Saint Ignatius’ enduring legacy to the Church is of course his masterwork known as The Spiritual Exercises, a comprehensive program of conversion that rigorously roots out sin in one’s heart and directs the participant on a prolonged meditation of our Lord’s life, death, and resurrection so that he or she may come to imitate Christ in every thought, word, and deed. “By this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant every way of examining one’s conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions…every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise” (First Annotation – Spiritual Exercises). In many respects, this sounds an awful lot like the 12-step program of conversion we follow as Catholics in recovery. As a spiritual program for a spiritual disease, the Twelve Steps take us on a journey to rigorously examine and be rid of the “sins” of our unnatural attachments that have so ruined our lives and blocked us from fulfilling God’s will for us. They teach us to love God and neighbor selflessly via a similar methodology to that of The Spiritual Exercises.

The valuable treasure we find in recovery is the sanity, sobriety, serenity, and fellowship that comes if we follow the program and stay close to Christ. We discover that what we thought was invaluable or indispensable in our addictions turned out to be nothing but worthless dross and literally not “worth it.” In recovery, we indeed receive what is truly worthy of our very lives and become willing to “sell” or give up anything and everything that threatens to rob us of the truly priceless gift of our spiritual awakening in Christ.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!

Reflection Questions

• How was your life in addiction like that of Saint Ignatius prior to his conversion?
• What was your “rock bottom moment” leading to recovery? How are you willing to “sell everything” to keep the precious gifts you have been given in recovery?

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: Exodus 40:16-21, 34-38
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11
Gospel: Matthew 13:47-53

Reflection by Pete S.