A Vivid Bible Experience

Four hundred and fifty years later, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are finally hip.

For a small but growing number of attorneys and housewives, doctors and students, the exercises beckon like a Mt. Everest of spirituality, conquered only by brave souls with an intense desire for a deeper relationship with God.

In recent years, a record number of people in the U.S. have volunteered for the spiritual equivalent of boot camp, where they commit to pray an hour a day, keep a journal and meet weekly with group members and an advisor over the course of 34 weeks.

Ignatius, who founded the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, developed the rigorous exercises to reflect on specific Scriptures, following Jesus in the Gospels through his three-year ministry. The saint used his imagination to place himself in the biblical scenes of Jesus, either as an outside witness or as one of the characters.

By “breaking open the Scripture” like Ignatius, people who participate in the exercises say they feel as though they are experiencing life with Jesus. They report smelling the fish being caught on the Sea of Galilee and tasting the bread and wine at the Last Supper.

“The program will never be super-popular--who has an extra 300 hours to pray?” said Francisco F. Firmat, a Superior Court judge in Orange County who leads believers through the exercises each year. “But for people who have a deep hunger, who want a deeper prayer life, this is the place to go.”

Last year in Southern California, a record 50 laypeople completed the exercises, said Father Allan Deck, a Jesuit and executive director of the Loyola Spirituality Institute in Orange. To meet the demand in the Latino community, the institute will train 11 Spanish speakers this year to be spiritual directors for the exercises.

St. Ignatius has even gone online. Creighton University in Omaha offers the exercises on the Web and gets about 7,000 hits a month.

Whatever the method of delivery, the core of the spiritual exercises has gone unchanged since Ignatius wrote them in his journal nearly five centuries ago.

Long a signature of Jesuit priests, the spiritual exercises jumped into the mainstream in the wake of the openness mandated by the Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The exercises are attracting both Catholics and Protestants.

“They are still extremely modern,” Deck said. “If people are being attracted to them [even today], it’s because they give you a long-term sense of well-being.”

Ignatius developed the exercises as a layman. Born in 1491, he grew up in a wealthy family in Spain. He was ambitious, romantic, conceited and free-spirited--anything but religious. But at age 30 he suffered a leg wound in a battle against the French at Pamplona.

While convalescing in the castle of Loyola, Ignatius had only two texts to read: a four-volume set on the life of Christ and a book on the saints. He found that the books left him with a sense of peace and tranquillity, a marked contrast to the depression and emptiness he felt after reading his favorite books of romance and chivalry.

The reflections helped ignite a conversion that led Ignatius to develop a systematic method of prayer and to eventually found the Society of Jesus, in 1539. His passion was to help people develop a more intimate view of God, one that would transfer their prayers from the mind to the heart.

Ignatius designed the exercises to take place during a 30-day retreat. In the one concession to contemporary life, the program has been spread over 34 weeks so working people can participate.

Sessions might be held weekly or twice a month, depending on the needs of group members.

“The meeting opens with a brief prayer, where some of us pray with our eyes open or closed,” Firmat said. “Then we gather in a circle, and with our journals in our laps we share our experiences for the past week for 50 minutes.”

Nine prayer styles are outlined in the exercises. “People try the different ways of prayer, and they find what works best for them,” Firmat said.

The meditation and contemplation transcend what traditional sermons offer, Deck said. “We hear him, we see him, we touch him. Jesus jumps out of the Bible. He’s someone you ate with, hugged and talked with.”

Byron Beam, an attorney and member of Laguna Presbyterian Church, said he was surprised when he found himself experiencing biblical scenes firsthand.

“If God chooses to grace you, you can find yourself at the birth of Christ,” said Beam, who served as a spiritual director for the program at his church last year. “You’re walking with Jesus in his ministry. Images and ideas come out that unlock mysteries.”

During the exercises, most participants experience a form of prayer that’s new to them; they feel that they are in a dialogue with God in which they patiently wait to hear from him.

“Sooner or later, they suddenly discover that prayer has more to do with listening than anything else,” Deck said. “By growing in silence, one gets a little more attuned to God’s presence and how God is working in their lives.”

John Pettit, a San Diego businessman, wasn’t even halfway through the exercises when he had his first and only mystical vision. He imagined that he was a shepherd at the birth of Jesus. Right then, he made the decision to enter the ministry.

He now attends Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, working toward a master’s degree in divinity. He led a group of six classmates through the exercises last year.

“It was like going through a carwash in many ways,” Pettit said. “You’re still a car, but essentially there’s something different.”

The biggest initial hurdle for most participants is setting aside an hour a day to pray. Some get up in the wee hours of the morning; others stay up late. One busy husband and father moved a chair into the bathroom and locked himself in. It was the only place in his home he could find solitude.

But Pettit and others say the real challenge is sitting quietly before God. “You’ve got to deal with stopping to listen to God and hearing nothing,” he said. “It was scary that I didn’t hear God more clearly.”

Enough people report hearing God to keep the program expanding year after year. It is administered free by Jesuits and an increasing number of laypeople who have already gone through it, which is how it worked in Ignatius’ time. Advertising for the decentralized grass-roots program is almost entirely through word of mouth.

Julie A. Palafox, an attorney from Rancho Santa Margarita, signed up for the program after observing a new gentleness and peacefulness in colleagues who had gone through the exercises.

“It was probably the most wonderful thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Palafox said. “You learn to be calm and be still. The gift is peace, even with chaos around you.”