Sean Salai - The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola: With Points for Personal Prayer From Jesuit Spiritual Masters

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola

ENDORSEMENTS

Theres nothing like holding a fine hardcover volume in hand, but from the first page, Sean Salai, S.J., brings the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius alive in a fresh and attractive way, along with a handy ribbon to mark your journey of prayer.

Bishop Robert P. Reed, President, CatholicTV Network, Archdiocese of Boston

We should be grateful to Fr. Salai for producing, in an accessible and enriched form, this classic translation of the Spiritual Exercises. For those who cannot attend preached or guided retreats, this method for making the Exercises in a self-guided manner could change their lives.

Fr. Gerald OCollins, S.J., Theologian and Author, The Beauty of Jesus Christ

This most beautiful edition of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius is a priceless gift for anyone sincerely seeking to follow Christ. Enriched with scholarly and spiritually discerning annotations, it will be a powerful instrument of grace, a sure guide to prayer and growth in faith, a great light in a darkening age, for this generation and for those who are yet to be born.

Michael D. OBrien, Author, Father Elijah series

For hundreds of years, Christians have used the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to deepen their prayer lives. In this edition, Fr. Salais notes and insights gathered from Jesuit spiritual masters who themselves were formed by the Exercises offers a deeply faithful and fresh presentation, helping further illuminate the way to a deeper friendship with Christ.

Amy Welborn, Writer and Speaker

The Spiritual Exercises of the soldier saint Ignatius Loyola have provided discipline and direction for those engaged in spiritual warfare for five hundred years. Fr. Salai has had the foresight to include reflections and recommendations throughout the book from an army of sane and saintly Jesuits. This new edition dishes out solid substance for spiritual growth for a new generation of spiritual warriors.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Author, Praying the Rosary for Spiritual Warfare

The painstaking work Fr. Salai has devoted to this text is evident from the start, and the result is a vibrant and deftly rigorous edition of St. Ignatius of Loyolas masterpiece of spiritual enlightenment. Through his contemporary annotations, Fr. Salai guides us through this often-challenging text with a gentle and encouraging spirit bringing a semblance of having a trusted retreat master by our side as we journey into a deeper understanding of Gods love.

Paolo Dy, Writer-Director, Ignatius of Loyola movie

This new edition of the Spiritual Exercises unites indispensable lessons from the first generations of Jesuits with voices from the most faithful sons of Ignatius today, reminding us that Christs Church truly is ever ancient and ever new. Fr. Salais selections will assist any serious person of prayer in the Holy Spirits gifts of self-knowledge, discernment, freedom and a greater sanctifying love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only true giver of the Exercises.

Fr. David Meconi, S.J., Director of Catholic Studies Program at Saint Louis University and Editor, Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Father Salai has done the Church a great service in editing and republishing this classic French version of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Not a substitute for making an Ignatian retreat, it is a very attractive entre and resource for both the retreat master and the retreatant a timely response indeed to our Jesuit Father Generals recent decision to make the Spiritual Exercises an Apostolic Priority for the whole Order.

Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J., Diocese of Oakland

In this terrific edition of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, Fr. Sean Salai, S.J., draws on numerous Jesuit saints and scholars to illuminate the meaning of the text. This book may be the most useful edition of the Spiritual Exercises available today.

Dr. Christopher Kaczor, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University, and Author, The Gospel of Happiness

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
OF ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

With Points for Personal Prayer From Jesuit
Spiritual Masters

Edited and Annotated by Fr. Sean Salai, SJ

Being a twenty-first century updating of Fr. Charles
De Places Manresa: The Spiritual Exercises of St.
IgnatiusFor General Use (1914 English edition
published by Frederick Pustet & Co.)

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina

IMPRIMI POTEST:

Very Reverend Ronald A. Mercier, S.J.

Provincial of the United States Central and Southern Jesuits

March 21, 2019

NIHIL OBSTAT:

After review, I have concluded that the materials presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.

Reverend Charles N. Rowe, S.T.D.

Censor Librorum

April 1, 2019

IMPRIMATUR:

In accord with 1983 CIC 827 permission to publish this work is hereby granted.

Most Reverend James V. Johnston, Jr., D.D., J.C.L.

Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph

April 1, 2019

Copyright 2020 Fr. Sean Salai, S.J.

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Caroline K. Green

ISBN: 978-1-5051-1379-2

Published in the United States by

TAN Books

PO Box 410487

Charlotte, NC 28241

www.TANBooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

With gratitude to our loving Creator, I dedicate this edited and annotated devotional edition of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola to my Jesuit brothers and all who seek Jesus Christ with a sincere heart. I offer it particularly for all who desire to use the Exercises for personal prayer, but who lack the resources and time in our frantic age to encounter them in a formal retreat house setting. Through the intercession of St. Ignatius, may the Lord bless our good desires to grow in his friendship, and may this edition serve as a one-stop compendium of Ignatian wisdom and self-guided prayer helps on the Exercises.

Editor

+Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam+

For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole
world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what
exchange shall a man give for his soul?

Matthew 16:26

CONTENTS

[Numbers refer to sections, not pages.]

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Fr. Claude Pavur, S.J., able Latinist of the Institute of Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College, for identifying Fr. Charles De Place (also spelled Deplace) as the original editor of this translation of the Spiritual Exercises and for supplying his biographical information. Thanks also to Fr. Joe Tetlow, S.J., for reviewing the text in light of his expertise with the Exercises, and to my America Media colleague Joseph McAuley for his copy edits especially on Bible citations.

THE ENDURING LEGACY OF CHARLES DE PLACE

I n 1808, Charles De Place came into the world as a Frenchman, born at a time when the Society of Jesus had been suppressed universally since 1773 and in France since 1764. In 1814, the year Charles turned six, Pope Pius VII restored the Society. European nobles who had capitulated to Enlightenment pressure to suppress the Jesuits for political reasons, now chastened by atheist revolutions, wept openly at the ceremony restoring the sons of Ignatius. Ten years later, at age sixteen, Charles entered this restored Jesuit order.

Upon entering the Society in 1824, young Charles made the full thirty-day silent form of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, placing himself with Jesus in the Gospel scenes as he prayed to discern Gods will in his life. But times had changed during the half-century that the suppressed Jesuits had survived as a small remnant in Russia, isolated from the rest of Europe yet preserved from total destruction by a canonical technicality. The Jesuits of De Places day, slowly rebuilding a vast educational and missionary network from its lowest ebb since Pope Paul III formally established the order in 1540, soon discovered a growing demand by clerics, vowed religious, and laypeople for access to the Exercises. Although the book of the Exercises had long been treated as a retreat manual, published primarily in its Latin typical edition and restricted to authorized directors, people from all walks of life now wanted to pray with the master-work of Ignatiusand the restored Society lacked a critical mass of experienced spiritual fathers to guide everyone.