The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola in Daily Life
The 19th Annotation
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Retreat Directors of these retreats, which are experiences of the complete Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, include Jesuits and lay people, partners in this ministry of The Exercises.
Weekend retreats have given many a taste of the Spiritual Exercises of
St. Ignatius. Some desire to deepen this experience by committing
themselves to the journey of the entire Exercises, either
in their 30-day format or extended over the course of some months.
This latter kind of retreat is sometimes called “a retreat in daily life” or, in the language of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a 19th Annotation retreat. It is a way of making a retreat during the course of ordinary living without having to forego, for a time, one’s commitments to work and family.
St. Ignatius of Loyola went through a conversion of heart during convalescence
from a serious battle wound and a subsequent year, blessed with transforming
mystical experiences, in seclusion at Manresa in Spain. Through
all that time, he recorded the pattern of his prayer, gradually developing
a text—the Spiritual Exercises—to guide others,
enabling them, with the Spirit’s grace, to have similar experiences
of God in prayer.
The Exercises are a pattern of considerations, meditations,
examens, contemplations and reflections. Their aim is to free
the person who makes them from any attachment that leads away from
God, so that the person can then more freely seek and follow God’s
will for him or herself.
The Rules for the Discernment of Spirits provide a guide for movement through these weeks with understanding of and sensitivity to the individual heart and the action of God’s Spirit.
When the Exercises are done completely, the retreatant learns to discern and to follow the voice of God and to separate it from the other voices that demand our attention. St. Ignatius called this being “contemplative in action” or “finding God in all things.” The retreatant discovers an increase in the ability to hear the call of Jesus and in the desire to follow him in all the dimensions of daily life.
The Spiritual Exercises can be made in many ways. Only
two, both guided individually by a director, are experiences of the
entire Exercises. One, the closed 30-day retreat, calls for four to
five hours of contemplation each day and a daily meeting with the director.
The other calls for an hour and a half each day in prayer over a period
of several months and a weekly meeting with the director. In either
format, the retreatant shares his or her experience in prayer with
the director, who then discerns how to guide the retreatant to the
next step in the Exercises.
This second kind of retreat was designed by St. Ignatius for people who “were busy and occupied with the affairs of daily life” (19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises). Such people, though unable to take a month off for a closed retreat, could give themselves to the Exercises each day and were willing to do so generously and faithfully.
Many people who have made this kind of Ignatian retreat, the 19th Annotation, have attested to its powerful influence to give direction to their lives and to help them grow in faith, in knowledge and love of the person of Jesus Christ, and in freedom to follow the Lord’s invitation in and for their lives.
If you are interested in a retreat in daily life, please email Fr. Jim Flynn, S.J. or call him at 650-917-4022 for more information, or contact any of the Jesuits on our pastoral staff.
The retreatant might discern an appropriate stipend in dialogue with his or her director and in keeping with the retreatant’s means. We are always grateful for donations that help to sustain our ministries.