James L. Wakefield - Sacred Listening: Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola

Many people own a Bible. A lot of people read the Bible. But the task of every Bible reader is to become a Bible listener so that we can then start living the text. Ignatius of Loyolas SpiritualExercises is one of the most influential guidebooks for directing us in listening. Sacred Listening skillfully guides us through these exerciseshopefully making listeners of us all.

Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message; professor emeritus of
spiritual theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

I was struck by the strong, practical, experiential approach; by the way you catch the essential spirit of the Exercises and yet adapt them to today and your own Christian tradition.... It is 450 years since Ignatius completed the Exercises, and I am sure he is delighted by the way you bring them alive today.

Thomas Green, S.J., author, Weeds Among the Wheat
(commenting on an earlier draft)

Jim Wakefield has done a great service by making the SpiritualExercises of Ignatius of Loyola accessible to all Christians who are drawn to a deepening relationship with Christ. Sacred Listening offers life-changing possibilities because of its deep foundations in Scripture, prayer, and authentic engagement with similar intentional, seeking Christians.

Jeannette A. Bakke, author, Holy Invitations

I and many others have found Ignatiuss Spiritual Exercises to be the most powerful tool for helping us grow in our walk with God. Wakefield masterfully captures the heart of this life-transforming method and breaks it down in a way contemporary people can understand and put into practice. In fact, I believe this is the clearest and most practical application of Ignatiuss Spiritual Exercises Ive ever read. However, readers should be forewarned. In keeping with the spirit of Ignatiuss exercises, this book will challenge them like few books they are likely to read. Its not for the casual reader or curiosity seeker. But for those who are hungry and ready for a life-changing encounter with the living God, I seriously doubt there is a more practical and more profound resource than this book.

Gregory A. Boyd, author, Letters from a Skeptic and Seeing Is Believing

As a Jesuit for 62 years, I have been formed by the Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, our principal founder. During 50 years of priesthood I have been privileged to direct them hundreds of times on every continent, often the entire Exercises of 30 days, and more often shorter adaptations. I rejoice, then, at the long-awaited publication of Sacred Listening:Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, adapted especially for Protestants, by James Wakefield. Not only does Wakefield interpret this short spiritual classic excellently, he admirably adapts them for devout Protestants who cherish the essentials of their great heritage. Only one who understands and loves the deep spiritual dimensions of this heritage could have written this book. It will be for its readers, I hope, a classic manual for spiritual growth in genuine mystical prayer. May its readership continue to grow.

Armand M. Nigro, S.J., professor emeritus, Gonzaga University

James Wakefield has provided us with a remarkably helpful introduction to praying with the Spiritual Exercises, readable and eminently helpful, insightful and practical. Also notable: he builds on the best scholarship on the Exercises and makes it accessible to Christians of all traditions.

Gordon T. Smith, president, reSource Leadership International

2006 by James L. Wakefield

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2010

Ebook corrections 01.18.2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4412-0116-4

Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

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A Testimony of Ongoing Conversion

I have always been suspicious of religion. Cynicism comes too easily to me. Although I was raised in a staunch Mormon family, I became an atheist as an early teenager. Tragic events in my family led me to seek some spiritual reality at age nineteen, and I became a Christian. After this conversion in 1973, I finished a degree in world religions and went to seminary. My life was reasonably tranquil in September of 1984. I was a pastor in my second congregation. I helped start a theological seminary, and I was experiencing substantial professional satisfaction. My mother (now an Episcopalian) asked if I would like to do the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola with a group that she was directing as part of a masters project under Father John Sheets, S.J., at Creighton University. I knew very little about the Spiritual Exercises, but I knew that they were Roman Catholic. I also remembered an article on spirituality in Discipleship Journal (a decidedly Protestant publication) reporting that the Spiritual Exercises were a great spiritual classic. I finally agreed to be part of her project because I wanted to protect her from Roman Catholic mysticism. The cynic within complained bitterly!

In retrospect, I am greatly pleased the cynic lost. My experience of the Spiritual Exercises has been life changing. I found myself somewhat ruefully saying I felt I had been born againagain. Thinking back over the past twenty years, I can report four lasting benefits.

First, my relationship with the Lord is much more personal than it had been, and I pray often as I move through each day.

Second, I rediscovered that the Gospels are stories and that they communicate powerfully as such. Somewhere, in the midst of academia, the Gospels had become merely a source for teaching and preaching. Now they are filled with wonder and mystery.

Third, in the Spiritual Exercises I learned a descriptive code of rules for discerning spirits. As commonsense as these rules now seem to me, I had never made the very practical connections Ignatius points out for us. These have become foundational in my Christian walk, in my counseling, and in my teaching and preaching.

Finally, the Spiritual Exercises called me to a more physical discipleship and to a profound freedom with Christ. As I learned to pray with my imagination and my five senses, I discovered a deep desire to experience Gods greater glory in this wonderful and broken world.

A Brief History ofSacred Listening

As I finished the Spiritual Exercises in the spring of 1985, I began to consider how I might adapt them for use by others who do not have access to a spiritual director. My director used a guidebook published by John A. Veltri, S.J., and based the meditations on a very literal translation of the