Ignatian Spirituality
Rooted in the life and work of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Ignatian spirituality is one of the most influential spiritual outlooks of our age.
The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education provides ways for SCU faculty, staff, and administrators to deepen their understanding of SCU’s Jesuit, Catholic identity, and to discover and experience some of the many faces of Ignatian spirituality, including:
Finding God in All Things | Ignatian Spirituality insists that God is everywhere—in work, relationships, culture, the arts, the intellectual life, creation itself. As St. Ignatius put it, all the things in the world are presented to us “so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.” Ignatian spirituality places great emphasis on discerning God’s presence in the everyday activities of ordinary life, often identifying God as more a verb than a noun.
Personal and Practical | Its basis in personal experience makes Ignatian spirituality an intensely practical spirituality, well adapted to people living active lives. It is an outlook, not a program; a set of attitudes and insights, not rules or a scheme. Ignatius’s first advice to spiritual directors was to adapt the Spiritual Exercises to the needs of the person entering the retreat.
Emotions Matter | Ignatius of Loyola’s transformation occurred as he learned how to understand the spiritual meaning of his emotions. The spirituality he developed places great emphasis on the affective life: the use of imagination in prayer, discernment and interpretation of feelings, and the cultivation of great desires. It holds that our choices and decisions are often beyond the merely rational. Its goal is an eager, generous, wholehearted offer of oneself to God and to God’s work.
Trusting the Imagination | One of Ignatius’ great contributions to Christian spirituality is the emphasis on the human imagination. Ignatius believed that the imagination could be trusted, particularly when applied to a story from the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Through what is called “Ignatian contemplation,” one is invited to use their imagination to enter into a story from the life of Jesus, fully participate in that story, and then discern what that story may be inviting them to in their daily life.
Discernment | An Ignatian spiritual life focuses on God at work now. It fosters an active attentiveness to God joined with a prompt responsiveness to God. God calls; we respond. This call-response rhythm of the inner life makes discernment and decision making especially important. Ignatius’s rules for discernment and his astute approach to decision making are well-regarded for their psychological and spiritual wisdom.
Freedom | Ignatian Spirituality emphasizes interior freedom. To make healthy decisions, we should strive to be free of personal preferences, disordered attachments, and pre-formed opinions. Ignatius counseled radical detachment: “We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one.”
The Daily Examen | The Ignatian worldview is strongly inclined to reflection and self-scrutiny. The distinctive Ignatian prayer is the Daily Examen, a review of the day’s activities with an eye toward detecting and responding to the presence of God.
Contemplatives in Action | Those formed by Ignatian spirituality are often called “contemplatives in action.” They are reflective people with a deep inner life who are actively engaged in the work of justice. They unite themselves with God by joining God’s active labor to accompany and heal the world. It’s an active spiritual attitude—a way for everyone to seek and find God in their workplaces, homes, families, and communities.
Experiences in Ignatian Spirituality
The insights of St. Ignatius and his view of the human person have appeal and relevance for people of a wide range of convictions and creeds. In our religiously-diverse community, we provide ways of encountering and experiencing the search for purpose and meaning.
Ignatian Tapas is a quarterly free lunch open to all faculty, staff, and administration who are seeking deeper formation in Jesuit values and Ignatian Spirituality. We hope people from any religious, secular, or spiritual identity feel supported and welcomed!
The Ignatian Faculty Forum is a university-wide, faculty-run leadership program aimed at highlighting and deepening Ignatian Spirituality as it is lived by faculty that meets on a monthly basis.
The Ignatian Center hosts three all-expenses-paid retreats every year for SCU faculty and staff. The retreats are grounded in Ignatian Spirituality, but are adapted for a spiritually diverse faculty and staff. Participants must complete an application and priority is given to faculty and staff who are new to Ignatian Spirituality.
Throughout much of the year, pilgrims travel to Spain to retrace the footsteps of St. Ignatius, walking the same 325 miles he walked from his home in Loyola to Montserrat and Manresa. The Camino de Santa Clara is not 325 miles (it’s an easy eighth of a mile!), but it is designed to follow the spiritual footsteps of St. Ignatius—drawing from the content of the Spiritual Exercises and stopping at various sacred sites on the SCU campus.
The Examen was developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola as a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God's presence and discern God's direction for us. This Fall, the Ignatian Center provides a calm, welcoming presence for ten minutes every Friday as we journey together in community through the Examen.
This quarterly luncheon speaker series provides a space on campus for the discussion of core values and experiences among faculty, staff, students, and alumni. One faculty member, one staff member, and one Jesuit faculty/staff member are invited each year to respond to the single question: "What matters to me and why?" This popular series serves to foster a culture of discernment and vocational reflection in the Ignatian tradition.
Partnering with the Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos, the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education gives SCU staff and faculty an opportunity to experience the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola through individual prayer and reflection, as well as one-on-one spiritual direction. The 19th Annotation is a way to make the original 30-day retreat while still living one’s everyday life.
Meeting with a spiritual director or spiritual companion can be a meaningful step towards wholeness and balance in life, but also in one’s relationship with the Divine. The Ignatian Center can provide a Spiritual Director for any faculty, staff, or administration who is interested in receiving this form of spiritual companionship.
Additional Spirituality Resources
- "Suscipe Prayer" by St. IgnatiusTake, Love, and receive all my liberty,my memory, my understanding,and my entire will,All I have and call my own.You have given all to me.To you, Love, I return it.Everything is yours; do with it what you will.Give me only your love and your grace,that is enough for me.
