Key Takeaways
1. Find God in all things and become a contemplative in action
"finding God in all things." That deceptively simple phrase was once considered revolutionary. It means that nothing is considered outside the purview of the spiritual life.
Everything is spiritual. Ignatian spirituality rejects the idea that God is only found within the walls of a church or during moments of formal prayer. Instead, it asserts that every aspect of human life—including our work, relationships, suffering, and joy—is a venue for encountering the divine. By opening up every "box" of our lives to God, we find that nothing is too mundane or too messy to be excluded from our spiritual journey.
Contemplative in action. Most people cannot retreat to a monastery, so St. Ignatius asks us to view the active world as our monastery. By maintaining an active yet reflective stance, we allow our prayer to inform our daily tasks and our daily tasks to enrich our prayer. This balance prevents us from separating our spiritual lives from our real-world responsibilities.
An incarnational worldview. God is not distant but intimately near, embedded in the ordinary details of our lives. This perspective invites us to take a "long, loving look at the real" and find sacredness in the everyday. When we look at the world this way, we begin to see God's fingerprints on everything and everyone around us.
- Finding God in work, family, and pop culture
- Viewing the active world as a modern monastery
- Balancing active service with quiet reflection
- Taking a "long, loving look at the real"
2. Navigate your spiritual journey through the six paths of belief and doubt
An adult life requires an adult faith.
The six paths. People seek God through various avenues, each with unique benefits and pitfalls. Whether we walk the path of belief, independence, disbelief, return, exploration, or confusion, God meets us exactly where we are. Recognizing our current path helps us understand our spiritual struggles and find the unique ways God is trying to reach us.
Spiritual but not religious. While being "spiritual but not religious" is popular today, isolating oneself from a faith community carries distinct risks. Without a tradition to challenge us, we risk creating a "pocket-size God" who only serves our self-interest and never asks us to grow. A healthy spiritual life requires both personal spirituality and the communal wisdom of religion.
The value of community. Organized religion provides a vital corrective to our natural tendency to think we have all the answers. It introduces humility, connects us to ancestral wisdom, and offers a social dimension to our worship. By engaging with a community, we are "connected and corrected" in our search for the divine.
- The six paths: belief, independence, disbelief, return, exploration, confusion
- The danger of the "pocket-size God"
- How religious traditions "connect and correct" us
- Humility as the fruit of communal worship
3. Recognize your deepest desires as God's personal invitation to you
Recognizing our desires means recognizing God’s desires for us.
Holy desires. Deep, life-shaping desires are fundamentally different from superficial, passing wants. These profound longings—such as the desire for love, justice, peace, and purpose—are the primary way God communicates with us, guiding us toward our true vocations. They are the spiritual compass that points us toward who we are meant to become.
Naming your longings. We must learn to identify and articulate what we truly want, just as Jesus asked the blind beggar Bartimaeus to name his desire. Naming our deepest longings brings us into a more honest, intimate relationship with the Creator. It frees us from the false humility that prevents us from asking God for what we truly need.
Desire as energy. Our deepest longings are not selfish; they are the energy of life itself planted within us by God. When we pay attention to these desires, we align ourselves with God's dreams for the world. Even when we lack a good desire, we can pray for "the desire for the desire," trusting that God will cultivate it within us.
- Deep holy desires vs. shallow surface wants
- The story of Bartimaeus: "What do you want me to do for you?"
- Desire as the creative energy of life
- Praying for "the desire for the desire"
4. Practice the daily Examen to discover God's presence in retrospect
Finding God by looking behind you makes it easier to see God right in front of you.
The daily review. The Examen is a simple, five-step prayer designed to help us notice God's active presence in our daily lives. By reviewing our day, we transition from being "human doings" to "human beings." It is a practice that trains our spiritual eyes to recognize God's slow, careful work in real-time.
Savoring and repenting. The prayer begins with gratitude, prompting us to savor the small benefits of the day. We then review our actions, identifying where we failed to love or "failed to bother," and ask for forgiveness. This process keeps us grounded, humble, and aware of our need for God's grace.
Recognizing patterns. Practicing the Examen regularly reveals consistent patterns of grace and resistance in our lives. We begin to see where we are happiest, where we are struggling, and where God is inviting us to change. Finding God in our yesterdays makes us much more likely to look for Him in our todays.
- Five steps: Gratitude, Review, Sorrow, Forgiveness, Grace
- Savoring as an antidote to a rushed life
- Sin defined as a "failure to bother"
- Seeing God's "back" as He passes by
5. Approach prayer as an honest, evolving friendship with God
If you are saying only what you think you should say to God, rather than what you want to say, then your relationship will grow cold, distant, and formal.
Prayer as relationship. Prayer is best understood as an ongoing, personal friendship with God. Just like any human friendship, it requires us to spend quality time together, learn about each other, and communicate honestly. If we treat God like a distant boss, our prayer will remain dry and transactional.
Radical honesty. We must bring our genuine feelings to prayer, including anger, disappointment, and even sexual desire. God can handle our rawest emotions, and expressing them prevents our relationship from becoming formal and superficial. Being honest with God is the only way to experience true intimacy.
The art of listening. Listening to God does not mean hearing physical voices, but paying attention to subtle internal movements. God speaks through our emotions, insights, memories, physical sensations, and quiet feelings of peace. By "wasting time with God" in silence, we allow ourselves to be transformed by His presence.
- Comparing prayer to a personal friendship
- Bringing raw emotions like anger and lust to God
- How God speaks: emotions, insights, memories, physical feelings
- "Wasting time with God" as a transformative act
6. Use your imagination and sacred reading to experience the divine
You do not merely imagine the event as though you were watching it on film... You enter into the scene, letting it unfold as though you were part of it, standing warm in the temple or ankle-deep in the water of the Jordan.
Imaginative contemplation. Ignatian contemplation invites us to place ourselves directly inside scripture stories using our five senses. By imagining what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, we allow God to speak through our imagination. This method makes the historical Jesus a living, breathing companion in our lives.
Lectio Divina. This ancient practice of "sacred reading" involves four distinct movements: reading, meditating, praying, and acting. We slow down, savoring individual words or phrases, and let the text move us to real-world action. It is a way of letting the scriptures read us as much as we read them.
Navigating resistance. When we feel repelled by or resistant to a particular scripture passage, it often signals a spiritual breakthrough. These sensitive areas are precisely where God wants to heal us and free us from attachments. Paying attention to our resistance can lead us to a new level of trust and self-knowledge.
- Composition of place using the five senses
- Lectio Divina: Read, Meditate, Pray, Act
- Relishing individual words and phrases
- Paying attention to spiritual resistance
7. Embrace a sensible simplicity to gain interior freedom
The more you stop buying stuff you don’t need, and the more you get rid of items you don’t use, the more you can simplify your life.
Sensible simplicity. Ignatian simplicity is not about extreme, self-destructive asceticism, but about finding freedom from material clutter. It invites us to live moderately so that we are not controlled by our possessions. The less we worry about acquiring stuff, the more time we have for the things that truly matter.
Riches to honors to pride. Ignatius warned that the desire for material wealth leads to a craving for social honors, which ultimately breeds destructive pride. This insidious progression traps us on a competitive social ladder that distances us from God. Simplicity is the antidote to this trap, keeping us grounded and free.
Poverty of spirit. True simplicity includes cultivating "poverty of spirit," which is the humble acceptance of our human limitations. Recognizing our radical dependence on God frees us from the exhausting illusion that we must control everything. It allows us to receive every moment and every resource as a gift.
- Distinguishing between "wants" and "needs"
- The trap of "riches to honors to pride"
- Poverty of spirit as the gateway to joy
- The "Three Degrees of Humility"
8. Love without possessiveness to build authentic relationships
One of the greatest gifts that the chaste person can offer: showing not only that there are many ways to love, but that loving a person freely, without clinging to him or her, is a gift to both the lover and the beloved.
Chaste love. Religious chastity is not merely a negative restriction against sex, but a positive commitment to love many people deeply and freely. It serves as a powerful reminder that love does not require physical possession. This perspective can enrich all relationships, helping us love others without clinging to them.
Non-possessive friendship. True friendship requires us to give others the freedom to grow, change, and even move away. Ignatius and his early companions, the "Friends in the Lord," modeled this by supporting each other's far-flung missions. They understood that loving someone means wanting their ultimate good, even if it takes them away from us.
The Presupposition. To build healthy relationships, we must always give others the benefit of the doubt. Ignatius's "Presupposition" urges us to put a good interpretation on our neighbor's words rather than rushing to condemn them. This simple practice can defuse conflicts and open the door to reconciliation.
- Chastity as a positive freedom to love widely
- The early Jesuits as "Friends in the Lord"
- The Presupposition: giving the benefit of the doubt
- Avoiding the trap of "compare and despair"
9. Surrender to the present moment as the unfolding of God's will
The plain and simple truth is that his will is what he actually wills to send us each day, in the way of circumstances, places, people, and problems.
Obedience to reality. In the Ignatian tradition, obedience is fundamentally about listening to God's voice in our daily circumstances. It means accepting the reality of the present moment rather than fighting against it. This surrender is not passive resignation, but an active, trusting response to life as it unfolds.
God's will in the 24 hours. As Walter Ciszek discovered in a Siberian labor camp, God's will is not an abstract puzzle to solve. It is simply the people, places, and challenges presented to us in each twenty-four-hour day. When we accept this, we find that every moment is a sacrament of God's presence.
Finding God in suffering. When faced with unavoidable pain, we are invited to surrender to the future God has in store. While God does not cause our suffering, He accompanies us in it, offering comfort and the promise of resurrection. This trust allows us to find hope even in the darkest valleys.
- Obedience as the spiritual art of listening
- Finding God's will in daily circumstances
- The companionable presence of a suffering God
- Surrendering to the future with hope
10. Discern major life decisions using spiritual consolation and desolation
Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life in me.
Spiritual discernment. Discernment is the process of making major life choices by paying attention to the movements of our souls. It requires us to cultivate "indifference," meaning we are unbiased and free to choose whatever path leads closer to God. This interior freedom is the foundation of all good decision-making.
Consolation and desolation. We evaluate our options by noticing whether they bring us spiritual consolation (peace, hope, and love) or desolation (anxiety, listlessness, and turmoil). Consolation indicates we are aligned with God's desires, while desolation suggests we are off track. We must never make major changes while in a state of desolation.
Practical methods. Ignatius offers practical tools for decision-making, such as listing pros and cons, imagining the advice we would give to a stranger, or visualizing ourselves on our deathbed. We then make our choice and pray for confirmation, trusting that God will guide us toward peace.
- Cultivating "indifference" or interior freedom
- Consolation vs. desolation as decision-making guides
- The three "times" of making a decision
- Practical tools: pros/cons lists, deathbed visualization, and seeking confirmation
