THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

By John Dorow

Background

The Spiritual Exercises were written by St. Ignatius of Loyola from 1522-1524. They are a collection of prayers, meditations, and things that will help the retreatant get closer to God. The Spiritual Exercises are split into four parts. Originally, the retreat would be four weeks long (one element per week), but there are many variations of it. The most popular variation is the thirty week retreat where each week counts for a day. The basic understanding in the Spiritual Exercises is to build a better relationship with God.

St. Mary of the Assumption’s Chapel at St. Ignatius High School has a room that represents each element of the Spiritual Exercises. The rooms include visual aids and biblical references. I have taken pictures of these visual aids and biblical references and that is the basis of my project. Also, I will present questions to think about that relate to the week of the Spiritual Exercises.

Week 1

Week 1 ContinuedThe theme of week one is:

I am a sinner, but I am a loved sinner.So, some thoughts to think about are:• What have I done that might’ve offended God?• What have I done that might’ve offended someone

else?• What could I do to make up for something that I have

done that might’ve hurt God or others?• No matter what, God will always love me.The biblical story in the chapel is of the prodigal son. This represents the first week well, I think, because when the son came back to his father after sinning against him, the father still loved him. This is like when we sin against God and he still loves us

Week 2

Week 2 ContinuedThe theme for the second week of the Spiritual Exercises is:

The Life and Ministry of JesusSome thoughts to think about on this topic include:• What are some things that Jesus did religiously in his

everyday life that we should do, as Christians?• What can I do like Jesus to make me a better person?• Am I being the most faithful to Jesus that I can be?The biblical passage relating to week 2 is the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be Jesus’ apostles and to be fishers of men. This is good to think about for this week because the apostles immediately came without hesitation, which is what we should do when Jesus calls us to be his followers.

Week 3

Week 3 ContinuedThe main idea of the third week is:

The Passion and the Death of JesusSome thoughts to think about:• How can one person give up his life for people he’s

never met?• Could I ever even consider doing that for someone else?• Am I worthy of having someone as amazing as Jesus lay

down his life for me?• Do I ever thank Jesus for what he did?• Am I ever as vicious as the Roman soldiers to anyone?The passage that relates to week three is the passion and death of Jesus. This is a good passage to think about on any retreat, since it is the basis of our religion.

Week 4

Week 4 ContinuedThe theme for the final week of the Spiritual Exercises is:

The resurrection of Jesus and Its EffectsSome thoughts on this subject:• Why would Jesus rise from the dead since he was already in

Heaven?• Did Jesus really build Heaven in three days when he was dead?• If you saw Jesus who died three days earlier, say he was Jesus,

would you believe him?• We have to trust our faith go against science on this subject. Our

faith tells us that he did rise from the dead, and we, as Christians, believe that. However, science tells us that it is impossible for someone to do that after being dead for three days and having no medical procedures done to him.

The bible passage for this week is the parable of the mustard seed. It says that Heaven is like a mustard seed because it started from something small then grew to something huge. This is fitting because it explains Heaven after Jesus’s resurrection.