Of the Fruit That We Should Gather When We Betake Ourselves to These Exercises

IN three things particularly we should set our eyes, to gain them from the Exercises. The first is to renew ourselves in the ordinary things that we do every day and perfect ourselves in them, since all our advancement and perfection consist in doing these ordinary things and getting them well done. Let no one think that making the Exercises consists merely in recollecting oneself for eight or fifteen days, spending much time in prayer. All that is only that one may come out of retreat with a habit established of making one’s meditation better, of observing the additions and instructions given to make it well, of making one’s examens well, of saying or hearing well mass and divine office, of making one’s spiritual reading with fruit, and so of all the rest. To this end does a man disengage himself for a time from other occupations to exert and practise himself in doing these things well, that he may come out renewed and accustomed to do them so and ready so to do them in the future. Thus our Father says that during the whole time of the Exercises, which is a month when they are made in their entirety, the particular examen should be kept on the observance of the additions and the diligent and exact fulfilment of the Spiritual Exercises, noting the faults that are committed regarding the one and the other, that so the exercitant may become habituated and accustomed henceforth to do all these things right well. And he repeats this many times, as understanding well the great means of self-improvement therein contained. And not only in regard of spiritual duties, which are the mainspring that should give force to all the rest, but in all duties and occupations, the exercitant should come forth improved by the Exercises, drawing from them support henceforth to do his office better and his ministries, and to keep the rules.

Thus the fruit of the Exercises is not for those days of retreat, but mainly for the time that follows. It is when a man comes forth from the Exercises that we are to see the benefit of them in his works.

The second thing that we are to aim at gaining from the Exercises is to overcome ourselves and mortify ourselves in regard of certain evil tendencies and imperfections that we have. Let each one set his eyes on those things in which he is prone most ordinarily to go wrong or to be the cause of others’ going wrong by the offense and disedification that he gives them, and contrive to come forth from the Exercises amended on this point; and then he will have made the Exercises right well, for that is what they are particularly for, and that is their end. The title which our holy Father prefixes to the Spiritual Exercises is the following, in the original Spanish: “Spiritual Exercises, for a man to overcome himself, and order his life without being determined by any affection that is inordinate.” Hxercicios espirituales para vencer & si mismo, y, ordenar su vida, sin determinarse por afeccion alguna que desordenada sea. This means that one should aim at coming out of the Exercises altered and transformed into another man. And thou shalt be changed into another man, said Samuel to Saul (I Kings x. 6)—into a perfect man, says St. Paul. (Eph. iv. 13). It should be seen in a man’s subsequent proceedings that he has made the Exercises. If before he was a lover of talking and losing time, let it be seen that now he is a lover of silence and recollection; if before he was a lover of comfort and his own ease, let it be seen that now he is a lover of mortification and penance; if before he spoke biting words, that henceforth he speaks them no more; if before he was lax and careless in the observance of rules and made no account of little things, that from this time forth he is very obedient and very exact and takes account of things quite small and minute and by the grace of the Lord does not fall into any deliberate fault. For if a man is to continue exhibiting the same evil propensities and faults and come out just as he went in, what is the good of the Exercises?

St. Ambrose (De Poenitentia ii. c. 10) has a story of a young man; and as he tells it, we may tell it also. This young man had gone wrong. He had occasion to take a long journey, and during that time he changed his mind. He came back to his native town and, meeting his former companion, he gave her a wide berth. She was surprised; and thinking that he had not recognized her, she went up to him and said: “I am Harriet.” He replied: “But I am not Harry.” He was a changed man. In this way we should change and transform ourselves so as to be able to say with the Apostle: I live, now not I, not I that lived of old under the Law, and persecuted the Church, but Christ liveth in me (Gal. ii. 20). And this, says St. Ambrose, is what Christ our Redeemer means by saying: If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself (Matt. xvi. 24) ; let him change himself into another man and contrive not to be what he used to be. Of our Father Francis Borgia it is related in his Life how he conveyed the body of the empress to Granada, how the Lord there gave him great light and opened his eyes to the vanity of the world by that spectacle of death which he had before him, and how on his return to court, as he says, he seemed to find the court quite changed. It was himself that had been changed and transformed by the knowledge and enlightenment that God had given him. In this way, then, we should come out of the Exercises with the new light and awakening to reality that the Lord is wont to impart in them.

The third thing that we should set our eyes on to gain from the Exercises follows from the former; it is the gaining of some virtue and some point of perfection, particularly that which we are in greatest need of; for the rooting out of vices is done to plant virtues in their stead. “Two things,” says that holy man (Thomas 4 Kempis), “aid much to advancement; the one is to turn away with a vigorous effort from what one’s nature is viciously inclined to”—here you have the former thing insisted on—‘‘and to labor earnestly for the virtue that is most wanting to us” —which is this third thing. So the Directory to the Exercises, treating (Chapter 6) of the way in which we of the Society should make use of them, observes that we should not spend all the time on the first week, two or three days being sufficient for that, but should pass on to the other meditations which involve greater perfection.

Among other suggestions there made is this, that from time to time we should take up some leading rules in which are contained all the perfection we could desire; as the rule that says that, as worldly men love and seek with great diligence honors, fame, and the repute of a great name upon earth, so we should love and intensely desire the contrary. Take to heart in retreat the gaining of this perfection and the attainment of this degree of humility, that you rejoice as much under ignominies and affronts, under injuries and false testimonies, as worldly men rejoice in honor and reputation. If you do that, you will remain master of many strivings and foolish impulses that usually come in our way, to being held in honor and repute, one man for his learning, another in the discharge of his office, another in his ministrations and management of business—trifles that get in the way and greatly impede our spiritual perfection. Take to heart another time the rule that says: “Let all in all things endeavor to serve and please the Divine Goodness purely for Itself, rather than for fear of punishments or hope of rewards.” Try to attain to this purity of intention, that you seek not your own interest in anything, neither little nor great, neither temporal nor eternal, but in all things desire purely the will and glory of God, that being your satisfaction, forgetful of yourself and of your own advancement and convenience. Take to heart another time the gaining of a most perfect conformity to the will of God, taking all things that occur, great and small, in whatever manner and by whatever way or means they come, as coming from the hand of God. On these and the like points of perfection we should fix our gaze when we go into retreat to make the Exercises, and not stop till we do gain them.