Volume I, Treatise V, Chapter XXVI

The Fruit We Ought to Reap from the Spiritual Ever Cise

In the spiritual exercise we must chiefly propose to ourselves three things. The first is, to perform well our daily actions; since all our advancement and perfection, as I have already signified, depend upon this. For we must not imagine that these exercises are instituted for no other end than that we should remain eight or ten days in retirement, constantly employed in prayer. No! but they were instituted that we may accustom ourselves to make our prayer and examens well, to hear or say mass with fervour, to recite the divine office with devotion, to profit by our spiritual reading, and so of the rest. It is to excite ourselves by many acts, and thereby to contract a habit to perform them as we should do, that we lay aside for some time all other employments; and it is for the same end that St. Ignatius would have us, during the time of these exercises (which in the beginning he ordained to last for a month, and would have all made in the same order he there appoints), wherein all the particular examens are to be made upon the observance of those rules or additions we are to follow, and upon the faults we also commit therein:—And this is frequently recommended to us, as a thing he knew to be of such great importance and profit. But it is not in our spiritual exercises only, which are the soul of the rest, that we ought to benefit in this retreat; but the fruit thereof must extend itself to our exterior offices and employments, that we may procure help and succour to perform them better, and to observe all our rules for the future more punctually. This is the advantage we must derive from these exercises in our retreat, and regards not only the present time but chiefly the time to come; and it isby ourconduct after we have finished them, that we are to discern and judge the profit we have made by them.

The second thing we must propose to ourselves in the spiritual exercise or retreat, is to overcome ourselves, and to practise mortification for the defects and imperfections we are most subject to. So that every one ought to examine himself on the branch of duty he most frequently fails in—on that wherein he gives most frequent occasions of scandal and difficulty to his brethren; and must employ himself chiefly in correcting these. He will have performed the spiritual exercise with profit; because this is the chief end thereof. The title that St. Ignatius gives them marks this very expressly, because he calls them “< spiritual meditations, to overcome ourselves, and to direct our thoughts, and all the actions of our life to the service of God.” Wherefore, we must make it our business in this retirement so to reform ourselves, that, at the end of it, each one may find himself “quite changed into another man” (1 Kings 10:6), as Samuel said to Saul, or as St. Paul says, “into a perfect man.” (Ephesians 4:13) Now, it is amendment of our lives that will be the strongest proof of this change. Hence, if you loved hitherto to dissipate and divert yourselves, losing your time in frivolous conversations, it must appear that now you love silence and retirement; if hitherto you love your own ease, it must appear that now you seek nothing else but your greater mortification and penance; if hitherto you spoke harshly to your brethren, you must prove that now you speak to them with all imaginable sweetness; if hitherto you relented in the observance of your rules, and neglected little things, it must appear that now you are become faithful in the very least observances, and most submissive and exact in following punctually whatsoever is prescribed, and in applying yourselves so to your duty that, by G od’s assistance, you will not fall into any deliberate imperfec- - tion. See here what victory we ought to have gained over ourselves in this retreat; for, if we depart from it no better than we entered into it, and bring out with us all the imperfections and defects we carried in, to what purpose have we made it?

St. Ambrose mentions a circumstance we may very well here take notice of. He says, thata young man who was very much debauched had occasion to make a very long voyage, during which there was a complete reformation wrought in him. At his return to the city where he lived, he met in the street a person of his acquaintance of ill fame, with whom heretofore he had kept dishonest conversation; and having passed her without saluting her, she was hereat very much surprised, and thinking he did not know her, went to him and told him she was such 3 one. I see very well, says he, who you are; but I am no longer the same you knew me heretofore. For he was so changed that he was become quite another man. We ought to effect in ourselves a similar.reformation, that we may be able to say with the apostle: “TI live, but after such a manner that it is no more I that live, but Christ that lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) And this, says St. Ambrose, is that happy change of which the Saviour of the world speaks, when he says, “‘ whosoever will follow we, let him deny himself.” (Matthew 16:24) For, to renounce one’s self, says this holy father, is to change one’s self into another man, and to endeavour to be no more the same we were wont to be. When St. Francis Borgia accompanied the corpse of the Empress Isabella to Granada, God did him the favour so to convince him of the vanities of this world, by that constant spectacle of death he had always before his eyes, that at his return he affirmed, that the court appeared to him quite changed. The reason hereof was, that it was he himself was changed, when God had enlightened him. It is after this manner we should be changed; and this is the end of the spiritual exercises, if we make good use of those lights and graces, which, during them, God is accustomed to communicate to souls..

The third thing we must take notice of, and which is only a consequence of the second, is, the gaining of that virtue which is most necessary for us. Because we root out vices, only to plant virtues in their place: “And there are two means,” says Thomas-a-Kempis, “that chiefly help to our spiritual advancement: viz., violently to withdraw ourselves from what nature does viciously incline us unto, and fervently to set upon the gaining that virtue we stand most of all in need of” (1 Book, ch. xxv.); which is the thing in question. The directory also of the exercises, ° speaking of the conduct we ought to hold during the time of retreat, says, that we must not spend all the time of the first week in the practice of the first means; but it is sufficient to employ only two or three days, in order that there may be sufficient space left, wherein we may proceed to some other means that may elevate usto a higher degree of perfection. Amongst others that are marked us as the most proper for this effect, the chief is, to select one out of our rules, in which we think all per fection we can desire is contained; as for example, the rule that says, ‘‘As those that are of the world, love and earnestly seek after honours, esteem and reputation of men, so we must love and earnestly seek after the contrary.” Take to heart, during the time of your retirement, the gaining such a degree of humility, that all contempts, affronts, injuries, and false accusa-

tions may give you as much joy, as honour and praise give to

worldlings. And thus raising yourselves above the temptations

men ordinarily have of desiring to be esteemed; one for his

learning, and another for the dignity of his employment; you

will surmount what is a very great obstacle to your spiritual

advancement. At another time propose to yourself the obser-

vance of the rule, which requires of us to be always “advancing

ourselves in the service of God, purely to please him out of love

of him; and rather through a grateful acknowledgment of his

benefits, whereby he has prevented us, than through fear of

punishment or hope of reward.” Endeavour to purify your intention, that you seek your own interest in nothing, either

little or great, in things temporal or eternal; but that in the one

and the other you seek nothing but only the will and glory of God,

so that you come at last even to forget yourself. At another

time apply yourself to obtain a perfect conformity to the will of | God in all things, that whatsoever may happen to you, or from

whatsoever persons, you must still receive all as coming from

his divine hand. Lastly, whatsoever virtue and perfection you

shall propose to yourself to get in your retreat (for we may

equally cast our eyes upon all, and see which we stand most in

need of), you must never leave off till you have accomplished

your object.

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