The First Spiritual Exercises

For almost five hundred years, the Spiritual Exercises have been available only to priests and religious who could spend thirty days in silence under the guidance of a spiritual director. Now they are available as four retreats on inner peace to people in every stage of spiritual growth. Years of research and testing take form in Michael Hansen, S.J.s recreation of the way that St. Ignatius actually first gave the Exercises as he travelled with four companions, begging in bare feet and dressed in sackcloth. Each retreat guides the reader in an hour of daily prayer through four weeks, Monday to Thursday, and includes Sunday Eucharist and a weekend exercisetwenty-two days in all. The retreats offer four paths to inner peace: in divine love, in the service of God, in darkness and light, and in friendship with Jesus. Additionally, the book contains ten guides and helps for prayer, including four forms of a guided awareness prayer called the Examen, as well as guides to journaling, spiritual direction, and discernment.