Method of Ignatian Prayer

Before beginning to pray it is important to establish a time to do it. Don't exaggerate. Begin with the time that you think will allow you to accomplish it and then increase the time as you are able. The ideal time would be one hour a day, but the most important is a sincere search to find God. Start with about 10 to 15 minutes a day and then, accordingly as you feel the need little by little and without hurry, increase the time. We present the steps to pray according to St. Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises.

 

1. The Place of the Prayer.

Seek a calm place that enables the prayer. Give preference to a quiet atmosphere, where you are alone and feel comfortable. Find a relaxing and favorable position that will help you to pray more. St. Ignatius advises us to always do what helps more. If for instance to listen to instrumental music helps you to enter in prayerful mood, do it.

2. The Presence of God.

Little by little one should calm oneself down, allowing an interior silence and try to notice the presence of God around and within one's self with trust. Let emerge in your heart the desire to be with God and to be intimate with him. Make a spontaneous prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God for this moment of intimacy and love; ask that He guide the prayer and allow you to surrender entirely into his arms. If one has difficulties to make spontaneous prayers, you can begin by praying a psalm (for instance, Psalm 138,) reading an established prayer or singing some music that gives meaning to the moment. If it helps, you can say the prayer of St Ignatius at this initial time in order to be open to God:"Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To You, O Lord, I return it. All isYours, dispose of it wholly according to Your will. Give me Your love and Your grace, that is enough for me." Remember the Ignatian principle of always doing the more, it helps you to reach the objective that you have intended. In the methodology of the Spiritual Exercises all prayer has a specific grace to be reached, in other words, an objective to be reached. During this period of initial prayer ask God for that grace. For instance, you can ask for the grace of not to be deaf to the appeals of God or of living an always greater intimacy with him, etc.

3. The Biblical Text

The Spiritual Exercises are based on the Word of God, for meditation or contemplation the biblical text is very important for that moment of prayer. One doesn't need to use many texts, sometimes a verse or even one word is more than enough, because according to Ignatius: "what fills and satisfies the soul consists, not in knowing much, but in understanding the realities profoundly and in savoring them interiorly"(EE 2).Try to bring the text into your daily life. Remember that the prayer is dialogue with God and many times it is better to allow God to speak, to try to notice the appeals that the Holy Spirit makes to us through God's Word. Try to pay attention more when reading the Word of God, a verse, one word, or even the attitude of some biblical character.

4. Dialogue (Colloquy) with God

At this moment it is time of speaking with God about that which the mediation/contemplation of the Scriptural text moved within you. Be sincere and allow your heart to speak with God in a simple way, without be concerned about saying too many words. It is moment to speak, listen, praise, seek, ask, be still, listen and feel. Pay attention to your feelings that arise internally: happiness, sadness, peace, restlessness, hope, fear, doubt, trust, anguish, etc. Finish this moment by thanking God and asking for the strength to continue being a part of God's plan of love. Rely on the grace that you asked for or the one that is experienced in prayer, finish by saying an "Our Father," "Anima Christi," or "Hail Mary."

5. Writing down the Experience

Try to recall and to record by writing everything that was relevant in your short prayer, for instance, how you were before the prayer and how you are now, the feelings (pleasant or not) that arose in you, a passage of the biblical text, memories of your own life, the attractions and resistances, etc.