the greatest festivals, that need not hinder the solid fruit of these contemplations. For as the glory and the joy of the risen Christ are independent of the vicissitudes of this lower world, so our joy on His account and in Him is a joy which the world does not give and cannot destroy, a pure spiritual joy, which in spite of the trials and storms which beset the lower sensitive nature, remains undisturbed in those high regions of the soul and spirit, where the will may always unite itself with God.

Let the first, second, and third points be the same (4) that we have had in the Supper of Christ our Lord.

(4) Viz. the persons, the words, and the actions.

The fourth is to consider how the Divinity, which seemed to hide itself in the Passion, now appears and shows itself so miraculously in the most holy Resurrection, by its true and most holy effects.

The fifth is to regard the office of comforting which Christ our Lord exercises, comparing it to the way in which friends are wont to comfort one another.

To end with one or more colloquies according to the subjectmatter, and an Our Father (5).

(5) The method to be followed in these contemplations is the same as that laid down for the Third Week, except that in place of the last three points there given two others are to be substituted. In other words, we are in each Mystery to consider the persons, the words, and the actions, adding to, or rather mingling with, these points (Note 5, ad fin. p. 139) two special considerations, viz. how the Divinity, which during the Passion restrained its action and concealed itself in order that our Lord might suffer the more, now displays itself by real and miraculous effects; and secondly, how our Lord discharges the office of a true Comforter, consoling, teaching, and encouraging His disciples.

In the first of these two special points we contemplate the glory and joy of Christ, in which we also hope one day to participate. So our thoughts are carried back to those words in the meditation on the Kingdom of Christ, in which our Lord promises that those who have followed Him in His labours and sufferings here shall follow Him in glory hereafter. The glory shall be proportioned to the suffering, in us no less than in Him.

We may develop this thought by considering the four qualities of our Lord's glorified Body, and how they answer to those four heads which S. Ignatius enumerates in the Foundation, where he speaks of the indifference we ought to have to all earthly circumstances and vicissitudes. For in place of a short life, with all its troubles and trials both of body and soul, we behold our Lord's risen Body endued with immortality, and raised above all possible suffering of weariness or pain, so subtle also and agile that nothing can hinder or obstruct it; while poverty and dishonour, which were His lot on earth, are replaced now by a radiance and glory above the brightness of the sun.

Or we may think of the eight Beatitudes, and how they find their complete fulfilment in the resurrection life beyond the grave. If we consider these and such-like points in each of the Mysteries of this Week, our contemplations will be much enriched and varied; and we shall find great delight in contrasting each of these joys and glories in turn with the labours and sufferings which Christ our Lord bore for us, and now calls us in various ways and degrees to share.

Here again, as in all the Mysteries, we must not forget our present union with Christ in His risen life. He rose from the dead as the Firstborn and Head of the redeemed race. The glory which personally belongs to Him, His members share. Baptized into His death we are made partakers of His risen life; and by feeding upon His Body and Blood in Holy Communion we have this life constantly renewed and developed within us. Thus His risen and glorified Body is a real centre of power for the transformation of our lives. The Spirit of God dwelling in Him operates through Him upon all the members of His Body, distributing to them their several offices and gifts according to His will, and binding all together in a unity of life which is none other than the life of Jesus at the Right Hand of the Father.

Other contemplations for this Week are to be taken from the Mysteries of our Lord's Life, below, pp. 179-83.

Four Observations

1. In the following contemplations let all the Mysteries of the Resurrection until the Ascension, inclusively, be gone through in the manner which follows below, observing in other respects through the whole Week of the Resurrection the same form and method as

was observed throughout the Week of the Passion; so that by this first contemplation of the Resurrection the exercitant may direct himself with regard to the preludes according to the subject-matter ; and with regard to the five points, let them be the same; and let the Additions which are placed below be the same; and thus in all the rest he can direct himself according to the manner of the Week of the Passion, as in repetitions, applications of the senses, abbreviating or expanding the Mysteries (6).

(6) I.e. in making use of fewer or more of them. See the instructions given for the seventh day of the Third Week, p. 144.

II. Generally speaking it is more fitting in this Fourth Week than in the other three to make four Exercises, and not five: the first immediately on rising in the morning; the second at the hour of Mass, or before dinner, in place of the first repetition; the third at the hour of Vespers, in place of the second repetition; the fourth before supper, applying the five senses to the three Exercises of the same day, noting and dwelling upon the principal parts, and those in which one has felt greater spiritual movements and relish (7).

(7) Wherever in the preceding Weeks S. Ignatius speaks of repetitions, he refers us back to what he has said about them in the third Exercise of the First Week, viz. that we are to note and dwell on the points in which we have experienced greater consolation or desolation. Here, however, he makes no mention of desolation, but simply bids us dwell on the principal parts in which one has felt greater spiritual movements and relish. What is the reason of this difference? Most likely it is because the proper fruit of this Week is that pure spiritual joy, which may be experienced in the superior part of the soul even when the lower sensitive nature is a prey to desolation or temptation; or possibly because he considers that desolation will rarely be experienced in these contemplations of our Lord's risen life by those who have duly made the Exercises of the three preceding Weeks.

III. Although in all the contemplations a fixed number of points is given, for example three or five, etc., the person who contemplates can take more or fewer points according as he shall find it better. For this purpose it is very useful, before entering upon the contemplation, to foresee and determine the number of points which he ought to take (8).

(8) The points referred to here are those into which the matter of the contemplation is divided, not the persons, words, actions, etc. In determining the number of these points we are likely to need, and the principal fruit to be sought from them, consists the preparation of our meditation, whether in retreat or at other times.

IV. In this Fourth Week, among the ten Additions, the second, sixth, seventh, and tenth are to be changed.

The second will be, immediately I am awake to set before me the contemplation which I am about to make, desiring to feel joy and gladness at the great joy and gladness of Christ our Lord.

The sixth, to bring before the memory and think of things that cause pleasure, cheerfulness, and spiritual joy, as, for example, the glory of heaven.

-The seventh, to make use of light, or of seasonable enjoyments, as, for instance, in summer of refreshing coolness, and in winter of the warmth of the sun or fire, in so far (9) as the soul thinks or conjectures that these things can help it to rejoice in its Creator and Redeemer.

(9) In so far (en cuanto). The great rule laid down in the Foundation holds here as everywhere else. We must use these relaxations only as means for attaining the end, and only so far as they help towards it, no farther. Now the end proposed in this Fourth Week is that we may rejoice in God our Creator and Redeemer, and be established in fervour and spiritual joy. Therefore there must be no giving way to self-indulgence, nor slackening in fervour as the retreat draws to a close. To yield to any such temptation would be to endanger all the fruit gained from the movements of grace and our own efforts during the preceding days. And even if there should be some natural weariness, and an absence of sensible joy, we may still rejoice in the spirit and be really fervent; for true fervour is not in the feelings, but in the will.

The tenth, instead of penance, to attend to temperance and moderation in all things, unless it be at times when fasting or abstinence are prescribed by the Church, for these ought always to be observed, unless there be some just impediment.

CONTEMPLATION FOR OBTAINING LOVE (1)

In the first place two things should be noted:

The first is that love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words.

The second, that love consists in mutual interchange on either side, that is to say in the lover giving and communicating to the beloved (2) that which he has, or of that which he has or is able to give, and so in turn in the beloved making return to the lover; 80 that if the one have knowledge, honours, riches, he should give to him who has not, and the other in turn should do the same.

(1) The Contemplation for obtaining love and the three methods of prayer which follow are to be regarded, according to the Autograph, as falling outside the four Weeks of the Exercises. For after the twenty Annotations we find the pages in the Autograph headed continuously, First Week, Second Week, Third Week, Fourth Week, till we come to this Contemplation, when these headings cease, and are not again resumed.

The usual practice, however, of giving this Contemplation at the close of the Fourth Week is certainly to be commended and retained; there is no other place where it could come in so fitly. For the practice of the love of God which is here set before us needs to be prepared for and led up to by the whole course of the Exercises, in which the soul is first purged from sin, and then led on, through love of Jesus and a desire of imitating Him as perfectly as possible, to that entire mortification of the passions and surrender of the will which is the only way to attain those higher forms of love and union of which this Contemplation treats.

(2) The lover giving and communicating to the beloved. S. Ignatius has expressed himself in such a way that his words may be understood either of the love of God for man or of the love of man for God. If we take them in the former sense then the words or is able to give, are rightly added; for God, being