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  • Essay / The Spiritual Exercises: a spirituality of the vocation

    The Spiritual Exercises: are addressed not only to Jesuits but also to religious of other congregations; not only to religious but also to lay people; not only to Catholics but also to Protestants. In other words, the Spiritual Exercises are aimed at all those who believe in God and base their spirituality on the evangelical message. I will first define what a vocational spirituality is. Second, I will explain what the Spiritual Exercises mean. Third, I will try to show how the Spiritual Exercises are a representation of a universal call to the Christian Gospel. Then I will conclude by stating my position. In his book Spirituality and Prayer, Kevin defines spirituality as a movement that involves humans' knowledge of God and their response to God. It suggests a call from one party, God, and the response from another party, human beings, which results in a relationship. A relationship, between human beings, is a kind of meaningful connection between two or more parties. This involvement with each other could be emotional. In other words, human relations involve relationships, associations, affairs, contacts and even interactions. From this perspective, we can more or less easily build a relationship with God that we can describe as spirituality. A spirituality is based on a specific understanding of God, of God's relationship with the world and of the human person in this world. As mentioned above, spirituality involves a response that presupposes a calling. From a religious perspective, a calling can also be referred to as a vocation. What then is a spirituality of vocation? It is essentially a universal appeal to the Christian gospel. In other words, it is a global relationship that is concerned with meeting...... middle of paper ...... "Spiritual Exercises". http://www.scu.edu/scm/summer2006/spiritual.cfm Accessed: March 8, 2011. Ignatius of Loyola. Spiritual exercises. Trans. George E. Ganss. Indian 2nd ed. Gujarat; India: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1995. “Ignatian Spirituality”. http://ignatianspirituality.com/what-is-ignatian-spirituality/ Accessed March 8, 2011. McNally, Robert E., SJ The Council of Trent, the Spiritual Exercises, and the Catholic Reformation. Church History, Vol. 34, No. 1. (March 1965), pp. 36-49. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00096407%28196503%2934%3A1%3C36%3ATCOTTS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q Accessed March 8, 2011. Rulla, LM, SJ Anthropology of Vocation Christian. Vol.1: Interdisciplinary bases. Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1986. Tetlow, Joseph A., SJ “Explaining the Spiritual Exercises.” http://www.loyolapress.com/ Accessed: March 8 2011.