Searching for meaning today - Brian

Waht does it define as “Ignatioan”

• The shared experience and teaching of those “Friends in the Lord” with Ignatius (think St. Francis of Assisi)

• The experience and teaching of later people who were part of a tradition started by Ignatius

What is his point about the synthesis of the present and the past

We need to bring the past into dialouge with the present

What is this article trying to the ignation tradition into dialouge with?

The search for meaning; particularly in the context of crises (particularly in contemporary culture)

What is the Shoah?

The Holocaust

Where is the biggest crisis in our search for meaning

Our culture — which is almost omnipresent since it dominates so much of our lives

What is the bad of post-modernism?

“Anything goes” — Cardinal Ratzinger said “We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism”

What is the relationship between postmodernism and meta-narrative

There cannot be any meta-narrative, no overarching story, that gives meaning to all our experiences

In what context did Ignatian spirituality emerge?

In “Sixteenth Century Angst” — there was a large extent of chaos and strife due to the Renaissance, endless wars, the Turks, etc.

In a sense, the entire culture was searching for meaning

What happened to Ignatius at the river Cardoner?

“And as he was seated there, the eyes of his understanding began to be opened: not that he saw some vision, but understanding and knowing many things, spiritual things just as much as matters of faith and learning, and this with an enlightenment so strong that all things seemed new to him”

To be particular, it was about understanding spiritual/faith based matters, and secular stuff like learning —> Culture. It was as if all these things were interconnected

What did he realize at Cardoner specifically?

Ignatius was given to understand how all things had their source and origin in God, in the Trinity. Their guiding principles and causes could be found in the Logos and the Sophia, the Word and Wisdom of God.

» Basically, he could not think of the Trinity without being drawn to the natural world

Key word: interconnected

Importance? Most of the difficulties in our life come from a lack of awareness

What’s the best way to describe what he gained at Cardoner?

He gained a methodology

He didn’t get all the direct answers to his questions, but he got a tool to approach questions

What’s the nature of this methodology? What is this methodology supposed to do vis a vis God

• Had to be in a contemplative —> Must open a person up to God, and help them recognise God’s presence in their life

How can you define the “Spiritual exercises”

A process a person is invited to enter, meant to how God offers guidance to our decision making

What is the author’s thesis on the various motivations people have for engaging in the Spiritual exercises? (Deepen their relationship with God, renew their inner life, seek help in facing big decisions)

That these are all interlinked — because these are all rooted in attempts to seek meaning

Who is communicating in the midst of the Spiritual Exercises? What is the role of the human receiving the exercises and the human administering the exercises?

It is God who communicates Himself — the Human is mostly passive, and receives the communication of God

The guy who gives the exercises remains in the background and does not interfere

What St Ignatius suspicious to the inquisition?

Yes he was, because he seemed to encourage people to trust their inner experiences

What is a alumbrados - what is their relation to St Ignatius

“The Enlightened Ones” who claim to have a direct illumination of the Holy Spirit — they held in contempt all ecclesiastical authority

He moves in some of their circles, and also was suspised of being one

Did St Ignatius actually believe in his own inner experience?

Yes, he believed in his experiences gained at Manresa and Cardoner

Did St. Ignatius reject Church authority and tradition as a result of his trust in his own experience?

No. This is what saved him from Heresy, because he still believed in their credibility.

Describe Ignatius’ both-and approach

Whenever faced with two polarities (the divine and the human; the rights of the corporate and individual person) he chose to incorporate both, despite tension

Is Ignatian spirituality full of exsamples of “Tension”

Yes, it’s inherent in Ignatius’ way of thinking about and many other subject

• For desires particularly, it’s about the tension we feel as we move towards “what could be”

What should be the relationship between interior meaning and the Church?

They should compliment each other — we should be aware of our subjectivity, and how we find meaning within ourselves, but we should also note how the Church is a “complementary” source of meaning

—> These are not “Either or”, they exist to complement each other

Where do we meet God?

We meet him in our interiority, our subjectivity

Where do we gain meaning?

From ourselves and the Church as a “complementary”