CHARACTERISTICS OF IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY
Coming out of the Spiritual experience of Ignatius of Loyola and based on his Book of Spiritual Exercises, Ignatian Spirituality offers a unique pathway for coming to know Jesus and his saving message in a deeply personal and vital way. The following 5 characteristics give a brief overview of its scope and power:
Ignatian Spirituality is TRINITARIAN. God the Father is at work in each and all transforming us into Christ by the power of His Spirit. We are a trinitarian people called to be one in the unifying love that is God. Hence it’s a radically communitarian spirituality. Life is communion with the Trinity and through the love of the Trinity with brothers and sisters. Our lives are full of experiences of God’s love and of God’s initiatives that invite us to live and share that love with others. Ignatian Spirituality is experiential.
It is CHRIST-CENTERED. Jesus is the Lord and Savior. He is the Sacrament of the Trinitarian life. The Father has placed us with the Risen Christ through the gift of the Spirit to companion, labor, suffer and set free with Him. It’s a biblical spirituality. It invites us to enter into the History of Salvation which has Christ as its center; and through Christ to discover the meaning of the movement of all history.
It’s a spirituality of CHOICE at the level of faith. God chooses us in Christ to be His own. God invites us to respond to this initiative in freedom with our choice of Him. In choosing Christ, we make choices that recognize God’s Reign: that God is the origin, end and focus of all that is. It is a spirituality of discernment. It lives attentive to the movements of the Spirit in and around us. Its goal is God’s love.
It’s an APOSTOLIC spirituality. Its goal is to help people. God is found and served in those ministered to. It moves us to serve the faith by promoting God’s justice. Devotion flows out of service done in love.
It’s a spirituality that FINDS GOD IN ALL THINGS. It’s a spirituality that loves the world and finds it full of God. It’s a secular spirituality. God is present everywhere, gifting us, laboring for us, filling our lives with all blessings. It’s a spirituality of gratitude that recognizes that all is gift. Our gratitude motivates our response. It sends us forth.
