[B.] St. IGNATIUS of LOYOLA Presentation: The ... - St. Gaspar Bertoni

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The seventh will be, as far as there is reason to believe that it might help us to rejoice in
our Creator and Redeemer, to make use of the light and the pleasures of the seasons, for
example, in summer of the refreshing coolness, in the winter of the sun and fire.
The tenth will be, instead of penance, to attend to temperance and moderation in all,
except on days of fast and abstinence ordained by the Church, which must always be observed if
there is no legitimate excuse. 2 †††
Here follows:
Contemplation to Attain Love of God
[Contemplatio ad Amorem ]
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2. A Few General Reflections on This Text of the Fourth Week of the Spiritual
Exercises
Presentation 3
[1] First of all, the Constitutions for the Company of Jesus, and the Spiritual Exercises
of St. Ignatius, are not only two masterly works from the pen of the soldier Saint. Rather, these
are two writings that complement each other. The Spiritual Exercises are the internal means,
the substantial nucleus of the Saint’s own life. In the Constitutions there lives the same spirit,
but with a concrete body which gives to the exercitants vigor and energy. The Spiritual
Exercises really need the Constitutions as the soul to the body. The Constitutions provide the
body, and incorporation of the ideals of the Retreat. And the Constitutions need the Exercises
as the fruit of the seed. The Constitutions translate the spirit of the Exercises - the rule of
life reflects what the Lord Himself wrote on the hearts of the first Jesuits in their retreat under St.
Ignatius. This spirit was communicated to them in their making their Spiritual Exercises.
[2] There is a clear juxta-position of the generating principles of both books, if we do not
want to speak of a substantial identity at base.
[a] The fundamental criteria of the Exercises form the back-bone of the
Constitutions. The formulae which regulate the Jesuit life, even to the least prescriptions: it must
always be that which ”would be pleasing to the divine glory” - “to look always to the glory of God
our Lord” - “the greater spiritual profit for souls and the glory of God our Lord” - we must “do all
so that God Our Lord will be the more served and glorified in all things. These are not mere
formulations that drop out of mid-air. They are, instead, the unchangeable criterion of the principle
and foundations of the entire life.
[b] All the natural and supernatural means that can contribute to the fulfillment of this
end - creatures of the Exercises - are taken under examination in conformity to this norm. All
serves for the Glory of God, i.e., if they reach God, then they are acceptable to St. Ignatius. If
some works do not do that, then Ignatius would leave them aside. All is admitted which would
lead to the achievement of the end for which he established the Company of Jesus. In the last
analysis, the Company of Jesus is that institution that seeks to lead human beings to live and
move within the orbit of the ultimate principle and foundation. St. Ignatius himself expresses this
2 The Editions followed here are: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Based on Studies in the Language of the
Autograph. Louis J. Pohl, SJ. Chicago: Loyola University Press 1951, pp. 132, ff.; cf. also Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius Loyola. An American Translation from the Final Version of the Exercises, the Latin Vulgate into
Contemporary English. Lewis Delmage, SJ, NY: Wagner 1968.
3 cf. “Introduccion: Constituciones y Esercicios, in: Obras completas de San Ignacio de Loyola. Madrid: BAC
1963, pp. 388, ff.