The spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius : $b adapted to...

POINT I.Accende lumen sensibus, “Enlighten our minds.” See what a change the Holy Ghost produced in the minds of the Apostles. They had failed to understand the teaching of the Blessed Saviour. He had said to them: “Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of man. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged and spit upon. And after they have scourged him, they will put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again.” And St. Luke adds: “And they understood none of those things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said” (xviii, 31-34). And a little while before Christ’s ascension into Heaven the Apostles asked Him: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?” (Acts i, 6). They were still so blinded that they only looked for earthly power. But the Holy Ghost came down upon them, and at once they understood all the meaning of Christ’s doctrine.

Ever since that day the same Divine Spirit has been teaching the Church, enlightening the minds of its members, enabling them, not only to give a mental assent to the doctrines proposed, but habitually to take God’s view of things. This is done by the faithful generally, even very simple souls, “Thou hast revealed them to little ones” (St. Luke x, 21). This should be done by us, religious, especially, and it should characterize our teaching and the tone of our conversations; while on the other hand, “The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him and he cannot understand” (I Cor. ii, 14).

POINT II.Infunde amorem cordibus, “Infuse Thy love into our hearts.” The Love of God is sanctity, and it is a gift of the Spirit of God. “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us” (Rom. v, 5). It is the most precious of all gifts and, like every good gift, it is to be obtained by fervent and constant prayer. For “Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (St. James i, 17). We are especially encouraged to ask this gift from God, by the fact that Christ Himself assures us that the Lord loves to bestow this treasure on those who eagerly ask for it; for he says:

POINT III.Infirma nostri corporis virtute firmans perpeti, “Strengthen the weakness of our bodies with lasting power.” Give us the virtue of fortitude, an abiding willingness to do and to suffer whatever the service of God may require. This willingness is the test of our love for Him and the chief means of our sanctification. We exercise this willingness by patiently toiling along, suffering checks and contradictions, meeting with disappointments without being disheartened by them, enduring fatigue, pain, regret, shame, etc. We may meet all these trials in the sacred ministry, in the classroom, in humble labor, anywhere; and that not occasionally, but daily, hourly, yet without fretting or murmuring, but cheerfully, joyously, buoyantly, scarcely noticing them, but treating them as matters of course in a life of generous sacrifice. St. Augustine points out three degrees of patience. In the lowest degree are those who would rather endure their sufferings than commit sin to escape from them. Those are in the second degree who accept willingly what God sends, simply because God wills it. We ascend to the third degree when we desire to suffer that we may more closely resemble our suffering Lord. This is a special gift of the Holy Ghost, our third degree of humility.