IGNATIAN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES TRAINING (ISET)
2023-BLOCK FOUR – SESSION 29
THE FOURTH WEEK: CONTENT, STRUCTURE AND ACCOMPANYING
Russell: [00:00:00] Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to you all. Welcome to the 16th of October already, can you believe it? 2023. It’s good to be with you all again, and I’m going to ask Anne to lead us in prayer. Thanks, Anne.
Anne: Thank you, Russell. A very warm welcome to you all from me. [00:01:00] I’m going to lead you through a short contemplation, and I’m going to be pausing once in a while for you to ponder the questions that are contained in the contemplation.
If it’s helpful, switch your video camera off, and just make sure that you are on mute.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Become present to yourself and to God.[00:02:00]
The first contemplation in the Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises involves Jesus appearing to His mother.
Imagine the scene, Mary’s house. What does her house look like?
Become Mary, sitting in her house [00:03:00] overcome with grief and despair at losing her son. Where is Mary sitting?
Are you aware of any smells, fragrances?
Is it warm? Is it cold? Is it raining?[00:04:00]
How is Mary sitting and where?
Imagine yourself as Mary, fully immersed in her Holy Saturday moments, pondering what she’d experienced, absorbed in her grief, grief that we can relate to because of loss in our own lives.[00:05:00]
As she’s sitting there, Jesus comes. He appears to His beloved Ema, His mother, who had watched him die on the cross.
What do you think they would have said to one another? Spend a few minutes thinking about what they would have said.[00:06:00] [00:07:00]
What does Mary’s experience have to do with your life, our lives?[00:08:00]
How does Jesus leave His mother, His Ema? How did she take her leave of Jesus, her Beloved son? [00:09:00]
As you’ve experienced this contemplation, how are you left feeling? Is there something that you want to hold on to that you maybe want to just talk to Jesus about?[00:10:00]
We gently leave the scene with Jesus and Mary, our conversation with Jesus, and we become present into this sacred space once again, this meeting place, We ask God to grant us the grace of wisdom and understanding. May the story of Jesus and Mary’s meeting live with you for a while, [00:11:00] soaking it once again into your very soul. Amen.
Russell: Amen. Thank you very much for that, Anne. That’s the place that we’re going to be going today in our class. So welcome again, everybody. We want to consider today, as you would have seen, the content of the Fourth Week and the giving of the Fourth Week. Last week, you’ll remember that Trevor helped us to engage with the big picture of the Fourth Week, and now we’re going to look a bit at the text itself today and what may be important to remember [00:12:00] in the giving of the Fourth Week.
You’ll see there in the introduction what’s included in the Fourth Week. There are these apparitions for the gospel contemplation, there’s the contemplation on the love of God or the contemplatio, and then the three ways of praying, which is really helping us to transition out of the exercises.
We’ve separated this out a little bit, and today, we’ll be dealing with really those apparitions for gospel contemplation here in the beginning of the fourth week, We are going to still come to the contemplation, and the three ways of praying. So, we want to focus today on the apparitions and the resurrection. Then when we’ve done all of these, we’ll see how we put the Fourth Week together.
Let’s begin with when is a person ready [00:13:00] for the Fourth Week or to enter into the Fourth Week? Remember that if someone receives the graces of a week, this signals the transition into the next week. I’m going to rely here on Joseph Tetlow, who gives us some indicators of what can help us. He says—first of all, there is a sense of the lightening of spirit after the Third Week, that once the person has prayed the Third Week, there’s a kind of lightening of spirit that begins to happen. There’s this true experience of being with Jesus, and a focus on Him and not on the exercitant’s sinfulness or on the exercitant themself.
We’ve spoken about this before, that the focus in the Third Week is really Jesus Himself—being with Jesus. The focus is not on ourselves. The First Week, the focus is on us, and that shifts in the Fourth Week and the focus is on this [00:14:00] being with Jesus.
Tetlow says, a willingness to accept the issues in one’s life—there’s a realism about that; that we accept ourselves and the issues of our own life. An awareness of the election or the renewal of life as a blessing; that struggle with the election or that challenge with the election is now slightly changed that it’s not so much the election, but the blessing of the election or the renewal of life that the person has made. A sense that it’s accomplished—the words that Jesus uses on the cross—it is accomplished; that the person themselves feels that the week that they’ve walked through is accomplished with what they have done.
Maybe one could say a sense of being spent, a sense that this is over. Perhaps there’s an expressed desire to move forward from the person to face the future. Sometimes we get little hints of [00:15:00] this towards the end of the Third Week. The person may be hinting at resurrection or new life.
There may even be, Tetlow says, an impatience to get on with mission, to get on with doing something—a quiet sense of contentment and satisfaction, a recognition that there’s nothing left that needs to be brought up with God, that the person has In as far as they see and can tell brought the things up with the Lord that they wanted to bring up with the Lord.
A desire to make a self-offering—an offering of oneself to God. So, we prayed through the election and now there’s a real sense that I want to offer myself to God. Maybe perhaps even Tetlow says the director is not really needed anymore. The person [00:16:00] comes and it’s flowing; that maybe there’s a sense that the director is not key—that the person doesn’t need the director anymore.
The transition from consoling Jesus in His passion to Jesus consoling the one making the exercises—Joseph Tetlow says that could also be something that is indicative of the fact that a transition can take place. So, the transition from consoling Jesus in His passion to Jesus consoling the one making the exercises. Then also a deep sense of peace; that the person now has a deep sense of peace.
The transition happens with the tomb day, which we’ve mentioned already when we did the Third Week. The tomb day in the 30-day format is an empty day. The person does not meet with their director that day.
There’s no Eucharist. There’s no formal prayer [00:17:00] periods. It’s just a simple day. That’s all. It’s somewhat like Holy Saturday when we wait and accompany Mary, and the other people close to Jesus. So, it’s just a simple day.
In the 19th annotation context, which is the context in which most people are doing it these days, the tomb day is usually a chronological week when we move the person from the Third Week to the Fourth Week. it’s normally around about a chronological week. It can be extended a little bit, if necessary, but you don’t also want to linger for too long. You don’t want to leave that for too long, but there’s just a sense that there is a movement taking place.
A reminder, too, of the grace that we are praying for and its effects. And I found Michael Ivens in his book, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, [00:18:00] gives some very helpful descriptions, which I thought I would share with you because I think this helps us as we accompany somebody in the exercises.
We mentioned joy. We speak about joy and especially the joy of the resurrection, but I want to unpack this a little bit; the grace that we’re looking. So, paschal joy, the joy which springs from fundamental grace of faith and love that make the Risen Christ, though invisible, the very core of the believer’s existence. So, in other words, I think what Ivens is saying we’re not looking for the grace of something that’s going on here, but really down here that there’s this deep sense of faith and love in the Risen [00:19:00] Christ. That’s the core of our belief as Christians.
The joy we are asking for here consists in this transforming experience. There’s a sense of union with the Lord that is the grace we are looking for in this week—that somehow, we’ve moved and there’s a union taking place as we pray through this week.
This joy, this union really is a consolation, and that consolation is always moving a person to God’s service as we’ve spoken about, apostolic mission. So, there’s a sense of strengthening that’s taking place. There’s an energy; there’s a courage to participate in the work of the kingdom that, from that union with Christ, there’s this real sense that I want to know [00:20:00] participate in the working of the kingdom, in the work for the kingdom, in the work of the kingdom.
It’s also a joy we’re looking for that engages the whole person, that somehow penetrates everyday experience, the ordinary joys of life, but kind of a real deep sense of those that we’re looking for and that somehow, we can see this joy maybe even in places that we haven’t seen it before.
I think that’s quite important, the grace that we’re looking for which is joy, but this deep sense of joy that arises from within and that somehow is seen and supported by the ordinary joys of life, the ordinary daily [00:21:00] experiences. That’s not to say that there will be times when there’s not sorrow or there’s not a heaviness, because that’s part of human life. But somehow that paschal joy seems to always offer a hope, even when we are confronted with the sorrows or the struggles or the challenges of one’s life.
Brian O’Leary, who’s written a number of books, but also has a very interesting article in the periodical, The Way, called Consola and Consolation. He puts it like this. He says—
Just as a paraclete does not merely console but cause to action, so the risen Christ in the fourth week does not communicate a static sense of well-being, but a joy that of its very nature burns [00:22:00] inside us and cannot be contained. Its fruit is community, ecclesial ministry, and mission. Mission, ministry, and the giving of consolation are dimensions of sharing in the joy of Christ in his risen life.
But I want to also put a word of caution here. I think it’s important that we’re not to be expecting a sudden dramatic shift into joy and sometimes people can do that. They expect suddenly things are going to blow forth and there’s going to be this dramatic shift into joy.
I’d say that usually the sense of resurrection dawns gently. It’s not something that suddenly, boof, you put on a switch and everything is transformed, but it’s going to, over a period of time, [00:23:00] as we pray through the fourth week and afterwards, the sense of resurrection and this deep joy gently begins to dawn. It’s not a kind of “he’s alive again,” like someone’s been resuscitated from the dead and suddenly “boom,” there a huge, big, dramatic scene. It’s more the dawning of a deep sense of the presence of Christ in me, around me, in others, in the world around me, and in all things.
You’ve already had and heard before Rob Marsh. Rob Marsh puts it like this, also in The Way, in an article called Discovering Joy, Four Thought Experiments for the Resurrection. He says—
Probably the most tempting naturalizing trap for someone praying the fourth week is to presume. that it should follow the spirit of the Paschal Triduum.”
He’s using Catholic language there—Good [00:24:00] Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.
The liturgy of the Triduum runs to a fixed rhythm of death, burial, and resurrection, and evokes an emotional response. When the candles are lit and the lights are turned on, we say, He is Risen and turn to Easter songs to urge our hearts to happiness. We sing hallelujahs.
Marsh says—
The grace of the fourth week is not given smartly with the first contemplation of the risen Jesus any more than the grace of the first week is given with the first exercise on sin. It cannot be forced. The grace, being grace comes when it will, and it has to be a surprise. There is no natural way of making it happen.
So just to be aware that we are looking for this deep sense of joy, which develops slowly, [00:25:00] which grows in us with a deepening sense of the presence of Christ in me, in others, and in the world around me. Then we also have in the Fourth Week this idea of the office of consola. Gradually we are consoled as we experience Christ’s presence in a new way, and then we are moved to minister that consolation to others. And Marsh says—
What Jesus gives the disciples in the resurrection appearances is not an idea but an action, a liturgy, something for them to do. It is in the doing that they find themselves on a new path.
So, the Fourth Week is not a return to the way things were with Jesus, but the turning upside down of one’s relationship with Jesus [00:26:00] and with the world—that Jesus gives the disciples something for them to do. And so out of this joy that the exercitant experiences in the Fourth Week, the consolation of Christ’s presence, they feel moved to go and to console others.
When the disciples receive the consolation of the Risen Christ, they experience an inner urge and an imperative to share that consolation with others, and this also expands their joy. This should be true too for the exercitant, when the retreatant receives the consolation of the Risen Christ, they begin to share in his office of consola and are moved to mission. They start to think about the future, about how to [00:27:00] participate in the building of the kingdom.
We often talk about finding God in all things. We have in the exercises been inducted into new ways of living. that sees now, especially hopefully, begins to dawn in this Fourth Week, everything is permeated with Christ’s presence, and we experience that with deep gratitude, which especially in the contemplatio, which we still will talk about. But it’s not like that we are now seeking to find God everywhere, but that God is always and everywhere seeking and finding us wherever we are. So just that subtle difference. It’s not us that’s seeking, but God that is seeking us and finding us wherever we are.
Let’s look at some of the materials for the [00:28:00] for this Fourth Week. If you go to the Spiritual Exercises and you don’t have to go there now, but I’m just pointing this out. From number 299 to 310, you will find in there the 13 apparitions that are suggested. Some are scriptural and some are not. It starts with what Anne used tonight, that non scriptural apparition to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and it ends with a contemplation on the Ascension.
I just want to look at that now a little bit. I don’t think there is, from my point of view, a necessity to cover all the material offered in the Fourth Week. What is key is that the text which we give will help the person enter into the week and receive the graces that we’re looking for, those graces that I spoke about, especially [00:29:00] that grace of joy.
Ivens identifies three types of apparitions. He says—
- Apparitions leading to personal faith and to witness.
- Apparitions in which the details are more explicitly ecclesial. In other words, connected with church.
- And then a final series which displays Christ showing Himself in a beautiful way, some of which are not biblical.
Notice that the Fourth Week contains no contemplation on the resurrection as an event. The first is the apparition to Mary in the spiritual exercises. And in doing this, Ignatius is simply following an ancient tradition. In fact, if you go to Manresa and you go to La Salle, the church where we spoke about in the autobiography, Ignatius [00:30:00] used to go and pray.
When he was living in Manresa in those nine months, in La Salle, La Sault, there’s still an altar frontal there. Now, during the Spanish Civil War, a good chunk of that building was destroyed, but some of the altarpieces were not touched and are still there today, and there’s a specific altarpiece that has a depiction, an icon, of the Risen Jesus visiting His mother. Some scholars will say Ignatius got this idea from this ancient tradition, that it was that icon in LaSalle that inspired him when he was praying through himself the resurrection of Jesus.
So, I think, as I’ve said, in the Fourth Week, the current practice is not to cover all 14 of the meditations or the contemplations, but to choose a few that you sense will help the [00:31:00] retreatant to receive the grace of the Fourth Week, and maybe in this week most especially, less is more. They may stay just with two or three apparitions if that is helpful for them.
The first contemplation is number 218 there, that how Christ our Lord appeared to our lady. This is a non-biblical contemplation. Ignatius here is drawing on literary sources like that icon I’m talking about, like Ludolph of Saxony, who wrote,
It was fitting that he came to the mother before anyone else and through his resurrection first brought joy to her, who more than anyone else loved him and had been more pained by his death. Even if this is passed over by the evangelists. it is nevertheless an important [00:32:00] belief.
John also, in the Gospel of John Chapter 20, verse 7, we hear, There are signs which Jesus did that are not recounted in the Gospels, and He appeared to many others. Mary may have been one of those.
The Ignatian scholar, a wonderful Jesuit who just died recently, very tragically at a young age from cancer, Philip N. Dean, he writes about Our Lady and the Fourth Week. He seems to suggest it’s quite a theological paper, but I think this is quite interesting that Ignatius is opening a space to a more contemplative, unitative, apophatic movement. He says,
The risen Lord does not remain exterior to Mary in this apparition, as he does for the disciples, but he lives in her, he indwells in her again. And Mary testifies to a power of God within us, able to accomplish far more than we can ask or [00:33:00] imagine.
In other words, that somehow moving through praying with the resurrection that this Christ becomes present in us in a way that He was indwelling in Mary, which I thought is a beautiful picture for us as well.
So, if we look at the text very quickly, you should be very familiar with this text. It should come easy to you. It should also come easy to the retreatant. There’s a preparatory prayer as usual, number 299. Then there is there the first prelude. You bring the narrative to memory. The second prelude, which is the contemplation or composition of place—seeing the place. The third prelude to ask for what is desired. And there you will see that we’re asking for the grace to rejoice and be glad intensely, and so great glory and the joy of Christ our Lord.
Then we have the first point to see the persons in the scene and to draw profit from them. [00:34:00] The second point is to hear what they are talking about and to draw profit, and then the third point over there, to look at what they are doing and to draw profit in the fourth to consider how the divinity now appears. Remember the contrast here; in the Third Week, the divinity is hidden and right at the beginning of the fourth week, the divinity again is seen. We’re able to see the divinity.
Then we have the fifth point to consider Christ in His role as the consoler. The Vulgate version reads—
To appreciate with what promptitude and abundance the Lord discharges the office of consoling his own, making the comparison with a consolation that can be given by a very great friend.
And then at the end we have the colloquy. It’s really a pattern that we should already be familiar with in the exercises. But notice [00:35:00] it’s a colloquy or colloquy’, depending on the subject matter—so single, double or triple colloquy or colloquies. And there are a variety of combinations of contemplations and repetitions that can be given.
So, you need to just go and look carefully at those colloquies, but whatever, of these contemplations you use in the Fourth Week, there should always be a colloquy in each exercise and an application of the senses as the last exercise of the day. Okay.
So, the Fourth Week of the exercises, little really is said compared with the other weeks. By now, Ignatius is really giving the one making the exercises more freedom, because by now, the one giving the exercises has helped the exercitant to really get a sense of an [00:36:00] ownership of it for themselves. So, the fourth week should be spacious and for Ignatius, it must be in no way encumbered by lots of detail.
As I said, there’s a real sense that less is more and maybe for some, perhaps it’s a shift into a more wordless way of praying. I think there is definitely a change in the way that people pray between the other weeks and the Fourth Week.
In number 227, Ignatius suggests that a number of prayer periods be reduced back to four hours plus, of course, the two examens and for those as well for celebration of the Eucharist or some communal thing. He also suggests that the exercitant follows a modified pattern of prayer from the Third Week, namely three contemplations and an application of the senses. Ignatius stresses that the form of prayer be the same as in the third week, modifying only [00:37:00] points four and five, and that’s really about all that he says about the Fourth Week. There’s not a huge amount that he says in the text about the Fourth Week.
There are four notes which apply to the Fourth Week from number 226 to number 229. You can take a look at those.
Note One: In all the contemplations of the Fourth Week, from the mysteries of the resurrection to the ascension inclusive, the usual pattern for each prayer should be followed as in the previous week. We’ve just spoken about them—preparatory prayer, the preludes, the points, the colloquy.
Then Ignatius says, Note Two: Make four exercises and not five—the three contemplations and one application of the senses.
Note Three: The number of points can be adjusted— [00:38:00] more or fewer according to what the exercitant may find best. So, there is also a kind of natural movement towards contemplative simplicity, which I think Ignatius is trying to honor here; that sense that maybe we are moving into a much more contemplative way of praying, maybe even a wordless way of praying.
And then Note Four: He says, of the 10 editions from the first week, so 73 to 82, some are modified. The additions of the fourth week stress thinking about things which give pleasure, happiness, and spiritual joy, taking advantage of light and seasonal delights, as well as whatever will help me to rejoice in Christ, my creator and redeemer. It’s important, though, that this should be insofar as it helps the person [00:39:00] to be disposed to receive the grace of sharing the joy of Christ.
Ignatius gives a lot of leeway here for the person to enter into the mysteries in the way which helps them best, in the way which, for lack of a better way of phrasing it, sets up the grace that’s going to help them best.
Then there are also a number of additions there. He says, “as soon as I wake, I recall the atmosphere of joy, which pervades this week and review the particular mystery about which I am to contemplate.” Ignatius has done this before. He’s asked us, remember, especially in the first week as well, he talks about keeping the eyes lowered, things like that. So again, notice how he’s bringing into and helping us through physical things as well. I wake up and I recall the atmosphere of joy, which pervades this week. Then he says, “Throughout the day, I try to keep in mind the things which [00:40:00] move me to happiness and spiritual joy.” He’s asking us to be intentional about that as we pray through this week.
He says as well in addition 7 there, “I’ll try and use any environmental factors, sun, warmth, coolness, breeze, the beauties of nature, to reinforce my sense of joy and consolation.” And he also says, “Avoid penance and adopt an attitude of moderation in all things.” So, I think there’s something here about the discipline of celebration, not in a forced way, but in opening ourselves to joy, in sharing life with others, in fun, in opening up to those things which give us life, which are life giving to us, that are going to help us be in and enter into, or at least the exercitant to be in and enter into this week.
In the context of [00:41:00] the retreat in daily life, in the 30-day retreat, the Fourth Week usually takes around five days, including the contemplatio. In the retreat in daily life, the 19th annotation, it can take around six to eight weeks, which is probably right for most retreatants. The materials are the resurrection appearances, repetitions, the resume, the application of the senses, and often interspersed with the points of the contemplation and we will still be talking about that.
Some people may find poems and music helpful. You also have that very helpful file of resources from Kathi which may also give you some ideas/resources as well. So, remember too, poems, music, imagery and maybe even for some people who are retreating in daily life, looking at a film with a certain genre that brings [00:42:00] joy may be helpful as well. Just be aware of the resources that we can use.
For the experience for the director, maybe perhaps just a couple of things to mention. First of all, once again, this is a privileged place of witness, and I’m using the word witness because I have a sense that during the fourth week of the exercises, it’s almost like the director’s fallen off the perch a little bit, that the director is there to witness, to gently guide, but really to witness the person moving into and growing in this joy of the resurrection.
There may be a sense of envy evil as the grace of the Fourth Week is received, if we find ourselves estranged from that grace, or maybe we find that at that moment in our lives, we’re not living out of that grace. It can be an invitation to us to [00:43:00] receive that grace again, or to re-engage with our own experience of the Fourth Week, so just to be aware of that.
There is, for the director then, an awareness that the retreat is coming towards the end. For some people, there may be a sense of loss that can be there for the director and maybe for the directee as well, which might be important for you as the director or the accompanier to discuss in supervision. The director is just to watch what is going on as well within yourself as we start to move into and through the Fourth Week.
There are a couple of other things to be aware of in directing the Fourth Week. Don’t worry if the person reports that their prayer is less content filled. Don’t worry about that. Remember, the prayer may be moving [00:44:00] towards less content, less words, more of a contemplation. It’s more about noticing the graces and the consolations. Don’t worry if suddenly the person comes, and they’ve got less to say than what they’ve said before. That’s okay. That’s okay.
Don’t be too concerned if there’s resistance in the Fourth Week, because the Fourth Week grace can be difficult sometimes, and it can be difficult for a whole number of reasons. We touched on last week even—why it can be so difficult. We live in a world where things happen and that can impact the person as well. So, there may be resistance, especially if the person is in a painful or difficult place in their lives. If someone, for example, is making the exercises shortly after, or maybe within that year something has happened, it might be quite difficult for them to enter into this joy and that’s okay. That’s okay. Someone may be processing a [00:45:00] bereavement or working with people in a very painful place, and so they may not immediately be able to enter into that joy.
For those who find themselves in a place of loss or grief, it is the emphasis there, once again, on allowing Jesus, the Consoler to accompany them. Remember I said that right in the beginning. There’s a sense that on the cross, we’re accompanying Jesus; there may even be a sense of consoling Him. Notice how that moves now that Jesus is the consoler, and allow Jesus to console them, to accompany them in their grief in whatever space they find themselves.
It’s not helpful to try and nudge retreatants into this deep sense of joy prematurely. If you think about it, people are coming out of that week of passion; the passion itself may have evoked things that still [00:46:00] need to be processed. Just carefully watch that as well. That’s okay. We’re then allowing Jesus, the Consoler to work.
Janet Ruffing, in The Way, in her article, Resurrection Faith in the Midst of Grief, Where is the One That I Love? She says this—
Resurrection faith in the midst of grief is a complex and unpredictable affair. When retreatants enter the Fourth Week in the midst of bereavement or social desolation, the Fourth Week can be experienced profoundly if the sadness can be welcomed. as Jesus the consoler is invited to touch the retreatant in ways unique to each person’s story.
So, there may be that false expectation of emotional high or a peak experience—just to be aware of that. That’s not going to be the case most of the time. And [00:47:00] sometimes, some people will be carrying all sorts of things as they come into the Fourth Week. John Veltri says—I
t’s important when moving into the Fourth Week to find out how your directee understands the grace being sought. He says, yeah, the words used to express the grace—to rejoice and be glad intensely can be misleading. Resurrection joy is still the drop of water falling on the sponge, sweetly, lightly, and gently. The grace for which you as a director are listening is not the joyful relief of intense sadness that the Third Week is over, nor is it the exuberance, he says, of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.
He says—
Most often the grace sought has that quiet, delicate quality of the picnic scene in the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel. [00:48:00] Those who have received most of the graces of the earlier stages of the exercises tend to experience the graces of the Fourth Week with a more subtle, delicate quality.
So, a reason as well, just to be aware from the director’s point of view, that someone may also find it a bit difficult is that now fatigue might also begin to set in. This has been an intense time of prayer. The Third Week may have been very intense, and just to remember that fatigue may begin to set in. There might also be in some people, and I suspect that this may be more perhaps in the 30-day format, than in the 19th annotation, a desire to return to active life. People want to now return to active life after these intense, this intense month or this intense time of prayer. [00:49:00]
A Jesuit who taught for many years at Georgetown University in D. C., he says we must also remember the cultural dynamic here. He says, “We do not live in times that understand or easily practice spiritual joy.” Just to be aware of that as well; that this deep joy we’re looking for is not something that is culturally practiced by us today.
In his Choosing Christ in the World, Joe Tetlow does talk about fatigue, and he speaks about climbing the last pass. Fatigue. in the later weeks and he says, “Retreatants may start to miss sessions or lessen their prayer time or share less about their prayer experience.” And he says, “Gentleness is always important, perhaps even a week’s break, and then an encouragement to recommit themselves to really engaging in the fourth week.”
Remember, I spoke [00:50:00] about that tomb day, so between the Third and the Fourth week, if you see the person is really exhausted or fatigued, maybe a week’s break might be a good thing, and then encourage them to move into the Fourth Week, recommitting themselves and really engaging in the Fourth Week.
Ignatius doesn’t suggest the encounter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in John’s Gospel, which is a very helpful one; especially for many women especially if you think of Mary Magdalene as the Apostle to the Apostles—a sense of being empowered and a sense of being sent that may be an especially helpful one to consider as well. So once again, just as the director to note that Ignatius doesn’t suggest that, but that could be a very helpful scriptural text that you can use.
Then the last thing I want to say, because I see I’m almost on time, [00:51:00] is that the graces of the Fourth Week flow into the contemplation to attain love as God loves. In a sense, maybe even we could say a love which cannot be contained, which must then flow out in service. We speak about, this contemplation to attain love. We contemplate this love; we realize it cannot be contained and therefore what we do is it flows through us; it flows out in service.
As you see the desire for this growing in the retreatant, you’ll start to realize or recognize that the retreatant now may be basically ready to move into the contemplatio, which we’re going to deal with. So, we’re going to be praying through this first part, if you’d like to call it that, the first [00:52:00] part of the Fourth Week and then these six to eight weeks or so, and then we start to see that the retreatant is ready for the contemplatio—that growing desires, noticing that something must flow from me, that somehow I must go and be apostolically engaged. I must go on mission. I must go build a kingdom. That’s the hint that the person is ready for the contemplation.
Then we begin to move into the contemplatio and what is now becoming more and more being called the Fifth Week of the spiritual exercises, which is almost life beyond the exercises, and perhaps that is the longest week of all, that Fifth Week.
Okay, so we’re on we’re on time. We’re just on the hour. I’m going to invite [00:53:00] you, as usual, to take time now to reflect and so forth. Maybe the question that I just want you to sit with—in your experience of the Fourth Week, did you notice anything different? Did you notice something different from those other three weeks? Was there something about the Fourth Week that was different for you? And then we’ll come back at 20 past six, and we’ll go into our normal groups. Thank you very much.[00:54:00]
Welcome back, everybody. You know the pattern. I was just saying that Trevor’s answering all the questions tonight. I said that when he didn’t have his earphones in, did you notice? I just told them you’re answering the questions tonight, Trevor. Great. So, any reflections, any insights? What did you notice? The screen is there, Liz.
Liz: I noticed that we all were learning the principle of indifference, which comes through in all these weeks, the Third and the Fourth, [00:55:00] that Jesus is with us no matter what, and we are with Jesus, and we can trust him absolutely. There’s no place for hell in the Fourth Week. That doesn’t mention it at all, because it just assumes we’ve dealt with that earlier on in the First Week and somewhat in the Second Week, and we are just walking into Heaven with the Lord.
Russell: Thank you, Liz. I really like the way you’ve put it there, and that sense that this is moved into a transformed space, and where the focus is on this deep sense of this abiding presence of the Lord that conquers all. Thank you. [00:56:00]
Vivianne: Yeah, some people in our group said that they appreciated you mentioning that there’s no rush to get out of the grief or to live in appreciation or I almost want to say setting a table of being hospitable towards the sadness that it leaves at its own time instead of rushing it out the door and living in an appreciation that we will continue to live with pierced hands.
So, thank you for reminding us of that because we do live in a culture that sort of wants to rush to the joy and forget about how there is still lingering pain. Yeah, there were notes of that in our group and I appreciate that you highlighted that for us. [00:57:00]
Russell: Thanks, Vivianne and maybe just to add a little bit to that, because I think it is so important as well, this idea of rushing and this idea of joy in culture. I don’t know about there, but certainly in South Africa of entitlement and all sorts of things.
This kind of resurrection is the long road stuff. It’s what goes with us out of the exercises as well, so in a sense, we talk about the Fifth Week, bur the Fourth Week, moves into this Fifth Week. So, the resurrection is an ongoing kind of the thing that’s happening and therefore that joy as well will over time and maybe even a while after someone has completed the exercises—that joy is always going to visit if we’re living in that space of resurrection despite anything else that happens. I just think that’s also so important. So, thank you for that and thanks for highlighting that.
Vivianne: Yeah, it sounds like you’re trying to encourage the slow burn instead of the quick [00:58:00] explosion that we would often prefer in our culture, that the duration is what’s really going to keep us steady. Thank you.
Russell: Yeah. Trevor, you want to say something.
Trevor: This is really for the sake of repetition, but I really appreciate what Viv says, and what you said earlier that it’s not one or the other. I’m not either kind of sad or happy or sorrowful or joyful that it’s always going to be held together within the context of our lives today, always, I feel; and it’s never going to just be joy and that’s why I appreciate it, Russell, [00:59:00] just your underlining of the quiet dawning of joy and using maybe those small natural moments of joy in our everyday life to enhance, perhaps, our experience of Christ’s joy in our life within painful realities, which are never going to go away.
Russell: Thanks, Trevor.
Trevor: It could just be my melancholy speaking as well, so I need to be careful.
Russell: I don’t think so. I think that’s so true.
Angela: I think [01:00:00] that when I thought about the slowness, the words that came to me—because that was my experience, very slow, like not over weeks, but maybe over the next two years—was more than that of authentic joy and sustainable joy because of how it comes gently and slowly.
Russell: Yeah. Thanks for that, Angela. Authentic joy. I think that’s so important. That sustainable authentic joy, because in the world in which we live, joy can be so fleeting, but I think that idea of it being authentic and maybe the measure of that authenticity is its sustainability, despite what’s going on is just so important, you know?
Melanie: It seems like the hope component is so important. You mentioned that joy offers hope in the [01:01:00] challenges of life. That’s what comes to me as I listen to Trevor and others and you speak in this is that joy that comes with hope, that even in the midst of suffering, even holding the cost and the resurrection, there is still a place for hope and joy that things won’t always be as they are, because we will all take our lights to the world and make our small differences. Maybe I’m just, I don’t think, I hope that doesn’t sound like a Polly Anna but that’s what sustains me in these seasons when there is so much out there that is disheartening.
Russell: Thank you, Melanie. If I can, I really want to just underline what you’re saying there, and I’m just going to use a personal story from this last week. So, there’s a community member of mine, a colleague who went back [01:02:00] to Israel to teach and got there on Saturday and has been there in the last couple of days through everything that is going through. I phoned him the other day and we were talking, and he was describing just how things are there. And I don’t need to tell you this; we know. And I said to him, What hope is there? What hope is there, there? Is there any hope at all type of thing? It seems like just such a dire situation on every front and he said to me, which I thought he was being flippant, and then he wasn’t. He said to me there’s only one hope and that’s the risen Christ. And that’s why I stay here, and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, and that’s why, we need to do X, Y, and Z, and he spoke about a whole lot of things. And I almost, I don’t know, I’m not embarrassed, but I felt kind of….what’s the word I’m looking for? It felt really awkward and I, for some reason, thought okay, that’s an easy answer, but [01:03:00] it’s really got me thinking about this idea of hope—that this idea that Christ has risen is what keeps me and sustains me through all this and that’s quite huge. I think that’s what you’re saying. I think that’s what you’re saying. Yeah, very powerful.
Melanie: I love how N. T. Wright says that we’re living in the now and the not yet.
Maria: Yeah, I wondered if in the exercises, one of the key themes is that we’re tethered to Christ, come what may.
Russell: Thank you, Maria. Yes, we’re tethered to Christ, come what may. Sure. That’s a really wonderful image, and as we come into this Fourth Week, and I was thinking about that sort of union, maybe even seen in ways where prayer becomes less wordy, [01:04:00] more contemplative, that there’s the sense of this union with the Lord. You’re putting it in another way for me, that we’re tethered to Christ, come no matter what, Thank you.
Trevor: If I may just add, I wonder also if what we are saying, what your colleague was saying, and what’s just been said by Maria that to be tethered to Christ or our hope is in the Risen Christ—I wonder if that’s the link with apostolic ministry that it’s not just an inward Christ. is in me. I’m in Christ. It’s like a little bit of a vacuum, but that because I’m in Christ and because I’m tethered to Christ, it’s almost the energy to [01:05:00] practice resurrection in whatever way is possible with the energy of Christ and to practice resurrection in a world that remains a crucifying world.
For me, just what actions; how do I practice resurrection every day? In my relationships and in my family life and in my community. I think for me, my experience of the Fourth Week has this link of rooted in the Risen Christ flowing out in the practice of resurrection or just practicing it, you know, and I think that maybe that’s got something to do with that receiving consolation in the Fourth Week and then allowing the consolation to [01:06:00] flow into me and also through me to those around about me.
Russell: Thanks Trevor. I like that practicing of resurrection—the mission is Practicing of resurrection. Heather.
Heather: Russell, while you were talking, a new thought came to me, and it was one of the huge impacts that the exercises had on me was finding God in all things. And I think what I realized this evening was I’m “an all thing,” so it was finding God in me that actually was completely transforming. You hear Christ in me and all that, but it was when I actually found Him in me that so much changed. It was such a realization because God is always seeking me and [01:07:00] finding us wherever we are, but I needed to find God in me.
I always thought He was out there, but when I discovered He was in me, that was a game changer kind of thing. So, I don’t know if I’m making any sense, but it was like amazing.
Russell: Yes. Thanks, Heather. You’re making absolute sense, and the kind of language we use as well, okay, God is seeking me. It’s okay. God is out there somewhere looking to see where I am or whatever, but that idea that finding God in all things includes finding God in myself, and not just finding God, but finding the resurrected Christ, the hope of the resurrected Christ within me. As you say, that’s powerful. That’s a real game changer.
I had someone recently who said to me, when I got to the [01:08:00] Fourth Week and I got to just before the contemplatio, and the director was talking about, the joy of the Risen Christ coming from deeply inside you, he said to me, I’d always expected this joy to come from Christ out there; it never dawned on me that this joy was something that I’m not going to find out there, that this joy was something that was deeply within myself. He said that’s what kind of just made the exercises for me. That was my moment realizing that the hope of the Risen Christ can be found within my own heart.
Heather: Yeah. I did the exercises 15 years ago, and I think it actually just dawned on me today.
Russell: Wow!
Heather: It’s been such a revelation, so thank you.
Russell: Thanks Heather.[01:09:00] Tracy.
Tracy: Going back to what you and Trevor were just saying, and something we talked about in our group, was just more of a curiosity of what made Ignatius focus on the resurrection as a sharing in the joy of Jesus versus the event of the resurrection itself. And I think as you guys were talking, it made me curious if the “sharing in” was Jesus modeling the apostolic calling for us so that we could learn how to share in that joy with others. There might be an actual—this is why Ignatius did it that way. I don’t know, but I felt curious about that and just cool to think about, how Jesus would share in that ongoing ministry.
Russell: Thanks, Tracy. Yeah, that’s a good [01:10:00] question. So, when you first started to talk, I was thinking Ignatius was also quite personable, quite practical, and I think, the idea of sharing in that joy would be for him that thing of propelling me to do something with it. Because just naturally, human beings, I think when we are in a place of joy or place of consolation, it somehow does want to find its way out in some way to others.
I think Ignatius theological context had a lot to do with this as well. He was living in the time of the counter reformation, all this kind of stuff was happening with this big emphasis on sin, etc. and that’s how he started off as well. That was transformed for him, and I just wonder almost if Ignatius is wanting to share or wanting us to share in Christ’s joy is also [01:11:00] sort of counter to the negative theology that was happening around him at the time. Yeah, I don’t know, Trevor, Brenda, Cherie-Lynn, anything you want to add there?
Trevor: Not too much. I’m intrigued by the question. I really am. It seems like we go down the two things that give us confidence in the resurrection. On the one hand is “ the empty tomb story,” and on the other hand, it’s the transforming energy of the resurrected Christ in our lives and Ignatius seems to go down that second route much more than the first one, but he’s not trying to convince us with arguments and rational reasons [01:12:00] why we can believe in the resurrection. It’s almost as if we are being invited to enter into the story of Jesus, who is alive now and as we enter into this ongoing resurrection story, we will come to know Him in our own experience, as opposed to maybe kind of trying to work out exactly the mechanics of the empty tomb.
I’m just offering that. I just feel that the resurrection stories invite me to participate in the ongoing resurrection story of Christ alive today in our lives, rather than looking back to one past event in terms of the two, I just feel there’s more energy for [01:13:00] mission and ministry.
Russell: Just to continue, I was just looking in the exercises—number 223, the fourth point—Ignatius has got there, “consider how the divinity, which seemed hidden during the passion now appears and manifests itself in His holy resurrection through its true and most holy effects, What Trevor is saying there is that it’s not that the resurrection is not something that we go back to. It’s not something that happened there, but its effects are ongoing, and I’m wondering if Ignatius is pointing to that in that as well.
We’ll get there and I don’t want to steal anyone’s thunder, but for next week as well. When we’re praying the contemplatio, that contemplation. [01:14:00] so that was what Christ does take on the cross in the Third Week, and there’s resurrection and now we are praying that prayer of resurrection—take Lord and receive….” exactly for this, so that we move forward, that the resurrection continues as we live it out. I don’t know if that makes sense. Vivianne.
Vivianne: Well, actually, my question was fitting right in with Tracy’s because I was just curious when you were speaking that you brought attention to this idea that, we’re not actually given the contemplation of “go into the tomb and watch him starting to wrestle under the burial clothes,” and I never really thought about that.
I wasn’t sure, and maybe we’ve just answered that, if it was because that would have been a really common thing to have already considered was one thought I had, or if whether that’s too holy and too much of a mystery for us, but it seems like Ignatius is always [01:15:00] coming at it from these different perspectives and he’s happy for us to stand there at the cross and have the blood dripping down on our heads and all these very “in the thick of it,” then to not really encourage that.
I wasn’t sure if maybe that was because at that time that was something that people already did and this was a different perspective, but I think maybe we just talked about that. Maybe there isn’t any new insights on that. It’s just a mystery of why that wasn’t, or if it’s something that ought not to have been touched upon. Yeah.
Russell: I wonder, too, if for Ignatius, it’s quite clear, I think if one contemplates the resurrection scenes in the Gospels. How do those who encountered Jesus recognize Him? They don’t recognize the kind of Jesus of Nazareth, the man, for lack of a better word, the Jewish body that’s 33 years old, right? They recognize Jesus through the effects of the resurrection, [01:16:00] right—consolation, peace, this drive to go and to tell the whole world. There again, it’s like these effects.
So maybe for Ignatius, the putting of the kind of emphasis on experience rather than trying to work out, what happened and which cloth fell away in the tomb type of thing. The experience for him is really the thing that grabs hard, that transforms. Melanie.
Melanie: That just really stirred in me when you talked about that the resurrection is what transforms. Not being able to recognize Him maybe right away in his Risen form that the contemplation that meant so much to me in the Fourth Week was in the garden and Mary and when she mistook [01:17:00] Jesus for the gardener and then He called her name, and it was in the calling of her name that she heard. And for me, it’s moving me as I speak, as I listen, it’s building on the P and F and disposition days and just all the way through and I shared in our group as well that I just continue to want to listen for God’s special name for me, because that is how I am connected and so that continues to be my prayer that I understand more and more clearly my name so I can respond in friendship and on mission.
Russell: Thank you, Melanie. We lost you a little bit there, but I think I got what you were saying. Yeah, they don’t recognize [01:18:00] Jesus with their external senses. It’s almost like when Jesus says Mary’s name, she’s given a new eye. There’s like a third eye. There’s an inner eye there that recognizes something, and that’s where it happens. So, you point to something there. I don’t like to use the word, but it’s almost like the mystery that you are pointing to there, that somehow, that third eye, that inner eye, whatever word one wants to use, that’s where the recognition takes place.
Liz: I think it fits with Ignatius that the Gospels never tell any details about how Jesus was resurrected, where they tell everything about Lazarus coming out of the tomb and it smelled, and the cloths were on him, and he walked out. And when you resuscitate life, you give details, but when you transform life, you speak [01:19:00] about how it transformed other people, and I think it’s also interesting why Ignatius left out Mary Magdalene. I hate to think it may be sexism, but I think it’s very strange that he left out Mary Magdalene’s visit with Jesus, since she was the first one, although he thinks that Mary preceded her; maybe that’s why he left her out.
Russell: Yeah. It’s a curious question, and I like that question. There are all sorts of explanations to it. It’s interesting that he leaves her out because Ignatius generally, if you want to dig through his life, his relationships with women indicate this deep sense of how women formed him. I wonder too, whether this idea of going to his mother, and the visual of seeing that there and that altar frontal and just the natural thing that, okay, who [01:20:00] was the person standing at the cross and who would have been the first person he would have gone to even before Mary Magdalene in Ignatius’s idea would have been obvious to him—his mother.
So, I’m not sure that there was a sexist thing about that, but I mean who knows? I think Ignatius would have been so focused on who would have been the first person that he would have gone to, but that woman who had been there from the beginning. In Dean, I quoted Philip in Dean captures it so well that he goes there because it’s almost like this indwelling where he started; he goes back to that indwelling and shows how that indwelling happens in us through the resurrection. II’s that eternal instant in that moment that Mary has this capacity to understand it all because she’s been there from the beginning. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting too theological, but I wonder about that and it’s a very interesting question. [01:21:00] I see Trevor wants to say something.
Trevor: Yeah, I just love that helpful distinction between resuscitation and resurrection. Thank you, Liz.
Russell: Ignatius was aware of this Lazarus story and also wanting to make sure that we know that Resurrection is not resuscitation, that Lazarus dies again whereas this kind of thing that happens here, this eternal hope that we were talking about is there; we are tethered to it as Maria said earlier, yeah.
Okay. I’m seeing some in the chat. [01:22:00] I wasn’t watching the chat. So maybe Chris is asking for the articles in the way. Sure. And Denise is saying, Anne, can you share your meditation from the beginning today? We’ll get those to you. We have time maybe for one more before our time together is up.
Speaker 14: Russell, I’m just wondering if the Ministry of Consolation comes out of the joy, and I know it does, but just thinking going back through the [01:23:00] last three years, as we maintained that there was a reason to live, not just exist.
There was a reason to have joy. There was a reason to celebrate. People were drawn to that aspect of us and then looking for consolation in their circumstances. I wonder if this is not the driving force of all of the exercises is the consoling nature that comes out of the joy that draws people to Jesus. It’s the drawing people to Jesus that is important, including ourselves. It draws us to Jesus as well.
Russell: Yeah, thank you, Shirley. It’s almost a very nice way to bring the curtain down for tonight that that [01:24:00] deep joy is the kind of birthplace of consolation. And it is also that deep joy that is the birthplace of witness. It’s the birthplace of action. It’s at the heart of it all.
But the specific joy we’re talking about is this joy of the Risen Christ that is the engine or the fueling of everything else. Yeah, I like that. The fire, the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Did not our hearts burn within us? They suddenly got in touch with that joy that was burning within them that made them go back to Jerusalem.
Don’t go further. It’s dark. We can’t go anywhere else. Just stay with us for the night. He goes off, Jesus from their side. Then suddenly it’s okay to go back, even though they didn’t want him to go back, because that joy. They suddenly got [01:25:00] in, in touch with that burning joy that couldn’t stop them. They had to go back. They had to go back to Jerusalem. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Shirley.
I don’t know if anybody wants to add anything to that. Liz, I see your question about Philip and Dean’s book. That’s an article he wrote as well, which is in the way. So, I’ll just get copies that and I’ll ask Pam to send them off to you. So, it’s not a book. He’s written many books but that was specifically from an article in the way. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you, everybody. It’s been great to talk to you about this and I feel consoled by our discussion tonight and with great hope. So, let’s pray, and I think Cherie-Lynn is praying for us tonight. You’re in the corner of my screen, Cherie-Lynn. Thank you.
Cherie-Lynn: I invite you to just sit back for a little minute and just let the deep wanderings and discussions of this evening wash over you and that whatever has stirred within you to allow it space to breathe,
to find its home
within that gift, that you might be invited [01:27:00] to.
And in closing this evening, I want to offer this invitation—
Go, enfold yourself in the silicon confines of God’s loving protection and provision and wait upon Him.
Surrender, submitting to the painless, exciting and sure mystery of the Spirit’s transforming power and be surprised.
Then arise to emerge with Jesus [01:28:00] created loving care, with new vitality radiating the colors of his glory and go forth into the new season of his time. Amen.
Russell: Thank you, Cherie-Lynn. Thank you, everybody. Hope you have a blessed week, and we will see you all on the same screen next week. So, God bless you all.