This post is about sin and hell in the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola.
This series of blog posts adapts the Spiritual Exercises for a pilgrimage (such as the Camino) and for other ways of growing spiritually following the insights of Ignatius.
Here are previous posts in this series – a good place to start:
How to Pray Like a Pilgrim – Camino Lessons from St Ignatius Loyola
Soul of my Saviour
Spiritual Exercises – 19th Annotation Pilgrimage
Pilgrim’s Purpose
Ignatius Four Week Pilgrimage of Prayer
In the First and Second Exercises (of Week 1), St Ignatius asks us to prayerfully reflect on the stories of the rebellion of the angels, the sin of Adam and Eve, a person who says “no” to God’s love and ends in hell, and my own sinfulness – alienated from a loving God and all the gifts of creation. All this is set within the ongoing framework of the Pilgrim’s Purpose.
A primary issue, it seems to me, is that one may be trying to do this sombre praying in the midst of magnificent beauty (as one begins one’s Camino, or elsewhere). Deep joy may be one’s reality, whereas Ignatius is asking us to experience “shame and confusion”. This apparent incongruity is not unique to adapting the Spiritual Exercises for the Camino or other options. This can be the case for anyone following the 19th Annotation.
Firstly, the last thing that Ignatius wants us to do is to hype up some false emotions. Ignatius wants us to be aware of our emotions, our real feelings, and to discern God’s presence in our emotions. So the joy of creation’s beauty and our intimate presence with it, say, on the Camino, can be contrasted in our prayerful reflection with our human destructiveness, lack of sharing, lack of simplicity, gratitude, appreciation…
Some people will be able to prayerfully reflect on sin and so forth whilst they walk throughout the day.
Others will find it more fruitful to spend a period, say at the start of a day, or when coming to an open church, devoting the time – say an hour or more (including, possibly, a journal reflection) – to be totally focused on the topic.
Still others will find the focus at this point of Week 1 to be incompatible with where they are at on their Camino and simply pause the Exercises, picking them up again when the context is more fitting for them.
There are plenty of resources giving lists for examining oneself to be honest about areas where one has fallen short of God’s love. Ignatius suggests walking through one’s life as an examination of one’s conscience. For some it may be appropriate (“all may; some should; none must”) to find a priest and make a confession (including a “General Confession” going back through significant points in one’s life) and receive absolution.
In a culture that shies away from even using the word “sin”, where some of the worst are sanitised as an “error of judgment”, at least for ourselves, let us be honest about our shadow side and the darkness within us that needs the healing light of God in Christ.
It is at this point in the Exercises that Ignatius introduces “the Examen“, one of the most fruitful Christian spiritual disciplines.
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