The Spiritual Exercises grew out of Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s remarkable personal experiences seeking to grow in union with God and to discern God’s will.

He kept a journal as he gained spiritual insight and deepened his own spiritual experience. He added to these notes as he directed other people and discovered what “worked.” Eventually, Ignatius gathered these prayers, meditations, reflections, and directions into a carefully designed framework of a retreat, which he called “spiritual exercises.”

Since the early 1500s when Ignatius began this great work, the Spiritual Exercises have become a rich spiritual tradition of the Church with countless numbers of people experiencing them to grow closer to our loving God.

Ignatius wanted individuals to undertake the Exercises with the assistance of a spiritual director who would help them understand what they were experiencing. He also desired that everyone, not only religious, would experience the Exercises. To that end, he gave instruction on how to accompany retreatants in other ways than the traditional one-on-one, full 30-day experience.

In his instruction, Ignatius offers the option to experience the Exercises during a person’s everyday life over course of approximately 30 weeks. Retreatants meet with a spiritual director once a week to explore prayer experiences from the meditations of the Exercises. 

Is God inviting you to consider this experience?