IHS is a Christogram based on the first three letters of "Jesus" in Greek (Ίησους, Latinized IHSOVS); featured in the seal of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).
I hadn't planned on devoting this much posting to Ignatius but my work on my first post has led me in several directions, all of them fruitful.
This text is the second lesson in the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours for July 31. I believe there's a lot to offer here for a culture so absorbed by words and images that are "worldly" in ways I doubt Ignatius could have imagined. We read here that Ignatius had several different "attractions" in his reading. We certainly know attractions in our own choices around words and images and for some, the attractions become addictions.
Ignatius' thoughts here on discerning how these attractions shape our lives and spirituality are as relevant today as in his own time. As the writer here, Luis Gonzalez de Camara, notes, the experiences Ignatius related to him served as illustrations for the saint's spiritual exercises and the discernment of spirits.
Ignatius was passionately fond of reading worldly books of fiction and tales of knight-errantry. When he felt he was getting better, he asked for some of these books to pass the time. But no book of that sort could be found in the house; instead they gave him a life of Christ and a collection of the lives of saints written in Spanish.
By constantly reading these books he began to be attracted to what he found narrated there. Sometimes in the midst of his reading he would reflect on what he had read. Yet at other times he would dwell on many of the things which he had been accustomed to dwell on previously. But at this point our Lord came to his assistance, insuring that these thoughts were followed by others which arose from his current reading.
While reading the life of Christ our Lord or the lives of the saints, he would reflect and reason with himself: “What if I should do what Saint Francis or Saint Dominic did?” In this way he let his mind dwell on many thoughts; they lasted a while until other things took their place. Then those vain and worldly images would come into his mind and remain a long time. This sequence of thoughts persisted with him for a long time.
But there was a difference. When Ignatius reflected on worldly thoughts, he felt intense pleasure; but when he gave them up out of weariness, he felt dry and depressed. Yet when he thought of living the rigorous sort of life he knew the saints had lived, he not only experienced pleasure when he actually thought about it, but even after he dismissed these thoughts, he still experienced great joy. Yet he did not pay attention to this, nor did he appreciate it until one day, in a moment of insight, he began to marvel at the difference. Then he understood his experience: thoughts of one kind left him sad, the others full of joy. And this was the first time he applied a process of reasoning to his religious experience. Later on, when he began to formulate his spiritual exercises, he used this experience as an illustration to explain the doctrine he taught his disciples on the discernment of spirits.
-From the Life of Saint Ignatius as told to Luis Gonzalez de Camara
-ConcordPastor
Ignatius, a former soldier, wrote out the Spiritual Exercises as a manual of spiritual warfare as much as for individual spiritual development. His ideal of forming a corps of men (who swore personal fidelity to the pope) to educate Catholics and to oppose heresy resulted in one of the most successful orders in church history. He was called "hammer of heretics" and his order was dubbed "spear-tip of the Counter-Reformation." On this feast we can all pray that the Jesuits maintain their original charism.
ReplyDeleteWhen you refer in the previous post to the beginning of the Spiritual Excercises as a "fist principle" and "foundation" of Christian spirituality, it struck me that the term "Christian spirituality" is not one we commonly hear these days, though it is common enough to talk about spirituality. I am reminded of Christopher Dawson's: The Dividing of Christendom where he is speaking of the role of the Jesuits in the Counter-reformation.
ReplyDelete[The Society of Jesus would in fact exercise a far-reaching influence on every aspect of culture and impress its character on the whole period. Each of the previous periods of Christian culture had been particularly associated with some form of monastic or religious life. Thus the age of the Fathers is associated with the origins of monasticism in the East and the Fathers of the Desert. The early Middle Ages and the Carolingian period was the great age of the monks of the West, when the Benedictine abbeys were the centers of culture and education. In the later Middle Ages it was the Friars, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, who represented the new spiritual tendencies of the period and who were the leaders of the great movement of speculative thought in the universities. And so now in the period from the Reformation to the middle of the 18th century it was the Jesuits who met the needs of the age with new forms of the religious life.]
Here "Christian culture" and "forms of religious life" imply a christian spirituality. These different forms of religious life would necessarily follow from the above "first principle" of christian spirituality, but as different expressions of it suited to the circumstances of the time. This leads me to wonder what form a christian spirituality of the 21st century would take.
Ed:
ReplyDeleteI think there are moments in the history and life of the church in which profound truths are brought to light for the benefit of others. While I'm certainly open to what the 21st century will offer us, I'm also pleased to draw from "what was."
The greatest mistake we make in this, of course, is in thinking that only what is past is true or beneficial.
Care to speculate, Ed, on what forms you think christian spirituality in the 21st century might take?
"The greatest mistake we make in this, of course, is in thinking that only what is past is true or beneficial."
ReplyDeleteConcord Pastor, I'm a little confused by this statement. All revelation, I believe, ended with the death of the Apostles. Since then there has been a consistent unfolding of understanding of that revelation -- not a supplanting or an addition. Pope Benedict has called for the "hermeneutic of continuity," attempting to address what he clearly perceives as a rupture with the past in the practices and beliefs of some theologians. (I say "clearly" based on his actions, such as his issuing instructions lifting restrictions on the Latin Mass.)
Can there be something new, true and beneficial in the church that is not rooted in the past?
Since you ask, I think that "what was" still is. But the form it will take in the 21st century has not been fully revealed. Nevertheless, I think we have seen signs of something coming. Benedict's visit, after the precedent of his predecessor, has begun to show a gentler and a more understanding and engaging face of the church. On the other side, his constant remarks on faith and reason, for example in Deus Caritas, indicate the way that this engagement would take place. What is new here I think, or rather a further devlopment, is the way a spiritual human intelligence approaches a secular world. But these are "hints and guesses, hints followed by guesses; and the rest is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation" (TSE, Little Gidding).
ReplyDeleteGreat series on Ignatius, CP!! Definitely falls into the "what could one possibly add?" category AFAIC. :)
ReplyDeleteIn comments, you wrote: "The greatest mistake... thinking that only what is past is true or beneficial."
That may be a mistake in the church, but what the world would have us believe is precisely the opposite: that only what is brand new is of any value... a never-ending treadmill of doctrinal, intellectual, material and fleshly desire-turned-to-dust.
Think of movie sequels, brand extensions and product spin-offs, new models of any kind of electronic gadget, new cars, new houses, the latest hottest band or album, the latest scholarly research or book, the latest IPO, even the grass-must-be-greener 'new spouse' syndrome.
The list of the world's lies (about new being intrinsically better) is virtually endless, drowning out the truth of many old good things while heaping (often but not always deserved) skepticism on fresh revelations from God.
Anonymous writes: "Can there be something new, true and beneficial in the church that is not rooted in the past?"
ReplyDeleteNo. Nor did I infer that there could be.
With regard to respect for the hermeneutic of continuity: the most frequent subject of posts on this blog is the scriptures (closed revelation) and the "consistent unfolding of understanding of that revelation."
With regard to continuity with "the practices and beliefs" of the past: this week, over several posts (including the one at hand) I have referred readers to Ignatius' prayers and First Principle and to the application of this 16th century saint's spiritual exercises to contemporary moral problems. Oh, and then there was that quote from the Baltimore Catechism.
With regard to "instructions lifting restrictions on the Latin Mass..." The missal of Pope Paul VI is an example of something "new, true and beneficial" in the Church and "rooted in the past."
Thanks, CP, for your posts on Ignatius of Loyola. James Martin, SJ has written a beautiful memoir entitled My Life With the Saints. Because of your posts, I have reread his chapters on Ignatius of Loyola, Pedro Arrupe (superior general of the Jesuits from 1965-1983) and Aloysius Gonzaga. In the chapter about Ignatius, Fr. Martin discusses Ignatian spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises and how they have been woven into his life. As a novice (no pun intended) on these subjects I find My Life With the Saints very informative, but in an easily readable fashion. I highly recommend Fr. Martin's My Life With the Saints.
ReplyDeleteNovice: You made my day! It's a joy to know that something here has led a reader to take a step or two more along the path of the spiritual life.
ReplyDeleteCP,I know that some religious orders have a lay component. Do the Jesuits?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Novice
P.S. You and your blog make my day everyday!
I don't think so, but it happens that a Jesuit priest is staying with me for August so I'll ask him and get back to you.
ReplyDelete(There is, of course, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, but I think you're referring to something like a "third order.")
CP,
ReplyDeleteYou said the Mass of Pope Paul VI was new, true and beneficial. This brought to mind two questions about the celebration of that Mass at Holy Family. I've noticed that people here stand at the Consecration and after the Agnus Dei. And I've seen glass wine glasses used to distribute the Blood of Christ during Communion. I'm not used to this at other Catholic churches.
It's something of a mystery to me how my statement about the Mass of Paul VI being "new, true and beneficial" should occasion questions about minor liturgical matters in the ritual life of one parish. Nonetheless...
ReplyDelete(And I presume that you are not referring to overflow situations where standees are not in pews and kneelers are not accessible to them.)
The only times I can think of people standing at the consecration at Holy Family Parish would have been on a couple of occasions in the Easter season when the entire eucharistic prayer was sung. Other than those rare exceptions, the people at Holy Family kneel through the eucharistic prayer and thus are kneeling at the consecration.
We have not yet adopted the recent change asking for the assembly to kneel after the Lamb of God is sung. We continue the practice which the sacramentary called for until recently, the prior practice which, over 30+ years, many Catholic parishes never adopted. In fact, until recently, the sacramentary called for the assembly to remain standing after receiving communion through the prayer after the communion. That instruction was not observed in any parish in which I've been stationed over 35 years of ministry - although it was what the sacramentary called for.
One wonders why this change to kneel after the Lamb of God was introduced. Having knelt (in the United States)through the eucharistic prayer, the assembly stands after the Great Amen. (Why we kneel through the eucharistic prayer is a question for another day!) There follows the Lord's prayer, the embolism, and the sign of peace and the fraction rite with its song, Lamb of God. Strange, is it not, that we should be asked once again to kneel at this point, only to stand again to join the communion procession.
The rationale many will give for this change is "respect for the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament." But of course, Christ was really present in the Blessed Sacrament from the time of the consecration, through the end of the eucharistic prayer, during the Lord's Prayer, the embolism, the sign of peace and the fraction rite - through all of which the assembly remains standing.
Until our parish secures other worthy vessels, we shall continue to use the worthy vessels we have. When we have new ones, we will use them.
Once again I learn something new from your blog. I had never heard the term "embolism" used as part of the mass. Earlier this summer I attended mass where the parishioners kneel after the Lamb of God. It seemed strange to me since I have been used to standing. It was up then down then up again. I prefer to remain standing until returning from receiving the Eucharist. As for vessels, I have seen brass, pewter, glass and pottery vessels used for the wine. To me they are all worthy and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteTo toss another log on the fire! all the parts of the Mass have been decided on after long and careful consideration; each prayer and posture has meaning.
ReplyDeleteAs for vessels, it's explained here by the Vatican:
Redemptionis Sacramentum
Sacred vessels for containing the Body and Blood of the Lord must be made in strict conformity with the norms of tradition and of the liturgical books. The Bishops’ Conferences have the faculty to decide whether it is appropriate, once their decisions have been given the recognitio by the Apostolic See, for sacred vessels to be made of other solid materials as well. It is strictly required, however, that such materials be truly noble in the common estimation within a given region so that honour will be given to the Lord by their use, and all risk of diminishing the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic species in the eyes of the faithful will be avoided. Reprobated, therefore, is any practice of using for the celebration of Mass common vessels, or others lacking in quality, or devoid of all artistic merit or which are mere containers, as also other vessels made from glass, earthenware, clay, or other materials that break easily. This norm is to be applied even as regards metals and other materials that easily rust or deteriorate.
I was scrolling down quickly and at first thought that Ultraguy's handle was Ultraliturgy! I throw this comment in simply to help lighten the commentary.
ReplyDelete