is described as being more an exercise of the discursive reason, whereas the application of the senses does not proceed by reasoning and drawing conclusions, but simply rests in those sensible aspects of things which appeal to the eye and ear and other senses, drawing fruit from them, and finding in them spiritual delight and profit. Not that the work of the understanding is altogether absent, for S. Ignatius is careful to add that after the application of each sense we are to reflect on ourselves and to draw some fruit. (See Second Week, fifth contemplation, p. 93.) This reflection, however, should be made very simply and briefly, and we should pass on at once to the exercise of the affections and the will, as in the case of a repetition.

The senses are usually applied to matter upon which we have already meditated and made one or more repetitions. If this is not the case with the Exercise on Hell, the reason would seem to be that S. Ignatius wished to give, at the beginning of his book, an example of each kind of Exercise which was afterwards to be employed, and therefore selected as an example the first subject occurring in the course of the Exercises, which especially lends itself to this form of treatment. There is, however, no reason why we should not first make a meditation on hell in the ordinary way by the exercise of the three powers of the soul, and afterwards apply the senses.

More will be said on this form of exercise when we come to the Second Week, in which its use becomes much more frequent and important. (See Additional Note O, § 2, pp. 253–6.)

NOTE J

ON THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST

Before speaking of the fruit which S. Ignatius would have us gather from this meditation, it will be well to recall the dispositions of mind and heart which the exercitant is supposed to bring with him as he enters upon it.

First, then, he has had it brought home to him in the meditations of the First Week, how often and how grievously he has sinned and deserved punishment, not once only, as the rebel angels, and our first parents, and many others since then who for one unrepented mortal sin are now in hell, but times out of number; how, moreover, he is, in the sight of God, as some foul ulcer from which there flows a perpetual stream of cor

ruption and sins; and how the cause of all this has been his deep-seated pride, his unmortified passions, his self-love and love of the world, by all of which he has been deceived and led astray, so as to choose the short-lived pleasures of the body, and the vain honours of the world, at the cost of all the misery and degradation which they have brought upon him here, and the bitter and eternal pains of hell which await him hereafter.

At the same time he has been filled with gratitude, as he has come to realize, in those same meditations, how marvellous has been the longsuffering and forbearance of God towards him, pouring upon him all manner of benefits, preserving him until now in life, and giving him time and opportunity for repentance; and also how great beyond all measure has been the love and pity of Christ our Lord, which brought Him down from heaven, to take upon Him the form of a servant, and after a life of toil and suffering to die upon the Cross for his sins. (See the colloquy of the first Exercise, the fifth point of the second, and the colloquy of the fifth.)

It is to one who has passed through such experiences as these, who moreover has made his general confession and received absolution, and in whose heart are still echoing those words: What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Him now? What ought I to do for Him? (colloquy of the first Exercise)— it is to one so disposed that S. Ignatius proposes this great meditation on the Kingdom of Christ, in which we contemplate our Lord as the Captain of our salvation, calling all men to follow Him in His warfare against sin, the world, and the devil, and promising that in proportion as they are partakers of His labours here they shall hereafter be partakers also of His victory and His glory.

The fruit we are to gather from this meditation is a strong and generous resolution to devote ourselves henceforth to the service of Christ our Lord, following Him in the perfect fulfilment of the commandments, or, if He should be pleased to choose and call us to such a life and state, in the observance also of the evangelical counsels.

The first part of this resolution, viz. to follow our Lord in the perfect fulfilment of the commandments, grows out of the considerations which are advanced in the first point of both parts of the meditation, in the latter of which Christ our Lord

speaks and says to the whole world and to each one in particular: My will is to conquer the whole world and all My enemies, and thus to enter into the glory of My Father. Whosoever, therefore, desires to come with Me must labour with Me, in order that following Me in suffering, he may likewise follow Me in glory.

This call is addressed to the whole world, and S. Ignatius bids us consider, in the second point, that all who have judgment and reason will offer their whole selves for the work. All, that is to say, to whom the knowledge and call of Christ come are bound, as reasonable men, to devote themselves to His service, and to follow Him in His warfare. To this service and warfare we were all of us pledged when we were made Christ's soldiers and servants in our Baptism and promised to fight manfully against sin, the world, and the devil, and to keep God's holy will and commandments unto our life's end. Therefore for us it is no longer a question whether we shall enlist under Christ's banner dr not. We have enlisted; and what we have to do in this meditation is to renew our allegiance to our King and Captain, and to pray earnestly for grace to keep our engagements more truly, and to serve Him better.

So much for the first part of the resolution.

The second, or conditional, part containing the further and more precious fruit, which some may be invited to gather from this meditation, viz. the desire and resolution to follow our Lord in the spirit, and if it may be so, in the actual practice of the evangelical counsels, springs from motives which appeal not merely to judgment and reason, but to love and gratitude, and the desire to imitate Him as closely as possible in His life of poverty, humiliation, and sufferings. This is set before us in the third point of the second part of the meditation, and in the great act of self-oblation with which the Exercise ends. But since this more perfect way is not for all, but only for those to whom our Lord may give the vocation, the condition is immediately added: if only Thy divine Majesty be pleased to choose and receive me to such a life and state, or as the same thing is expressed a few lines above, provided only it be to Thy greater service and praise.

If, however, the exercitant has already made his profession in Religion, then for him this condition no longer has place. Our Lord's will for him has been made known. He has been chosen and called, and has answered to the call and sealed it

by his profession; and now he has only to renew an offering already made, desiring and praying that, by the grace of God, he may make it still more perfectly, and, if it should be the divine will, may have his sincerity tested by the experience of some real hardships of poverty, or some actual suffering of humiliations and contempt, in order that thereby he may be more truly conformed to the likeness of Christ.

On the other hand, if any one who makes this meditation should not be called by our Lord to the Religious state, or should be hindered by marriage or some other cause from entering upon it, and yet should find himself among those who desire to show greater affection, and to make offerings of greater worth and moment, let him not think that he is debarred from doing so. He may always offer himself to our Lord to imitate Him more and more perfectly in the spirit and love of poverty, humiliations, and the Cross; and so doing, he may perchance excel some in the Religious state who have not so fully responded to the high vocation which has been given to them. The actual observance of the counsels,' says Fr. Rickaby, is not for all exercitants, not even for the most generous. But the spirit of the evangelical counsels is for every high-souled Christian.'

From what has just been said it will be easy to see what this Exercise, which is as it were a second Foundation for all the following Exercises, adds to that first Foundation which we have already considered so fully. There the fruit we sought to gain was such a measure of indifference to all creatures that we may be able to use them or reject them just so far as they are a help or a hindrance to us in the prosecution of the end for which we were created. Here we are invited and urged to go farther, to desire and to offer ourselves for what is difficult and painful to nature. And assuredly if we have begun to 'know' Christ (Phil. iii. 10), we shall easily understand how unworthy and even impossible it would be to remain merely in a state of indifference. Seeing that our King and Saviour chose for Himself poverty and contempt, how can we be content to be merely indifferent as to riches and honours, and not rather feel ourselves inflamed with a longing desire to follow our Master, in His life of poverty, humiliation, and the Cross. Indifference is the proper attitude of all who have judgment and reason; but these offerings of greater worth are for those who are moved by

grace to wish to show greater affection, and to distinguish themselves in the service of Christ their King.

NOTE K

ON THE PURPOSE AND ORDER OF THE EXERCISES OF THE SECOND

WEEK

In the meditation on the Kingdom of Christ we contemplate our Lord as the Captain of our salvation, calling us to follow Him in His warfare against sin, the world, and the devil.

Now the way in which we are to follow Him is by the imitation of His life. But if we are to imitate Him we must apply ourselves to the study of His teaching and example. We must acquire a deep and practical knowledge of His life, both exterior and interior, of His conduct, His virtues, His ideas, His purposes. Such a study, if made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Whom we constantly invoke in our meditations, must awaken in our hearts love and devotion; and we shall feel ourselves powerfully drawn towards Him, and inspired with a desire to follow in His footsteps and be made like unto Him.

Accordingly the third prelude in all the meditations of the Second Week-the prelude in which we ask for the fruit we desire to gain-is always in substance this: that we may have an interior knowledge of our Lord, Who for us was made Man, in order that we may love Him better, and follow Him more closely.

Further, it is while we are contemplating the Mysteries of our Lord's life from His Incarnation to the eve of His Passion, that we are to seek to know in what kind of life or state His divine Majesty wishes to make use of us (Preamble to the Consideration of States of Life, p. 97). As we contemplate our Lord in the various Mysteries of His life, meditating upon His words and acts, we shall probably feel strongly attracted towards certain aspects of His life and work. In this special attraction or influence we shall often find the secret of our vocation disclosed. How do I seem to see our Lord most clearly and most constantly? In what aspect of His life and teaching does He make the strongest appeal to my heart and conscience? In His poverty? His humility? His separation from the world? His desire for the Cross? In His hidden life, or His public ministerial life? In His interior life of prayer and contemplation, or in His active ministry of preaching and works of mercy?