Many are familiar with the famous Annotation [19] that gives rise to the name, "the Annotation [19] retreat." In this chapter we will address each of the twenty Introductory Observations or Annotations, one by one, because they are not only very practical helps in giving and making the retreat of the Spiritual Exercises, but also because they convey the spirit and savor of the retreat. They give an attitude, a stance in which both the director and the directee ideally approach the retreat of the Spiritual Exercises.

          Many of the Annotations point out the skill required of a director in the Exercises: the knowledge and the discipline that is required to give the retreat, whether this is the 30-day enclosed retreat, or whether it is the Annotation [19] retreat, which is the retreat "in the flow of life."

          Eleven of the Annotations highlight the role of the director. The other nine are concerned primarily with the role of the retreatant. There are some things being published now that make it seem one does not need to know much or be very skilled to be a good director. However, Ignatius himself gives us a very different picture of the director: a sensitive, observant, skilled, knowledgeable person. These qualities, skills, and attitudes required by the Annotations have to be studied and worked at with some diligence in order for one to become a good director. Ignatius takes this for granted.

          There are many good pointers in the Annotations. In fact, many of the Annotations will correlate with things said in the Rules for Discernment of Spirits, both the First Week [313-327] and the Second Week [328-336]. A good director needs to be very familiar with the Rules for Discernment as well as the Annotations.

          The Puhl edition of the Exercises uses the term "Introductory Observations" instead of Annotations. The first Annotation [1] defines what the Spiritual Exercises are. 

By the term Spiritual Exercises is meant every method of examination of conscience, of meditation, of contemplation, of vocal and mental prayer, and of other spiritual activities that will be mentioned later.

. . . 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]

          These Annotations fall into two categories. There are some annotations that are aimed at the director giving the retreat [2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18] and others that are aimed at the person who is making the retreat [1, 3, 4, 5, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20]

          In reading a particular annotation it is well to remember for whom the annotation was intended. [1] speaks to both director and directee. Annotation [2] speaks to the director, suggesting how to give points. Ignatius wants the points to be short and to the point. "It is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth." [2]

          A rule of thumb about points was once given to me as, Say whatever you want to say, but it cannot last more than 5 minutes; write down whatever you want to write down, as long as it does not go beyond one side of a sheet of paper. Perhaps the guideline need not be taken literally, but it does remind the director to be focused, concise and pithy. More importantly, it gives freedom to the individual retreatant to have his or her own thoughts and feelings about a particular Scripture passage or spiritual exercise. It means more to people when they find out something on their own rather than when someone gives an insight to them. Non multa sed multum (Not many things, but one thing, deeply savored.) The profit is in not knowing many things, but in knowing and relishing one thing, deeply savored, or a few things, deeply savored.

          In the third Annotation Ignatius reminds us that more reverence is needed when one is using the will than when one is using the intellect. This means a knowledge of the heart. There is a knowledge of connaturality or affective knowledge. Ignatius is giving a process hint here. Remember that God reveals Himself more personally, more profoundly and more successfully in the a-conceptual or symbolic consciousness than in clear, concise, conceptual knowing. That is what we are getting at here: to really pay attention, and indeed, have more reverence when one is into affective knowledge. The task of the director during the first several days of the retreat is to get the retreatant to reverence and take seriously his or her own affective consciousness as well as the intellectual consciousness. 

          The fourth Annotation outlines the Spiritual Exercises for us. It is a reminder that the Exercises are divided into Four Weeks. People assumes that a "week" means a 7-day week; but Ignatius uses "weeks" as a metaphor. It denotes a period of time or a season of soul. A great emphasis is placed on the initiative of God coming to the person, rather than something a person initiating something on his or her own. There is no Pelagianism here.

          The whole First Week is about identity: Who is God? Who am I? What does it mean to be a creature? It is as a preparation for moving into the area of sin and sinfulness. We speak of sin, not only in a personal sense but also in our social obligations: the context from which we come. Underlying the considerations of sin and sinfulness is our getting in touch with, not so much a laundry list of what has been done that was wrong, but rather our own need for redemption. This First Week then is about purification.

          The Second Week, which has the theme of contemplation on the life of Christ, and along with that, setting up a framework for decision-making is the illumination phase. The Third Week, which is the meditations on the Passion of Christ, seeks confirmation of our decisions in the midst of suffering. The Fourth Week, where we have the meditations on the Resurrection and the Mysteries that follow the Resurrection, leads us to a confirmation in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the transition into union. These last two Weeks belong more specifically to the two faces of the Paschal Mystery.

          In [4] Ignatius gives permission to the director to use great freedom in giving the Exercises. A director may lengthen or shorten the amount of time that is spent on a particular Mystery or in a particular Week depending on the needs and rhythm of the individual. As a director, I am always aware of what is going on in the person that I am directing, and I am adjusting the Exercises accordingly. Ignatius is not a lock-step militaristic director. He consistently urges the director to vary the exercises, adapting them to the person making them. A director should not hesitate to put that freedom to good use for the benefit of the retreatant.

          In the last line of Annotation [4], he says, "however, the Exercises should be finished in approximately  30 days." The key to good direction is to adapt to the individual. It is the difference between a tailor-made suit and a suit off the rack. It requires the director to be alert to the movements of spirit throughout the retreat. It is not a matter for a director to be able to give out 30 sheets of pre-written notes on corresponding appropriate days. Good directors have great flexibility about how the Exercises are presented. It requires a fine-tuning of the conversation between the director and directee that goes on throughout the retreat.

          In the fifth Annotation [5] Ignatius urges the retreatant to enter into the retreat with a spirit of magnanimity and generosity. One must be generous with time and think generously with a spirit of magnanimity, expecting great things from God. 

          There is a good story that I like about Sammy Sneed, the great golfer. Apparently, at the time he did a tour in Saudi Arabia years ago, the Shah was so pleased at Sneed's expertise that he asked Sneed to come see him. The Shah mentioned that he wanted to present Mr. Sneed with a gift, and he asked what Sneed wanted. Sneed said he thought one of the Shah golf clubs would be nice. The next day at Sneed's hotel room the title to a Golf Club was delivered. The moral of the story is, never ask a king for small gifts. That is magnanimity. Come to the Exercises and stand before the Lord and expect great things.

          Annotation [5] also says that there is preparation needed to enter into the Spiritual Exercises. One does not just say, " Oh well, I am going to be generous and magnanimous." One has to work and pray into it. The Spiritual Exercises can take people no matter where they are spiritually. I know I have given the Spiritual Exercises to people in religious life for many years, to bishops and priests and many others, both Catholic and those in other confessions. A person can be just beginning the spiritual life or quite advanced. In either case the Spiritual Exercises can take people and help them grow in the Lord. The common thread amid the variety of clientele is that each is ready to change. A person has to be ready to change or the Spiritual Exercises will not work. The change requires new behaviors. If a person knows how to pray over Scripture and is willing to change, then their images of who they are and who God is will change. This requires new behaviors and a certain comfort with a flexibility of image and spirit. That is very important. 

          That leads us into Annotation [6], a directive for the director to keep the person on track. The director's role is to monitor the process. The content belongs to the person making the retreat. Ignatius mentions here in [6] that if the person is not being stirred by any consolations or desolations, then the director ought to ask questions about what is going on, how is the time being used, what is happening during the exercise, when is it being made, and how the rest of the day is working out. 

          Ignatius uses the word ply . One should ply the retreatant with questions. It has a sense of diligence about it. It is not a matter of letting the person do as he or she pleases without any focus. That is not Ignatius' notion. The director is there as an active instrument. If the director is not careful about the focus, the pitch of the retreat will be too low. It will not be challenging enough. There could be no spirits moving, no spontaneous movements of affectivity moving because the retreat is really not challenging, not pitched high enough. In reality this retreat of the Spiritual Exercises is about holiness. Unlike the image of Horace going around Rome with a little bit of wine and a little bit of cheese and a little bit of poetry, under the tree and nothing in excess; the retreat is about grace, sanctity, and the close approach of God to the human person. We are dealing with God. We are dealing with dynamite.

          Annotation [7] is again for the director. It reminds us that the director should act gently with the retreatant when the retreatant is in desolation. At such a time the director must be gentle, supportive and encouraging. One can remind the retreatant that being in desolation can be a valuable experience. It allows one to know the particular characteristics of one's own desolation. It shows one the pattern of one's desolation as well as the way God comes for healing. It is a challenge for the director to know himself or herself well enough that he or she knows how to be gentle and kind, even when the person who is making the retreat is having difficulty. A director needs to stay objective.

          Further one needs to love the person who is being directed. He or she may not be the director's best friend, but a good director needs to love them in a deep sense. He or she must want the best for a retreatant and make judgments that come from his or her highest hopes for that person: for the person's union with God and their apostolic effectiveness. 

          Annotation [8] continues the characteristics of a good director already mentioned in Annotation [7]. The director teaches the Rules for Discernment to the retreatant by coupling the particular Rule with the actual experience of the directee. To read the Rules for Discernment without seeing their practicality is like reading a telephone book. On the other hand, if the director says to the person, while he or she is actually undergoing an experience, "Now read that Rule," the retreatant can see the connection. Doing it this way gives the person a tool for years to come. It is like the adage, "Give me a fish, you feed me for the day; teach me how to fish, you feed me for a lifetime."

          I have often had the experience, as a director, of having someone come in and say that he or she has not told me something for several days. When it is told, the person feels the consolation and the relief. At that very moment I have said to that person, "Look at Rule [326] where the enemy of our human nature is trying to get you to keep things quiet like a man who is trying to seduce the daughter of a good father or the wife of a good husband. He wants to keep it quiet." To teach them the Rule as it happens to them will help that person remember it forever because it is coupled with their own experience.

          Ignatius couples a rule with experience again in [9] and [11] when he refers to somebody who is making the First Week. There is an assumption there that this is the First Week. Not everyone is going to go on to do the Second, the Third and the Fourth Week of the Exercises. In Annotations [9] and [11] he reminds us that the Rules for Discernment in the First Week are different from the Rules for Discernment in the Second Week. These Second Week Rules should not be given to people who are in the First Week stance. The Second Week is about subtleties, the fine-tuning of things; the First Week, more about the basics.

          Generally, a person uses the expression "First Week person" when he or she is talking about a person for whom the Rules for Discernment for the First Week apply. A person for whom the Rules of the Second Week are more operative is a "Second Week person." First Week issues include questions like, who am I? Who is God? What are the implications of the Creator-creature relationship? What is sin and sinfulness, both personal and social? What is the shape of my desire to labor with God to build the Kingdom? The First Week is a time for going back to basics. This applies even to someone who is quite seasoned but who needs to be reminded of the basics.

          The Second Week Rules have a different focus. They are about subtleties. A Second Week person would be someone who is dealing with the fine-tuning of discernment. St. Ignatius says that one gives the Rules for the Second Week to a person who is beginning to be tempted under the appearance of good, not just someone being tempted by the obvious temptations of good and evil, as is the person of the First Week. A director needs to be careful not to give Second Week Rules to somebody who is in a First Week stance. A director makes a judgment to use the Rules according to the need of the directee. Second Week Rules are too subtle for the person dealing with First Week issues. 

          Both Annotations [9] and [11] raise a question for the director about how to use the actual book of the Exercises . Does one give a person on retreat this book and tell them not to read ahead? Personally, I like them to have the text of the Exercises, but I make it very clear that they will do themselves a disservice by reading ahead. This book is the teacher's manual for the director for the course on prayer over Scripture and quality decision-making. It is good to tell people in the very first meeting that the book is a guide to the director to be used in many different ways, different order and with repetition. If one does not mention "repetition" early, the retreatant may think something is wrong when he or she is asked to repeat. They think of repetition as a school lesson not learned rather than an occasion for deepening a grace received.

          Good directing anticipates certain things for the retreatant. It connects with the reminder in [2] to be brief. What the person finds out on his or her own is of more value to them. It is better that the person find out about something in prayer and reflection than to read about it in the Exercises. Facilitation for the director is about lighting a torch, not filling a basket. A good director fans something and coaxes is along into flame.

          Since we looked at [9] and [11] together, we now take up Annotation [10]. Second Week Rules make sense when a person is being tempted under the appearance of good. We usually think of temptations as our being tempted toward evil rather than our being tempted toward good; but the proper time for bringing in the Rules for the Second Week is precisely when a person is tempted under the appearance of good, when their generosity is about to get them into trouble. Annotation [10] gives a sense of the timing of this in the retreat. One should be an artist with The Spiritual Exercises. Therefore, the book of the Exercises is not rigid for me. One needs a certain facility in using it. It is like an artist with a palette choosing the appropriate color.

          In Annotation [12] there is another admonition for both director and retreatant. It speaks about the discipline of the prayer periods. Ignatius reminds us to be sure to spend the entire hour in the prayer period. I suspect that "hour" here is not quite in the sense of "60 minutes by my watch." It is more the sense of a moral hour, whatever length of time you and the director have decided upon for the retreat. Even when Ignatius says to have the person exceed an hour rather than not use the full time, "exceed" might mean by 2 or 3 minutes. He does not mean long prayer periods of an hour and a half or two hours. Particularly with the 30-day retreat, the director must pace the person. It is like doing a long-distance run. One cannot put so much energy into the First Week that one cannot last for 30 days. 

          The Exercises call for five prayer periods daily. There may be good reason for giving less, but bear in mind the original work calls for five periods plus the conversation with the director. 

          Keeping the discipline of the hour expresses an attitude of soul that says, "Dear God, I have come here for Yourself and not for the gifts that You give me." As I stay through the hour, I stay whether I am getting great insights and having great thoughts and feelings or whether I am sitting in my poverty, dry and uninsightful. This fidelity expresses a freedom of spirit that maintains that what I get out of a prayer period is not the criteria for my leaving early or staying longer. Rather I have freely decided ahead of time in a poverty of spirit to take what comes. It opens me to receive the graces of the retreat. 

          Annotation [12] calls for the director to maintain the process. I find many new directors, and even some experienced ones, shirking from the difficult parts of the Exercises. They gloss over considerations of sin and sinfulness, or they omit the Rules for Eating or Thinking with the Church. Yet in all love for a retreatant a director needs to insist that the person occasionally face hard things. We must remember that during the time of consolation everything is easy, but in the time of desolation, spiritual things are very difficult.

          Annotation [13] holds an important phrase that is often misunderstood, agere contra desolationem, to work against the desolation. Many people quote Ignatius as saying, Agere contra seipsum, to work against oneself. I am not aware of any place in the Exercises where Ignatius says, Work against yourself. It is always, work against the desolation. The Discernment of Spirits in the First Week [323] has something to do with Annotation [13]. In the time of consolation one remembers and stores up a supply of strength against the day of desolation. One continues in prayer and works against the desolation. There is great wisdom there.

          Annotation [14] is about moderation. I have had many experiences with people getting all excited in a 30-day retreat about a particular prayer period that they have just come from. They want to do great things on the spur of the moment without really thinking through the implications of what they want to do. Annotation [14] admonishes the director to see to it that the retreatant is careful and moderate, not making any rash decisions. This Annotation counsels us to have the wisdom not to go beyond the grace that has been given. There is a guideline in [336] which distinguishes between the time of consolation and the periods that follow, being careful about not exceeding the grace that has been given. Moderation gives a sense of dignity to the person, a sense of his or her own self-determination. It allows them a sense of freedom. They are basically responsible for their own life and for their own graces. This stance is a respect for themselves and an honoring of themselves. It also reminds the director that he or she is directing the process and not making the decision. 

          It is likely that in both Annotation [14] and Annotation [15] Ignatius had Erasmus in mind. Erasmus was promoting marriage above priestly and religious vocations. Ignatius is saying that in the retreat setting a director does not promote either marriage or religious life. A good director should be "as a balance at equilibrium," [15] helping the Creator deal directly with the creature and the creature directly with the Creator. The director is facilitating the encounter between God and the person making the retreat. St. John of the Cross says that if a spiritual director is giving somebody spiritual advice and the person does not like it, it is a sign that it is not good advice. One might expect John of the Cross to say, Do it even if you do not like it. He does not.

          Ignatius models a classical description of grace here. This is generally what happens when God enters the life of a human person. These are the classic or usual patterns. At the same time, there is the utmost respect and freedom for the person and his or her individual process.

          More recently, Paul Kennedy, SJ, was fond of saying, if a person became very bothered, worried and anxious about something that he or she was told to do by the director, the director should tell the person not to proceed. He wanted directors to be very respectful. However, that did not mean one could not come around to the same topic on another occasion.

          People often struggle with things that are self-imposed as well as struggling to deal with things that are imposed by an institution or a culture. If people would seriously contemplate Jesus in the Gospels, they would have a whole different image of God. Having an image of God as the great scorekeeper comes from ignorance and from being poorly taught. God is at least as nice a person as you are. He is not an ogre or unfair or too strict. Even I would not do that to somebody, much less would God do that to somebody. Rigidity comes from a poor image of God. One of the great things the Spiritual Exercises are about is helping people change their image of God.

          Annotation [16] is a departure from some of the attitudes that we have been noticing in the Exercises. Ignatius, in many ways, is very mystical about his approach to spirituality and certainly the emphasis is on the mysticism of spirituality. Here in Annotation [16] we have an emphasis on the asceticism of spirituality. There is interplay among asceticism and mysticism, letting God do it and my saying what I want, being passive and then being active.

          Ignatius speaks here of what happens to people when they are trying to make decisions. If one finds himself or herself attached to one side of a question rather than another, one must rouse oneself to pray for the opposite. There is a note in [157] about praying on both sides of the question. In fact, it says, we should insist that we desire, beg, and plead for the other side. There is always the balancing out, "provided only it is for Your greater service and praise." [98] Balance is a constant theme of Ignatius. In Annotation [16] he says again that the reason a person should want to have something or to give it up is solely the service, the honor and the glory of the Divine Majesty. That is a theme that is repeated many times. Ignatius speaks here, too, about the insistence on prayer and the other spiritual exercises. It reminds us that the Spiritual Exercises are not just the prayer periods. They encompass the whole ecology of the day.

          This is especially true of an Annotation [19] retreat, where one has the advantage of seeing those Rules for Discernment in the person's work hours. That is why is very important to debrief the whole day, not just the time of prayer.

While the one who is giving the Exercises should not seek to investigate and know the private thoughts and sins of the exercitant, nevertheless, it will be very helpful if he [she] is kept faithfully informed about the various disturbances of thought... [17]. 

          Here is a good place to distinguish between the functions of a confessor and the functions of a spiritual director, or the director of the retreat. Ignatius puts the emphasis on two different people. He certainly distinguishes the roles of spiritual director or director of the retreat from the role of the confessor. He does encourage that director and confessor be two different people, although I would point out that people have consummate freedom in the choice of a confessor. 

          There is no doubt that Ignatius meant to uphold this freedom [17]. The reason for maintaining this distinction is that the spiritual director is interested in spontaneous movements of affectivity. That is how we define "spirits." I pray over this Scripture passage and I am joyful or I am quizzical, I am puzzled, I am grateful. Those are movements of affectivity and that is what the spiritual director wants to know: what happens when one prays over a particular passage of Scripture. On the other hand, the confessor is not very interested in these spontaneous movements of affectivity or thought. The confessor is interested in the free moral acts of the person. The first is spontaneous movements; the second is the deliberate, free moral acts of the individual. This Annotation gives a real freedom.

          I know people who will not make a directed retreat because they are afraid that they will have to reveal all their past life and their sin and sinfulness. But that is not what a directed retreat is about. One does not have to reveal all this matter of one's past life, but only what happens in the retreat. On the other hand, it may be a time of great integration and peace to come to terms with the larger thrusts of one' s previous life. The director can be very helpful here, and the retreatant may want to speak openly about this.

          Confidentiality in the directed retreat is very close to the confessional confidentiality. In other words, a person is telling the director all kinds of intimate, personal details of his or her life and that has to be absolutely respected and kept confidential. As a director, one sets up an atmosphere so that the person has the freedom to speak his or her mind, heart, and experience, know it is safe and held in confidentiality. 

          Often a retreatant will bring up "confessional material" in a retreat. For some he two roles, priest-confessor and retreat director get a bit confused. It is perhaps to be expected. It is a matter that not only a director who is not a priest must handle, but also a director who is also a priest must handle with some insight and delicacy. 

          Sometimes people will tell a priest-director a whole long story and then say, "I would like absolution for that." Or, "I would like absolution for whatever is sinful in all that." It is not the role of a priest-director to tell a penitent or a directee his or her sins. It is the role of the penitent to name and tell his or her sins, whether in a retreat or outside a retreat. The penitent must announce their conscience in matters of sin. When someone tells me a long story and wants absolution, I must always say, "For what do you want absolution in all of that?" Even a priest-director may prefer to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation at a time other than the retreat interview.

          For a non-priest director one way of handling it could be to ask the penitent to "...bring what you judge to be sinful in all of that to sacramental confession." There may be some other ways of handling the matter, but that is one good way. 

          Women may find some support in this matter in giving the Spiritual Exercises in Annotation [17] where Ignatius says one does not have to be the confessor to the person to give the retreat. The reason for knowing the thoughts of the retreatant, not the private sins, is that the director can propose some helps or remedies or give suggestions for prayer.

          Annotation [18] brings us back again to some advice to the director about adapting the Exercises, depending on the age, the education, the talent and the desire of the directee. Some people make just the First Week; other people go on to the Second, Third and Fourth Week. 

          In Annotation [18] there are several historical references that perhaps today we should not take as literally as Ignatius would have: for instance, the admonition to try to go to Communion every two weeks. People these days generally go to Communion whenever they go to the Eucharistic Liturgy. He also seems to have people going to the sacrament of reconciliation more than they go to the sacrament of the Eucharist. That is not our practice today either. The spirit of these bits of advice here is again telling the director to adapt according to the needs of the individual. One of the most common adaptations is giving an 8-day directed retreat rather than a 30-day retreat. Right there we have adapted the Spiritual Exercises a great deal. The Spiritual Exercises are a 30-day experience. An 8-day retreat is an adaptation, a retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises. 

          In an 8-day retreat one should not try to "get in" all the matter that Ignatius assigns for 30 days! It is not possible to go through in eight days the motions, the affect and graces of purification, illumination, confirmation, union, which occur in the 30- day period. How does one get that into eight days? The answer is, one does not. The director tries to determine "where the directee is" and what is the next step or the next grace for the person at this time. That is the area of the Exercises that one concentrates on, rather than trying to cram the whole 30 days into an 8-day experience. Remember it is not many things that nourish and fill the soul, but a few things, deeply savored. [2]

          For some people, completing the First Week of the Exercises is more a preparation for making a good confession and giving the person some basic tools for their life, such as the Examen and how to pray. For many people, that is plenty. They are not really interested in going beyond that. This is an area that raises questions for a director. How much time does a director spend with someone? How much time does a director spend teaching the basics? As a spiritual director, do you encourage people to learn the basics in a class or in a workshop? Should a spiritual director spend more time with the subtleties? Should he or she spend more time with people who are working through Second, Third, and Fourth Week graces? Directors need not assume they can handle all phases of the Exercises equally well.

          Annotation [18] is a seed for [135]. Just before the Two Standards Ignatius talks about the life of the Commandments or the Christian life, represented in the hidden life. There in looking at the hidden life of Jesus, we see Jesus with Joseph and Mary. In contrast Jesus is with the teachers in the Temple, referring more to evangelical perfection, or the spiritual life.

          Our democratic souls may not like this. Spiritual directors, however, should spend their time with the people who really need them: those who have a spiritual life. This a counter-cultural stance. 

. . . Similarly, if the one giving the Exercises sees that the exercitant has little aptitude or little physical strength, that he is one from whom little fruit is to expected . . let him go no further . . . better results could be obtained with other persons, and when there is not sufficient time to take everything. [cf 18] 

          According to Ignatius, Peter Faber was the only one who could give the full Exercises well. He acknowledged that other people were good in giving the First Week or in giving the Second, but only Faber gave all Four Weeks well. 

          We turn now to the famous Annotations [18], [19] and [20]. They form a pod. It is important to distinguish between Annotation [18] and Annotation [19] first. Annotation [18] suggests that the director make an assessment of the retreatant's talents, strengths, and willingness to engage in the Spiritual Exercises. Some people will work through only the First Week; others might go as far as the Kingdom. Annotation [19] addresses itself to a person who is "educated, or talented, but engaged in public affairs or necessary business." Annotation [20] is addressed to one "who is more disengaged, and desirous of making as much progress as possible. . . " Such a person usually makes an enclosed 30-day retreat. 

          Ignatius recommends one spend an hour and a half to prepare for prayer, to pray, to make a reflection on one's prayer afterwards, to do some journaling and to make the Examen of Consciousness. The Examen of Consciousness is very important in any retreat. Of all the exercises it is the single most important spiritual exercise in Ignatius' opinion.

          In the Annotation [19] retreat, the person is educated or talented, not limited or uninterested as the person in the 18th Annotation might be. Persons going through the Annotation [19] or [20] retreat go through the same retreat exercises, using the contemplations and meditations of the 30-day retreat.

          Just as a director is seeing a retreatant daily in an enclosed retreat, in the Annotation [19] retreat, the person is seen generally once a week. The Annotation [19] retreat gives the director great scope for adapting the structure of the retreat. For instance, I have given a person an 8-day retreat followed with two or three months of Annotation [19] retreat ending with another 8-day retreat. Perhaps, someone else can do an 8-day retreat in the middle of his or her Annotation [19] retreat.

          If it is possible, the director can try to be with the retreatant in that part of the retreat in which the retreatant needs more support. Perhaps someone needs more support in the First Week. The director can try to have them in the First Week in an enclosed setting. Perhaps someone else needs special support in contemplating the life of Christ where his or her images will change and matters of decision will be foremost. A director might be more supportive in an enclosed setting for this section of the retreat.

          A director should be especially careful of the impact of the liturgical season on the retreat. Praying over the Passion during Christmas time or using the Nativity meditations during Holy Week can be counter-productive for most. A director needs to plan the retreat so that its phases are not in conflict with the major liturgical thrusts of the Church year. There may be times when the Annotation [19] retreat is temporarily suspended for a liturgical season or even for busy times in the life of the person.

          It is very important to debrief the work situation, indeed, the person's entire day. I want to emphasize the work situation because people spend much time in the work situation, and they have to be able to find God there. Encourage them to use the Rules for Discernment as they tell you about their work situation and how they are finding God in all things. This is the great Ignatian theme: to be a contemplative in action. One is integrating prayer and action.

          If someone should be able to do only a half hour a day of prayer and reflection, can a director give that person the Annotation [19] retreat? I would say, "No, not according to Annotation [19]." Can one do something with a half hour? Yes, of course, but call it something else. Perhaps such a person could make an 8-day retreat, a 4-day retreat or a weekend. Perhaps he or she can make a weekend a month while they are going through the Annotation [19] retreat. That is certainly within the spirit of this Annotation.

          Annotation [20] is the standard 30-day retreat in an enclosed, silent situation. Retreatants attend liturgy daily as part of the retreat. Ignatius assumes that the person is near a church. He is harking back to Manresa, while he was going through parts of his own retreat. He was near the church in Manresa, and he used to go over for Mass and Vespers. Ignatius is concerned with the ecology of the retreat, both Annotations [19] and [20] and to some extent [18] as well. It is a concern for the atmosphere. What is more conducive to the series of graces?

          As the Annotation [19] retreat gets more popular, I think there ought to be a decision how an individual person makes the retreat: whether they make it according to Annotation [20] or [19]. The decision has to be made on something more that just convenience. If it is impossible for me to get away for 30 days, fine. For other people, even if they could get away for 30 days, the Annotation [19] retreat may be the better way to make the retreat. If someone cannot take all that silence and introspection because it would be counter-productive, then the Annotation [19] retreat might be the preferred way to do it. In any case there needs to be a decision between the person and his or her spiritual director.

          Some of the things that could come in there, of course, are introversion-extroversion. A good introvert may be able to do an Annotation [19] retreat and it does not matter where. He or she knows how to tune out the business of daily life. For the extravert, too much outside stimulation might be counter-productive. Directors need to take into account the retreatant's capacity for silence, for recollection, for extraversion-introversion, and for an enclosed life-style.

          Essentially we are trying to set up a good atmosphere in which the person can be aware of the grace that is being given to him or her and respond to it. A good director does whatever he or she can to provide a supportive ecology in which the grace of the retreat can be tracked and fostered. 

          These Annotations show how adaptable and gracious Ignatius is in the conduct of the retreat. He is certainly not the lock-step militarist macho as he is sometimes caricatured. He is more like an orchestra conductor, bringing this section out and quieting that one down to achieve the greatest harmony and integration. 

          There are also additional directives [73-90] in the First Week. They are called the Additions, (Additional Directions in the Puhl translation).

          The first two [73-74] take advantage of what, psychologists today are finding very important: the time just before one falls asleep and the time right after one wakes up. These are times when one is particularly close to the unconscious. 

          The purpose of these directions is to help one to go through the Exercises better and find more readily what he desires. [73]

          The boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness is very thin just before waking or just before going to sleep. Ignatius wants us to take advantage of this time. Just before sleep one can remind oneself of the focus for prayer the next day and what he or she will do upon awakening. In the morning

. . . I will not permit my thoughts to roam at random, but will turn my mind at once to the subject I am about to contemplate... [74]

          Additional directives [78], [79], [80], and [81] are also concerned with congruence and the ecology of the retreat. We are asked to set up an atmosphere that is congruent with the grace being sought. This theme is picked up again in [82], the 10th Addition, when Ignatius talks about penance. There needs to be a consistency in the penance so that the outward expression of the penance, whatever it is, is consistent with whatever the inward disposition is. I may fast on a particular day because I am hungering for the Word of God, and that fasting is like an outward expression of the inward reality for me. Or, I might decide that I am not going to drink alcohol, coffee, or soda on a particular day as symbolic of my attitude that I am thirsting for the Lord. Penance is more of a reminder to me of my inward desire, rather than a discipline in itself. Basically, Ignatius is interested in the atmosphere and ecology of the retreat as they support the prayer and desire of the retreatant.

          In [75] Ignatius asks us to stand for the space of an Our Father, a step or two before the place where I am to meditate or contemplate, and with my mind raised on high, consider how God our Lord looks down on me. That is a marvelous touch. Here I just consider. I stand just a little away from the chair in which I am going to sit, or however I am going to pray, and I think: See how God looks down on me. That immediately establishes some kind of a rapport, and one could just pray there with that image. See how God looks down on me, Quomodo Deus respicit me. God is looking down from heaven and I adspicere, I am looking up, perhaps not with my eyes, but the phrase indicates the dynamic: God is looking down on me and I am looking up.

          It is a loving image. One makes some kind of gesture: a reverent sign of the cross, a bow, even some places people kiss the floor, or bring the Scripture down to one's forehead. By the gesture the person is led to reverence through the body. No matter how experienced the retreatant, the director reminds him or her of this symbolic entrance into prayer with the body. The whole purpose of this is to help the person attain or to pray for the grace that is being asked. In [76], the Fourth Additional Directive,

I will enter upon the meditation now kneeling, now prostrate upon the ground, now lying face upward, now seated, now standing. . . 

          I once had a 30-day retreatant for whom attention to that particular Annotation was the key to her whole retreat. She had prayed four times rather dryly, nothing much going on. The fifth time she was there praying, she got the idea that she should pray standing up, but she did not stand up. When I debriefed her I said to her, "What, you got the notion that you should stand up and you didn't stand up? Why? Why did you not stand up when you thought you should?" It was in searching the reasons and motivations that we surfaced many important movements.

          In [77] we are asked to reflect and review the prayer period. We try to find out what went on there. [77] is the basis for asking people to journal all important reflections and movements during the retreat. Writing and journaling is a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. Here people become more aware of their total psychic reality, not just a part of it. We are asked to give our whole self to God, not just our ego.

          With [82] Ignatius begins a consideration of penance. Previously we mentioned the need for congruence in penance. One of the things for us to note is the cultural and theological differences between Ignatius' time and our own. Some of his practical suggestions probably do not work out well in our own day. We have a different way of appreciating and doing penance.

          However, let us touch on the underlying principles. In speaking about penance Ignatius suggests that we do penance in the area of food, sleep, and physical austerity. He has a balanced guideline that penance should never bring harm to self or cause sickness. Historically in his day, people were doing extreme penances, even cutting to the bone. I doubt that today anyone is going to cut to the bone. Perhaps we do not have to worry about that, but evidently in his days that was a problem. Good penance is an outward sign of an inward reality. It is not a bargaining chip, that somehow if I do more penance I am saying to God, "I will hurt more so, therefore, you can give me more." "More pain is more gain," is contrary to the idea of penance. 

          I like to ask the question, how has the spirit been wounded? Good penance is the penance that heals the spirit. In other words, if the spirit has been wounded by all work and no play, then the appropriate penance may be to play more. It is well to remember that penance is more a value to us than it is to God. We need to do things that are helpful to us and that help us to be more attentive to the lead of grace and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

          A director has to bear many things in mind in giving the 30-day retreat, whether it is an Annotation [19] or an Annotation [20]. The director needs to be attentive to all the Directives and also these Annotations. In addition the Rules for Discernment, the Rules for Eating, the Rules for Thinking with the Church, the Distribution of Alms all need to be reviewed, adapted, and assimilated. The retreatant will never be in a better position to consider these things. One should bear in mind the general spirit of these various rules rather than get caught in a particular historical example of one or the other that may not apply today.

          Giving a retreat need not all be serious and grim. Sometimes a person needs a smile or a joke, a glass of wine at their door, a humorous card. Giving retreats is a very human, affective, and loving situation. Here is a fellow friend, a woman or a man, who has great desires for the kingdom, who has a great kinship with you, the director, and for whom you have the highest hopes and desires. I have taken people out to dinner, who could not take the silence at a certain point in a 30-day retreat. I have taken them out to dinner and said, "Well, silence is a creature and you use it or not use it as it helps..." Now that is an exception, but it is an appropriate one. A director does the things that help.

          According to [89] note 3, when the retreatant has not found what he or she is asking for, it is often useful to make some change in the kind of penance. The principle behind that is experiment. Ignatius is not afraid to experiment. One can try this or that and sees how it works. If it works, one does it; and if it does not work, one does not do it. Sometimes experimenting is the only way to know something. If you have a novice, you have to teach them how to pray and how to do this and how to do that. However, if the person is a mature person, that person is often off the road map. The guidance has to be very specific to this person. If I had to teach a novice how to pray, I would know how to do that. With a more experienced person, however, he or she is off the road map now and the director has to experiment to find out what is appropriate, keeping track of the results and not being afraid to experiment. I think that in many ways it is like the question, am I being too active or too passive at prayer? One has to experiment. Am I eating too much or too little? One has to experiment. Experimenting is the important process in [89].

          [90] completes the Additions and talks about the very important particular examination of conscience "that will be made to remove the faults and negligence, with regard to the Exercises and the Additional Directions." It is important to pay attention to the Examen during the retreat. Today we expand this notion to include Examination of Consciousness, especially in the Annotation [19] retreat: where was God with you? One is examining general consciousness, not just faults and sins. Where was God with you: through the day, in your workday, in your family life, in your study and recreation. 

          Depending on the retreatant, there is some consideration, too, of the unconscious. What are the implications of the dreams or projections, the impulses and compulsions the person is experiencing? In the spiritual life we are concerned with all aspects of the human person. One goes as a whole person to God. It is important to honor personal experience and the wisdom that one gains through the experience of directing a retreat. 

          Part of being a good director is learning what other good directors do. We have always encouraged directors to meet with each other daily in a retreat. Doing so helps me to get a sense of something beyond what I would do and to understand how other good directors do this. This community of directors is my reality check and a source of new information and skill. When directors gather to read and mull over these Annotations and Additional Directions, the spirit of them will help in the conduct of the retreat and be a valuable resource to all.