and amendment. Thus the Exercise may be adapted to the needs of every soul, whatever its past history or its present state; for all these considerations may well produce in us that shame and confusion of face which is the principal fruit we are to draw from it.

NOTE E

ON THE SECOND EXERCISE

In the first Exercise we thought chiefly of sin and its consequences in others, in the rebel angels, in our first parents, and in some one soul now in hell: sins in each case fewer in number than our own, yet visited with such swift and terrible punishments. Now in this second Exercise we come to the consideration of our own personal sins. And the fruits we are to gather from our meditation are (1) great and intense sorrow and tears for our sins (second prelude); (2) a profound sense of our nothingness and vileness, which is the root of humility and the foundation of all true spiritual life and progress; (3) gratitude to God for His forbearance with us, sparing us hitherto and giving us time for repentance; (4) resolution of amendment for the future.

In the first point S. Ignatius bids us pass in review all the sins of our past life, that we may have at least a general knowledge of their number and kinds. In the second, to weigh the foulness and wickedness of each mortal sin in itself, even supposing that it were not forbidden by God. In the third, by the aid of multiplied comparisons, to consider our own nothingness and vileness, who have dared to commit such sins, and to view ourselves as nothing but a mass of corruption both in body and soul. In the fourth, to dwell on the greatness of God against Whom we have sinned, comparing one by one His glorious attributes with their contrary qualities in ourselves. In the fifth, to be moved with wonder and gratitude at the forbearance of God in preserving us in life, and suffering the holy angels and saints to guard us and pray for us, and all creatures to minister to our needs. The Exercise is to be ended with a colloquy of mercy, reasoning and giving thanks to God our Lord, that He has given me life until now, and resolving through His grace to amend for the future.

S. Ignatius recognizes that the exercitant will need conso

lation after such a painful and humiliating meditation, and therefore he leads us at its close, both in the last point and in the colloquy, to dwell much on the forbearance and mercy of God. It should be noticed also that he does not here, as in the colloquy of the first Exercise, bid us ask ourselves what we ought to do for Christ. For what indeed could a sinner hope to do, who has just seen himself to be so utterly nothing and vile, so powerless for good, and so prone to every kind of evil? One thing only can he dare to ask, viz. that by the grace of God he may at last bring forth some real fruit of penitence and amend

ment.

It is evident that in this meditation, as in the preceding one, S. Ignatius is thinking chiefly of mortal sins. And the same of course is true of the meditation on hell: for it is only on account of mortal sin that any soul will be condemned to hell.

Several reasons may be given for the omission of any express mention of venial sin. First, because it is sufficient for salvation to have contrition for our mortal sins. Secondly, because a soul which has the great and intense sorrow for mortal sins, which is one of the chief fruits to be sought in this meditation, will assuredly have sorrow for venial sins also. Thirdly, since all the Exercises of the First Week are designed to bring a man to a profound humiliation and contempt of himself, S. Ignatius would have him recall and dwell upon those sins the memory of which will most conduce to this end. Fourthly, because the Exercises of the Second and following Weeks will, if rightly made, kindle in the soul such a fire of love for our Lord, that it will burn up and destroy not only venial sins, but all inordinate affections also, which are the roots from which they spring.

There is no reason, however, why some meditations on venial sin and on the punishments due to it, should not be added; and indeed, if there is time, it will generally be of advantage that this should be done. Such meditations will not only deepen our contrition for venial sins, but will also help us to have a hatred and fear of them, lest, as S. Ignatius warns us, in the second prelude to the meditation on hell, they may chill our love for God, and so prepare the way for a fall into mortal sin.

This second Exercise, like the first, may well furnish matter for more than one meditation.

NOTE F

ON THE THIRD AND FOURTH EXERCISES

The third Exercise is a repetition of the first and second, and the fourth is made by resuming the third, i.e. it is a repetition of a repetition.

The principal fruits to be gathered from these two Exercises are mentioned in the colloquy, which is to be used with both of them. They are (1) an interior knowledge and feeling of our sins, and abhorrence of them; (2) a sense and abhorrence of the disorder of our actions, in order that we may amend and order ourselves aright; (3) a knowledge of the world, that, viewing it with horror, we may put away from ourselves vain and worldly things.

The first of these is practically the same as the fruit we ask for in the second prelude of the preceding Exercise.

With regard to the second, it has been already explained (Note 29, p. 65), that by the disorder of our actions we are to understand actions done without due regard to the principles laid down in the Foundation, actions in which we make ourselves or other creatures the end instead of God and His will. And since the root of this disorder is to be found in our inordinate affections, it is to the mortification and discipline of these that we must turn our attention. Only so far as this is accomplished shall we be able to order our lives and actions aright.

Lastly, with regard to the world and its vanities, which make such constant and powerful appeals to our disordered affections, we shall do well to ponder the words of the beloved disciple: 'the whole world lieth in wickedness,' or 'in the wicked one (1 S. John v. 19). 'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever' (ib. ii. 15-17). And those of S. James: The friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God' (iv. 4).

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Those, therefore, who have forsaken the world must take care lest they be again ensnared by it, and drawn back little by little into conformity with it. Those on the other hand who

have to live in the midst of it, must arm themselves against its fascinations and seductions with serious and strong resolutions, so that while living in it they may keep themselves 'unspotted from' it (S. James i. 27).

Thus we see how these two repetitions mark an advance upon the previous Exercises. We are to seek now not only for a knowledge and hatred of our sins, but to lay the axe to the roots from which they spring, by mortifying our inordinate affections, and putting away from ourselves the world and its vanities.

Meditation on death will greatly help us here by convincing us of the vanity and instability of the world, and so detaching our affections from it. See Directory xv. 4.

NOTE G

ON THE FIFTH EXERCISE

The fifth Exercise has a close connexion with the meditations which have preceded it. In them we have been led, through a deep sense of shame and confusion for our sins, to the sorrow of contrition: the sorrow which springs from love and gratitude to God, Who has not cut us off in our sins, but has showed such pity and mercy towards us, sparing us until now, and giving us time and grace for repentance and amendment. We feel love and gratitude now, but what if, through our faults, i.e. our venial sins and negligences, we should forget what we owe to God, and becoming lukewarm should again fall back into mortal sin?

It is to guard against this danger that S. Ignatius would have us meditate upon hell, and accordingly the first fruit we are to seek for in our meditation is an interior sense of the pain which the lost suffer, in order that if through my faults I should forget the love of the eternal Lord, at least the fear of punishment may help me not to fall into sin (second prelude).

There are two things to be noticed here. In the first place, what we ask for is not merely knowledge, but an interior sense (interno sentimiento) of the pains of the lost. It is for this reason, no doubt, that S. Ignatius does not give us a meditation on hell in the ordinary way by the exercise of the three powers of the soul, but directs us rather to the application of the interior senses of the soul, as the more effectual method of producing the result he desires.

Next it should be noted that this is the first place in which he speaks directly of fear as a motive, and even here it comes in only as a secondary motive, in case we should forget the love of God which ought to be our primary motive for resisting sin. Indeed throughout the Exercises S. Ignatius seeks to lead us far more by love than by fear. Always, and in every possible way, he seeks to awaken our love and gratitude in response to the love of God and His forbearance with us. So far as he does speak of fear it is only as an additional safeguard in case love should forget her duty.

The second fruit we are to gather from this Exercise is pointed out in the colloquy. It is an intense gratitude to our Lord, because He has not cut us off in our sins and suffered us to fall into hell, but on the contrary has always until now showed such pity and mercy towards us.

It may be noticed that in speaking in this Exercise of the pain which the lost suffer, S. Ignatius directs our thoughts mainly to the pains of sense. Two reasons may be given for this. First, in the previous meditations on sin, it is chiefly the root of pride and self-will that he seeks to lay bare and destroy; whereas in this Exercise, by applying the senses of the imagination to the bodily pains of the lost, we are to gain such a vivid realization of them as shall prove an effectual check upon the indulgence of the flesh. And secondly, it would hardly have been in point here to speak of the pain of loss. The object of this meditation is to deter a soul from sin by fear, in case it should become lukewarm and forget the love of God. Now a lukewarm soul has little fear of the pain of loss. If it does not fear to lose the grace and presence of God now, how should it fear to be parted from Him for ever? But when love grows cold or is lost, fear of the pains of sense may still avail to deter it from sin, or to recall it when it has sinned. There are, of course, other places in the Exercises where the pain of loss does come in, at least indirectly, and where we may fitly enlarge upon it. In the Foundation, for instance, the thought of the salvation of the soul, i.e. its perfect well-being and happiness both here and hereafter, suggests at once the opposite thought of the misery of a soul that fails to attain its end, and loses God for whom it was formed. And again, in the third point of the first Exercise, in meditating upon the particular sin of some one person who for one mortal sin has gone to hell, we may rightly dwell