [315] and [317]) or less apparent. Also, the answer assumes that your directee has already used Gospel Contemplation well; this means that he has been able to allow the story to touch his real self. The assumption is that he is no longer in the phase of learning how to use this method. 11. Together is key to everything on the Exercises journey. You are not a "guru" with the magical, intuitive answer. The dynamic of the Exercises implies that you and your directee work together. The directee knows the Grace being prayed for and thus has the final say as to what may appropriately help him be disposed for it. 12. In this manual consult the Introduction to Part A; and Chapter 30, "Different Perspectives In Understanding And Using The Exercises," especially pp.461-466. 13. The habitual manner in which the directee relates to God and avoids the deepening of this relationship can become more subtle as the Exercises journey progresses. The Hidden Disordered Tendencies, illumined by the Third Exercise of the First Week, become more elusive in the "riches" of the Two Standards and the Temptation Under the Guise of Light during the decision-making process. Perhaps you have been able to note with your directee some relationship between the way he has got into trouble in doing the prayer exercises and the ways he is likely to get into trouble in his day-to-day living outside the prayer exercises and after the Exercises journey. For illustrative cases and a more explicit discussion of this point, consult Chapter 29, section C. Everyone has a different capacity and need for self-awareness and the particular correlation between the manner of handling the prayer exercises and the manner of handling life may be too subtle for your directee at this point. 14. What would be a distillation that would fit your directee's culture? 15. When resistance to explicit decision-making occurs, you should monitor your own resistance to this. Are you discovering in your directee what you resist for yourself? 16. Don't be misled by the Second-Week notation [161] which proposes both the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus' Preaching in the Temple for the directee's prayer exercises. The technique of Gospel Contemplation is intended here, too! The directee is to pray these by being present with Jesus as Jesus is teaching or preaching and not succumb to the temptation of turning the exercise into an analysis of each beatitude. 17. Mary, before the empty tomb (Jn 20:11), is a good example of the kind of "upsetness" that comes from a heart-filled generosity and love. She cannot understand what has happened. Here it is a question of misinterpretation, not having the facts. Her distress does not flow from disordered affectivity the way Desolation does. She is desolate, but not in Desolation. Go to Table Of Contents Of Orientations Volume 2