This chapter talks about the structure and dynamics of the Third Week. What do the Third Week graces look like? What do the transitions from the Second Week to the Third Week and from the Third Week to the Fourth Week look like? What are the indications that someone should move? The transition from the Third Week to the Fourth Week will be discussed again in Chapter 15.

          In addition we will discuss the Rules for Eating [210-217]. We will consider the Rules for Eating as a help for looking at our "anodynes," our pain-killers: what we do with sleep, alcohol, tobacco, television, and other ways we have of avoiding pain. Such avoidance gets in the way of personal freedom and whole-hearted work for the Kingdom.

          It is helpful to understand the thrusts of both masculine and feminine energy in spirituality. Masculine energy in both males and females is more focused, purposeful, and product oriented. Feminine energy in both males and females is interpersonal, relational, more diffuse, and receptive.

          In the Third Week we have to maintain a "big picture attitude." We have to watch that the Third Week does not become centered on my little list of sins, shrinking issues to the size of my personal life and issues. We are dealing with cosmic realities in the Third Week. We will talk about the position of religious freedom [351] in more detail in Chapter 15.

          The Passion of Christ is the answer to Job, the answer to evil in the world. While it is true that the Third Week is to be my personal assimilation of all that the Third Week means to me, we cannot shrink the concerns of the Third Week to that small a focus. There is a whole faith view imbedded in the Third Week. The Passion of Jesus was not just a few rough days in the life of Jesus and then he passed on to the Resurrection. The Third Week is still the revelation of the Father, in Jesus, the Christ. He is saying, "Philip, who sees Me, sees the Father." Everything that Christ has comes from the Father and returns to the Father. The Passion of Jesus is the revelation of the Father. The Passion is not just something unfortunate that happened to Jesus. It is a revelation of a profound attitude of the Father. We need not get into the various heresies of patri passio (the heresy that God the Father suffered). However, the Passion of Christ is still the revelation of the Father, and it is the revelation of the Word made flesh that brings us into the depths of the relationship of Father and Son.

          Some of the graces in the Third Week have a difficult side to them and yet they are true unitive graces: graces that unite the person making the retreat with Christ in his own suffering. Here one is asked to pray for sorrow, shame, and compassion. They are difficult graces.

          Everyone wants to walk on the water with Christ and to be on the Mount, hearing the Sermon on the Mount, "Look at the lilies of the field..." However, few people want to go through the difficult graces that make that deep union possible. That is what one is praying for in the Third Week: to be united with Christ also in His Passion. It is blending the sufferings of one's life, the on-going passion of the Body of Christ, and Christ's passion together.

          It is in vogue to say that we must be counter-cultural. Living the Third Week is counter-cultural! The Third Week graces are important graces and a vital, important part of the retreat. It is necessary for the directors to get into the spirit of the Third Week and the broad graces and theological importance of the Third Week.

          The Third and Fourth Week together form the Paschal Mystery. We are in a different season of soul. Remember that the sweep of the Spiritual Exercises is purification illumination confirmation union; or purification illumination confirmation in suffering confirmation in joy. Each one of those has a nuance of meaning that should be preserved.

          We began the purification stage in the First Week. We begin with a deep knowledge in faith that God loves me. Knowing that one is loved is the basis for deep friendship with God. In the Second Week one is illuminated by the decision-making exercises and the various thematic Ignatian exercises and contemplating the life of Christ.

          In the Third Week one prays over the passion of Christ who teaches us things now as matters get difficult in the cost of discipleship. There is something in us that thinks if there is pain involved there is something wrong, even morally wrong. There is nothing wrong. Christ is the DNA of our own life. Our life will recapitulate His. See how He went through the pain and suffering of His Passion. He went through His Passover to pass over to the Father. One is going to do that same thing if one is united with Christ.

          The Third Week is "a funny thing." The purpose of praying over the Passion is to EXPERIENCE it: EXPERIENCE what is going on in the Passover of the Lord. We are not just to contemplate it but to BE it as it happens. 

          The First Contemplation of the Third Week is at midnight. There is something very symbolic about getting up in the dead of night, maybe in the cold and the quiet, or maybe in the heat and the quiet. Everyone is asleep, and you are praying. There is something special about that. The readiness and condition of the person has to be considered; but this midnight meditation is important and there should be a good reason for omitting it.

          The grace that we are looking for in the Third Week is sorrow, compassion and shame because the Lord is going to His suffering for my sins. [193] The Spanish text says, Dolor, sentimiento and confusion. The original text does not say you are asking for shame. One is asking for confusion, sorrow, and compassion. Confusion means, "I do not know how to respond." The notion is, here is Christ in His Passion, and I do not know how to respond to that. 

          An old story illustrates it well. When Charlemagne was about twenty-six years old his father decided it was time to introduce him into Christianity. The notion then was to allow young men to sow their wild oats before instructing them in Christianity. Once they were baptized, they were supposed to live as mature Christians. His father brought Charlemagne to Aelred for instruction. Night after night, all the nobles sitting around the great fire in the hall listened while Aelred instructed Charlemagne. Charlemagne was very interested. 

          When Aelred came to the Passion, Charlemagne pounded on the table saying, "No! No! No!" Aelred replied, "Yes, this is the way it was." At that Charlemagne jumped up from the table and began to pace back and forth, saying, "Oh, if only I had been there with my Franks! Oh, if only I had been there with my Franks. Oh, if only I had been there with my Franks!" Charlemagne perceived a tremendous injustice. Charlemagne continued, "Oh, if only I had been there with my Franks" and he was inconsolable. 

          The session had to stop and all night long Charlemagne was raging over the way Christ was treated. He finally went to bed, and in his sleep he saw the corpus from the crucifix in his room bend over him. Jesus said to him, "So it had to be. So it had to be." Charlemagne was quieted by that dream. Is that not a great story? He knew the size of things, great man that he was. 

          So, what is one praying for? The Passion means many things to many people. It means my sinfulness to some people. Passion means Jesus suffered this for my sins, and sometimes people revert to the First Week. However, the Third Week is not about the First Week. To other people it is a great joy. The Lord has truly redeemed me. So the Passion means many things to many people and even to the same person at different seasons of their soul. 

Though the Passion has an objective reference in the revelation, the main meaning of the Passion is that the Father loves us and He wants us to KNOW that He loves us. He does not just love us behind the scenes. Here is the greatest piece of body language the world has ever seen. 

          A director facilitates the person into these considerations. St. Paul says, "How can it be that He who has given us His only Son, that with Him has not given us all things?" Make a scenario of what Paul is saying here. Suppose you have a friend. You get in trouble somehow and your friend sells his or her house and property and liquidates all his or her possessions and comes with the money and says:" This is for you. I hear you are in trouble. This is for you." You do not wonder about the loyalty or love in this friend. You do not wonder whether he or she has five dollars hidden in a shoe that is not available to you. So, God acts in like manner. Does He have some insight that He will not give, some understanding, some love, and some forgiveness? Does He have anything that He will not give if he gives us His only son? One asks the retreatant to consider this. It brings them directly up to the issue.

          In the Third Week one is praying for sorrow. Notice one is not praying for sadness. In one place Ignatius slips [195], and he says sadness. However, one does not pray for sadness. One prays for sorrow: Sorrow, compassion, and shame. 

          In the First Contemplation [194] we are asked to see the persons at the supper. The first point is to reflect upon myself and strive to draw some profit from these persons. In the second point I am asked to listen to their conversation and likewise seek to draw some fruit from it. Lastly, in the third point I am asked to see what they are doing and seek to draw some fruit from it.

          Ignatius is letting the Passion open to many things. Praying over the Passion starts off now with an Application of the Senses. Ignatius assumes the retreatant is deeply into prayer and can begin with the Application of Senses. One' s intellect does not have to be convinced. It is in a believing and accepting stance now.

Attention must be called to the following point that was mentioned before and in part explained. In the colloquy, one should talk over motives and present petitions according to circumstances. Thus he may be tempted or he may enjoy consolation, may desire to have this virtue or another, may want to dispose himself in this or that way, may seek to grieve or rejoice according to the matter that his is contemplating. Finally, he should ask what he more earnestly desires with regard to some particular interests. [199]

Following this advice, he may engage in only one colloquy with Christ our Lord, or, if the matter and his devotion prompt him to do so, he may use three colloquies, one with the Mother of our Lord, one with her Son, and one with the Father. If three colloquies are used, the same form should be followed that was given in the meditation on Two Standards, and the note that follows after the Three Classes of Men should be observed. [199] 

          When a person contemplates the Passion he or she is ever moving into union with God in the Passion. More than contemplating, one is experiencing the Passion. What is one praying for? One is praying for sorrow, compassion and confusion. This may be difficult to understand as a grace, but it is grace. "These are the times that try men's souls, when the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot shrink from the service of their country (Patrick Henry) . In most every retreat I have given when someone comes in after praying on the Passion, and I say, "How did it go?," he or she says, "Bad, bad, bad. No good, no good. No good." Why? " Well, I was distracted, and I felt foolish about it, and I did not know what to do with it, and I do not like it. My response is, they are receiving the grace desired. They are experiencing the Passion. There is something very salutary about the grace of experiencing the Passion this way. Hopefully, one is willing to do that. 

          Everyone wants to be united with the strong, brilliant Christ, walking on the water. But the Passion? the cross? the pain? Oh no, let's be Christians without that. Let's be committed Christians without the Passion and the cross. 

          The praying at this point can be difficult. Here is where our retreat decision is being offered to God in prayer. The decision is always in the background during the Third Week. Am I going to live this decision? this Election? It will be difficult. What do I make of it? Is there much light and understanding as my decision is being confirmed? Am I beginning to understand "... in function of the cross...? 

          It is important, very important that the director knows, and that anyone that you ever direct in the retreat knows, that the Father, God our Father, does not love suffering. God our Father is not a masochist. He does not love suffering. Remember when suffering is caused by love, suffering is love. 

          Here is a story. Once there was a woman whose son has been arrested. He is in prison 300 miles away. She has stopped her Saturday bridge club meeting because she cannot be with her friends. She just breaks down and cries. Somebody says, "How is John?" She cries. She goes to the supermarket at odd times so that she does not meet people because all she has to do is meet somebody and she cries. That son in prison is always with her. And you say, "I have a solution for you, lady. Just stop loving him and it won't hurt a bit. Just stop loving him." She will look at you strangely. She cannot stop loving him. When suffering is caused by love, suffering is love. 

          The Father does not love suffering, but he does love the love of which suffering is often the sign. There are times one could get out of the suffering, but chooses under grace not to do that. That is love. Perhaps one could often change a foolish or annoying situation, but one does not because staying in the situation promotes greater love. One might even say that a desire to suffer on behalf of another' s good is part of the pattern of love. True loves wants to swim the deepest ocean and climb the highest mountain. Somehow this seems to show the intensity and the urgency of love. 

          Why is the mother with the son in prison so sorrowful? She sorrows because she loves her son, and she is united with her son. The same thing would happen if a son makes a great success in a far off city. She is all joyful. Why? Even though he is 500 miles away, she is united with her son. In this Passover time, the Third and Fourth Week of the Exercises, the retreatant is coming into union with the Lord. We say "confirmation in suffering" and "confirmation in joy" or confirmation, union. That is the dynamic of Third and Fourth Week. 

          It is a great, great, great sign of love if I can rejoice in another's good fortune. I am delighted because of his or her happiness. That is union. However, if I am crushed and saddened with Christ in His Passion, that is also union. One must be careful here. The matter takes maturity and discernment.

          We pray to EXPERIENCE the Third Week. Can I sorrow with Christ sorrowing? Now notice, it is sorrow with Christ sorrowing and confusion because I do not know how to react. I do not know how to respond to this kind of generosity and love. It is not because of any co-dependent issues that I am sorrowing. Some believe that the best Christian is the one who can stand the most pain, but that is not the Christian ideal. Union here is in union with Christ. It is very specific. One is sorrowing because one is united with Christ and in future times one will rejoice because of Christ in great joy, in resurrection joy. 

          This is where the Spiritual Exercises are now becoming very mystical. God loves me... Principle and Foundation... Sin and Sinfulness... the Kingdom... Second Week being illuminated by... the life of Christ... now confirmation in sorrow. In effect it has the reality of "you are my man [woman] now in sorrow or in joy, in pain or in ecstasy. You belong to me." That is confirmation. There is strength in this. I can be united with God in whatever comes now. I know where it is coming from. I know what to expect. It is very strong, very beautiful, very gentle. This is the effect of praying over the Passion in the Third Week. 

          Notice Ignatius gives great freedom here in the Third Week. See [205] where Ignatius says, "as far as age, health, and physical constitution permit the exercitant to do so, he [she] will use five exercises each day, or fewer." This is demanding praying here: five prayer periods each day. It is important to use five or fewer. Never use more than five and certainly not in the Passion. Do not let people pray all day long in the retreat. Do not let them pray six, seven, eight hours or pray for three hours at a time or any similar excess. One gets "a concrete head" from that. There is a real wisdom in the practice of praying an hour, reflecting on what happened in prayer, and journaling. Then one takes a break.

          Pay attention to the text. Of course, I am assuming when a director is giving the retreat, either the Annotation [19] retreat or the Annotation [20] retreat, that he or she has the book of the Exercises in hand, looking at it, understanding it, and saying, "How am I going to do this? Am I going to do it like the book says, or am I going to adapt it a bit for a good reason?" Ignatius, right in the Spiritual Exercises, gives all kinds of permission to adapt them. 

          Remember the Additional Notes [229] where one uses the light to enhance joyfulness? In the Third Week it might be good to close the shutters and use the darkness and watch that you do not think of joyful things. This is not manipulation. It is creating an ambience. I know that sometimes if I do not feel like praying formally, I can use body prayer. 

          The Third Week is a time when one can learn the grace of finding God in all things. A wise use of heat and cold, wet and dry, light and darkness, hunger and surfeit, sleep and watchfulness can prepare the way for the gift of this grace. 

          Ignatius then outlines a Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Day for the Third Week. The director can lengthen or shorten this according to the needs of the individual. 

On the Seventh Day of the Third Week the Contemplation of the whole Passion is made in one Exercise at midnight and again in the morning. It is an opportunity to look at the whole Passion in one sweep. Ignatius gives great freedom in contemplating the passion. [209]

When one enjoys consolation, let him consider how he will conduct himself during the time of ensuing desolation, and store up a supply of strength as defense against that day. See also [7] and [8].

          My pattern will be different than someone else's. In the time of consolation, one needs the discipline to call to mind the patterns of one's desolation. It is not easy because it seems to dilute the consolation. However, one is storing up a supply of strength as defense against the time of desolation. Obviously, directors need to know the patterns of their consolation and desolation. They must teach others to know their patterns as well.

          It is vitally important as people pray on the Passion that they grasp the fact that Jesus truly died. He did not pretend. He tasted death fully just as you and I will and those who have gone before us. This is not play-acting, and it is important that the retreatant realize this. Otherwise, the meaning of the Resurrection in the Fourth Week is compromised. The possibility of deep faith is mitigated.

          The Third Week is an appropriate time to consider the Rules with Regard to Eating [210-217] as one is going through the Passion of the Lord. Some of them are very simple; but if you ever try them yourself, you will find that they are very salutary rules. I would urge you, as a spiritual director, to try them yourself before you start to give them to other people. I would urge you in the Annotation [19] retreat or the Annotation [20] retreat, to use these rules, to have the person consider them. A long Annotation [l9] retreat, the equivalent of the 30-day retreat, or the 30-day retreat itself, is a very important experience. It will set the tone and quality of the retreatants life from here on. Do not skip over the Rules for Eating or the Rules for Thinking with the Church or the Notes on Scruples. 

          Ignatius makes some very common observations: 

There is less need of abstinence from bread since it is not a food concerning which the appetite is wont to be inordinate and temptation so insistent as with other kinds of food. [210] 

          Notice, in time of consolation you make the decision and then you stick to it. You do not change that decision in time of desolation. He also makes some interesting observations. Withdrawing from eating so that one eats only what is appropriate is not penance. Penance is withdrawing from eating what is appropriate. It is cutting down on what you need. Notice again the emphasis on order. 

          When one is eating, one can occupy himself or herself with other considerations: the life of the saints, other pious reflections, or a spiritual work. [cf. 215]. Ignatius is assuming here the person is in silence in a Jesuit house. This may not always be the context. Reasonable adaptation is indicated. One may reasonably eat differently in the First and Third Week than one does in the Fourth Week.

          While considering the Rules for Eating, the retreatant should also consider their anodynes. How does one use painkillers? It is important to be conscious of my pain-killers, and my affectivity in using them. What are your particular painkillers? Alcohol, tobacco, food, T.V. tranquilizers, mall shopping, conversation, chitchat, busyness, sleep? There are all kinds of painkillers. They all soothe consciousness, and one needs to be careful how they are used. The holding environment of the retreat is a good time for considering them.

          In the Second Week we are looking at the Lord and getting much light and illumination. In the Third Week we experience ourselves it in a unitive way as the woman, who has the son in prison, experiences the sorrow because she is so united with her son. It is a unitive kind of prayer.