The fault or defect is a want of purity of intention in acquiring it (no pura ó debidamente por amor de Dios), and an undue attachment, or inordinate affection, in keeping it.

At first sight there may seem to be some difficulty here. How is it that S. Ignatius can speak of a mere lack of purity of intention, or an attachment to wealth honestly gained, not only as a burden and impediment to the peace of the soul, but as endangering even its salvation? The answer is that this Exercise, like the preceding one on Two Standards, is intended to be a preparation for making a good Election. But an indispensable condition for making a good Election is indifference (see first method for making a good Election, second point, p. 129), and to this every inordinate affection, i.e. every affection which is not subordinated to the end for which man was created, viz. the love and service of God, is more or less a hindrance.

We need not determine the precise degree in which the affection is inordinate; it is sufficient that it is inordinate in any degree. For whatever its degree, it hinders that perfect indifference which is necessary for making a good Election. But the failure to make a good Election involves the risk of missing one's true vocation, and to miss one's true vocation may be to endanger one's salvation.

This meditation may also be used when there is no question of choosing a state of life, but only of reforming one's life in a state already fixed. For an inordinate affection, even if it be for some comparatively trifling thing, is always (1) a burden which weighs down the soul, and retards its progress; (2) an obstacle to its peace (cf. De Imitatione I, vi), and (3) possibly even an impediment to salvation, in the manner explained above.

The second is the composition, seeing the place: it will be here to behold myself, how I stand in the presence of God our Lord and all His saints, that I may desire and know that which is more pleasing to His divine Goodness (67).

(67) This peculiarly solemn form of prelude occurs again only in the Contemplation for obtaining love at the close of the Exercises. We are to place ourselves in the presence of God and of all the company of heaven, in order that the contemplation of such majestic and glorious surroundings may kindle in our

hearts a great desire to do what is most pleasing to God, and so may put us into the right disposition for receiving the revelation of His will. And, with reference to this, it should be noticed that S. Ignatius here inverts the natural and usual order of the words, which would be that I may know and desire, and says instead, that I may desire and know, because unless we have a desire to do God's will we shall neither deserve nor be able to hear His voice speaking in our hearts. There is another instance of the same thing in the third point of the first method of making an Election (p. 130), where we are instructed to beg God our Lord that He may be pleased to move my will, and place in my soul, i.e. make known to me, that which I ought to do (see Note 104, p. 130). This may seem a trifling point to mention, but is characteristic of the extreme care which S. Ignatius takes to prepare a soul to receive divine inspirations, and to recognize and obey them when God vouchsafes to give them.

The third is to ask for what I desire: it will be here to beg for grace to choose (68) that which may be more acceptable to His divine Goodness.

(68) Grace to choose, not that we are to make the choice now: that is reserved till the time of the Election. The grace we ask for in this prelude is that which will fit us to make a good Election when the time comes, viz. a perfect readiness to do what is most for the glory of God, whatever it may cost us. In other words, we are to ask for grace that we may attain to the dispositions of the third class.

The first class would wish (69) to get rid of the affection which they have for the thing acquired, in order to find in peace God our Lord, and be able to save their souls; but up to the hour of death they do not take the means.

(69) Would wish (querria, vellet), i.e. if it could be done without costing any sacrifice. S. Ignatius does not say wills (quiere, vult), because he who really wills a thing, wills also the means. But this is just what those who belong to the first class are not ready to do. They would like to get rid of the affection which they feel to be a burden and impediment to their peace and salvation; but they cannot make up their minds to take the necessary means. They wish, but do not will.

The second (70) desire to get rid of the affection, but they desire

to do so in such a way as to remain in possession of what they have gained, so that God should come to what they desire; and they do not resolve to relinquish the thing in order to go to God, although this would be the best state for them.

(70) The second class do indeed desire (quiere) to get rid of the hindrance and disquietude which the attachment to their wealth causes them, and are ready to take some means to that end, but not to part with the wealth itself, which probably would be the only effectual course. These will in a kind of way, but only half-heartedly and insincerely.

The third (71) desire to get rid of the affection, but they desire to get rid of it in such a way as to be no more inclined to retain the thing acquired, than not to retain it, desiring to will its retention, or not to will it, only according as God our Lord shall give them to will, and according as it shall seem to them better for the service and praise of His divine Majesty; and meanwhile they wish to consider that they do actually (72) leave all, striving with all their might not to wish for that or for any other thing, unless it be solely the service of God our Lord that moves them; so that the desire of being better able to serve God our Lord may be what moves them to take or to leave the thing (73).

(71) The third class will absolutely and whole-heartedly, and in order to get rid of the troublesome affection are ready to part entirely with the object of it, if that should be God's will; and meanwhile they wish to account themselves as having actually parted with it, with no intention of taking it back unless God should plainly show them that He wills them to do

So.

These alone can be said to will in the true sense of the word. For a fuller exposition of these three classes and of the purpose of this Exercise see Additional Note M, p. 243.

(72) Actually. The Spanish copy preserved in the archives of the Society at Rome, reads in this place en afecto. But Father Roothaan in his note says that he cannot help thinking that this is an error which has somehow crept in, and that the original reading was en efecto. This certainly seems to be required by the sense. For it will not help to confirm a man in the disposition which belongs to the third class, merely to wish to consider that he has left all in affection (en afecto), but it may greatly help him if he can consider himself as having actually (en efecto) left all; inasmuch as it is easier to be indifferent to things

when we do not possess them, than when we do and have still to make up our minds whether to part with them or not. This reading and explanation seem to be supported by the closing words, so that the desire of being better able to serve God our Lord may be what moves them to take or to leave the thing (á tomar la cosa ó dejarla). The word take (tomar) (not ‘retain,' as in the Vulgate version) supposes that, so far at least as the mind and purpose of the person is concerned, the thing has been actually parted with, and will not be taken back unless God should plainly show that that is His will.

(73) S. Ignatius illustrates the dispositions of these three classes of persons by describing their conduct in the case of a call to part with wealth which they feel in their conscience is a hindrance to spiritual progress, and to their obedience to the promptings of grace. But we may apply the same principles to any other hindrance which stands in our way-a sin which holds us back from God, an inordinate affection which must be overcome, a sacrifice which we are reluctant to make. In all these cases there will be something like these three classes. There will be three ways of answering to the call of conscience and of grace. We may refuse, or delay till it is too late; or we may take a middle course, and try to satisfy our conscience with an insincere and half-hearted obedience; or we may resolve to take the highest course and do the will of God whatever it may cost us.

No one, therefore, can flatter himself that he is acting sincerely towards his conscience and towards God, much less that he has a generous love and devotion for our Lord, unless he is earnestly striving to attain to the dispositions of the third class, by a resolute determination to part with every hindrance, so that his heart and will may be free to follow our Lord in whatever state of life, and to whatever degree of perfection in that state he may be called.

To make the same three colloquies as were made in the preceding contemplation on the Two Standards (74).

(74) Changing, however, the subject-matter, so that the grace we are to ask for here is that we may obtain that perfect freedom from all inordinate affections which belongs to the third class, and which will fit us to make a good Election according to the will of God.

It is to be observed, that when we feel a shrinking from, or repugnance to, actual poverty, when in fact we are not indifferent to poverty or riches, it is a great help, in order to overcome such an inordinate affection, to beg in the colloquies (even though it be against the flesh (75)) that our Lord would elect us to actual poverty; and to protest that we desire, beg and supplicate it, provided only it may be to the service and praise of His divine goodness (76).

(75) Against the flesh, i.e. against our lower nature, our carnal and worldly love.

(76) This observation is of the greatest importance, and S. Ignatius refers us back to it again and again in the subsequent Exercises. It teaches us the true method of overcoming the repugnance we feel to embracing the will of God when it is opposed to our natural desires. That method is to pray earnestly, and again and again, even though our lower nature shrinks and fears lest the prayer should be granted, that God would give us grace to make the sacrifice, and to protest before Him that we are ready to do so if it should be His will. This kind of prayer is most pleasing to God, and is of sovereign efficacy for overcoming ourselves. It was thus that our Lord prayed in the garden, 'Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.' We must not, then, omit these colloquies because we feel this repugnance of nature; on the contrary, that is the very reason why we should be the more earnest and persevering in making them. For it often happens that the sacrifice we shrink from, or the thing we feel repugnance to, is the very thing that God asks of us, in order that, as the first prelude expresses it, we may find Him in peace and save our souls. Even if it should seem to us that in forcing ourselves to make such prayers we are using words only, without any real desire of the heart accompanying them, still we must not think that such words are fruitless. Far from it. For God looks to our efforts far more than to our successes. Success is His gift to us, the struggle is our gift to Him. It is our wills that He wants, not our feelings. And these words which seem to us so dry, and cost us so much effort, are true acts of the will, and are of more value to God, and often of more profit to our souls, than many warm feelings and consolations. To pray thus is indeed to act against our sensuality and our carnal and worldly love: cf. the Kingdom of Christ, haciendo contra, etc. See also Annotation xvi and Directory Xxx. 2.