Ignatian Prophetic Mysticism
The dominant image of St Ignatius is that of the soldier saint. Equally dominant image is
Ignatius the mystic. In fact, Ignatius the mystic has replaced Ignatius the soldier saint in our
time.
Everything that Ignatius said, did, or wrote is traced back
instead to his mystical experiences in Manresa, at La Storta,
and in Rome.
It was only in the consolation of
his mystical experiences at Manresa that he was able to grasp the vital link,
indeed the equivalence, between the glory of God, the service of God, and
the helping of other people.
To the desire ‘to save his soul’ was added the desire ‘to help souls’, and the two desires were
never again to be considered apart. (refer to constitutions)
From what Ignatius had experienced at
Manresa, he was convinced that God communicated directly with the
individual person.
Firstly, they were both convinced of the possibility and desirability
of combining contemplation and action. The consequence was that they
considered their teaching on prayer to be accessible to all, and not confined
to those in religious life.
Secondly, they both expressed confidence in the possibility and
desirability of an affective experience of God’s love. This was part of their
shared conviction about the validity of inner spiritual experience.
Thirdly, they both believed in the possibility and desirability of divine
guidance even in the ordinary decisions of life.
'Ignatian' in the phrase 'Ignatian mysticism' no longer denotes one
example among others falling under the general category of
'mysticism'. Here, spiritual life is not a journey towards a beyond but in homecoming.
For her part, Teresa's account precisely
of the Seventh Mansions, where the spiritual marriage has occurred,
shows that she knew all along what some Jesuits thought was a
wisdom proper to Ignatius: 'this is what prayer is for, my daughters;
this is the point of this spiritual marriage--that from it always deeds,
deeds should be coming to birth' )
Distinctiveness
Ignatius' account stresses particularly the need for reflection
and discernment about just how to live the gospel amid the shifting
ambivalences of everyday situations.
As worldly beings ourselves,
we can find God only through the things of this world. The finding of
God in the creation must characterize any Christian spirituality, and
indeed any engagement between creatures and the transcendent
Creator.
The mere word of mysticism may sound quaint to our ears, like an echo from a bygone
era…feeling ‘It is not for me.’
“The Christian of the future will be a mystic or not a Christian at all” - (Karl Rahner).
One particular phrase held more substance, when, in reference to the structured asceticism
and study of mendicant life, it described the mendicant Rule as secundum scopum vocationis
nostrae, or “the secondary scope of our vocation.”1
From the Greek word for “one who is sent,” apostle signified the crux of Ignatius’ vision and
the purpose of the Jesuit order—desiring to be sent to wherever ministry was most needed.
 Success of the Jesuits
 Loyola essentially tore down the monastery walls to immerse his Jesuits in the
maelstrom of daily life.
 Loyola described the ideal Jesuit as “living with one foot raised” – always
ready to respond to emerging opportunities.
 The Jesuit team lodged its hopes in the talents of its entire team.
 The whole world is our house. – Lainez
 The founders prepared their members to engage in any occupation that would
“help souls”.
 The Jesuits do not distinguish themselves by unique team colours. Nothing so
distinctive in their wardrobe.
 Loyola travelled more than two thousand miles in an era when few Europeans ever
strayed more than ten miles from their birthplace.
Ignatius, the Mystic
In the relentless search of Ignatius, his mystical dimension comes to the forefront. “The
image of Ignatius the mystic expresses a belief that it is his relationship with God that is the
core of what makes him admirable, as well as being the source of his teaching and other
1
Ganss, “Technical Introduction,” 44.
achievements.” 2 The mysticism flowing from the experience of Ignatius directs us
simultaneously towards the mystery of God and the activity of God in his creation. God
showed himself in creation and wishes to be met there, to be adored, loved and served there.
He found the divinity in everything. “Finding God in all things is not the starting point for
Ignatius, but the outcome of a life spent in searching for God - a life of everyday
mysticism.”3 From this insight, his passionate search did not centre on fasting, penances,
even on prayer as such, but on loving and serving God, and loving and serving God’s world.
There was an exponential movement in the life of Ignatius, the seeker, from ‘what more can I
still do for Christ?’ (SE 53) to ‘what more can I, the Lord, do for you?’ (SE 234). The core of
the spiritual journey of Ignatius lies in the Contemplatio. The detailed analysis of the
Contemplatio which includes the glimpses into the Ignatian spirituality and The Spiritual
Exercises only can bring out reveal the multifaceted spiritual journey of Ignatius.
Hugo Rahner’s Spirituality of St Ignatius Loyola, (1953) keeps this tension between action
and prayer. His image of Ignatian spirituality is of one, who from the foot of the Cross runs to
the world to save it, not from the world to save himself. For Hugo Rahner, this adds up to a
spirituality of service, a mysticism of action.
We do possess a vague empirical concept of the ultimate in
our lives by whatever name we call it. These may not be the
extreme religious experiences of higher impulses, of visions,
and inspirations. However, we all have had peak experiences of closeness to an ultimate. We
need to recognise and cultivate
them, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. All this is comprised
in our understanding of Ignatian mysticism.
What exactly is of ultimate importance in our lives? The details
may diverge, but ultimately converge in the same fnality.
Whatever name we call this mystery, it is always accessible
to and yet never completely comprehensible: within our reach
but beyond our grasp.
In this Ignatian year, let us endeavour to recapture this Jesuit
imagination: “Non cohiberi a maximo, contineri tamen a
minimo, hoc divinum est” (to reach out to the greatest yet stay
by the least). (Parmananda Divarkar 1977: 23)
Having experienced consolation and having been in the hand of God, the Potter all the time,
Ignatius, the Clay could deeply imbibe the gaze of the Potter and he looked the world with
the Potter’s eyes. He developed a world view which emerged out of his deep union with the
2
3
O’Leary, “Ignatian Mysticism and Contemporary Culture,” 44.
Ibid., 52.
Almighty. Ignatian way is based on an understanding that God is present in our world. As the
great Jesuit palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote: "God is not remote from us. He
is at the point of my pen, my pick, my paintbrush, my needle - and my heart and my
thoughts." God is labouring in this world. So, everything has a purpose; so every person has
a dignity. Christ comes into this dynamic movement to take the whole creation back to God.
Creation itself cannot go back to God. Ignatius too felt drawn and placed with Christ in his
mission of taking the creation back to God. Ignatian mysticism is the mysticism of service
because he entered into the heart of God.
 He appears to me a dynamic person who is always ready to learn from any given
situation.

Inigo hoped to bring himself closer to God by fasting and self-mortification.
Ignatius felt otherwise. He decreed that the brothers should abstain from
“scourging themselves, going barefoot or bareheaded, eating certain food,
doing penance, wearing hair shirts, or practicing other forms of selfchastisement…” All penitential practices that tended to ‘sap one’s strength’
were strongly discouraged.

Inigo felt that every bite he ate beyond the bare minimum necessary to sustain
life was sinful.
Ignatius stipulated that the brothers’ dining tables should be properly cleaned
and the food both good and plentiful “as in the houses of gentlefolk.”

For Inigo the highest goal of man was to lose himself completely, to merge
with Godhead. His ideal was the monk, who turns his back on the world, the
hermit.

“I will do for Christ” – It was not mystical ecstasy which drove him, nor
intellectual certainty, but the need to test his strength. But later, “If Christ
desires, I will do.”
Ignatius made it very clear in the first of the statutes of 1539 that the Jesuits
were not going to be a contemplative order; they would not retire into
monasteries to spend their days in chanting and prayer. They would remain in
the world.
It is the time that we don’t just remain a human being but called to ‘being human’. In the
autobiography of that high-souled woman, Mrs. Annie Besant, I read the following passage:
“Plenty of people wish well to any good cause, but very few care to exert themselves to help
it, and still fewer will risk anything in its support. ‘Some one ought to do it, but why should
I?’ is the ever re-echoed phrase of weak-kneed amiability. ‘Some one ought to do it, so why
not I?’ is the cry of some earnest servant of man, eagerly forward springing to face some
perilous duty. Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.” [The
Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, William James (New York:
Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906), 23]
‘What is human life’s chief concern?’ One of the answers we should receive would be: ‘It is
happiness.’ And Ignatian Prophetic Mysticism tries to extend it to everyone on this globe.
(lessons taught by the pandemic).
The binary view of the world of Good vs. Evil, Right or Wrong, begins to dissolve into the
realization that between the world of Black and White is a startling spectrum of subtle
Greys! Truth and Fact begin to be understood as belonging to different paradigms. It is not
that one is Right and the other Wrong, but rather, they each have their own sphere of effect
and meaningful application.


a heart-based search for knowledge).: Education is not filling in but bringing out…
again, interior knowledge
Education is seen as the acquiring of information and skills rather than as a
preparation for an examined life, in accordance with reason.
Community becomes increasingly important in this stage, and along side this, a sense of
acceptance for others. Life and our roles and interactions with others all begins to be seen
from a different perspective. The beauty, mystery, and deep interconnectiveness of the
natural world is seen and appreciated. One begins to adopt what some call Unity
Consciousness.
While one retains a degree of healthy skepticism in this stage, one is increasingly aware of an
apprehension of an underlying reality deeper than mere comprehension. The role of one’s
intellect is increasingly informed by the apprehension of one’s heart. Forgiveness, mercy,
compassion, and love form the lenses through which others are viewed.
Judgement of other’s transgressions and the desire to inflict punishment on others is set
aside. The sense of separation between Other and Self soften.
God has nowhere to put his goodness, if not in me, no place to put himself entire, if not in
me. And by this means I am the exemplar of salvation, and what is more, I am the salvation
itself of every creature, and the glory of God. Spiritual Classics: The Thinking Person’s
Guide to Great Spiritual Books; Edited by James M. Russell (London: Magpie Books, 2009),
p. 20) [Original Book: Marguerite Porte, The Mirror of Simple Souls].
Walter Brueggemann reminds:
Prophetic ministry does not consist of spectacular acts of social crusading or of abrasive
measures of indignation. Rather, prophetic ministry consists of offering an alternative
perception of reality and in letting people see their own history in the light of God’s freedom
and His will for justice.
Creative Responses
Ignatius was always on the process of movement. “His own life was understood as the history
of a pilgrim, painfully learning as a child taught by God to grow into the contemplative for
whom God was always present.” 4 This dimension was very much explicit in how he
responded to the demanding situations of his time. The literary movement of Humanism
earned a sore eye from the Church and Ignatius took upon himself the helpful insights of
Humanism to find the core.5 At that time, Alumbrados – a group that claimed to have been
enlightened – promoted the direct and personal experience of God and Ignatius accepted the
point of God’s direct relation with the seeker, but he did not approve of their excesses and
their position of the Church. The Inquisitions that Ignatius faced annoyed him but in the end
he made use of those for his advantage. It was not Counter Reformation that Ignatius was
concerned with but Reformation itself in the Catholic Church.6 The responses of Ignatius to
the turbulent moments make us believe that he had lived a purpose driven life which had the
end in focus all the time.
Ignatian Prophetic Mysticism calls us … to be a beacon of hope, optimism, …
Cited in Michael Buckley, “The Contemplation to Attain Love,” The Way Supplement 24, (Spring
1975): 94.
5
John W. O’Malley, The First Jesuits (London: Harvard University Press, 1993), 253-264.
6
Ibid., 321-328 and John W. O’Malley, “The Jesuits, St. Ignatius, and the Counter Reformation: Some
Recent Studies and Their Implications for Today,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 14, no.1 (January 1982):
1-25.
4