In meditation, we use our intellect to wrestle with basic principles that guide our life.

Preparation Days:

We want to love and serve God and others more.

First Week: Having recognized God’s boundless generosity to us, we naturally face our own limited response.

Ignatius divides the Exercises into four “weeks” (SE 4). These weeks are not calendar weeks but phases or movements felt within a person who is praying through the Exercises:

This book provides exercises for every day of the calendar week, but do not feel that you need to go through the days mechanically.

Just as we accompany Jesus in the Passion, we walk with the Risen Lord in the joy of the resurrected life.

Such pray-ers shouldn’t try to make the Exercises without the help of an experienced guide.

Read Psalm 8. Marvel at the dignity of the human person.