Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuit

 

"# After a full recovery that left Loyola with just a slight limp he began to build on the new ideas that he had discovered earlier. Shortly after Loyola put together a series of exercises that were to followed by his people. "Ignatius applied the lessons he had learned during his convalescence to a program of religious and moral self-discipline that came to be embodied in the Spiritual Exercises." # Even today, the Spiritual Exercises are considered the most fundamental book of the Jesuit Order. The success of the Spiritual Exercises comes from the problem Loyola tries to solve in it, "How can the individual attain inner peace?"# This particular question was a very integral part of the entire Exercises. "This psychologically perceptive devotional guide contained mental and emotional guide exercises designed to teach one absolute spiritual self-mastery over one's feelings. It taught that a person could shape his or her own behaviour - even create a new religious self - through disciplined and regular practice."# "The two main components of these Exercises are: An encouragement towards spiritual life and a test of aptitude for the particular kind of religious activity that Loyola wanted." # Those who completed the exercises to the fullest felt the benefits of the exercises and "were inevitably bound together."# The Exercises remained a top priority throughout Loyola's years. Every member of the order must complete these at least twice in their entirety, at the beginning and at the end. These Spiritual Exercises were the foundation of what was yet to come.
             .
             Loyola's next step happened to be organizing a small group of well educated men into a brotherhood that would eventually lead to a new religious order. After a few attempts at starting a new order he finally got the right group of men together and inspired them with his spiritual teachings. "Thwarted in their attempts to go to the Holy Land, they resolved a religious order, to serve God in a new way under the "Banner of Christ.


Essays Related to Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuit