is understood the making of the vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity; and although a good work done with a vow is more meritorious than when done without it; nevertheless the peculiar character (18) and condition of the exercitant must be carefully attended to, as also what amount of help or hindrance he may hereafter find in the accomplishment of the thing he would like to promise.

(18) Character includes here the whole nature and disposition of the person, physical, mental, and moral. Condition refers to his external circumstances and relations with others, e.g. whether he is married or unmarried, rich or poor, his station in life, his profession, or employment, etc. It is only when these two things, the man's personal character and his circumstances, have been carefully considered, that the advantages or disadvantages of making a vow can be rightly estimated, and a prudent judgment formed as to whether it ought to be made or

not.

XV. He who gives the Exercises must not move him who receives them more to poverty or to any other promise than to their contraries, nor to one state or manner of life more than to another ; for although outside the Exercises we may lawfully and meritoriously urge all who are probably fitted for it to choose continency, virginity, the Religious state, or any kind of evangelical perfection, nevertheless in these spiritual Exercises it is more fitting and much better, in seeking the divine will, that the Creator and Lord Himself should communicate Himself to the devout soul, embracing (19) and drawing it to His love and praise, and disposing it for that way of life in which it will best serve Him for the future; so that he who gives the Exercises should not turn or incline himself to the one side or the other, but, keeping in the middle like a balance, should allow the Creator to work immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord (20).

(19) The Spanish text reads here abrazandola embracing it'; but Fr. Roothaan and Fr. Nonell think the scribe may have made a mistake, and that the word ought to be abrasandola 'inflaming it,' which certainly gives a better sense. See 'Les Corrections Manuscrites des Exercices de Saint Ignace,' by Fr. Antoine Boone, S.J., in Collection de la Bibliothèque des Exercices de Saint Ignace, No. 18, p. 15. This is one of the places in which S. Ignatius hints at those higher forms of prayer in which the soul is more passive than active.

(20) On this and the preceding Annotation, see Directory v. 5, 6; xxiv. 1, 2; and Suarez, De Relig. IX. vii. 4, 5.

XVI. For the same purpose, namely, that the Creator and Lord may more surely work in His creature, if perchance such a soul is inordinately (21) affected and inclined to anything, it will be very profitable for it to stir itself up and employ all its forces to arrive at the contrary of that to which it is wrongly affected. Thus, if it be desirous to seek and possess some office or benefice, not for the honour and glory of God our Lord, nor for the spiritual welfare of souls, but for its own advantage and temporal interests, it ought to force its affections towards the contrary, insisting on this in prayer and other spiritual exercises and imploring God to grant it a contrary mind, protesting that it does not wish for the said office or benefice, nor for anything else, unless His Divine Majesty, bringing its desires into order, so changes its first affection, that its only motive for desiring or possessing one thing or another may be the service, honour, and glory of His Divine Majesty.

(21) An inordinate affection does not always mean an affection to something bad. We may be inordinately affected towards that which is in itself good, as when we desire a good thing for a wrong end, or from a wrong motive (as in the examples given by S. Ignatius), or without due consideration, or with too much of mere natural ardour and solicitude. All these are dangers which beset a soul that is not thoroughly detached and mortified. We must, therefore, pray earnestly for grace to free ourselves from every inordinate affection, striving in our prayer to bend our desires in the contrary direction, in order that we may be established in a real equilibrium of holy indifference, ready to act only from the true motive of the love and service of God. Compare St. Ignatius' note at the end of the Exercise on the Three Classes, p. 114, and Directory xxx. 2.

XVII. It is very advantageous that he who gives the Exercises, without wishing to inquire into or to know the private thoughts or sins of him who receives them, should be faithfully informed of the various agitations and thoughts which the different spirits excite in him; because, according to the greater or less profit he finds, his director may be able to give him some suitable spiritual Exercises adapted to the needs of a soul thus agitated (22).

(22) It is not necessary that this Annotation should be explained to all who make the Exercises, though it may some

times be advantageous to do so if the exercitant does not seem sufficiently to make known what is passing in his soul. Generally it will be enough for the director to question him concerning the manner in which he makes the Exercises. This will usually furnish him with all the information he needs. See Annotation vi; and Directory ii. 7.

XVIII. These spiritual Exercises ought to be adapted to the disposition of those who wish to make them, that is to say, according to their age, education, or capacity, lest to one illiterate or of weak constitution there be given things which he cannot bear without inconvenience, and by which he cannot profit. In like manner according to the desires and dispositions of each there should be given him what may most help and profit him. Therefore to him who desires only to be instructed and helped to arrive at a certain degree of contentment of soul, there may be given the particular and then the general examination, and at the same time for half an hour in the morning the method of prayer on the commandments, the deadly sins, etc., recommending him to confess his sins every week, and, if he can, to receive Communion every fortnight, and better still, if he is moved to do so, every week. This is the best course to take with simple and illiterate persons also, explaining to them each Commandment, and in like manner the deadly sins, the precepts of the Church, the five senses, and the works of mercy. Likewise, if he who gives the Exercises perceives that he who receives them has not much depth of character, or is of little natural capacity, so that not much fruit can be expected of him, it is more fitting to give him some of these light (23) Exercises until he makes the confession of his sins; and then to give him some method of examination of conscience, and of more frequent confession than he has been accustomed to, in order that he may preserve what he has gained; but not to proceed further to matters of Election, nor to any other Exercises beyond those of the First Week (24), especially when there are others who are able to profit more, and there is not time to attend to all (25).

(23) Some of these light Exercises. What are we to understand by these light [or easy] Exercises? It can hardly be that S. Ignatius refers only to the Exercises just mentioned, viz. the particular and general examinations and the first of the three methods of prayer, for a few lines farther on he seems to say that all the Exercises of the First Week may be given to the class

of persons of whom he is speaking. On the other hand, it cannot be said that the Foundation and the Exercises on sin are easy. No doubt these subjects are capable of being treated in an easy and popular way so as to bring them within the capacity of simple and uneducated persons; but as S. Ignatius outlines them they make large demands upon both the mental powers and the good will of the exercitant, and cannot certainly be called light or easy. Possibly what was in the mind of S. Ignatius was not so much a distinction between two classes of Exercises, some easy and some more difficult and exacting, as a difference in the manner of giving them according to the capacities and needs of different classes of persons. The same Exercises may be reckoned as light when they are adapted to the needs of those who for lack of mental capacity or suitable dispositions are not to be permitted to go beyond the First Week, and weighty when they are treated in a deeper and more searching way, so as to serve as a foundation for the spiritual demands which will be made upon those who are to go on to the following Weeks. In the first case it will be sufficient to give such simple explanations and developments as would be suitable in preaching a mission. In the second, it will be necessary to bring out those deeper teachings which are intended to lead the exercitant through a profound realization of his nothingness and manifold sins to a perfect humility, and to such a lively sense of gratitude to our Lord for having rescued him from the hell he has so often deserved, as shall make him ready to do and bear everything for love of Him. The object in the first case is simply to help the penitent to make a good confession and amend his life for the future. In the second it is to prepare the way, and lay the foundation for all the Exercises of the subsequent Weeks, in which the exercitant contemplates the Life, Passion, and Resurrection of our Lord, and is invited to follow Him in the closest possible way, even, if he should be called to it, in the practice of the evangelical counsels.

(24) But see Directory xix. 3, and Ferrusola, Commentaria, p. 180 Loquitur B. Pater de hujusmodi aliarum Hebdomadarum Exercitiis, non relate ad eorum materiam, ad quam suo certe modo considerandam omnes sine dubio sunt apti; sed relate ad altiores cognitiones atque affectus, quos in illa materia cupit B. Pater excitare.'

By the Election S. Ignatius means primarily the choice

of a state of life, and secondarily the choice of the means by which a soul may advance towards perfection in a state already chosen and fixed, whether it be the common state, or that of evangelical perfection in the practice of the counsels. In this case the Exercises of the Second Week are necessary, especially those on the Kingdom of Christ, the Two Standards, the Three Classes, and the three Modes of Humility. At the same time the methods of Election and Reformation of life, placed by S. Ignatius at the end of the Second Week, may often be given with great advantage to those who are not going beyond the Exercises of the First Week, in order to help them to make a choice of the best means to preserve themselves in the state of grace, and to serve God according to His will in the common life.

(25) This and the two following Annotations treat of the various ways in which the Exercises should be given, in part or in whole, to different classes of persons.

First, the director is warned in a general way to adapt them to the age, education, capacity, health and strength of the exercitant. Then three classes are distinguished, and the director is told how to deal with each.

1. Those who have not the necessary qualifications for receiving the Exercises in full; and these are again divided under three heads :

(a) Such as lack a fervent will, desiring only to be instructed in the ordinary duties of a Christian life, and to set their consciences at rest by a good confession.

(b) Illiterate persons.

(c) Those wanting in depth of character, or natural capacity from whom therefore not much fruit can be expected. Annotation xviii.

2. Those who have both education and capacity, but are hindered by external duties and business, from which they cannot altogether free themselves. Annotation xix.

3. Those who have all the necessary qualifications, and wish to profit by the Exercises to the utmost, and are also free from external hindrances. Annotation xx.

And correspondingly there are three ways of giving the Exercises :

1. In part, i.e. not going beyond the Exercises of the First Week. Annotation xviii.

2. In whole, as to matter but not as to form. Annotation xix.