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Overview and Introduction Identity There are many skills and various types of knowledge that a director has to have in giving spiritual direction or in directing an eight-day or thirty-day retreat of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. This book cannot adequately train a person to be a director of The Spiritual Exercises ; but it can be a great resource, especially since it is designed to help the director, as director. Many things are coming out these days on The Spiritual Exercises, but they do not especially help the director. They go along with the opinion of a few (even in high places!) that almost anyone can give The Spiritual Exercises. This is not true.
We hope to give a good understanding of the content, the structure, and
the dynamics of The Spiritual Exercises.
We will give some general indications of the direction of the retreat of
The
Spiritual Exercises and discuss ways to understanding its
dynamics in terms of what we like to speak of as Identity
A chart at this chapter’s end called “The Approximate Duration of The
Spiritual Exercises” alerts one to the fact that the time
spent on any one part or dynamic corresponds to the need of the retreatant.
The general sweep of The Spiritual Exercises
gives a classical description of what happens when God enters into the
life of the human person. Do things always happen that way?
No, they do not. Do they generally happen that way? Yes, they
do.
The Spiritual Exercises are
structured this way: Purification Some people consider the first movement to be outside of the retreat, prior to coming to the retreat. It does not matter as long as there are three or four days on God's personal love for this individual and then a consideration of The Principle and Foundation [23]. When one comes into the First Week of the Exercises proper, the Week given to purification, that Week of purification may take five days more or less. The Weeks of the Exercises are not seven-day weeks, but they are "seasons of soul." The “week” is a metaphor. After taking three or four days on God's personal love, one needs about five days for the First Week, the material of sin and sinfulness, so that the person knows himself or herself as forgiven, redeemed, and loved sinner. Generally, there would be nine days in the First Week. The tenth day is a day of repose. The day of repose (often Day 10) is an integral part day of the retreat. It is a day when one does not carry on the four or five hours of prayer that are normally part of a regular retreat. It is a day of repose on which people might go shopping, visit with friends, go for a walk or a swim or some other relaxing activity. It does not mean that retreatants do not pray on that day. They do. They might pray a half hour in the morning and half hour in the evening, but the day of repose is a break from the intense prayer of the previous nine days. In the Second Week of the Exercises we come into the illumination phase of our life with God. The Second Week of the Exercises is generally the longest of all the Four Weeks. It is ten days, perhaps even eleven days. The reason is that there is a good deal of work to be done in the Second Week. It is a week of illumination, and that means prayer over the life of Jesus. One prays over Jesus walking on the water, over Jesus saying, "Look at the lilies of the field, why are you so anxious... Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these...look at the sparrows of the air..." The Second Week includes the whole area of discernment and how to make decisions. ...we call Spiritual Exercises every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all inordinate attachments, and after their removal, of seeking and finding the will of God in the disposition of our life for the salvation of our soul. [1]One is contemplating the events in the life of Christ, looking at the various ways to make decisions, and observing the times when good decisions can be made. These are all careful instruction for apostolic living. The Second Week is a long week. It reminds us again that a Week is not seven days in The Spiritual Exercises. Here is a "week" of ten days, or perhaps eleven days. This Second Week is followed by another day of repose, a time to back off from the intensity of the prayer. This second day of repose would be about Day Twenty-one of the retreat. After the First Week of purification and the Second Week of illumination, we come to the Third Week, in which the person is praying over the Passion of Our Lord. It is a week of confirmation about the decisions that have been made in the Second Week. These decisions about one's life and any other important decision will cause a person some suffering, some pain. We sometimes think that something is wrong if I am suffering, if I am in pain. That is not always so. If I make some important, serious decisions, and if I make them well, I will be in some pain, some suffering. The praying over the Passion in the Third Week, that week of confirmation, shows me the example of Jesus. It says, here is a splendid man, a splendid person, a God-Person, Who made some important decisions and suffered. There is nothing wrong with suffering or pain, nothing morally wrong. It just hurts. We are not saying suffering and pain are good in themselves by any means. There is nothing wrong with pain and suffering when it is a consequence of making decisions and following them through. The Third Week helps me to be confirmed in my decisions. A person may think, "Yes, I am right, even though this is difficult, and I do not like it much. My decision is correct." We call that confirmation in suffering the Third Week. The Third Week might last four or five days. Remember, the length of the time spent in any given Week is a judgment made between the director and the directee in the retreat. The retreat is guided by mutual conversation. Then we pass into the Fourth Week, the week of praying over the Resurrection. It is a time of union. It is sometimes known as confirmation in joy. Remember: 
illumination confirmation
union. Some people question whether there should be a day of repose between the Third and Fourth Weeks. Some directors like to give a whole day of repose there; some only give a half day, some give none, some give two half days. It is a very delicate time in the retreat and a very delicate time for the retreatant. The timing is always dependent on the discernment between the director and directee. Remember this is a directed retreat. The difference between a directed retreat and a retreat where someone preaches to fifty people is rather like the difference between a suit off the rack and a tailor-made suit. In the directed retreat the retreat comes out of the dialog between the director and the retreatant.
When one is giving an Annotation [19] retreat, the days allotted to each
theme in the 30-day retreat will vary according to the director and directee’s
discretion and discernment.
Identity
Let us consider the dynamics of the retreat. You may find it helpful to
refer to the diagram at the end of this chapter: Identity It is important to note that the director in a directed retreat does not make decisions for the person making the retreat. The director does not make life decisions for them, does not get into their agenda or their content. The director directs the process of the retreat, not the content. The director steers away, very diligently, from making decisions for the retreatant. Ignatius says, . . . the director of the Exercises, as a balance at equilibrium, without leaning to one side or the other, should permit the Creator to deal directly with the creature, and the creature directly with His Creator and Lord. [15]The director keeps out of that line of fire. The director is like a cheerleader, a facilitator, always asking, "Have you looked at this... have you looked at that...maybe you need to consider this... what happened when you did that?" The director does not make the retreatant's decisions.
A retreat is a time to stop telling yourself your own story. Since
the day you were born, your mother, father, maybe the teachers at school,
the priests, readings, homilies in the liturgies, the policeman on the
corner, everybody, without your even asking, will tell you who you are
and what you should be. They will tell you your story. Before long
a person begins to believe these stories. Unknowingly we say, "This is
my story. This is who I am." A retreat, especially a directed
retreat, is a time to stop telling yourself your own story and to go through
this process of Identity Only God knows your true story. Do not let anyone ever tell you the story of who you are and what your identity is. God knows your identity. God gave it to you. Listen to your story only from God. We get our identity, who we are as a faith-grace person, in the presence of the Word of God, the listening presence to the Word of God. It is true our mother and father tell us about God and that is part of the "word;” and our aunts and our uncles tell us, and we go to school and the Sisters tell us, or we have Bible-study classes, or a picture book that tries to tell us our story. All those early experiences come into it. Then one day we say, " This is who I really am before God. I believe now, not because my mother does, or my father, or my family, but I believe."
It is an important time when one understands his or her story from God's
perspective. It is as if God enters into the person's life and says,
"Listen" This is not a whispering in the ear. It is a realization
coming from one’ s presence to the Word of God. It is a realization
of God's breaking into one's life This is vocation, a calling. Identity The process begins with identity: Who am I as a faith-grace person? Then comes vocation, a calling. When we speak of "vocation," we are not necessarily talking about religious vocation or vocation to the priesthood. God calls everyone to holiness. He says, "You, Come. Come here." When God calls, God often in Scripture symbolizes the call by changing the person's name: Abram becomes Abraham; Saul becomes Paul; Simon Bar-Jona becomes Cephas, the Rock. There is a change in name. God calls us by our name. He says in Isaiah 43, "I have called you by your name, you are mine." Our response is, "Here I am. Send me."
To follow that call we may have to walk "through cities and towns and villages."
We are going around that heurisitic circle: Identity The notion of mission can profit from some explicit reflection. In the church of the Gesu of the Society of Jesus in Rome is a marvelous picture of St. Francis Xavier kneeling at the feet of St. Ignatius. Ignatius is pointing off to the far reaches of the Indies and saying, "Go and set everything on fire." Ite incendite et flammate omnia . Notice it is in the plural. Ignatius is saying it to Francis and to the Holy Spirit. That makes great art: Go and set everything on fire! Set everything on fire. It is great art, but it is poor theology. Mission is never "Go"; mission is always "Come". God never says to anyone,"I am here. You, go there." God says, "I am here. Come here, of course.” Those persons who live under obedience or who are the superiors of those who live under obedience should take note of the theology of mission. Mission is never "Go"; it is always "Come". For true obedience there has to be a dialogue so that the one who gives the mission is content and the one who is missioned is content that he or she is going where he or she can find God and is called by God. One does not go where one cannot find God. Someone who is going to the inner city to bring God to the inner city had better not go. If they do not know that God has been there in the inner city for hundreds of years before they ever thought of it, they should not go. If they are going to meet God there, that is fine. The same is true for someone going to the foreign missions. If someone is going to the foreign missions to bring God to some God-forsaken place, he or she had better not go. There is no God-forsaken place! God has been there for hundreds and thousands of years before anyone ever got the idea of going there "on mission." The discerning dialogue between, for instance, a superior and a person-to-be-sent has to uncover the presence of God there; and both have to have possession of that grace, that ability to find that God is there for me.
In the process of Identity We learn things and gain insight as we go through this cycle several times. We begin to know and become aware of our Name of Grace. Who are you as a faith-grace person? What is your Name of Grace? All have a very specific, unique and individual Name of Grace. God has dealt with no one ever before, nor will God ever again deal with anyone, in precisely the same way that God deals with you. You have your very personal, individual, unique relationship with God. God calls you by your name. "I have called you by your name."[Isa 43:1] That name is not just Thomas, or George or Mary or Susan. That name is an ontological calling: being called into existence, into relationship with God. We have some very good examples of this First Name of Grace in history. St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, "Il Poverello, God's Little Poor Man," a very specific name of grace. That is what Francis was to reflect to the world: that aspect of God that could somehow be symbolized by Francis being Il Poverello, God's Little Poor Man. St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Way, is another very discernible name of grace. The Little Way was St. Therese's way, her name of grace, her identity and vocation and mission. A very interesting name of grace is that of St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, a priest of the Society of Jesus. He was not just a very brilliant man, but also a true genius. The Pope wanted him to become a cardinal. The Society of Jesus said, "No, we would rather not.” The Pope said, "Yes, yes" and the Society said, "No, we would rather not." Finally, the Pope put his foot down and said, "He will be a cardinal. The Church of God has not his like in learning. He will be a cardinal." And so it came to pass. He became a cardinal. As cardinal this very brilliant man, a man of genius, had a palace. He had a coach and four to take him around Rome. He ate good meals. He had butlers and housemaids and cooks; and he had quite an extensive personal library, which was quite unusual for that time. Books were enormously expensive; most of them still scribed. He moved in a certain echelon of society because he was a cardinal. Things that were fitting for St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine would not at all be fitting for Il Poverello, God's Little Poor Man. Robert and Francis knew that. Certain things did not fit their name of grace. Francis slept on a mat. Robert Bellarmine slept in a palace in a nice bed. Francis ate what he could beg. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine had good meals prepared for him. If it were today, Robert Cardinal Bellarmine would have a Cadillac; and Francis, God's Little Poor Man, would have a bicycle. It was not just with material things that their lives were very different. Bellarmine was a truly learned man of genius; Francis of Assisi, possibly could not read or write. He was certainly not a learned man. Certain things were fitting to their name of grace: the way they prayed, the way they thought, the way they talked and so on. They came to know their name of grace. Francis could tell immediately that the coach and four did not fit his name of grace. Bellarmine could say, "Yes, I have to have my library. That fits my Name of Grace. Both were great saints; yet both were very different. Different though their lives were, they were both great saints because they were faithful to their Name of Grace. To come to know one's Name of Grace is the purpose of the Ignatian retreat: To consider sin, God, Christ's life and my life, the Passion and the Resurrection, and what is going on with me. Why? Ignatian retreat is about apostolic spirituality. Apostolic spirituality is a spirituality of choice at the level of faith, a spirituality of decision-making. To make good decisions we have the process of discernment. Of course, it has become popular today to discern everything under the sun. Once Abraham Lincoln asked his Cabinet, "How many legs does a sheep have if you count the tail as a leg?" Many of the cabinet said, "Five. "Lincoln said, "No, four. Counting the tail as a leg does not make it a leg." In like manner there are many things going by the name of discernment that are not discernment. Discernment is a very specific process and has a very specific quality and attitude. Discernment is an experiential knowledge of self in the congruence of the object of choice with one's fundamental religious orientation. Let us unpack that phrase. It is an experiential knowledge of self. It is not head knowledge, a conceptual knowledge, but it is an experience, as the Scriptures mean knowledge when it says, “a man KNEW his wife." He had a deep experience of his wife. An experiential knowledge of self may be comparable to what a woman goes through when she is going to a dinner-dance. She opens her closet, looks the dresses over, and says, "It is that one." She knows. That is what fits. It reminds me of an ad I saw in Vogue one time. It said, "It is you and it is now." That is experiential knowledge. Thus we have an experiential knowledge of self in the congruence of the object of choice, whatever that object of choice is. Should I get a doctorate in Archaeology? Am I too active or too passive in prayer? Should I move in with my mother or get my own apartment? Whatever the choice to be made is, it must be congruent with my fundamental religious orientation. My fundamental religious orientation is my Name of Grace. My decision fits with my Name of Grace. It is "an experiential knowledge of self in the congruence of the object of choice with my fundamental religious orientation." The decision and how I understand myself before God fit. They come together. I am comfortable with it. My head, my heart and my faith are saying the same thing. It is energizing. The whole purpose of the retreat is to plumb that Name of Grace, to know that Name of Grace, and to raise it to the level of insight and usability. We have a last name of grace as well as a first name of grace. The last name of grace is a family name of grace or a surname of grace. Our first name of grace is a very specific, particular, unique, individual name of grace; and the last name of grace is something that we share with others. For instance, I have three brothers. One is a Jesuit priest. If you saw us together you would say, "Oh, there are the Schemel boys. They have certain mannerisms: the way they talk, the way they walk and so on." However, if you get to know us, you would say, "Oh, they are very different though." We have the same family characteristics; yet we are definite individuals. We have the same last name, but we have very different first names. I have said before the purpose of the retreat is to bring to the level of insight and usability that first and last name of grace. I use it to make good decisions. I can say, "This decision fits with my Name of Grace." It fits with my first name of grace, my unique individuality. It fits with my last name of grace that has something to do with that vocation grace: "in solidarity with whom," with what people, with what colleagues, in what context. One may never get to where one can say one’s name of grace in twenty- five words or less, but one gets a sense of it and a sense of how to make these decisions: discernment is an experiential knowledge of self in the congruence of the object of choice with my Name of Grace or my fundamental religious orientation. The retreat is about learning your first and last Name of Grace, to raise the Name of Grace to consciousness, to see how God is calling, identifying and missioning me.
Move On To Chapter 2
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