The Jesuit motto “finding God in all things” encapsulates the whole of our Jesuit spirituality. It is a spirituality that is focused on finding God, on hearing him speak to us in the minute activities in our lives: waking up, hearing the twittering of birds, the buzzing of insects, the throb of one’s own heart beat or any other sound or activity. Jesuits, in the words of Jérome Nadal, are contemplatives in action: they allow their prayer and work to feed into each other without allowing one to go without the aid of the other.

Spirituality is hard to characterize, because it involves the “spirit” of our life and the way we live out our faith in God, our way of being religious. Richard McBrien has this to say about spirituality:

To be “spiritual” means to know, and to live according to the knowledge, that there is more to life than meets the eye. To be “spiritual” means, beyond that, to know, and to live according to the knowledge, that God is present to us in grace as the principle of personal, interpersonal, social and even cosmic transformation. To be “open to the Spirit” is to accept explicitly who we are and who we are called always to become, and to direct our lives accordingly.”

Just as each of the great religious families in the Church – Dominicans, Benedictines, and Franciscans – has a unique way of following the risen Lord and responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, so do we Jesuits have our own spirituality.

St. Ignatius and Spirituality: Our Jesuit spirituality has its roots in the Spiritual Exercises composed by St. Ignatius of Loyola. From his spiritual struggles and discernment during his recuperation over his shattered legs during the battle in Pamplona, up to his months of prayer in the cave at Manresa, Ignatius experienced variations between consolation and desolation depending on the blissful thoughts or desires on the one hand and the worldly desires or wishes that came into his heart.

From this spiritual experience, Ignatius was able to discern which thought or desire and its accompanying inner tranquillity or turmoil came from and drew him toward God and which did come from and also strayed his heart away from his Lord and Saviour; he also became conscious of which thought he should act upon and which to ignore. Ignatius grew in understanding how to seek God in the core of his heart and how to act upon the prompting of the Spirit that infuses us with both holy desires and the strength to carry out all that contributes toward the building of God’s kingdom on earth. Ignatius noted the results of these months of convalescence and prayer in a book called the Spiritual Exercises. The method of prayer outlined in that book helps each Jesuit to stay close to Jesus, to seek God’s face in all his endeavours, and to respond to the invitation of the Spirit that accomplishes all good works in us. This book of spiritual exercises also serves as a guide for all the apostolates and ministries in which Jesuits are involved all over the world.

Jesuit Spirituality: Following in the foot steps of St. Ignatius, Jesuit life centres on the imitation of Jesus: what have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What will I do for Christ? Just like Ignatius, a Jesuit concentrates on the actions and thoughts of Jesus so that he too may do what Jesus did in his own ministry or any other kind of engagement with the world or the environment in which he finds himself or is assigned by his superior. Just as Jesus obeyed His Father and learned obedience through suffering, so is a Jesuit encouraged by our spirituality to be obedient to his superiors whom he sees as taking the place of Jesus and assigning him to ministries and apostolates that will be for the greater glory of God in our world and to the building of God’s kingdom in the world to come. Just as Jesus forgave all, including his persecutors and those who levelled false allegation against him, so does a Jesuit seek to forgive all and continue with his apostolate of bringing peace and justice to all, especially the oppressed and the poor. In all, it is the spirit of Christ’s gospel message that the Society of Jesus attempts to incorporate into all its works.

A Jesuit always stresses and strives toward creating time for prayer and reflection in order to find out how God wants him to serve in his ministry or apostolate. This active commitment to seeking God’s direction and lordship is called discernment. A Jesuit always holds the voluntary/loving obedience and open-hearted desire of Jesus for His Father’s will in high esteem; therefore, a Jesuit strives to incorporate those characteristics of Jesus in his life and dealing with his superior, fellow Jesuits, and those he comes across in his ministry. The goal of any Jesuit is to use his talent, opportunities and every other means available to make the world a haven where faith, justice, peace, and love flourish. This is what is meant by a spirituality that is incarnational: that Jesus came into this world as one of us in order to teach us how to be truly human and by so doing lead us to building God’s kingdom in our world. Christ walked, talked, and embraced people when He was in the world. He loved, cared for, and stood for the right of the oppressed while He was in the world. Jesus’ and the Father’s Spirit still direct and prompt our hearts to continue with Jesus’ works of love. This is what a Jesuit always attempts to realize through his ministry or through any other means of contact with God’s people.

Spiritual Direction: Spiritual direction is all the careful steps taken by Jesuits in assuring that what they have embarked on or are about to do is for the furthering of God’s kingdom on earth and not for personal aggrandizement, or that they are not driven by any other force beyond the power of love which comes from the Holy Spirit.

To better attain the fruits of spiritual direction, one needs to have a spiritual director. A spiritual director is one (in this case, likely a fellow Jesuit) with whom a Jesuit can talk about his experience of God in prayer, work, and conversations with others. Due to the bustle of life and ever demanding strain on time in our life, we may find it hard to actually reflect on what we have received from God and how we have responded to the prompting of the Spirit in our day to day dealing with people and things. It is the responsibility of the spiritual director to help a Jesuit see how God may be leading him in his ministry and how he may be responding or refusing to respond to God’s will in his ministry and personal life.

A Jesuit is also able to share his own struggles and weaknesses with a spiritual director who can help him to find the face of God in the turmoil of his life and then open him to divine grace which purges his life of all unholy desires and selfish tendencies. This is the reason a Jesuit is usually encouraged to have a spiritual director – one that he can trust and to whom he will open up his soul in order to be helped in healing his physical and spiritual hurts, growing in his life of the Spirit, and living out the gospel message.

All are eligible to have spiritual directors. A paramount quality of who to make a spiritual director is trust, that one can truly divest one’s soul to the spiritual director without any fear or restraints. This in a way continues Jesus’ assurance that where two or three are present He is there in their midst, for spiritual direction is also a way of seeking out God’s face in the sea of emotions and other handicaps that can blind us to seeing how we are standing in relationship to God.

Examen of Conscience: Ignatius believed he received a gift from God that both enriched his own Christian life and was also meant to be shared with others. The gift was a “method”: a way of seeking and finding God in all things and reach a level of freedom of allowing God’s will to be done on earth. This way of praying which allowed Ignatius to discern the voice of God within his own heart and to experience cooperation with God’s will is a form of Jesuit spiritual exercise/prayer called examen of conscience.

This method needs to be practiced by bearing in mind that God is always there for us as long as we dispose our whole being to accepting His words and revelation to us right here and now. Jesuits usually do the examen of conscience twice daily.