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To the Patriarchs,
Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local Ordinaries in Peace
and Communion with the Apostolic See. Venerable Brethren, Health and
the Apostolic Benediction.
1. You all of you know,
assuredly, Venerable Brethren, what was Our mind and Our purpose
when, at the beginning of the year, We proclaimed to the whole
Catholic world an extraordinary Jubilee to commemorate the
anniversary of the day on which, having received the consecration of
the priesthood, We offered the divine Sacrifice for the first time,
fifty years ago. For as We solemnly declared in the Apostolic
Constitution Auspicantibus Nobis, published on 6 January
1929,1 we were moved to this partly by the purpose of
calling Our beloved children, the great Christian household
entrusted to Our heart by the Heart of the most merciful God, to
share in the joy of their common father and to join with us in
rendering thanks to the Supreme Giver of all good. But, besides
this, we were moved by the sweet hope, which pleased us greatly,
that when with fatherly liberality we unlocked the treasures of
heavenly graces entrusted to our dispensation, the Christian people
would make use of this happy opportunity to the strengthening of
faith, to the increase of piety and perfection, and the faithful
reformation of private and public morals in the most joyful fruit of
peace and pardon obtained from God, the peace of all severally and
of the whole society might be confidently expected. And these hopes
have not been falsified. For the pious enthusiasm with which the
Christian people welcomed the promulgation of the Jubilee did not
grow cold as time went on. On the contrary, we saw it daily waxing
stronger, by the help of God, who brought such things to pass as
will make this year, a veritable year of salvation, memorable in
days to come. We, for our part, have had abundant cause for
rejoicing, since we have seen, on many sides, such noble advance in
faith and piety; and we have enjoyed the sight of such a multitude
of our most dear children whom we have been enabled to receive,
right willingly, into our home, and to press, most lovingly, to our
heart. And now, while we strive very earnestly to express our
heartfelt gratitude to the Father of mercies for the many and rich
fruits which He has vouchsafed to bring forth in the course of this
year of expiation, our pastoral solicitude moves us and impels us to
draw from these auspicious beginnings greater and abiding
advantages, to provide for the happiness and well-being of each and
all, and the good estate of society. Now, while we were considering
how, or in what way, such fruits can be best secured, we thought how
Our predecessor Leo XIII, of happy memory, proclaiming a Holy Year
on another occasion, exhorted all the faithful in very weighty
words, which we ourselves repeated in the aforesaid Constitution
Auspicantibus Nobis, urging them "to recollect themselves
a little and to run their thoughts, now immersed in the earth, to
better things." 2
2. In like manner we
recalled Our Predecessor Pius X of holy memory, who, after
ceaselessly promoting sacerdotal sanctity both by word and by
example when he was keeping the fiftieth year from ordination to the
priesthood, addressed a most pious Exhortation to the Catholic
Clergy, 3 replete with precious and most choice
lessons by which the edifice of the spiritual life is raised to no
mean altitude.
3. Accordingly following in the footsteps of
these Pontiffs, We have deemed it fitting to do somewhat in like
manner Ourselves, and establish something most excellent, which
will, we trust, prove a source of many rare advantages to the
Christian people, We are speaking of the practice of the "Spiritual
Exercises", which we earnestly desire to see daily extended more
widely, not only among the clergy both secular and regular, but also
among the multitudes of the Catholic laity; and it is Our pleasure
to bequeath this to our beloved children as a memorial of this Holy
Year. And we do this the more gladly at the end of the fiftieth year
since Our first offering of the Divine Sacrifice. For nothing can be
more pleasing to us than the recollection of the heavenly graces and
the unutterable consolations which we have often experienced when
occupied in the "Spiritual Exercises"; and of the diligence we
devoted to the sacred retreats, marking our priestly course, as it
were, by so many stages; of the light and the impulse that we drew
from them, enabling us to know the divine will and to fulfil it; and
lastly of the labour therein bestowed, in the whole course of our
priestly life, on instructing our neighbours in heavenly things, and
that so fruitfully and successfully, that we may rightly conclude
that a singular resource for the eternal salvation of souls is set
in the "Spiritual Exercises".
4. And, in very deed,
Venerable Brethren, the importance for more than one reason; the
utility and the opportuneness of Sacred Retreats, will be readily
recognised by any one who considers, however lightly, the times in
which we now live. The most grave disease by which our age is
oppressed, and at the same time the fruitful source of all the evils
deplored by every man of good heart, is that levity and
thoughtlessness which carry men hither and thither through devious
ways. Hence comes the constant and passionate absorption in external
things; hence, the insatiable thirst for riches and pleasures that
gradually weakens and extinguishes in the minds of men the desire
for more excellent goods, and so entangles them in outward and
fleeting things that it forbids them to think of eternal truths, and
of the Divine laws, and of God Himself, the one beginning and end of
all created things, Who, nevertheless, for his boundless goodness
and mercy, even in these our days, though moral corruption may
spread apace, ceases not to draw men to himself by a bounteous
abundance of graces. Now, if we would cure this sickness from which
human society suffers so sorely, what healing remedy could we devise
more appropriate for our purpose than that of calling these
enervated souls, so neglectful of eternal things, to the
recollection of the "Spiritual Exercises"? And, indeed, if the
"Spiritual Exercises" were nothing more than a brief retirement for
a few days, wherein a man removed from the common society of mortals
and from the crowd of cares, was given, not empty silence, but the
opportunity of examining those most grave and penetrating questions
concerning the origin and the destiny of man: "Whence he comes;
and whither he is going"; surely, no one can deny that great
benefits may be derived from these sacred exercises. But pious
retreats of this kind do much greater things than this, for since
they compel the mind of a man to examine more diligently and
intently into all the things that he has thought, or said, or done;
they assist the human faculties in a marvellous manner; so that the
mind becomes accustomed, in this spiritual arena, to weigh things
maturely and with even balance, the will acquires strength and
firmness, the passions are restrained by the rule of counsel; the
activities of human life, being in unison with the thought of the
mind, are effectively conformed to the fixed standard of reason;
and, lastly, the soul attains its native nobility and altitude, as
the holy Pontiff Saint Gregory declares in his Pastoral, by a
concise similitude: "The human mind, like water, when shut up
around, is gathered up to higher things; because it seeks that from
which it descended; but when it is left loose, it perishes; because
it spreads itself uselessly on lowly things." 4
Moreover, as Saint Eucherius Bishop of Lyons wisely observes; when
exercising itself in these spiritual meditations; "the mind
rejoicing in the Lord is stirred up by a certain stimulus of
silence; and grows by unutterable increments."
5 And not only so, but it also acquires that
"heavenly nourishment," concerning which Lactantius says
"for no food is sweeter to the mind than the knowledge of
truth";6 and according to an ancient author, who long
passed as Saint Basil, it is admitted to "the school of heavenly
doctrine and the discipline of the divine arts" 7
wherein "God is all that is learnt, the way by which we are
directed, all that whereby the knowledge of the supreme truth is
attained." 8 From all this it clearly appears
that the "Spiritual Exercises" avail both to perfect the natural
powers of man; and further, and more specially, to form the
supernatural or Christian man. Now, certainly in these days when so
many impediments and obstacles are raised against the true sense of
Christ, and the supernatural spirit, wherein alone our holy religion
consists; when Naturalism, which weakens the firmness of faith, and
quenches the flames of Christian charity, holds dominion far and
wide; it is of the greatest importance that a man should withdraw
himself from that bewitching of vanity which obscureth good
things9 and hide himself in that blessed secrecy, where,
cultured by heavenly teaching, he may form a just estimate, and
understand the value of human life devoted to the service of God
alone; he may abhor the turpitude of sin; he may conceive the holy
fear of God; he may clearly see unveiled the vanity of earthly
things; and, stirred up by the precepts and the example of Him who
is "the way, the truth and the life," 10 he may
put off the old man11 may deny himself, and with
humility, obedience, and voluntary chastisement of self, may put on
Christ and strive to attain to the "perfect man," and to that
absolute "measure of the age of the fulness of Christ,"
12 whereof the Apostle speaks; nay, more, may endeavour,
with all his soul, to be able to say himself, with the same Apostle:
"I live now not I; but Christ liveth in me."
13 By these degrees, indeed, the soul goes upward
to consummate perfection, and is most sweetly united to God by the
help of divine grace, which is obtained in greater abundance, during
these days, by more fervent prayers, and more frequent reception of
the sacred mysteries. These things, assuredly, Venerable Brethren,
are singular and most excellent, and far surpassing nature; and in
obtaining them alone are to be found the quiet, and happiness, and
true peace for which the human mind longingly thirsts; and which the
society of today, carried away by the heat of temptations, vainly
seeks in the hungry quest of uncertain and fleeting goods, and in
the tumult of a perturbed life. On the other hand, we are clearly
taught that in the "Spiritual Exercises" there is a wonderful power
of bringing peace to men and of carrying them upwards to holiness of
life; which has been proved by daily experience in former ages, and
perhaps yet more clearly in our own: for we can hardly number those
who, being duly exercised in a sacred retreat, come forth from it
"rooted and built up" 14 in Christ; filled with
light, heaped up with joy, and flooded with that "peace which
surpasseth all understanding." 15 Moreover,
from this perfection of life, which is manifestly obtained from the
"Spiritual Exercises"; besides that inward peace of the soul, there
springs forth spontaneously another most choice fruit, which
redounds to the great advantage of the social life: namely that
desire of gaining souls to Christ which is known as the Apostolic
Spirit. For it is the genuine effect of charity that the just soul,
in whom God dwells by grace, burns in a wondrous way to call others
to share in the knowledge and love of that Infinite Good, which she
has attained and possesses And, now, in this our age, when human
society is in so much need of spiritual graces; when the foreign
Mission fields, which "are white already to harvest"
16 demand, more and more, the care of apostles adequate
to their need; and our own regions, likewise, require elect bands of
men, of the secular and regular clergy, as faithful dispensers of
the mysteries of God; and compact companies of pious laymen, who,
united to the Apostolic Hierarchy by close bonds of charity, may
help it with active industry, by manifold works and labours devoting
themselves to the Catholic Action. And We, Venerable Brethren, being
taught by history, regard these sacred retreats for exercises as
upper chambers raised by God, wherein any one of generous mind,
supported by the help of divine grace, illuminated by eternal
truths, and exhorted by the example of Christ, may not only see
clearly the value of souls, and be inflamed with the desire of
helping them, in whatsoever state of life, he sees, on careful
examination, he is called to serve his Creator; but many likewise,
learn the ardent spirit of the apostolate, its diligence, its
labours, its deeds of daring.
5. Furthermore, our Lord often
made use of this method in forming the preachers of the Gospel. For
the Divine Master Himself, not content with having spent long years
in the domestic retreat of Nazareth, before he shone forth in full
light before the nations, and taught them heavenly things by his
word, chose to spend full forty days in desert wilderness. Nay more,
in the midst of his evangelical labours, he was wont to invite his
Apostles to the friendly silence of retreat: "Come apart into a
desert place, and rest a little," 17 and when he left
this earth of sorrows to go to heaven, he willed that these same
Apostles and his disciples should be polished and perfected in the
upper chamber at Jerusalem, where for the space of ten days
"persevering with one mind in prayer" 18 they were
made worthy to receive the Holy Spirit: surely a memorable retreat,
which first foreshadowed the "Spiritual Exercises"; from which the
church came forth endowed with virtue and perpetual strength; and in
which, in the presence of the Virgin Mary Mother of God, and aided
by her patronage, those also were instituted whom we may rightly
call precursors of the Catholic Action.
6. From that day,
the use of the "Spiritual Exercises" if not under the same name and
in the modern manner, at least in substance, "became familiar
among the primitive Christians," 19 as Saint Francis
of Sales taught, and as appears from clear indications in the
writings of the holy Fathers. For it is thus Saint Jerome exhorts
the noble lady Celantia "Choose to thyself a suitable place,
remote from the noise of the household, whither thou mayst betake
thyself as a haven. Let there be there so much care in divine
readings, such frequent turns of prayers, such steadfast thought of
things to come, that thou mayest redeem the occupations of other
hours by this vacation. We do not say this to withdraw thee from
thine own: nay, rather we say it that thou mayst learn there and
meditate how thou shouldst show thyself to thine own: nay, rather we
say it that thou mayst learn there and meditate how thou shouldst
show thyself to thine own." 20 And Saint Peter
Chrysologus Bishop of Ravenna, in the same age as Saint Jerome urges
the faithful with this famous invitation: "We have given a year
to the body, let us give days to the soul...Let us live to God a
little who have lived the whole time to the world. Let the divine
voice sound in our ears: let not the noise of the household confuse
our hearing...Being thus armed brethren and thus instructed let us
declare war on sins...secure of victory." 21
But as time went on men were still held by the desire of placid
solitude wherein away from witnesses the soul might give attention;
nay more, it is found that in the most turbulent ages of human
society men athirst for justice and truth were the more vehemently
urged by the Divine Spirit seek the solitude "in order being free
from bodily desire they might more often be intent on the divine
wisdom in the court of the mind where all the tumult of earthly
cares being silent, they may rejoice in holy mediations and eternal
delights." 22 Now after God in his supreme
providence had raised up many men in his Church, abundantly endowed
with supernal gifts an conspicuous as masters of the supernatural
life who set forth wise rules, approved ascetical methods, whether
from divine revelation, or from their own practice, or from the
experience of former times; by the disposition of Divine Providence
like manner, the "Spiritual Exercises", properly so called were
given to the world by the work of the illustrious servant of God
Saint Ignatius of Loyola —"a treasure," as is called by that
venerable man of the Order of Saint Benedict, Louis of Blois, whose
opinion is cited by Saint Alphonsus Liguori in a very beautiful
letter "On making the 'Exercises' in solitude" —"A
treasure which God has set open for his Church in these last ages,
and for which abundant thanksgiving should be rendered to Him."
23
7. From these "Spiritual Exercises", whose fame
spread very rapidly in the Church, many drew a stimulus to make them
run with more alacrity in the paths of sanctity. And among these was
one most dear to Us on many grounds, the Venerable Saint Charles
Borromeo, who as we have mentioned on another occasion, spread their
use among the clergy and the people;24 and by this care
and authority enriched them with appropriated rules and directions;
and what is more, established a house for the special purpose of
cultivating the Ignatian meditations. This house, which he called
the "Asceterium", was, so far as we know, the first among the many
houses of this kind, which, by happy imitation have flourished
everywhere. For as the estimation of the "Exercises" grew
continually greater in the Church, there was a marvellous
multiplication of these houses, which may be called most opportune
places of entertainment, set in the arid desert of the world,
wherein the faithful of both sexes are separately recreated and
refreshed with spiritual nourishment. And, indeed, after the cruel
carnage of the war, which has so bitterly troubled the human family,
after so many wounds inflicted on the spiritual and civil prosperity
of the peoples, who can count the vast number of those who having
seen the fallacious hopes they cherished fail and fade away, clearly
understood that earthly things must give place to those of heaven,
and, by the most present aid of the Divine Spirit, fled to seek true
peace of mind in holy retreats? Let all those remain as a manifest
proof, how, whether drawn by the beauty of a more holy and more
perfect life, or tossed by the turbid tempests of the time, or moved
by the solicitudes of life, or beset by the frauds and fallacies of
the world, or fighting against the deadly plague of Rationalism, or
allured by the fascination of the senses, withdrawing themselves
into those holy houses, have tasted again the peace of solitude, all
the sweeter to them because of the heavy labours they have borne,
and meditating on heavenly things, have ordered their life in
accordance with supernatural lessons.
8. We, therefore,
Venerable Brethren, rejoicing in these happy beginnings of a noble
piety, and seeing in its further extension a powerful help against
the evils that assail us; must, at the same time, endeavour, as far
as in us lies, to second the most sweet counsel of the Divine
Goodness; so that this secret calling, breathed by the Holy Spirit
into the minds of men, may not be deprived of the much-desired
abundance of heavenly graces.
Moreover, We do this the more
willingly because We see what has already been done by Our
Predecessors. For, long since, this Apostolic See, which had often
commended the "Spiritual Exercises" by word, taught the faithful by
its own example and authority, converting the august Vatican temple
into a Cenacle for meditation and prayers; which custom We have
willingly received, with no small joy and consolation to Ourselves.
And in order that we may secure this joy and consolation, both for
ourselves and for others who are near us, We have already had
arrangements made for holding the "Spiritual Exercises" every year
in the Vatican.
9. We know well, Venerable Brethren, how
much store you also set by the "Spiritual Exercises"; for you gave
yourselves to them before you were adorned with the fulness of the
Priesthood; and often afterwards, in company with your Priests you
have sought them anew in order to refresh your souls with the
contemplation of heavenly things. This excellent practice,
assuredly, is deserving of our solemn and public commendation. And
we commend, likewise, no less warmly those bishops, whether of the
Eastern or of the Western Church, who, as we know, have sometimes
come together, with their own Patriarch or Metropolitan, to make a
pious retreat adapted to their offices and duties. We hope that this
luminous example, so far as circumstances allow, may be followed
with sedulous emulation.
And perchance there would be no
great difficulty in this if a retreat of this kind were instituted
on the occasion of one of those synods which all the Prelates of an
ecclesiastical province celebrate ex officio, whether to
provide for the common salvation of souls, or to deliberate on those
things which the conditions of the time seem to require. And, indeed
We ourselves had determined to do this, with all the Bishops of
Lombardy, during the brief space of our rule over the Metropolitan
Church of Milan; and, without doubt, we should have accomplished it,
in that first year of office, if the inscrutable decrees of Divine
Providence had not disposed otherwise of our lowliness. Wherefore,
We are well assured that those priests and religious men who,
anticipating the law of the Church, in this matter, already
frequented the "Spiritual Exercises" will, hereafter, use this means
of acquiring sanctity with yet greater diligence, now that they are
more gravely bound to it by the authority of the sacred Canons.
10. For this reason We earnestly exhort all priests of the
secular clergy to let the faithful see them following the "Spiritual
Exercises", at least in that modest measure which the Code of
Canon Law prescribes for them:25 and let them
approach and fulfil the exercises with an ardent desire of their own
perfection, so that they may obtain that abundance of the
supernatural spirit, which is very necessary for them, if they would
secure the spiritual advantage of their flock, and win a multitude
of souls to Christ. For this was the path trodden by all those
priests who, burning with zeal for the salvation of souls, were
foremost in guiding their neighbours on the way to holiness, and in
educating the clergy; as may be seen, to take a recent example, in
Blessed Joseph Cafasso, to whom We ourselves decreed the honours of
the blessed in Heaven. For it was the constant custom of this most
holy man to labour assiduously in the "Spiritual Exercises", in
order that, by this means, he might better nourish his own sanctity,
and that of other ministers of Christ, and might know the heavenly
counsels. And once, when he came forth from a sacred retreat, gifted
with divine light, he clearly showed this same path to a younger
priest, whose confessor he was; and he followed it up to the highest
summit of sanctity. This was the blessed John Bosco, whose name is
beyond all praise. As for those who, under whatever title, serve
within the bounds of religious discipline; since they are commanded
by law to make the sacred exercises every year26 there
can be no doubt that they will bring from these sacred retreats an
abundance of heavenly goods for which, as each one needs, they may
draw draughts of greater perfection, and all the graces enabling
them to run the way of the evangelical counsels with alacrity. For
the annual "Exercises" are the mystical "tree of life"
27 by which both individuals and communities may live in
that fame of sanctity, in which every religious family must needs
flourish. Nor should the priests of the Clergy, secular and regular,
think that the time spent on the "Spiritual Exercises" tends to the
detriment of the apostolic ministry. On this matter, let them hear
Saint Bernard, who did not hesitate to write thus to the Supreme
Pontiff, Blessed Eugene II, whose master he had been: "If thou
wouldst belong wholly to all, after the manner of him who became all
things to all men; I praise thy humanity, provided it be full. But,
how is it full when thou art excluded? Thou also art a man:
therefore, that the humanity may be whole and full, let it gather
thee also into the bosom which receives all: else, what will it
profit, if thou gain all, and lost thyself? Wherefore, when all have
thee, be thyself one of them that have. Remember, I say not always,
I say not often, but at least sometimes, to render thyself to
thyself." 28
11. With no less care, Venerable
Brethren, would we have manifold cohorts of the Catholic Action
polished or cultivated fitly by the "Spiritual Exercises". With all
our power, we desire to promote this Action; and we cease not, and
will never cease, to commend it; because the co-operation of the
laity with the apostolic hierarchy is exceedingly useful, not to say
necessary.
And, indeed, we can hardly find words to express
the joy we experienced, when we learnt that special series of sacred
meditations were established almost everywhere, for the cultivation
of these pacific and strenuous soldiers of Christ and in particular
for bands of young recruits. For while they crowd to this course, in
order that they may be found more ready and more prompt to fight the
battles of the Lord, they will find there not only the helps
enabling them to express the form of the Christian life more
perfectly in themselves, but may also, not rarely, receive in their
hearts the secret voice of God, calling them to the sacred offices,
and to work for the salvation of souls, and urging them on to the
full exercise of the apostolate. This is, indeed, the glowing dawn
of heavenly goods, and in a short time it will be followed and
completed by a perfect day; if only the practice of the "Spiritual
Exercises" is yet more widely extended and is propagated with
prudence and wisdom among the various associations of Catholics and
chiefly those of younger members.29
12. Now, even
as in this age of ours, temporal goods and the various advantages
flowing from them, together with a certain measure of wealth, have
been extended somewhat freely to workmen and others hiring out their
labour, thereby raising them to a happier condition of life, it must
be ascribed to the bounty of the provident and merciful God, that
this treasure of the "Spiritual Exercises" also has been scattered
abroad among the common mass of the faithful so as to serve as a
counterpoise to hold men back, lest borne down by the weight of
fleeting things and immersed in pleasures and delights of life, they
fall into the tenets and morals of Materialism. For this reason we
cordially commend the works of the "Exercises" which have spring up
already in certain regions, and the exceedingly fruitful and
opportune "Retreats for Workmen," together with the associated
sodalities of Perseverance; all which, Venerable Brethren, We
recommend to your care and solicitude.
13. Now in order that
the joyful fruits we have mentioned may flow forth from these sacred
"Exercises", these must needs be made with due care and diligence.
For if the exercises are performed merely for the sake of custom, or
tardily, and with hesitation, little or no advantage will be derived
from them; wherefore before all things it is necessary that the
mind, assisted by solitude should devote itself to the sacred
meditations, leaving aside all the cares and solicitudes of daily
life. For as that golden book, the Imitation of Christ,
clearly teaches: "The devout soul makes progress in silence and
in peace." 30 For this reason, although we
regard those meditations as worthy of praise and pastoral approval
in which many make the exercises together in public —for these have
received many blessings from God —still we most strongly recommend
those "Spiritual Exercises" which are made in private, and are
called "closed." For in these a man is more easily separated from
intercourse with creatures and concentrates the dissipated powers of
his soul on God himself and on the contemplation of eternal truths.
14. Moreover, "Spiritual Exercises", truly so-called,
require a certain space of time for their fulfilment. And though, by
reason of circumstances and persons, this may be reduced to a few
days, or extended to a whole month; nevertheless it should not be
curtailed too much if one wishes to obtain the benefits promised by
the "Exercises". For even as the salubrity of a place can only
contribute to the health of the body of one who stays there for
awhile, so the salutary art of sacred meditations cannot effectively
benefit the spirit unless it spends some time in the "Exercises".
15. Lastly it is of great moment for making the "Spiritual
Exercises" properly and deriving fruit from them that they should be
conducted in a wise and appropriate method.
16. Now it is
recognised that among all the methods of "Spiritual Exercises" which
very laudably adhere to the principles of sound Catholic asceticism
one has ever held the foremost place and adorned by the full and
repeated approbation of the Holy See and honoured by the praises of
men, distinguished for spiritual doctrine and sanctity, has borne
abundant fruits of holiness during the space of well nigh four
hundred years; we mean the method introduced by Saint Ignatius of
Loyola, whom we are pleased to call the chief and peculiar Master of
"Spiritual Exercises" whose "admirable book of "Exercises"
31 ever since it was solemnly approved, praised, and
commended by our predecessor Paul III of happy memory,32
already to repeat some words we once used, before our elevation to
the Chair of Peter, already we say "stood forth and conspicuous
as a most wise and universal code of laws for the direction of souls
in the way of salvation and perfection; an unexhausted fountain of
most excellent and most solid piety; as a most keen stimulus, and a
well instructed guide showing the way to secure the amendment of
morals and attain the summit of the spiritual life."
33 And when at the beginning of Our pontificate
satisfying the most ardent desires and vows of sacred Prelates of
almost the whole Catholic world from both Rites in the Apostolic
Constitution Summorum Pontificum, given on 22 July 1922, We
declared and constituted Saint Ignatius of Loyola "the heavenly
Patron of all 'Spiritual Exercises', and, therefore, of institutes,
sodalities and bodies of every kind assisting those who are making
the 'Spiritual Exercises'," 34 we did little else but
sanction by our supreme authority what was already proclaimed by the
common feeling of Pastors and of the faithful; and what together
with the aforesaid Paul III, our illustrious Predecessors Alexander
VII,35 Benedict XIV,36 Leo XIII,37
had often said implicitly, when praising the Ignatian meditations,
and what all those who, in the words of Leo XIII, had been most
conspicuous "in the discipline of ascetic, or in sanctity or
morals," during the last four hundred years38 had
said by their praises and yet more by the example of the virtues
which they had acquired in this arena. And in very deed, the
excellence of spiritual doctrine altogether free from the perils and
errors of false mysticism, the admirable facility of adapting the
exercises to any order or state of man, whether they devote
themselves to contemplation in the cloisters, or lead an active life
in the affairs of the world, the apt co-ordination of the various
parts, the wonderful and lucid order in the meditation of truths
that seem to follow naturally one from another; and lastly the
spiritual lessons which after casting off the yoke of sin and
washing away the diseases inherent in his morals lead a man through
the safe paths of abnegation and the removal of evil
habits39 up to the supreme heights of prayer and divine
love; without doubt all these are things which sufficiently show the
efficacious nature of the Ignatian method and abundantly commend the
Ignatian meditations.
17. It remains, Venerable Brethren, in
order to guard and preserve the fruit of the "Spiritual Exercises"
which we have been praising and to revive its salutary memory that
we should earnestly recommend a pious custom which may be called a
brief repetition of the "Exercises" namely a monthly or trimestrial
recollection. This custom which, to borrow the words of Our
Predecessor of holy memory, Pius X, "We gladly see introduced in
many places" 40 and flourishing especially in
religious communities and among pious priests of the secular clergy
we earnestly desire to see adopted by the laity also. For it would
prove a real benefit more especially for those who are prevented by
the cares of their family from using the "Spiritual Exercises".
For these recollections might supply in some measure the
advantages to be derived from the "Spiritual Exercises". In this
manner, Venerable Brethren, may these "Spiritual Exercises" be
extended everywhere through all the orders of Christian society and
if they are diligently performed a spiritual regeneration will
follow. Piety will be enkindled, the forces of religious will be
nourished, the apostolic office will unfold its fruit bearing
branches, and peace will reign in society and in the hearts of all.
18. When the heavens were serene and earth was silent and
night lay on the world, in secret, far from the crowd of men, the
Eternal Word of the Father, having assumed the nature of man,
appeared to mortals, and the heavenly regions echoed the heavenly
hymn, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of
good will." 41 This praise of Christian peace
—the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ —setting forth the
supreme desire of Our Apostolic heart to which all our aims and our
labours are directed, nearly touches the minds of Christians who
withdrawn from the tumult and the vanities of the world in deep and
hidden solitude have pondered on the truth of faith and the example
of Him who brought peace to the world and left it as a heritage:
"My peace I give to you." 42
19. This
peace truly so called We wish for you from our heart, Venerable
Brethren, on this very day on which by the Divine bounty the
fiftieth year of Our Priesthood is completed, and as the sweet
festival of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ approaches, which
may be called the mystery of peace approaches, we with fervent
prayer supplicate for that gift for him who is hailed as the Prince
of Peace.
And with our mind raised by these thoughts a
joyful and firm hope as an omen of divine gifts, and as a pledge of
Our affection to you, Venerable Brethren, and to your clergy and
people —that is, to all our most beloved Catholic family —We impart
the Apostolic Benediction most loving in the Lord.
Given at
Saint Peter's Rome, on the twentieth day of December, 1929, the
eighth year of Our Pontificate. |
