Remarks on Affectivity and Ignatian Spirituality

Howard Gray, S.J.

Ricci Symposium: Day 2

I am dividing my reflections under two (2) subheadings. First, I will discuss the tradition which we interpret and then, second, the need to adapt that tradition to our pastoral experiences and our cultures.

The tradition relies on the Reminiscence of Ignatius (Autobiography), the Exercises, and the Jesuit Constitutions. Ignatius did not simply think about God; he experienced God through an emotive or affective history as real as the chronology that framed his autobiographical reflections. From his encounter with God Ignatius gradually discovered God as a helping God, an insight that was to dominate his pastoral approach to the ministry of the Word and the codification of the charism through the Constitutions.

The helping God who carried Ignatius through his own troubled times at Manresa became the inspiration for the way Ignatius envisioned his own ministry, “to help souls,” the guiding principle of the Exercises, and the touchstone of the Constitutions. The help that Ignatius experienced and that Ignatius extended was always “de arriba,” [the love which moves me. . .should descend from above, from the love of God our Lord. . .Rules for the Distribution of Alms #1}. This tradition of interpreting the movements of God as characterized by an experience of being helped is the key, I believe, to Ignatian affectivity: it is an emotional movement towards being helped and/or being a helper. In this light, the title of the Exercises emphasizes the important of this twofold affect as one of being touched by and one extended to others.: “Introductory explanations, to gain some understanding of the Spiritual Exercises which follow, and to help both the one who gives them and the one who receives them” Spir Ex {1].

Every Ignatian enterprise—from the Exercises to the Constitutions—requires adaptation. This includes not only theological realities that found the Ignatian corpus but also the way men and women experience the meaning in theirlives of prayer and of action. An excellent confirmation of this affective adaptation can be found in the descriptionthe Jesuit Constitutions offers of the Director of Novices:

“It will be helpful to have a faithful & competent person whose function is to instruct and teach the novices in regard to their interior and exterior, conduct, to encourage them towards this correct deportment, to remind them of it,and to give them kindly admonition; a person whom all those in probation may love and to whom they may have recourse in their temptations and open themselves with confidence, hoping to receive from him in our Lord, counsel and aid in everything” Constitutions {263].

For Ignatius affection is always an adaptation to the needs of people.