Ignatius and the Holy Spirit: Four Strategies to Cope with the Pneumatological Ambiguity of Early Ignatian Sources

Although St. Ignatius writes in remarkably diverse ways about the Holy Spirit, casting the Spirit as a protagonist in the Constitutions, the Spiritual Exercises barely mention the Spirit. This article gives an overview of three strategies for addressing this remarkable lacuna: (1) ignoring it, (2) explaining it, or (3) showing how the reality of the Spirit appears although the word “Spirit” does not. Having evaluated each of these strategies, I offer a fourth, pastoral proposal: presenting Ignatian spirituality in a way that better honors the Spirit’s life-giving work.

Introduction

The Second Vatican Council’s call for religious congregations and orders to renew their spirituality by revisiting their original charism has, as far as the Ignatian family is concerned, greatly benefitted from an impressive ad fontes movement that started in the late nineteenth century.^[1] As John O’Malley (1927–2022) and Timothy O’Brien (UEA) describe in their article on the twentieth-century renewal—or, as they call it, “construction”—of Ignatian spirituality, the first publications of the multi-volume Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu series mark the beginning point of that movement.^[2] Indeed, the publication of original source texts in the Monumenta has provided researchers with a trove of resources and has led to a fundamentally renewed imagination of both Ignatius and the Jesuit Order.

For example, Ignatius’s personal diary revealed a deeply spiritual man whose affective connection with God regularly brought him to tears. Was this really Ignatius, the cadaver-obedience general of the Jesuit order? Similar questions arose from an account of the early companions’ Deliberatio, detailed descriptions of early Jesuit activities in the Chronicon, and instructions and letters from early Jesuits like Jerónimo Nadal and Francisco Javier.^[3] Delving into these sources also impacted scholars’ imagination of the order. It turned out that a flexible creativity marked the Society of Jesus, which typically adapted personal gifts to local circumstances, placing it in marked contrast with moralistic, one-size-fits-all images of Jesuits as blindly obedient.^[4]

Over time, the new perspectives trickled down from the narrow circle of scholars to the general membership of the Society and to practitioners of Ignatian spirituality. In his partially autobiographical “Will the Real Ignatius Please Stand Up?” Ron Darwen (1931–2015) powerfully captures this dramatic shift of impression from Ignatius, Man of Action—and the Jesuits as “something like a spiritual SAS”—to Ignatius, Man of Prayer and Mystical Master.^[5] In this vein, new spiritual forms, such as the personally guided retreat, now the most common mode for an Ignatian retreat, took shape.^[6] In this way, the “construction of Ignatian spirituality” went through various phases and lasted for the entire twentieth century—a process in which this very journal has played a key role. Indeed, we owe those involved in that renewal a great debt, as their efforts have led to more accurate and life-giving understandings of Ignatius, the Jesuits, and Ignatian spirituality.

At the same time, the study of these early sources has revealed certain ambiguities, especially as regards the place of the Holy Spirit in Christian life. On this point, in some of his writings, Ignatius names the Spirit explicitly and foregrounds the Spirit’s action.^[7] For example, Ignatius’s “Spiritual Diary,” largely unknown before its publication in the Monumenta, witnesses a deep affection for the Trinity in general and specifically for each of the divine persons.^[8] However, as scholars have remarked since the 1970s, almost no mention of the Holy Spirit appears in the Spiritual Exercises.

This article outlines four strategies for addressing this problem. In the first strategy, some writers simply ignore it, reading sources that do not mention the Holy Spirit as if they did. As for the second strategy, other writers explain the absence of Spirit-talk as an attempt Ignatius’s attempt to avoid charges of alumbradismo—affiliation with a suspect spiritual movement of the day. And in the third strategy, some commentators identify in these same writings the reality and operation of the Spirit although the sources make no explicit mention of such. Note that each of these three strategies takes an intellectual approach to resolving the problem. A fourth strategy, by contrast, is more pastoral and especially well-suited to the work of spiritual directors. While maintaining respect for the text as written, it seeks concrete pneumatological renewal. How can the Spirit be thematized more explicitly?

In what follows, then, I propose three objectives: (1) to make key insights from Spanish-language materials available in English, (2) to distinguish, present, and evaluate the foregoing strategies, and (3) to develop the fourth strategy—what I have called the “pastoral approach,” as a complement to the three intellectual strategies. In all of this, I hope to highlight the Spirit’s central and life-giving role in the Ignatian worldview.

To this end, we will proceed by first considering, in part 1, the “pneumatological ambiguity” of the early sources before moving in parts 2–4 to examine the three “intellectual” strategies outlined above. Next, in part 5, we will consider why we bother at all problematizing Spirit language in the Ignatian corpus. Finally, we will conclude in part 6 with outlining a fourth, pastoral strategy.

1. Ignatius and the Holy Spirit

First, then, what about the “pneumatological ambiguity” of the early sources? By the term ambiguity, I acknowledge that, while some Ignatian sources highlight the role of the Holy Spirit, other Ignatian sources surprisingly do not. This contrast appears most clearly when comparing, on one hand, the Constitutions and the “Spiritual Diary” and, on the other hand, the Spiritual Exercises, while Ignatius’s letters and the “Autobiography” fit in both groups. Some examples drawn from the Constitutions, “Spiritual Diary,” and Spiritual Exercises will support this claim and provide context for the analysis of strategies in the following parts of this study.^[9]

A. The Holy Spirit in the Constitutions

In the Constitutions, Ignatius balances human governance and guidelines with the Holy Spirit’s direction as manifest in personal virtues.^[10] The language is strong. While the Preamble leaves no doubt that Ignatius values the Constitutions as a means of human cooperation with God, he indicates clearly that the most helpful means of collaboration derives from the Spirit’s interior working:

Although God our Creator and Lord is the one who in his Supreme Wisdom and Goodness must preserve, direct, and carry forward in his divine service this least Society of Jesus, just as he deigned to begin it; and although on our own part what helps most toward this end must be, more than any exterior constitution, the interior law of charity and love which the Holy Spirit writes and imprints upon hearts; nevertheless, since the gentle disposition of Divine Providence requires cooperation from his creatures, and since too the vicar of Christ our Lord has ordered this, and since the examples given by the saints and reason itself teach us so in our Lord, we think it necessary that constitutions should be written to aid us to proceed better, in conformity with our Institute, along the path of divine service on which we have entered.^[11]

Ignatius goes on to support this general principle through specific constitutions that underscore the importance of the Spirit’s leadership and “unction” as a complement to human leadership—for example, in the general comments at the end of the chapter on the formation of scholastics for mission.^[12] Here, he recalls that Jesuits should be formed in such a way that they can work with a variety of people in a range contexts, after which he reminds the reader that ultimately “this can be taught only by the unction of the Holy Spirit.”^[13] He goes on to state something very similar in relation to the superior’s decision-making about missioning people, that “although it is the supreme providence and direction of the Holy Spirit that must efficaciously bring us to make the right decision in all matters, and to send to each place those who are best fitted and suited to the people and task for which they are sent, still this much may be said in general.”^[14] Moreover, he affirms that God’s wisdom, which teaches the right “measure,” seems to have a pneumatological meaning, as well, given that “the measure to be observed in all things will be taught by holy unction of the Divine Wisdom [1 John 2:20, 27] to those who are charged with this matter, undertaken for his greater service and praise.”^[15]

In addition, the Spirit’s interior law of charity and love, as introduced at the very beginning of the Constitutions in no. 134, echoes in the opening sections of the final part X, at nos. 812–13, even without the word Spirit. There, Ignatius praises “the means which unite the human instrument with God,” specifying various instances of “goodness and virtue, and especially charity, and a pure intention of the divine service, and familiarity with God our Lord in spiritual exercises of devotion, and sincere zeal for souls for the sake of the glory of the one who created and redeemed them and not for any other benefit.”^[16] The echoes of no. 134 sound loudly here.

Admittedly, Ignatius does not distinguish the divine persons clearly among themselves. For example, the Preamble speaks of various actors without specifying which divine person they represent let alone how they relate to one another.^[17] Instead, he speaks of “[the] Supreme Wisdom and Goodness of God our Creator and Lord” that “must preserve, direct, and carry forward in his divine service this least Society of Jesus.”^[18] From a theological perspective, this statement raises questions about how these descriptions correspond and relate to the specific persons of the Trinity. For example, some sections suggest that this “Supreme Wisdom” represents a divine person with his own agency. For example, no. 136 speaks of “the help of him who as the Most Perfect and Infinite Wisdom is the beginning of all order.”^[19] To which divine person does this wisdom refer? Likewise, in no. 134, wisdom relates to “God our Creator and Lord,” but Ignatius does not indicate to which divine person he refers.^[20]

In the Diccionario de espiritualidad ignaciana, Luis Ladaria indicates that for Ignatius, the term Creator, with a capital, means both God in general and Christ, even though the act of creation generally relates to God the Father.^[21] Likewise, no. 161 connects wisdom to the Spirit, speaking of “the holy unction of the Divine Wisdom.”^[22] Yet in the oath formulated in no. 705—“I call upon Jesus Christ, Eternal Wisdom”—wisdom relates Christ.^[23] In short, the interpretations vary.

Further questions arise in no. 134, where Ignatius speaks of “the Supreme Wisdom,” “God our Creator and Lord,” the Holy Spirit who “writes and imprints upon [people’s] hearts,” and finally that “Divine Providence” which requires human cooperation.^[24] Here again, only the term Holy Spirit seems clearly defined, while “Wisdom” and “God, Creator and Lord” may refer to Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Triune Godhead. Note too that the final divine agent mentioned, “Divine Providence,” again has no clear reference to the Father, Son, or Spirit.

Other constitutions and primary source material further support the idea that Ignatius offers less clarity than a systematic theologian might like. Here, we might remember, as Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe (1907–1991) put it, that “Ignatius is not a professional theologian, and we must bear this in mind when reading his Journal, which in no way pretends to give a doctrinal illumination of the mystery of the Trinity.”^[25] Nevertheless, for the sake of the present argument, we can affirm that Ignatius affirms, in certain places, the central importance of the Holy Spirit.

B. The Holy Spirit in the “Spiritual Diary”

While the “Spiritual Diary” supports this idea of the importance of the Holy Spirit to Ignatius, the text presents its own challenges, as Joseph Munitiz (1931–2022) and Philip Endean (1954–2023) explain:

One might have expected it to provide immediate access to his mind and spirituality. Instead many readers, even those who have some acquaintance with the life and work of Ignatius, find that the “Diary” remains a remote and impenetrable work. This is due partly to the style—elliptic and idiosyncratic, and partly to the content—mystical experiences to which few people have access.^[26]

With this in mind, we need to understand the “Diary,” or that part of it that we have today, in the context of Ignatius’s task of writing constitutions, specifically his reflection on the vow of poverty. After Ignatius has made up his mind that the vow should hold strictly, he seeks God’s confirmation of that conviction by observing the state of his soul before, during, and after Mass as well as during the day. A typical entry specifies the day and the Mass celebrated and offers some comments about his state of mind. From this perspective, then, as Munitiz and Endean put it, the “Diary” represents a “Discernment Logbook” rather than a comprehensive record of his daily life, experiences, and thoughts.^[27]

For example, the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary plays a major role in the first entries of the “Diary.” Ignatius relates that he celebrates votive masses in her honor with the objective that she intercede for him with God. He notes, for the fourth day:

Mass of Our Lady

4^th. Tuesday – Great devotion before, during and after mass, with tears so abundant that my eyes ached; I saw the Mother and Son ready and willing to intercede with the Father; both then and during the day I was set on poverty and still more moved to it; in the afternoon it was as it I felt or saw that Our Lady was ready and willing to intercede.^[28]

As his discernment continues, Ignatius celebrates, a couple days on, the votive Mass of the Trinity; then, some days later, in an apparent conclusion of his discernment, he celebrates the votive Mass of the Holy Spirit.^[29] However, sensing that he has made a mistake in his discernment, he restarts the process, as evident in a crossed-out text explaining that he feels tempted to allow for some income and feels disturbed by noises during Mass, which prompts him to investigate the origin of the noises.^[30] He then begins a new cycle of votive masses, beginning with a Marian Mass that he follows by thirteen masses to the Trinity and some other masses, concluding with a Mass to the Holy Spirit.^[31]

Importantly, these notes were meant for himself and not for publication—even though that has happened in the end. Logically, therefore, the formulations are terse, without any stylistic refinement, and, more importantly, without the explanation a reader would need to fully get what is going on. Yet that very same fact makes this a particularly useful resource to discover what the Holy Spirit meant to Ignatius.

Evidence to this point appears clearly in the entry for February 11.^[32] Before Mass, Ignatius speaks confidently with the Holy Spirit in a “colloquy,” which results in various spiritual experiences.^[33] Of these, in addition to experiencing “devotion and tears,” Ignatius relates that he “seemed to see or feel Him in a dense clarity or in the color of burning flame,” which he describes as “quite strange to me.”^[34] These experiences in turn help him in the discernment process, as he explains that “all [the above] confirmed me in my election.”^[35] Following this, he engages in a reflection, which provides insight and tears, after which it seems that the Spirit strengthens the confirmation: “A little later, just before going out to say mass, while I prayed for a short while, I felt intense devotion and wept on feeling or seeing in some way the Holy Spirit—the question of the election being now answered—and I could neither see nor feel either of the other two Divine Persons in this way.”^[36]

Here again we see that, as in the Constitutions, the “Diary” presents a theologically inconclusive conception of God. And to complicate matters further, his attention to Mary as expressed in the opening sections comes very close to the type of devotion reserved for God. Here, he speaks of an “increased trust in our Lady” and of “drawing-near in affection to Our Lady with great confidence.”^[37] In fact, Mary sometimes joins the Son in a way that would seem more appropriate for the Spirt, as when Ignatius writes, “I saw the Mother and Son ready and willing to intercede with the Father.”^[38] To this same point, he seems to indicate, on the day of the Mass to the Holy Spirit, not three but four divine agents: “I prayed to Our Lady, then to the Son, and to the Father that He might give me his Spirit to assist me in my reasonings and to give me clarity of mind.”^[39] But again, as in our analysis of the Constitutions, it suffices here to indicate the importance that Ignatius accords to the Holy Spirit in the “Diary.”

C. The Holy Spirit in the Spiritual Exercises

Given that the Constitutions and the “Spiritual Diary” leave no doubt about the Holy Spirit’s importance to Ignatius, we might expect that the Spiritual Exercises, his formalized retreat notes, would do the same. However, as commonly known, the Exercisessurprisingly make almost no mention of the Third Person of the Trinity. As for the specific instances, he mentions the Spirit five times in a section listing Bible texts to pray from. In SpEx 263, he describes Elizabeth as “full of the Holy Spirit” when she greeted Mary, who had come to visit her. Likewise, in the account of Jesus’s baptism, Ignatius recalls that “the Holy Spirit came.”^[40] Then, in his account of what he calls “the sixth appearance,” Ignatius notes that Christ “gives them the Holy Spirit, saying: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them.’”^[41] And in SpEx 307, Ignatius reminds us of Christ’s commission to the disciples, which includes the mission to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This section ends with Christ’s ascension and Jesus’s command that the apostles should “wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit that had been promised.”^[42]

Two more references appear in SpEx 352–70, which discuss right attitudes within the church. Here, Ignatius famously instructs, with reference to the Spirit, that if church leadership declares black what one sees as white, then one should believe it black: “for we believe that between Christ Our Lord, the bridegroom, and the Church, His bride, there is the same Spirit who governs and directs us for the good of our souls because it is by that same Spirit and Lord of us all who gave the Ten Commandments that our holy mother Church is directed and governed.”^[43]

Now, the fact that Ignatius refers to the Holy Spirit explicitly in these seven instances provokes the question as to why he does not reference the Spirit in other, similar contexts. To take these examples in order, we begin with SpEx 15, where Ignatius admonishes directors to take a modest posture with retreatants because God—whom Ignatius mentions in general and without reference to the Holy Spirit—guides the retreatant. Compare this to his near-contemporary John of the Cross, who extols the Spirit’s presence and operation in the soul, praising at length the “most hidden unction of the Holy Spirit” with which the Spirit guides the soul to contemplation.^[44] In this vein, John goes on to note that, unfortunately, poorly formed and un-spiritual directors know nothing of the Spirit’s guidance and thus guide souls badly. Here, he regrets especially that such directors do not understand that “they themselves are not the chief agent, guide, and mover of souls in this matter, but the principal guide is the Holy Spirit, who is never neglectful of souls.”^[45]

In the second instance, Ignatius invites retreatants to end repetition-type meditations with a “triple colloquy” by which the retreatant asks Mary for the graces of insight and mending one’s life and so too of the Son and the Father.^[46] In light of our foregoing analysis, it seems astonishing that a tripartite structure of this kind includes reference to Mary but not to the Holy Spirit.

Absence of reference to the Spirit stands out, too, in the meditation where God surveys the world and its sin and decides to become enter the world by incarnation rather than destroy it. Here, while Ignatius speaks explicitly and repeatedly of “the three divine persons” and what “they” are thinking, deciding, and doing, he never explicates God’s trinity and mentions by name only the “eternal Word” and Mary, referring to the First Person indirectly by counseling the prayer Our Father.^[47]

In the fourth case, it seems remarkable that the he does not mention the Holy Spirit in either in the Contemplation to Attain Love or the Rules for Discernment.^[48] The Contemplation consists in a series of exercises—or contemplations, in the plural—that aim to provoke gratitude for God’s sustaining power. Through these exercises, Ignatius intends that greater interior knowledge of God would lead retreatants to gratitude for God’s generous gifts and gracious work on their behalf and, ultimately, to the retreatants making a self-offering to God. From this perspective, it seems that Ignatius easily could have connected the Spirit to God’s sustaining power and to the retreatant’s inner knowledge, gratitude, and gift of self. In like manner, the references in the Rules to gentleness, inner peace, dedication, and zeal also suggest the Spirit’s involvement.

Finally, in the section where Ignatius offers Bible passages for directors to use in working with retreatants, he could have referenced the work of the Spirit more. For example, his account of the Annunciation only mentions the angel, not the Holy Spirit.^[49] Similarly, no mention of the Spirit appears in his account of Simeon greeting Jesus at the presentation in the temple or of the temptation of Jesus.^[50] In contrast, note that in all three cases Scripture refers to the Spirit.^[51] Moreover, Ignatius’s series of biblical texts ends with the Ascension and promise of the Holy Spirit, such that he makes no mention of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.^[52]

In sum, while the Spiritual Exercises do reference the Holy Spirit, they do so sparsely, and they do not reference the Spirit at places where we reasonably could expect that they would do so. This leaves us with the problem that, while some early Ignatian sources suggest that the Holy Spirit plays a key role in Ignatius’s spirituality and thinking, others show quite the opposite. Santiago Arzubialde (esp) qualifies this pneumatological ambiguity as “a fundamental dichotomy between his personal trinitarian experience, as manifested for example in the ‘Spiritual Diary,’ and the supposed christomonism of the Spiritual Exercises.”^[53]

Before we move to discuss how authors deal with this limited pneumatology, it may help to review the recent history of commentary on this problem. As far back as in 1976, the American Jesuit Harvey Egan (uea) wrote that “the almost total lack of explicit references to the Holy Spirit during the Exercises is most unusual and striking.”^[54] Four years later, the Spanish Jesuit José María Lera (esp) admitted that “in the book of the Exercises, the Holy Spirit turns out to be mentioned explicitly in very few instances.”^[55] This acknowledgment progressed to the point that, by the end of the twentieth century, the received scholarly opinion recognized in the Ignatian corpus a limited pneumatology, and that opinion continues today, especially in Spanish language literature.^[56] For example, in 2011, the Spanish Jesuit and expert in pneumatology Víctor Codina (1931–2023) remarked:

A critical look at the text of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola alerts us to the absence of references to the Holy Spirit throughout the book. This is very striking. Apart from a few quotations from the Gospels in which the Spirit is expressly mentioned in the Mysteries of the life of Christ (SpEx 261–312), the Spirit is mentioned only once in the whole book, and that is precisely in the Rules for Sentire in Ecclesia (SpEx 365). This pneumatological silence of Ignatius is all the more strange as references to the Holy Spirit are very abundant in the Constitutions, the “Spiritual Diary,” and the “Autobiography.”^[57]

Writers often follow their commentary of this kind with explanation for the paucity in Spirit-references, comments about the Spirit’s implied presence, or both. For example, in his 1991 reflection on Ignatian pneumatology, the German Jesuit and Scripture scholar Norbert Baumert (1932–2019) did both: “While Ignatius mentions the Spirit abundantly in his other writings, in his own formulations of the book of the Exercises perhaps he has consciously omitted mention of it so as not to be misunderstood; but there are many names under which the Spirit hides himself.”^[58] In parts 2–5 below, I provide an overview of these and other strategies to address the pneumatological ambiguity of early Ignatian sources.

2. Ignoring the Issue

A first category of approach ignores the issue. Here, commentators typically offer a trinitarian and/or pneumatological interpretation without indicating that they have imported this interpretive framework (and perhaps without admitting that an Ignatian source contains little reference to the Holy Spirit).

Maybe the best-known example of this sort appears in Fr. Arrupe’s 1980 address on “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism.”^[59] In a foreword to the English publication, the American Jesuit John Padberg (1926–2021) hails the address as “one of the last and most important of all of Fr. Arrupe’s writings.”^[60] As Arrupe himself indicates, readers should understand the address in the context of the Second Vatican Council’s invitation to religious orders and congregations to rediscover their original charism.^[61] Fr. Arrupe highlights Ignatius’s “Trinitarian inner life (su intimidad trinitaria)” as the origin from which the Ignatian spirit flows such that, without it, we would not be able to grasp that charism.^[62] On this point, he writes that “only in the light of Ignatius’s Trinitarian intimacy (intimidad trinitaria) can we Jesuits understand, accept, and live the Society’s charism,” for we too should draw our inspiration and orientation from that intimacy.^[63]

He goes on to elaborate on the trinitarian depth of Ignatius’s spiritual experiences by delving into what he considers the three most important of them—namely, those at the Cardoner River, those in chapel at La Storta, and those that Ignatius describes in the “Spiritual Diary.” Unfortunately, Arrupe seems to overlook that, in these three instances, Ignatius rarely mentions the Holy Spirit. For instance, in describing his Cardoner experience, Ignatius only speaks about the Trinity in general and without singling out the Holy Spirit—or indeed any divine person. It seems therefore too generous to qualify Cardoner as “a sort of Pentecost that marks an end of his past and kindles the light of a different future.”^[64]

So too, regarding the La Storta experience, Ignatius specifies the Father and the Son but not the Holy Spirit. He even mentions Mary, to whom he had prayed “to place him with her Son,” as he put it in the “Autobiography.”^[65] And subsequently, when his prayer is granted, Ignatius identifies the Father as the origin of that grace: “he saw so clearly that God the Father was placing him with Christ his Son.”^[66] Thus, although the text suggests a binitarian, not a trinitarian spirituality, Arrupe transforms it into a trinitarian experience by linking La Storta to Nadal’s famous but textually-unwarranted description of Ignatius following the Spirit without going ahead of the Spirit.^[67]

Finally, Fr. Arrupe explores the “Spiritual Diary” where, as noted above, Ignatius mentions both the Trinity in general and the Holy Spirit in particular. However, Ignatius’s presentation raises serious questions, especially related to the Holy Spirit’s late appearance and the role of Mary.

And so, while Fr. Arrupe’s essay presents a trinitarian account of Ignatian spirituality, he does not indicate that the accounts from the Cardoner and La Storta do not mention the Spirit, and neither does he address the theological issues with the accounts of La Storta and the “Diary.”^[68] For this reason, to speak convincingly about a trinitarian inspiration in the Ignatian corpus demands more intentional reflection—all the more so since the Ignatian charism connects so directly with the Spiritual Exercises that make so little reference to the Spirit. I thus agree with Fr. Lera’s respectfully formulated criticism of Arrupe’s address, that “we would have to elaborate much more on the action of the Holy Spirit in the dynamic of the Exercises. Only in that way would we be able to speak about a trinitarian inspiration, and not merely a christological one, in what is most generally known of the Ignatian charism, the Spiritual Exercises.”^[69]

A second example of approaches that ignore the problem appears in the acclaimed commentary on the Rules for Discernment that Jules Toner wrote (1914–1999).^[70] Fr. Toner frames discernment as the Christian endeavor of living according to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, which we need to distinguish from impulses that stem from ourselves, our environment, or the devil. On this point, the very first line of his commentary testifies to Toner’s pneumatological agenda: “The working of the Holy Spirit within the individual Christian consciousness is the focus of this book. Human life is Christian life in the measure that it is lived under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of Christ.”^[71] As such, Toner understands the Rules outlined by Ignatius as eminently pneumatological in that they contain Ignatius’s “wisdom about how to distinguish inner movements of the Holy Spirit from those that come from any other source, and about ways of maintaining openness to the Holy Spirit at all times.”^[72] In this vein, he admits in a brief note that, despite the “puzzling fact,” as Fr. Egan puts it, that the Spiritual Exercises rarely mention the Holy Spirit, he has no problem with a pneumatological reading of Ignatius: “Nowadays we often speak of the Holy Spirit in many contexts where Ignatius speaks of God or a good angel; but it seems clear that in these instances we are still following his mind.”^[73]

And so, Fr. Toner does not seem to accord much weight to the fact that Ignatius himself did not speak much of the Spirit and instead simply posits that a pneumatological interpretation of the Rules follows the mind of Ignatius. Consistent with that conviction, Toner comments, for example, on the place in the Exercises where Ignatius describes consolation as an increase in love for God “our Creator and Lord,” by stating that “Ignatius immediately calls attention to the greatest work of the Holy Spirit in man’s spirit, that to which all other works of the Holy Spirit lead or from which they flow, charity.”^[74]

A third example of the sort comes from Sr. Noëlle Hausman’s reading of the “Spiritual Diary,” which the Rome-based Centrum Ignatianum Spiritualitatis published as “Ignatius Loyola and the Mission of the Holy Spirit.”^[75] Here, I simply want to draw attention to the pneumatological focus of Hausman’s reading, as the title of the article suggests and the conclusion confirms, where she highlights, under the subheading “Summary: The Path of the Holy Spirit,” the Spirit’s role in the Trinity’s self-communication to Ignatius and confirmation of his choice for poverty.^[76] The following quotation represents well Hausman’s pneumatological reading of the “Diary:”

The Spirit revealed himself in person as the confirmation of the offering and as purifying joy, and in the experience of loving submission and of mutual presence. The year of prayer-periods in the “Spiritual Diary” therefore shows how the gift of the Holy Spirit brought about Ignatius’s intimate reconciliation not only with the Trinity or the Divine Persons, but also with his own perceptions and deepest desires.^[77]

Here, while the Holy Spirit does indeed play an important role in the “Spiritual Diary,” Sr. Hausman amplifies this role beyond what the text warrants and ignores the trinitarian problems that indicated above. Furthermore, we should expect a scholarly reading of the “Diary” to address the pneumatological contrast with the Spiritual Exercises, especially given that Hausman opens her text by evoking the close link between the “Diary” and the Exercises—a link that, regarding to the Holy Spirit, does not exist.^[78]

In summary, these examples all illustrate a first approach to the pneumatological ambiguity in Ignatius’s writings by simply ignoring it and speaking as if the Holy Spirit forms an integral part of his spirituality as recorded in those texts. However, while this approach acknowledges the Holy Spirit’s role in salvation history and thus avoids the pitfall of overlooking the Holy Spirit, the sources do not warrant it.^[79]

3. Explaining the Issue

A second type of response problematizes the pneumatological ambiguity and attempts to explain it with reference to historical and cultural context. Among these attempts, the strongest claims that Ignatius avoided talk of the Holy Spirit because he wanted to counter suspicions that he belonged to the Spanish spiritual movement of the alumbrados. This movement consisted mainly of people with little theological training who emphasized personal illumination through the Holy Spirit’s direct interaction as opposed to receiving knowledge mediated through church structures and other sources.^[80] And in fact, when Polanco prefaced a later edition of the Exercises praising Ignatius for composing the Exercises “from his own inner experience and from the inner unction of the Holy Spirit rather than from books,” some censors responded that this sounded very much like the alumbrados.^[81]

In all likelihood, concern about this privatized approach to divine revelation prompted the Dominicans in Salamanca to interrogate Ignatius about whether he understood what he taught to come through studies or directly from the Holy Spirit. And since he had not studied theology, his only possible answer—that what he taught came directly from the Spirit—would have confirmed suspicions that he was an alumbrado. Recognizing this trap, as we read in his “Autobiography,” Ignatius did not respond: “Here the pilgrim was a little wary, as this way of arguing did not seem good to him. And after having been silent a while, he said that there was no need to speak more about these matters.”^[82]

Regarding this incident, Dutch Jesuit Leo Bakker (1926–1993), perhaps the first author to point out and explain what he called “the silence of the Exercises about the Holy Spirit,” highlights Ignatius’s negative experiences with the Dominicans in Salamanca.^[83] Of course, like the alumbrados, Ignatius had begun to teach about spiritual matters prior to receiving theological formation, and neither Ignatius nor the alumbrados had received Holy Orders. Furthermore, Ignatius, like the alumbrados, insists on God’s direct interaction, appreciates spiritual indifference, and teaches the discernment of spirits, as apparent in the Spiritual Exercises.^[84] However, as Fr. Bakker indicates, Ignatius intentionally speaks in the rules of “angels” rather than spirits so as to avoid the accusation of alumbradismo.^[85] To support this point, Bakker notes that, while a very early version of the Rules, the so-called Cologne manuscript, relates spiritual joy and consolation to God, the angels, and the Holy Spirit, the reference to the Spirit had disappeared in later versions.^[86]

Fr. Egan follows Fr. Bakker in this perspective, opening his discussion on Ignatian mysticism and the Holy Spirit pointing out the lack of Spirit references in the Exercises, offering the suspicion of alumbradismo as an explanation, and referencing the Cologne manuscript.^[87] Now, the alumbrados explanation appears regularly, as in Fr. Lera’s entry on the Holy Spirit in the Dictionary of Ignatian Spirituality (2007), Fr. Codina’s reflection on the Spirit’s “silent presence” in the Spiritual Exercises(2011), and chapters in books by Bert Daelemans (elc) (2016) and Terence O’Reilly (2021).^[88]

Other explanations apart from alumbradismo appear in the scholarship, albeit with less consensus. For example, Fr. Arzubialde argues that Ignatius belonged to a christomonistic theological culture, although he insists that Ignatius acted freely: “When he believes he needs to [mention the Spirit], he simply does so.”^[89] Fr. Codina also points out that Ignatius, as a man of his time, emphasized christology and adds that Marian devotion took the place of what, from a dogmatic perspective, theologians would more properly have considered the role of the Spirit.^[90]

Other commentators emphasize the development of Ignatius’s theological thinking. For example, Fr. Bakker claims that Ignatius initially had little awareness of the Holy Spirit and over time would gain pneumatological insight. To substantiate his claim, he recalls that the La Storta experience singles out only the Father and the Son while that letters of a later date do mention the Spirit.^[91] Likewise, Fr. Lera, in his 1981 article on the pneumatology of the Exercises, explains, on the basis of, among other texts, the Preamble of the Constitutions, that “at the end of his life, Ignatius was speaking about the Holy Spirit ever more loudly [en tono cada vez más alto].”^[92]

A more hermeneutical explanation highlights the difference between what a person experiences and how a person puts that experience into words. As Fr. Lera puts it, “the experience of the Holy Spirit is one thing, the reflection on or elaboration of that experience by means of communicable concepts is another matter.”^[93] In developing this point, both Fr. Lera and Fr. Manuel focus on topics where they claim the Spirit implicitly present, as in consolation and in the immediacy of a believer’s relationship with God, and we will return to this below.^[94]

As for other explanations, Fr. Manuel references the Spirit’s natural elusiveness.^[95] In this vein, Fr. Daelemans attributes the Ignatian silence to the fact that the Spirit reveals his gifts, rather than himself.^[96] Finally, we might also consider differences in genre among the Exercises, the Constitutions, the “Diary,” and the Letters.^[97]

The contextual approach, in its various manifestations presented in this section, expands our understanding of the early Ignatian pneumatological ambiguity. For example, in all likelihood, the weak pneumatology of Ignatius’s theological and spiritual context did influence how he spoke about religious experience, just as he probably recognized the danger of such accusations as alumbradismo. Likewise, the thesis that Ignatius developed over time a theological articulation of the Holy Spirit seems credible. However, I would argue that, while this approach helpfully provides reasons for Ignatius’s pneumatological ambiguity, it does not resolve the issue at hand.

4. Recognizing The Spirit as Implicitly Present

A third type of response to the pneumatological ambiguity in Ignatius’s writings seeks to solve the problem by framing it in terms of the Spirit’s implicit presence. The idea is that, while a source may not mention the Spirit explicitly, we still can perceive the reality and action of the Spirit “between the lines,” so to speak. Typically, authors like Fr. Codina, in his booklet on the Holy Spirit and the Exercises (2011), will identify in the text what we might call thin spaces.^[98] After first thematizing and explaining, in the first section of the booklet, the “suspect silence” regarding the Spirit, Codina presents in the second section a pneumatological reading: “una relectura de los Ejercicios desde el Espíritu.”^[99] The aim is to uncover the Spirit’s subtle presence: “hidden, almost absent, silent.”^[100] Terence O’Reilly sums up as follows the essence of this approach: “The Exercises, it is true, do not ascribe this divine action explicitly to the Holy Spirit, but implicit in them is a rich pneumatology, which modern commentators have sought to bring out.”^[101] In this section, I will present several ways in which commentators have made this argument.

In the first place, some argue that we should understand the Spiritual Exercises as pneumatological in a general sense at the level of what Fr. Codina calls “transversal themes.”^[102] From this perspective, various aspects of the Exercises allow for a pneumatological interpretation. For example, considering the Pauline contrast between spirit and flesh, Codina suggests that we might understand the adjective “spiritual” in Spiritual Exercises to indicate the Holy Spirit. Also, Ignatius speaks of “the one who gives the exercises” instead of a more straightforward title like spiritual director.^[103] Here, Codina emphasizes that such people accompany not because of a hierarchical position or psychological expertise but by virtue of an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In addition, Codina thematizes as pneumatological Ignatius’s repeated emphasis on “the interior sensing and relishing of things” rather than knowledge.^[104] So also does he treat both Ignatius’s stress on God’s direct interaction with his creatures and Ignatius’s use of the Examen, which Codina understands as an exercise in becoming aware of and growing in fidelity to the Spirit in our daily lives.^[105] Finally, it is the Spirit who drives our striving for “el más,” to which we now often refer as the magis.^[106]

Fr. Manuel takes a correlate approach but in reverse, beginning with a discussion of the characteristics of the Spirit—immediacy, interiority, gratuitousness, discernment, consolation, the actualization of Jesus, and ecclesiality (eclesialidad)—and then indicating where these qualities appear in the Exercises.^[107] For example, he links the way in which the Spirit interacts immediately with people to the key instruction in the Exercises that the director should let God deal directly with his creature.^[108]

An especially interesting instance of a pneumatological re-reading of the Spiritual Exercises focuses on the Rules for Discernment.^[109] As the argument goes, since Ignatius intended the Rules to help navigate the spiritual movements that the Exercises should provoke, the Rules could go along with the Annotations at the beginning of the book rather than at the end.^[110] From this perspective, as the very expression “Rules for Discernment” implies, Ignatius intended the Rules to help discern which movements in the soul retreatants should accept and which ones they should reject. In other words, a pneumatological understanding of the Rules would imply a pneumatological understanding of the Exercises as a whole.

Of course, as discussed, the Rules do not mention the Holy Spirit. However, Fr. Codina argues that Paul uses pneumatological language to describe discerning the spirits: “do not quench the Spirit . . . but test everything; hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”^[111] Moreover, Codina follows Jesús Corella (1909–2004) in finding a trinitarian structure in Ignatius’s description of consolation, which moves from love for the Creator through being touched by Christ’s passion to “every increase of faith, hope and charity, all interior happiness that calls and attracts a person towards heavenly things and to the soul’s salvation, leaving the soul quiet and at peace in her Creator and Lord.”^[112] This progression corresponds clearly with the fruits of the Spirit that Paul presents in Galatians, and Codina mentions similarities with other Scripture texts.^[113]

Finally, this pneumatological interpretation of the Rules finds support in an early Directory for giving the Exerciseshandwritten by Ignatius himself, where he explicitly makes the connection. As part of an instruction for the spiritual director on how to teach about consolation and desolation, Ignatius states that “The second [rule] is about consolation and desolation, he [the spiritual director] must explain much what consolation is, going through all its aspects, such as: interior peace, spiritual joy, hope, faith, love, tears and the mind’s elevation, all of which are gifts of the Holy Spirit.”^[114]

Moving now to focus on the Fourth Week, Fr. Lera suggests that various brief references reveal this moment as deeply pneumatological.^[115] Specifically, he highlights the “really true and holy effects” that the Resurrection causes and upon which the retreatant should dwell, Christ’s office as consoler, and the grace “to feel gladness and to rejoice intensely over the great glory and joy of Christ our Lord.”^[116] American theologian Randy Sachs (uea) also makes the case for a pneumatological reading of the Fourth Week, and the fact that he does so without any references to the Spanish scholarship on Ignatian pneumatology suggests the strength of this reading.^[117]

As Fr. Lera continues his analysis of the Fourth Week, he delves deeply into the culmination point of that moment, the Contemplatio ad amorem, presenting it essentially as a meditation on Pentecost.^[118] Here, Fr. Lera observes that the opening notes of the Contemplatio, in which Ignatius speaks of love that consists of giving and communicating, resonate with how Augustine and subsequent Western theologians understand the Trinity as lover, loved, love.^[119] Indeed, Fr. Lera has no doubt about his pneumatological reading of the text: “With the words love, communication, and give, Ignatius is indeed, following the terminology of Augustine and the Tradition, naming the Holy Spirit.”^[120]

He goes on to analyze other sections of the contemplatio. In the aim stated in the second prelude—namely, “so that … I may be able to love and serve”—he highligts the word “be able to [poder],” suggesting that the Spirit enables us to love God.^[121] He makes a similar point regarding the phrase “give me your love and grace; that is enough for me [dadme vuestro amor y gracia, que ésta me basta]” in the Sucipe, and also draws attention to the trinitarian rhythm of the benefits listed in the first point—“creation, redemption, and particular gifts”—and to the trinitarian Augustinian echoes in “memory, understanding and my entire will.”^[122] Finally, he highlights the use of the preposition “in” in the second, third, and fourth points, asking, “isn’t this an Eastern manner to name the Holy Spirit?”^[123]

Similar ideas appear in other commentaries, as in Fr. Giuliani’s pneumatological reading of repetition and of the need to confirm decisions.^[124] Likewise, Fr. Daelemans refers to von Balthasar’s conviction that the process of the retreatant interacting with the text through imagining the place, being present, and allowing oneself to be touched implies the action of the Holy Spirit.^[125]

As we conclude this section, note that this third approach is substantially different from the second one. In positing the unnamed Spirit’s presence and identifying its operation, it resolves the problem of an absence of pneumatological language. Where the second approach explained, this one rereads.^[126]

5. Why Bother?

Before evaluating these strategies, we pause to consider why bother at all about explicit or implicit references to the Holy Spirit since, from a dogmatic perspective, the Exercises’ christocentric approach surely must imply the presence the Spirit.

I see three reasons to bother. In the first case, any given expression of the Trinitarian faith such as the Exercises should acknowledge explicitly that salvation comes from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In other words, unqualified christocentrism presents a problem, as does an implicit pneumatology that does not name the Holy Spirit.

This leads to a second reason, pastoral-spiritual in nature, in that naming the Spirit strengthens the conviction that God enables Christians to live out their calling. In other words, since the Spirit stirs up constructive desires, inspires insight and wisdom, warms hearts, emboldens us to bear suffering, and whispers softly that God accompanies us no matter what, failing to mention the Spirit risks shifting the focus to our own efforts. From this perspective, the Ignatian way could appear as a predominantly ascetic and moral undertaking rather than a path to life beyond ourselves.

On this point, Fr. Codina has indicated that a pneumatological approach to the Examen prayer and to self-examination in general helps to live those spiritual practices in a way that goes beyond a moralistic “school of the will” and rather offers an exercise “to free ourselves from all disordered affections to favor the Spirit’s action in us, to ensure our fidelity to the Spirit, to be able to be docile to the Spirit, thereby enabling us “to submit to and to follow the Spirit.”^[127] On this same point, we recall Fr. Arrupe’s address on Ignatius’s trinitiarian mysticism, by which he intended to call Jesuits to draw on the intimacy of God for the sake of their own lives and ministry. In other words, his address suggests that speaking correctly about God has a spiritual as well as a formal significance.

Finally, a third “reason-to-bother” addressing pneumatology in the Exercises has to do with the distinctiveness of the Spirit’s contribution to salvation history. The issue here is that theologians generally hesitate to correlate divine action to a specific person of the Trinity since doing so can suggest tri-theism. However, I would argue that, while we should balance the specificity of the Spirit’s action with the unity of the Godhead, we can imagine the action of the Spirit as complementing that of the other divine persons. From this perspective, speaking about the action of the Spirit respects the mechanism of human thought, which operates by making distinctions. As such, we can avoid tri-theism by promoting complementarity among the specific actions of the divine persons. For instance, the action of Christ, who has wrought redemption once and for all, complements that of the Spirit, who actualizes that redemption in specific contexts here and now.

Benedictine scholar Kilian McDonnell describes this complementarity:

Without the mission of the Spirit the mysterious acts of Christ do not become real in us, but remain acts of an ancient wandering preacher who told memorable parables and lived a self-less life. Without the mission of the Spirit . . . the mission of the Son lacks the specific weight of God. . . . Without the mission of the Spirit the church remains in fixity, a splendid stasis, frozen in time, without movement, without an end. Without the mission of the Spirit what is left of faith and experience are the dried structural bones of religion.^[128]

Of course, the work of the Son also complements that of the Spirit, since “without the mission of the Son the mission of the Spirit is devoid of the flesh and materiality that make salvation history possible.”^[129] Nevertheless, since this essay focuses on the Holy Spirit, we highlight that without the work of the Spirit, we lose something important. The Spirit, whom we confess in the Creed as the life-giver, brings salvation alive in specific people at specific times and in specific places.

In summary, without the Holy Spirit, we lose something in terms of principles, spirituality, and salvation history. For this reason, a full expression of Christianity needs to acknowledge explicitly the Spirit and his work. In my view, therefore, the strategies discussed in parts 3 and 4 of this essay are, ultimately, unsatisfactory. The pneumatological ambiguity of the Exercisesseems an intellectual puzzle either to explain and understand (part 3) or to resolve by importing a theological principle such that we find the unnamed Spirit “in between the lines” of the text (part 4).

In my estimation, these approaches lack two essential elements. First, they lack the express acknowledgement that not mentioning the Holy Spirit remains problematic even when we find explanations or posit an implied pneumatology—as if whether we mention the Spirit makes no real difference. Second, these responses, which appeal to the intellect, lack a pastoral translation, as if understanding something suffices. With this in mind, we need to consider what guidance we can provide for ministers who wish to present Ignatian spirituality with explicit reference to the Holy Spirit; that is what I will argue in the concluding part below.

6. Pastoral and Practical Considerations

To recap, we began by briefly outlining what I have called the “pneumatological ambiguity” in early Ignatian sources—namely, that in some of his writings, Ignatius references the Holy Spirit often and explicitly while in other places, including, surprisingly, the Spiritual Exercises, where we might expect many such references, he does not. Then, we considered three responses to that ambiguity—ignoring, explaining, and “reading between the lines.” Finally, in response to the question “why bother with this study at all?” I proposed that, for a complete faith-life, Christians need an explicitly pneumatological reimagination of Ignatian spirituality and practice.

So, what might such a reimagination mean? Really, it involves no more than speaking often to retreatants about the Holy Spirit. For example, when presenting themes like interior motions, consolation, or inner knowledge, the spiritual director should cast these in explicitly pneumatological language, explaining that the Spirit works through these experiences. As such, director and retreatant alike ought to welcome as the Spirit’s gifts the experiences of deeper insight into Christ, gratitude, quiet peace, and simplicity. In this same vein, the spiritual director might invite the retreatant to a colloquy with the Holy Spirit in addition to colloquies with Mary, the Son, or the Father. And in this same vein, the retreatant should add the mystery of Pentecost to the Fourth Week, as Polanco discreetly suggested.^[130] Finally, the director should make explicit the underlying point of the Contemplatio ad amorem, namely, that the Spirit brings about the communication of love to which Ignatius invites the retreatant.

Note that this proposal to make explicit what has remained implicit or unstated aligns very much with what Fr. Egan stated back in 1976. One of the few commentators to address the pastoral and practical implications of greater intellectual insight in Ignatian pneumatology, he claimed that retreat directors should change the way they propose the Exercises. He writes, “Now that the dangers and the exaggerations from Illuminism are scarcely present, the exercitant must be explicitly told that the Exerciseswill evoke, deepen, strengthen and make more explicit the ever-present experience of the Holy Spirit.”^[131] Therefore, “when the retreat director explains the essentials of each meditation to the exercitant (SpEx 2), he ought to develop their latent pneumatology.”^[132]

This proposal builds on what other experts have done, with subtle yet significant differences. Similar to how Fr. Arrupe, Fr. Toner, and Sr. Hausman present Ignatian spirituality, I propose to explicitly speak of the Spirit. Yet different from them, I believe we should do so after first admitting the gravity of the situation. Healing can only happen after the wound has been acknowledged. Giving full weight to the textual problem in the Ignatian corpus presses to seek a better way forward and suggests where exactly that better way forward is needed. Thus, overtly mentioning, and then problematizing, that certain texts remain largely silent on the Spirit, is very necessary.

In addition, my proposal aligns with (and builds on) the arguments of Fr. Codina, Fr. Lera, and others who suggested how and where the Holy Spirit’s unarticulated presence may operate implicitly in the dynamics of the Exercises. Their reflections helpfully indicate what topics could be reimagined pneumatologically. My contribution consists in urging the next step. After intellectually reconstructing the Spirit’s presence and operation—and, once again, acknowledging that the absence of an explicit pneumatology is problematic—the much-needed next step is to think and speak differently. What has remained unnamed in the text must be explicitly stated and confessed.

Importantly, this pneumatological reimagination of Ignatian spirituality leaves the text of the Spiritual Exercises untouched yet, much as the Complementary Norms provide a lens for interpreting the Constitutions, it references the Spirit throughout. Note that, as I see it, there is no need for spiritual directors and retreat directors to burden their directees with elaborate considerations on the difference between the text of the Exercises and its modern understanding. In a pastoral context, it seems sufficient to present simply and succinctly the lack of references to the Spirit, the problem that it represents, and the way forward: mentioning the Holy Spirit often.

Reimaginations like this should not be considered controversial; they have occurred frequently since the Second Vatican Council. For instance, in the late 1970s, David Fleming published an edition of the Spiritual Exercises with both a literal translation and a “contemporary reading” on facing pages.^[133] In this reading, for example, he replaces Ignatius’s presentation of the devil as a woman with that of a “spoiled child.”^[134] Likewise, in 2001, three religious sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary explained and reformulated the Exercises so that they would speak to women more easily.^[135] Then, more recently, Mark Thibodeaux (ucs) developed more than thirty variations on the Examen Prayer.^[136] In fact, some adaptations we miss completely. As Dominique Salin (eof) argues convincingly, the numinous world of spirits and angels as Ignatius and his contemporaries knew it—and which Pierre Favre’s Diary illustrates so well—is no more.^[137] Now, spiritual directors rely generally on introspection as a means to access psychological and spiritual “inner movements.”^[138] All of these projects have in common with mine the quest to draw life from the Ignatian charism in a way relevant and convincing to Christians today—something that a contemporary account of Ignatian spirituality cannot do without explicitly referencing the vivifying action of the Holy Spirit.

In this vein, I gladly acknowledge other reimaginings that would take into consideration and receive new impulses from emerging pneumatological perspectives. For example, liberation theologians have heard the Spirit of the Lord speak through those who suffer and call for justice.^[139] Likewise, those who feel called to care for our common home might see the Spirit as the prophetic voice speaking through the earth’s ecological distress.^[140] Other pneumatological reimaginations might draw on new perspectives from feminism, the global south, Black theology, ecumenism, other religions, and really any renewal impulses in culture and society that express the signs of the times.^[141]

In conclusion, I set about in this essay to acknowledge the pneumatological ambiguity of the early Ignatian sources and to present three ways of dealing with it. Finally, I suggested a fourth way of proceeding that effectively “mends” this ambiguity, namely, that practitioners of Ignatian spirituality should make explicit reference to the Holy Spirit regardless of what the text says. In all of this, my hope is to raise our consciousness of the Holy Spirit’s life-giving role in Christian faith life and thereby to deepen our practice of Ignatian spirituality.^[142]

Notes:

^[1]  The guiding principles for the “adapted renewal” (accommodata renovatio) of religious life are “the founders’ spirit and special aims,” the tradition grown from it, and the actual (local) context, see Perfectae Caritatis (October 28, 1965), §2, https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651028_perfectae-caritatis_en.html. For background, see Maryanne Confoy, Religious Life and Priesthood: Perfectae Caritatis, Optatam Totius, Presbyterorum Ordinis (New York: Paulist Press, 2008).

^[2]  John W. O’Malley and Timothy W. O’Brien, “The Twentieth-Century Construction of Ignatian Spirituality: A Sketch,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 52, no. 3
(Autumn 2020).

^[3]  As O’Malley and O’Brien put it, the Chronicon “contained sufficient data to destroy the reigning stereotype of a religious order marked by life under strict military discipline.”See O’Malley and O’Brien, “The Twentieth-Century Construction of Ignatian Spirituality,” 9.

^[4]  As O’Malley and O’Brien note, “accommodation to circumstances forms another leitmotif both in Ignatius’s correspondence and in the Constitutions concerning how Jesuits were to conduct themselves in their ministries.” See O’Malley and O’Brien, “The Twentieth-Century Construction of Ignatian Spirituality,” 38. For a general discussion of changes, see “VIII. The Elements of a Spiritual Culture,” 29–39, with comments on obedience at 23–24.

^[5]  Ron Darwen, “Will the Real Ignatius Please Stand Up?”, Thinking Faith (July 30, 2008), https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20080730_1.htm. See also David Lonsdale, Eyes to See, Ears to Hear: An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality (London: DLT, 1990), “Images of Ignatius,” 8–31. For sobering hermeneutical considerations, see Philip Endean, “Who Do You Say Ignatius Is?: Jesuit Fundamentalism and Beyond,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 19, no. 5 (November 1987).

^[6]  O’Malley and O’Brien: “The Twentieth-Century Construction of Ignatian Spirituality,” 22–23; see also Darwen, “Will the Real Ignatius Please Stand Up?”

^[7]  Ignatius’s secretary, Juan Alfonso de Polanco in fact played a major role in the formulation of some of his later writings, including the Constitutions. See J. Carlos Coupeau, “Juan de Polanco’s Role of as Secretary of Ignatius of Loyola: ‘His Memory and Hands,’” in Ite inflammate omnia: Selected Historical Papers from Conferences Held at Loyola and Rome in 2006, ed. Thomas M. McCoog (Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2010), 109–27.

^[8]  The trinitarian affection is commonly noted. For instance, Randy Sachs (uea) noted: “Commentators like de Guibert, Haas, H. Rahner, Decloux, Knauer and Egan have pointed out how striking the trinitarian dimension of Ignatius’ mysticism is. From his Autobiography and Spiritual diary, we know that he received a number of extraordinary visions and illuminations of the Trinity,” John R. Sachs, “Ignatian Mysticism,” The Way Supplement 82 (1995): 73–83, at 74. For more discussion and references to the Diary itself, see section 1B of the present article.

^[9]  See also Bert Daelemans, “‘Unción del Espíritu Santo’ [Co 414]. Pneumatología ignaciana en el cruce de voluntades,” in Dogmática Ignaciana: “Buscar y hallar la voluntad divina” [Ej 1], ed. Gabino Uríbarri Bilbao (Madrid: Sal Terrae, 2018), 205–40.

^[10]  My reading of the Constitutions is mainly informed by The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, ed. George E. Ganss (St. Louis, MO: IJS, 1970); Antonio M. de Aldama, An Introductory Commentary on the Constitutions, 2nd ed. (Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1989), originally Iniciación al Estudio de las Constituciones (1979); and Manuel Ruiz Jurado, “El Espíritu Santo en las Constituciones de la Compañia de Jesús,” Manresa 56 (1984): 219–28.

^[11]  Constitutions 134, hereafter Const.; The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms: A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts, ed. John W. Padberg (St. Louis, MO: The Institute of Jesuit Sources [IJS], 1996), 56. Note that Ignatius gives four arguments in favor of drafting constitutions: God’s wish for human cooperation, the pope’s order, the examples of the saints, and common sense. For commentary on this section, see Aldama, An Introductory Commentary, 66–71.

^[12]  Const. 400–14. See too n384 in Constitutions of the Society of Jesus: A Critical Edition with the Complementary Norms, ed. Barton T. Geger, transl. George E. Ganss (Boston: IJS, 2024), 212–3, in which Fr. Geger lists references to the Spirit and discusses the complementarity between human means and divine grace.

^[13]  Const. 414; ed. Padberg, 170.

^[14]  Const. 624; ed. Padberg, 288. Note the inclusion with the final sentence of Const. 624, this time featuring the Spirit’s “unction” (Const. 624, ed. Padberg, 290).

^[15]  Const. 161; ed. Padberg, 78.

^[16]  Const. 813; ed. Padberg, 400.

^[17]  Const. 134; ed. Padberg, 56.

^[18]  Const. 134; ed. Padberg, 56.

^[19]  Const. 136; ed. Padberg, 58.

^[20]  Const. 134; ed. Padberg, 56.

^[21]  For examples of both types of references in Ignatius, see Luis Ladaria, “Creador,” in Diccionario de espiritualidad ignaciana, ed. José García de Castro, 2 vols. (Bilbao: Mensajero; Santander: Sal Terrae, 2007), 1:497–504.

^[22]  Const. 161; ed. Padberg, 78.

^[23]  Const. 705; ed. Padberg, 340.

^[24]  Const. 134; ed. Padberg, 56.

^[25]  Arrupe makes this comment in the context of a reflection on the “Spiritual Diary.” He goes nonetheless on to praise Ignatius as a good student possessing a prestigious degree. I would rather stress the first phrase, viz., that Ignatius had the gift not of theological clarity but of spiritual and practical wisdom. See Pedro Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 33, no. 3 (May 2001): 16–17. The article, an address from February 8, 1980, first appeared as “Inspiración trinitaria del carisma ignaciano,” Acta Romana Societatis Iesu XVIII/I – anno 1980 (1981), 67–114. See also Hugo Rahner’s chapter on “Ignatius der Theologe,” in Ignatius von Loyola als Mensch und Theologe (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1964), 214–34, where Rahner outlines Ignatius as a spiritual soul as much as a theological mind.

^[26]  Joseph A. Munitiz and Philip Endean, “Introduction,” Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings (London: Penguin, 1996), trans. Joseph A. Munitiz and Philip Endean, 67–69, at 67. For a more detailed commentary on the specific entries and their development, see Terence O’Reilly, “The Spiritual Exercises and the Diario espiritual of St. Ignatius,” in Terence O’Reilly, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Contexts, Sources, Reception(Leiden/Boston: Brill 2020), 277–96.

^[27]  Munitiz and Endean, “Introduction,” 69. The authors call this “a descriptive title.”

^[28]  Diary, entry for Feb. 5, 1544; Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings, trans. Munitiz and Endean, 73–74.

^[29]  The Mass for the Trinity is on day 6, Feb. 7, and the Mass for the Holy Spirit is on day 10, Feb. 11, after which another Mass for the Trinity, on day 11, Feb. 12, seems to mark the stated end of his discernment.

^[30]  Diary; trans. Munitiz and Endean, footnote 6 (linked with day 11, Feb. 12), 378. See also O’Reilly, “The Spiritual Exercises and the Diario espiritual of St. Ignatius,” 281. Ultimately, an unfreedom in seeking confirmation through signs seems to drive Ignatius’s unrest. For support of this interpretation, see his confession on day 30, March 12: “At last I considered if I should proceed further. . . . I seemed to be wanting too many signs, and wanting them during certain periods or during masses ending in my own satisfaction; the question itself was clear; I was looking not for more certainty, but for a finishing touch that would be to my taste” (Diary; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 98). See also his later reflection on “the Tempter” trying to instill doubt (Diary; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 99).

^[31]  This cycle lasts from day 12 to 30, Feb. 13–Mar. 2, with the Mass to the Holy Spirit on day 30.

^[32]  Diary, Feb. 11, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 75–76.

^[33]  For the colloquy, see SpEx 53–54.

^[34]  Diary, Feb. 11, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 75.

^[35]  Diary, Feb. 11, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 75.

^[36]  Diary, Feb. 11, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 76.

^[37]  Diary, Feb. 2–4, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 73.

^[38]  Diary, Feb. 5, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 73–74. See also “the two mediators” on Feb. 7 and 8.

^[39]  Diary, Feb. 11, 1544; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 75. My own commentary resonates with Víctor Codina’s question on the triple colloquy in Víctor Codina, Una presencia silenciosa: El Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios (Barcelona: Cristianisme i justícia, 2011), 6, republished in Apuntes ignacianos 73 (2015): 48–79.

^[40]  SpEx 263; Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 334.

^[41]  SpEx 304; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 346.

^[42]  SpEx 397; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 347.

^[43]  SpEx 312; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 348.

^[44]  SpEx 365; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 358.

^[45]  John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, stanza 3, no. 40–47, in The Collected Works of Saint John of the Cross, ed. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, rev. ed. (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies Publications, 1991), 689–92. See also Kevin Culligan, “Traditions of Spiritual Guidance: St. John of the Cross,” The Way 33, no. 1 (1993): 63–74.

^[46]  SpEx 62–63 and repeated in 64; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 297–98. Elsewhere, Ignatius presents a timetable for the various types of daily meditation (SpEx 75, 119, 159, 204, 227), and explicit references to the same kind of triple colloquy (SpEx 147, 148, 156, 164, 199).

^[47]  SpEx 101–109; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 305–6.

^[48]  SpEx 230–37 and 313–36; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 329–30 and 348–53.

^[49]  SpEx 262; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 334.

^[50]  SpEx 268 and 274; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 335–6 and 337.

^[51]  For the Annunciation, see Lk 1:34–35: “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.’” For Simeon, see Lk 2:26–27: “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple.” For the desert, both Lk 4:1 and Mt 4:1 speak about the Holy Spirit, with a double reference in Luke: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil.” Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations come from the NRSVUE.

^[52]  As Baumert states beautifully, “el arco de los misterios salvíficos se cierra con la Ascensión. Pentecostés parece quedar fuera de consideración,” Norbert Baumert, “El Espíritu Santo, aliento de toda vida nueva: pneumatología de los Ejercicios”, in Ejercicios espirituales y mundo de hoy. Congreso Internacional de Ejercicios, Loyóla, 20–26 septiembre de 1991, ed. Juan Manuel García-Lomas (Bilbao: Mensajero, 2006), 197–206 at 197. Interestingly, Lera comments that in his Directorium, Polanco added Pentecost; see José Maria Lera Monreal (esp), “La contemplación para alcanzar amor, el pentecostés de los Ejercicios,” in Manresa 63 (1991): 163–90 at 166; MHSI Exercitia, vol. 2, 322: “Hoc Exercitium ad amorem excitandum proponi poterit postquam unum vel alterum diem, qui exercetur, in misteriis Resurrectionis (sub Resurrectione autem, Ascensionis et Pentecostes etiam misteria intelle) versatur erit.”

^[53]  Santiago Arzubialde, “Discernimiento – Unción del Espíritu – y Discretio. Presencia y actividad del Espíritu en los escritos de san Ignacio de Loyola,” Manresa 70 (1998): 231–67 at 232. Juan Manuel Martín-Moreno speaks of a “contrast” in Juan Manuel Martín-Moreno, “El don del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios espirituales,” Manresa 59 (1987): 357–72 at 357.

^[54]  Harvey D. Egan, The Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian Mystical Horizon (St. Louis, MO: IJS, 1976), 120. With this statement, Fr. Egan opened his discussion on Ignatian mysticism and the Holy Spirit.

^[55]  José María Lera Monreal, “Apuntes para una pneumatología de los Ejercicios. En el XVI centenario del Concilio I de Constantinopla,” Manresa53 (1981): 327–58 at 334, with similar formulations at 328 and 331. In 2016, Fr. Lera republished this article with minor changes and more materials as José María Lera Monreal, La pneumatología de los Ejercicios espirituales: una teología de la cruz traducida a la vida (Bilbao: Mensajero, 2016).

^[56]  In 1998, Manuel Ruiz noted that “algunos conocedores de los Ejercicios de san Ignacio han observado una ausencia significativa en ellos de menciones explícitas del Espíritu Santo”; see Manuel Ruiz Jurado, “El Espíritu Santo en la espiritualidad ignaciana,” Manresa 70 (1998): 217–23 at 217.

^[57]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 3. It seems that over time Fr. Codina has grown in his awareness of the seriousness of the issue, since in an earlier article, after observing that “las citas explícitas del Espíritu Santo son escasas en los Ejercicios,” he immediately “solved” the issue: “pero en realidad es toda la obra de salvación, de purificación, de conocimiento de Cristo, de consolación, de elección, de paz, la que es fruto del Espíritu. Pentecostés no es un misterio que se contempla objetivamente fuera de nosotros, sino un misterio que se vive en la Iglesia presente y en cada cristiano. Toda la obra de los Ejercicios es una mistagogia del Espíritu”; see Víctor Codina, “Claves para una hermenéutica de los Ejercicios,” in Manresa 48 (1976): 51–72 at 68–69.

^[58]  Baumert, “El Espíritu Santo, aliento de toda vida nueva,” 199.

^[59]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” full reference in footnote 26.

^[60]  John W. Padberg, “Foreword: The Legacy of Father Arrupe,” in Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 33, no. 3 (May 2001), vii–viii at vii. He also qualifies this address as “the longest, the most wide-ranging, and the most profound” of five legacy texts, at viii.

^[61]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 1, page 1–2.

^[62]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 2, page 2. The Spanish comes from Arrupe, “Inspiración trinitaria del carisma ignaciano,” 195.

^[63]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 4, page 3. Earlier in the same section he had stated: “I believe that neither the Society’s way of proceeding nor its radical charism can be adequately understood and appreciated unless we mount up to the very top, to the Trinity” (Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 4, page 3).

^[64]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 11, page 6.

^[65]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 38, page 18.

^[66]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 39, page 18. In no. 39, Arrupe states, with reference to the “Autobiography” (no. 96): “Ignatius, with Laínez and Favre, entered the village ‘and making a prayer [Ignatius] felt such a change coming over his soul and saw so clearly that God the Father was placing him with Christ his Son.’”

^[67]  Arrupe, “The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism,” no. 43, page 20–21. In addition, the reference to Nadal is anachronistic, since Nadal speaks about Ignatius during his time in Paris while Arrupe speaks about the time he had almost arrived in Rome: “Quo tempore Lutetiae fuit, non solum studia literarum sectatus est, sed animum simul intendit quo spiritus illum ac divina vocatio ducebat, ad Ordinem religiosum instituendum; tametsi singulari animi modestia ducentem spiritum sequebatur, non praeibat. Itaque deducebatur” (see “Dialogi pro Societate contra haereticos,” in MHSI, Font. narr., vol. 2, 252).

^[68]  For similarly optimistic readings, see Rogelio Carda Mateo, “Ignacio de Loyola: mística trinitaria,” Miscelánea Comillas 57 (1999): 421–68, and John O’Donnell, “Trinidad,” in Diccionario de espiritualidad ignaciana, 1720–8.

^[69]  Lera Monreal, La pneumatología de los Ejercicios espirituales, 18–19, elaborated at 29–31. The Spanish text reads: “el tema que el padre Arrupe exponía rotundamente no era tan evidente en lo que a los Ejercicios Espirituales se refería. . . . Había que profundizar mucho más en la acción del Espíritu Santo . . . en la dinámica de esos Ejercicios. Solo así se podría hablar de inspiración trinitaria y no solo cristológica en lo más comúnmente conocido del carisma ignaciano, como son sus Ejercicios Espirituales,” (19). Lera also uses the word “binitarian.”

^[70]  Jules J. Toner, A Commentary on Saint Ignatius’ Rules for the Discernment of Spirits: A Guide to the Principles and Practice (St. Louis, MO: IJS, 1981).

^[71]  Toner, A Commentary, 1. Fr. Toner maintains this pneumatological focus for the entire introductory chapter. As he asserts at the end of the chapter, “this book aims at providing a practical Christian theology of openness to the Holy Spirit” (51).

^[72]  Toner, A Commentary, 9.

^[73]  Toner, A Commentary, 9n6.

^[74]  Toner, A Commentary, 95; see also 96 and 97.

^[75]  Noëlle Hausman, “Ignatius Loyola and the Mission of the Holy Spirit: An Interpretation of the Spiritual Diary (1544–1545),” Review of Ignatian Spirituality (Centrum Ignatianum Spiritualitatis) 63–64 (1990): 39–59.

^[76]  Hausman, “‘Ignatius Loyola and the Mission of the Holy Spirit,” 58–59.

^[77]  Hausman, “‘Ignatius Loyola and the Mission of the Holy Spirit,” 59.

^[78]  The opening line of the article reads, “‘In a certain sense, the Diary is no more than the Exercises in action’, writes one expert [Simon Decloux]”; see Hausman, “Ignatius Loyola and the Mission of the Holy Spirit,” 39.

^[79]  See also Maurice Giuliani, “Les motions de l’esprit,” Christus 153 (hors série) (1992): 83–96. Note how he highlights the Holy Spirit without mentioning Ignatius’s limited references to the Spirit: “Les consolations et désolations constituent ces « motions » dont saint Ignace parle si souvent, signes de la présence vivante de l’Esprit-Saint dans l’âme. . . . Le secret et l’efficacité de la spiritualité de saint Ignace réside peut-être en cette manière de ramener les âmes à la pleine conscience de l’Esprit qui agit en elles, et de les conduire ainsi à une décision de sainteté pour laquelle, plutôt que l’héroïsme, elles ont besoin de soumission parfaite à une volonté transcendante qui les « meut » au-dedans d’elles-mêmes” (84–85). For another English example, see Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises: Text and Commentary. A Handbook for Retreat Directors (Herefordshire: Gracewing, 1998). Fr. Ivens consistently references to the Spirit, as here: “The Exercises have to do with the conversion of affectivity, with letting the Spirit enter into our affectivity, change it and act through it” (2). See also Codina, “Claves para una hermeneutica de los Ejercicios”; Guy Lepoutre, “L’Esprit dans la pensée d’Ignace,” Christus 37 (1990): 477–85. Joseph Thomas, “À l’école de l’Esprit. Le discernement des esprits selon Ignace de Loyola,” Vie spirituelle 138 (1984): 338–49; Rogelio García Mateo, “Lo Spirito Santo negli Esercizi Ignaziani,” Gregorianum 80 (1999): 95–119, published in Spanish as “Dimensión pneumatológica de los Ejercicios Espirituales,” in Ignacio de Loyola: Su espiritualidad y su mundo cultural (Bilbao: Mensajero, 2000), 353–71.

^[80]  For what follows, see Rafael Maria Sanz de Diego, “Alumbrados,” in Diccionario de espiritualidad ignaciana, 130–3.

^[81]  See Fr. Lera’s account of the events surrounding the approval of the Exercises, in “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 182–83.

^[82]  Ignatius of Loyola, “Reminiscences (Autobiography),” 65, in Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 45.

^[83]  Leo Bakker, Freiheit und Erfahrung. Redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen über die Unterscheindung der Geister bei Ignatius von Loyola(Würzburg: Echter Verlag, 1970), 302; the subheading reads “Das Schweigen der Exerzitien über den Heiligen Geist,” 302–3. Fr. Bakker raises the question in the context of his statement that Christ’s consolation is also the Spirit’s: “Weil diese Wahrheit in den GÜ so wenig oder gar nicht betont wird, lohnt es sich, ausführlicher darauf einzugehen” (300).

^[84]  Terence O’Reilly discusses these and other elements at length in O’Reilly, “The Spiritual Exercises and Illuminism in Spain: Dominican Critics of the Early Society of Jesus,” in The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, 81–105. He concludes: “Ignatius was never one of the alumbrados, but there are parallels between his spirituality and their teachings, particularly those of the recogidos. These parallels touch on elements of the Exercises connected with their ‘dynamic,’ a dynamic driven by the summons of ‘the Creator and Lord,’ who disposes the soul toward the way that will best serve Him” (101).

^[85]  Bakker, Freiheit und Erfahrung, 301-2; the subheading reads “Der Vorwurf des Illuminatentums gegen Ignatius.”

^[86]  The passage from the Cologne manuscript reads, “It is characteristic of most-holy God and the holy angels to give in their motions true gladness and the joy of the spirit, and to take away all sadness and distress, which Satan usually brings with him. In turn, it is characteristic of the devil to act against such joy and consolation of the Holy Spirit [contra talem laetitiam et consolationem Spiritus Sancti], by manifesting specious and subtle arguments that are difficult,” quoted in Bakker, Freiheit und Erfahrung, 304–5, with reference to the MHSI Exercitia, vol. 1. The page numbers in Bakker are mistake: the correct page number is 500, no. 329; see also no. 334, which speaks of “the gentleness [suavitas] and joy of the Holy Spirit, that he [the Christian] was earlier strengthened by [reficiebatur].”

^[87]  Egan, The Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian Mystical Horizon, 120. Bakker has remained a point of reference, as in O’Reilly, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, 103n84.

^[88]  José Maria Lera, “Espíritu Santo”, Diccionario de espiritualidad ignaciana, 803–11 at 804; Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 7–8; Daelemans, “Pneumatología ignaciana en el cruce de voluntades,” 208–9; O’Reilly, “The Spiritual Exercises and Illuminism in Spain,” 81–105. Already in 1998, Santiago Arzubialde described the alumbrados argument as a common explanation, adding that he did not agree with it, which places him in the minority. See Arzubialde, “Discernimiento – Unción del Espíritu – y discretio,” 231–32.

^[89]  Arzubialde, “Discernimiento – Unción del Espíritu – y discretio,” 232, 233.

^[90]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 5–6. Fr. Codina also recalls a psychological explanation for Ignatius’s devotion to Mary—namely, Ignatius’s loss of his mother at a young age. For other references to the cultural influence on Ignatius, see Juan Manuel, who speaks of the Western theological and spiritual tradition, in Manuel, “El don del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios espirituales,” 360; also José María Lera, “Apuntes para una pneumatología de los Ejercicios. En el XVI centenario del Concilio I de Constantinopla. Segunda Parte. Cristologia de la cuarta semana: el Espíritu como marca de referencia,” Manresa 58 (1986): 99–128 at 99–100. Barton Geger makes a brief reference to Ignatius’s love for christocentric mystical body ecclesiology as a possible explanation for the paucity of references to the Spirit; see Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, ed. Geger, 213n384.

^[91]  Bakker, Freiheit und Erfahrung, 303–4.

^[92]  Lera, “Apuntes para una pneumatología de los Ejercicios,” 343–51 at 351. The “Apuntes” article appears in his 2016 book under the title “Ejercicios Espirituales y evolución mistica de Ignacio,” which suggests that Lera continued to develop the hypothesis of Ignatius’s growth in matters pneumatological. Another author, Manuel Ruiz, speaks without much elaboration about a “progresiva explicitación del tema del Espíritu en la consciencia del santo,” in Ruiz, “El Espíritu Santo en la espiritualidad ignaciana,” 218; also at 217.

^[93]  Lera, “Apuntes para una pneumatología de los Ejercicios,” 336, see also Manuel, “El don del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios espirituales,” 361, with reference to Lera.

^[94]  Manuel, “El don del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios espirituales,” 362–63 (immediacy) and 367–69 (consolation); and Lera’s entire article “Apuntes para una pneumatología de los Ejercicios. Segunda Parte.”

^[95]  Manuel, “El don del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios espirituales,” 360.

^[96]  Daelemans, “Pneumatología ignaciana en el cruce de voluntades,” 239–40.

^[97]  Ruiz, “El Espíritu Santo en la espiritualidad ignaciana,” 217.

^[98]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa; the word “thin spaces” is mine.

^[99]  The title of the first part is “Un silencio sospechoso,” see Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 3–8; for the “relectura,” see Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 9–25. Lera helpfully clarifies that we should not think of this as actualization, but simply as making explicit what Ignatius meant without saying it: “No se trata de una relectura actualizadora de Ignacio. Se trata más bien de leer a Ignacio tal cual es, sin las presiones y tensiones que había en su tiempo,” in José María Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 183. In an earlier article, he had spoken of the “búsqueda paciente del Espíritu,” in Lera, “Cristología de la cuarta semana: el Espíritu como marca de referencia,” 100.

^[100]  The type of presence Codina is looking for “no será clamorosa, sino oculta, casi ausente, silenciosa, incluso tal vez deliberadamente silenciada,” Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 10.

^[101]  O’Reilly, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, 96–97.

^[102]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 11; for what follows, see 11–16.

^[103]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 11.

^[104]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 11–12, with reference to SpEx 2; see also SpEx 63, 65, 104, 193, 233.

^[105]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 12–13 (for God’s direct interaction with the retreatant, with reference to SpEx 15) and 13–14 (for the Examen).

^[106]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 14–16.

^[107]  Manuel, “El don del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios espirituales,” 5–16.

^[108]  SpEx 15.

^[109]  SpEx 313–36; Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 17–20.

^[110]  SpEx 6.

^[111]  1 Th 5:19–22; Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 17.

^[112]  SpEx 316; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 349; Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 18, with reference to Jesus Corella’s lemma “Consolación” in the Diccionario de espiritualidad ignaciana.

^[113]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 18–19, with reference to Ga 5:22, Rm 8:5–10, Jn 20:19–23; Jn 16:13.20–22. One also can hear Galatians 5 echo in Ignatius’s commentary on desolation and its worldliness (SpEx 314, 317).

^[114]  See “Directorio autógrafo de san Ignacio,” in Los Directorios de Ejercicios 1540–1599, ed. Miguel Lop Sebastià (Bilbao: Mensajero, 2000), 19–22 at 21. I learned of this text from Giuliani, “Les motions de l’esprit,” 87, but his reference to the Monumenta seems wrong; for the right page number, see MHSI, Exercitia, vol. 2, 72, repeated at 73. For more commentary, see Daelemans, “Pneumatología ignaciana en el cruce de voluntades,” 213–17.

^[115]  Lera, “Cristología de la cuarta semana: el Espíritu como marca de referencia,” 101 (“¿no es aquí, en esta cuarta semana, donde debemos percibir primero con más intensidad el Espíritu, que ya ha estado operando a lo largo de todo el proceso de los Ejercicios?”) and 114 (“La cuarta semana … parece ser … el lugar donde deba darse el clímax de la explicitación trinitaria (en concreto, manifestación del Espíritu) en el proceo de los Ejercicios”), elaborated 114–23.

^[116]  SpEx 221; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 327; see also SpEx 223, 224.

^[117]  John R. Sachs, “The Spirit of the Risen Lord,” Way Supplement 99 (2000): 22–34 at 22–24.

^[118]  For instance, Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 166: “Sin intentar probar más, creemos resulta evidente que Ignacio ha colocado la ‘Contemplación para alcanzar amor’ en el lugar donde cabía esperar la meditación sobre el Misterio de Pentecostés o la efusión del Espíritu Santo.” Fr. Codina follows him (Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 23–25). See also Ignacio Iglesias, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor en la dinámica de los Ejercicios Espirituales,” Manresa 59 (1987): 373–87 at 381–3; Sachs, “The Spirit of the Risen Lord,” 24–32.

^[119]  SpEx 231. Augustine stated: “Ecce tria sunt, amans et quod amatur et amor,” Trin 8.14, referenced in Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 172.

^[120]  Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 173.

^[121]  Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 173; SpEx 233; trans. Munitiz and Endean, 329.

^[122]  Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 174; SpEx 234, with a partly different translation in Munitiz and Endean, 329. As Lera reminds and is commonly known, Augustine suggests that these three human capacities existing within the one person help to imagine the Trinity. See for instance Augustine of Hippo, “Sermon 52. Translated by Mark DelCogliano,” in The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings, ed. Andrew Radde-Gallwitz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 311–27.

^[123]  Lera, “La contemplación para alcanzar amor,” 176; SpEx 235–237.

^[124]  SpEx 62, 183; Giuliani, “Les motions de l’esprit,” 89–94. See also the very brief reflection on the “presencia global del Espíritu Santo en los Ejercicios” in Jurado, “El Espíritu Santo en la espiritualidad ignaciana,” 221–22.

^[125]  Daelemans, “Pneumatología ignaciana en el cruce de voluntades,” 212–13.

^[126]  Fr. Daelemans finds in the Constitutions, too, an implicit pneumatology: “Desde estas menciones explícitas del Espíritu Santo en las Constituciones, podremos ampliar el marco de la pneumatología ignaciana, discerniendo la presencia implícita del Espíritu en las ocurrencias del «espíritu» escrito con minúscula”; see Daelemans, “Pneumatología ignaciana en el cruce de voluntades,” 229.

^[127]  Codina, Una presencia silenciosa, 13; the Spanish reads “El examen nos ayuda a someternos al Espíritu”; see also p. 11. He goes so far as to qualify Ignatius’s way of thinking (mentalidad) as “deformada por la obligación de silenciar al Espíritu” (26).

^[128]  Kilian McDonnell, The Other Hand of God: The Holy Spirit as the Universal Touch and Goal (Collegeville, MI: Liturgical Press, 2003), 227–29 at 228.

^[129]  McDonnell, The Other Hand of God, 229.

^[130]  MHSI Exercitia, vol. 2, 322: “Hoc Exercitium ad amorem excitandum proponi poterit postquam unum vel alterum diem, qui exercetur, in misteriis Resurrectionis (sub Resurrectione autem, Ascensionis et Pentecostes etiam misteria intelle) versatur erit.” See also footnote 55.

^[131]  Egan, The Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian Mystical Horizon, 122.

^[132]  Egan, The Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian Mystical Horizon, 126.

^[133]  David Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading (St. Louis, MO: IJS, 1978).

^[134]  SpEx 325; Fleming, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, 210–11.

^[135]  Katherine Dyckman, Mary Garvin, and Elizabeth Liebert, The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women(New York: Paulist Press, 2001).

^[136]  Mark E. Thibodeaux, Reimagining the Ignatian Examen: Fresh Ways to Pray from Your Day (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2015).

^[137]  Dominique Salin, Le discernement des esprits selon Ignace de Loyola : Les aléas d’une transmission (xvie–xxie siècle) (Brussels: Lessius, 2021), see especially 54–68 (“Les esprits chez Pierre Favre”) and 133–176 (“Après Ignace: des esprits aux passions”).

^[138]  See See also Brian O’Leary, Pierre Favre and Discernment: The Discernment of Spirits in the Memoriale of Blessed Pierre Favre (Oxford: Way Books, 2006), especially part 3, “Favre’s Understanding and Interpretation of ‘Spirits’ and Their Effects,” 72–93.

^[139]  See Joseph Comblin, The Holy Spirit and Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1987) and Víctor Codina, El Espíritu del Señor actúa desde abajo(Santander: Sal Terrae, 2015).

^[140]  See, for example, Elizabeth Johnson, “Creator Spirit in the Evolving World,” in her Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God (New York: Continuum, 2011), 181–201. Denis Edwards, Breath of Life: A Theology of the Creator Spirit (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2004). In 2000, Fr. Sachs developed fresh imaginations of the Spirit starting from nature and other religious traditions; see Sachs, “The Spirit of the Risen Lord,” 28–29.

^[141]  See, for example, Eugene F. Rogers, After the Spirit: A Constructive Pneumatology from Resources outside the Modern West (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005); Linda E. Thomas, “The Holy Spirit and Black Women: A Womanist Perspective,” in Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice, ed. Jenny Daggers and Grace Ji-Sun Kim (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 73–88; Néstor Medina, “Theological Musings toward a Latina/o Pneumatology,” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Latino/a Theology, ed. Orlando Espín (Malden, MA: 2015), 174–89; and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2018).

^[142]  The following book was published after I completed this article: Nora Beatriz Kviatkovski, La misión del Espíritu Santo en la experiencia ignaciana. Un estudio desde el epistolario de san Ignacio de Loyola (Bilbao: Mensajero, 2026). Regrettably, I could not access for this study Daniel de Ycaza, “El Espiritu en los Ejercicios espirituales de san Ignacio,” Cuadernos de espiritualidad 33 (2000): 85–115; and Antonio Queralt, Il ruolo dello Spirito Santo nella spiritualità ignaziana (Rome: CIS, 1991).

APA

Moons, J., S.J. (2026). Ignatius of Loyola and the Holy Spirit: Four Strategies to Cope with the Pneumatological Ambiguity of Early Ignatian Sources. Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, 58(1), 9–46. https://doi.org/10.6017/ssj.v58i1.21813

CMOS

Moons, Jos, S.J. “Ignatius of Loyola and the Holy Spirit: Four Strategies to Cope with the Pneumatological Ambiguity of Early Ignatian Sources.” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 58, no. 1 (2026): 9–46. https://doi.org/10.6017/ssj.v58i1.21813

MLA

Moons, Jos, S.J. “Ignatius of Loyola and the Holy Spirit: Four Strategies to Cope with the Pneumatological Ambiguity of Early Ignatian Sources.” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, vol. 58, no. 1, 2026, pp. 9–46. https://doi.org/10.6017/ssj.v58i1.21813

Turabian

Moons, Jos, S.J. “Ignatius of Loyola and the Holy Spirit: Four Strategies to Cope with the Pneumatological Ambiguity of Early Ignatian Sources.” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 58, no. 1 (2026): 9–46. https://doi.org/10.6017/ssj.v58i1.21813