PREPARATORY CONSIDERATION
The days of the retreat are the most important in the year. 1.The most important for the Exercitant; for his principal duty and highest interest are the salvation and spiritual progress of his own soul: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” What would it profit any of us to convert even thousands, if he loses his own soul? And if any one imagines that his own salvation is already secured, and no longer needs his principal care, he is a very ignorant or a conceited man.
2.These days are the most important for the salvation of our neighbor; since, the more one becomes a man of God, as a good retreat tends to make him, the better he will do the work of God. And the salvation of souls is pre-eminently the work of God, not that of human talent or industry.
3.They are the most important for the glory of God; since the glory we render to God is in proportion to our holiness, the purity of our intentions, theardor of our love and our other virtues; the increase of all of which is the direct purpose of the retreat.
The yearly retreat is important for all religious, whatever be the spiritual condition of their souls.
1.Those who are leading fervent livesare likely to receive during it special lights and graces enabling them to draw nearer to their Divine Lord;Amice, ascende superius, “Friend, come up higher.” The Holy Ghost is ever laboring at the sanctification of souls, of such especially as show themselves deserving of peculiar love by their faithful co-operation. Now this fidelity is most strikingly exhibited when we abandon all earthly cares to devote our whole hearts to the loving worship of the Lord, as we do in a retreat.
2.Such souls as are gradually allowing their fervor to coolamidst the distracting cares of an active life stand in special need of the Spiritual Exercises, to arrest their downward course.
When one runs down a hill, his descent is accelerated by his own weight, and he needs special help to avoid a serious fall. Such is the case of those who are losing their fervor, and a good retreat provides the remedy.
3.If any have unfortunately already lost their balance, and are hurrying along to destruction by the commission of serious faults, or by yielding to a no less dangerous tendency to tepidity, a good retreat is almost the only way of saving them from ruin. In connection with these thoughts it is well to reflect thatsome one of our annual retreats will be our last; it may be the present one. Many of those who made the retreat last year are now in eternity; and not a few of them saw no more reason then to expect so early an end than we do now.
It is very consoling for those who enter on these Spiritual Exercises to remember that their efficacy for good is far greater than men are apt to imagine; they are not merely human, but in some respects Divine; hence their extraordinary power to sanctify us.
1.These exercises are Divine in the truths they teach us; for they consist chiefly of meditations on the word of God; and the word of God is the seed of salvation:Semen est verbum Dei. It is not the learning of philosophers or scientists that brings us eternal life, but the teachings of Christ; and these are the power working in the retreat.
2.These Exercises are Divine in the principal directorwho conducts them; for in them the Spirit of God instructs and enlightens the soul of the exercitant and sanctifies it. The printed page containing these teachings, or the Father Master who explains them is not the chief power at work during the retreat, no more than the audible voice of Christ converted and sanctified the souls of His hearers. God speaks to our heart in the retreat, saying, “Hear, O my people, and I will speak.... I am God, thy God” (Ps.49).
3. Not only the several truths considered during these days are the word of God, but thewhole plan ofthese Spiritual Exercises is in a true sense Divine. For no one who is familiar with the facts ofSt.Ignatius’ life can believe that he had acquired, at the time when he produced this masterpiece of sacred wisdom, such knowledge of the spiritual life as it exhibits on every page. When he came to Manresa, he was a mere novice in spirituality. And in fact he himself always felt convinced that he owed these Exercises to Divine illumination. Thus, as Bartoli relates, “on one occasion the Saint confessed to Father Laynez that one hour of prayer at Manresa had taught him more concerning spiritual things than he could have learned from the instructions of the wisest doctors” (Life,I.p.57).
The object which this unique book has accomplished was to reduce the direction of soul to a science, that bases on certain principles of faith an exact and positive method, which, guided by the rules prescribed, insures almost infallible success. Considering the circumstances in which it was written we cannot but attribute this work to superhuman aid. Hence its wonderful efficiency, testified to by countless witnesses, and continued in the experience of three centuries till the present day.
Hence thehigh esteem in which these Spiritual Exercises are heldby the best judges in such matters. For instance, when the learned Pope LeoXIIIwished to select the best means by which he might prepare himself and his domestic prelates to gain the plenary indulgenceof the jubilee year 1900, he had two of our Fathers conduct in his palace the Exercises of the retreat; and, at his advanced age of over 90 years, he attended in person nearly all the meditations. His successor, Pope PiusX, gave similar marks of his esteem for these Exercises. There exists in our society a venerable tradition, which seems to date back to the earliest years of the Institute, to the effect thatSt.Ignatius was specially assisted by the Blessed Mother of God in composing his unique masterpiece. The inhabitants of Manresa, some years after his death, embodied this tradition in a beautiful painting, which they placed in the cave, representing him as kneeling before the figure of the Blessed Mother and Child, with his eyes fixed upon her lips, and his right hand extended as if ready to write what she dictated to him.
Father Henry Watrigant,S. J., relates that this tradition has been confirmed at various times by well authenticated revelations. Thus he says: “The venerable Father Louis de Ponte narrates that, when in the year 1600 Ours entered on their annual retreat, his penitent, the venerable Marina de Escobar, also began her retreat; and the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and said that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been as it were the foundress of those Exercises, having instructedSt.Ignatius to put them in that form.”
Having now understood what efficiency is attached to a good retreat, we naturally ask ourselveswhat we must do to secure these precious results. We must:
1. Enter seriously into that deep recollection which is the proper atmosphere for a retreat, avoiding during it all unnecessary intercourse with the outside world.
“God and I” should be the only objects of my thoughts; all else is a hindrance to perfect success.
2. We must diligently apply our mental powers to master the truths proposed to us; for that purposeSt.Ignatius bids us occupy ourselves during a full hour in each of the meditations or contemplations assigned. He adds that, “in time of desolation, the exercitant, in order to go against the desolation, and to overcome the temptation, must always remain a short time beyond the full hour, so as to accustom himself, not only to resist the enemy, but even to overthrow him” (Ann.13).
3. In the5thAnnotation the Saint says: “It will much benefit him who is receiving the Exercises to enter upon them with a large heart and with liberality towards the Creator and Lord, offering all his desires and liberty to Him, in order that His Divine Majesty may make use of his person and of all he possesses according to His most holy will.” He says elsewhere: “The more liberal one shall show himself towards God, the more liberal he shall find God towards him, and the more fit he shall daily be to receive in greater abundance His graces and spiritual gifts” (Rule 19).
4. Both during the meditations and at all other times of prayer, great fervor should be employed to obtain from the Lord those copious graces which He has in store for us, and which He desires to bestow;but it is a general law of His providence that they must be eagerly asked for, and to the best of our power deserved by our efforts and co-operation.
If these means are diligently employed, we can indulge a quiet confidence of great results; for the Lord does not invite us to a rich banquet without providing for the full satisfaction of His guests.