He was a visitor to our seminary, and our conversation had turned to the specific mission of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.  I mentioned that Venerable Bruno Lanteri had founded the Oblates to give the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius whenever they were asked.  The guest responded that although he respected Ignatian spirituality and knew that it was helpful to some, he found Ignatius’ severity to be rather off-putting.

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The image of a severe Ignatius could certainly be constructed from some of the events that immediately followed his conversion.  Ignatius had let his hair and nails grow, engaged in prolonged fasting, and was tempted to repeat the confession of past sins because of his scruples.  As a pilgrim in the Holy Land, he made an unauthorized return trip to the Mount of Olives because he could not remember the precise direction that our Lord’s feet were pointing when He ascended into Heaven.

 

The Seventh Rule

With this issue of our newsletter, we have reached Rule 7 in our series of articles on the First Week rules for the discernment of spirits.  “When one is in desolation,” Ignatius says in this rule, “he should be mindful that God has left him to his natural powers to resist the different agitations and temptations of the enemy in order to try him.”

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I can almost hear the visitor to our seminary reacting with a visceral, “Aha!  Ignatius believes that God leaves those who are in desolation to their own ‘natural powers.’  He withdraws His help, and the desolate souls must fend for themselves.  They can grow from their desolation only if they suck in their chest, enact their innate human powers of endurance, and soldier on.”

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If this were my understanding of Rule 7, I wouldn’t want much to do with Ignatian spirituality either.  But a balanced reading of the rule points to a very different picture of Ignatius.  To interpret this rule well, we need to consider a principle which was central to his spirituality.

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Trust and Act

This key interpretive principle is what author Jules Toner has called “Trust and Act.”  Ignatius sincerely believed that no human effort had any value whatever unless the person was acting in union with God and as God’s instrument.  In comparing sanctifying graces such as faith, hope, and love with natural gifts such as intelligence, creativity, and bodily strength, Ignatius insisted, “It remains entirely true that our complete good is in the first class of graces.”  In fact, he notably said that it is worse and more dangerous to possess natural gifts if we are not also profiting from God’s grace.  However, if we are profiting from His grace, Ignatius would have us spare no human effort in pursuing the praise, reverence and service of God.

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A nautical analogy may be helpful here.  It is said that living the spiritual life is more like riding in a sailboat than a motorboat.  The secret is to learn to be guided by the “wind” or “breath” of the Holy Spirit, always receptive to the urgings that will chart our course and power us along that course.  The difficulty comes when we try to power the boat with our own motor.

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If the wind and sail represent the graces and spiritual gifts infused by God and our reception of them, and the motor symbolizes human skill, Ignatius would agree only partially.  He would concur that the latter are useless without the former.  But he would add that once God has directed our sailboat toward His purposes, we should turn on the motor too!  In addition to giving us the sail, God has also made the motor (not to mention the sailor), and all of these are to be utilized for His ends.

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Ignatius drank in this truth through his own experience as well as through his theological training.  His natural gifts such as leadership, imagination, initiative, and courage in battle led him into great peril before his conversion.  Afterwards, the employment of these same gifts in God’s service helped to form him into the saint he would become.

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Back to Rule 7

We are now ready for a much better interpretation of Rule 7 than a severe Ignatius who simply tells us to “suck it up” during desolation.  The rule continues: “He [the one in desolation] can resist with the help of God, which always remains, though he may not clearly perceive it.  For though God has taken from him the abundance of fervor and overflowing love and the intensity of His favors, nevertheless, he has sufficient grace for eternal salvation.”

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Ignatius knew from experience that God does not abandon us in the waters of desolation to sink or swim; He powerfully provides the grace for us to endure and to counterattack by the means described in Rule 6.  Rule 11 asserts even more clearly that the Lord is the source of such strength: “By making use of the sufficient grace offered him, he can do much to withstand all his enemies.  Let him find his strength in his Creator and Lord.”

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When one making the Spiritual Exercises is in desolation, the director’s task is to encourage him with these truths.  Ignatius remarks in Annotation 7 of the Exercises that this is precisely the time for the director not to be severe: “If the director of the Exercises observes that the exercitant is in desolation and tempted, let him not deal severely and harshly with him, but gently and kindly.”

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So much for the severe Ignatius.  And may we never forget that God is always present to us with an abundance of His grace, whether we feel his presence or not.

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​For links to the articles on Rules 1 through 6 from past newsletters, click here.

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