All of the commentators of the Spiritual Exercises have noted that St. Ignatius speaks only of the purgative way (First Week) and the illuminative way (Second, Third, and Fourth Weeks and the Tenth Annotation of the Exercises) but never of the unitive way. We believe this omission is deliberate and that in Ignatius’ thinking it corresponds to a certain concept of what the unitive or mystical life is. We will deal with this subject in this note.

We will limit our investigation to what is contained in the methods of prayer, meditation, contemplation, application of senses, repetitions, and the three types of prayer.

None of these methods by itself presumes that a person has been called to go beyond the normal operations of the soul or that he has received exceptional graces of prayer. On the contrary, all of them seem to suppose that the person normally has to make an effort to recollect and to prepare himself for prayer, to fight off distractions, and the like. In short, each one of these methods supposes that the soul manages itself, with God’s grace, rather than being acted upon and taken over directly by God.

Having established this fact, we would now like to emphasize that it is more than clear that God can unite himself to a person through any of these methods, even when the person makes a simple vocal prayer, and God can do this in an unexpected and exceptional way. Without stipulating active or passive states of prayer or specifying normal or extraordinary kinds of prayer, St. Ignatius very prudently speaks to us about such topics as savoring, spiritual quiet, meditation, contemplation, and the like. He was by no means ignorant that each one of these states of the soul has hundreds of nuances and degrees, depending upon the person making the exercise and the particular moment when that exercise is made. As far as he is concerned (and this goes for the director of a retreat as well), Ignatius prefers to focus on the movements of the Holy Spirit within the person’s soul, movements that he calls consolations (fervor, joy, enthusiasm) and desolations (sadness, turmoil of spirit); and he knows that in the last analysis the only spiritual harvest that counts is an increase of faith, hope, and charity and a growth of divine life within the soul.

A person “succeeds” in making the Spiritual Exercises if, during the course of each of the weeks, he passes through these states of the soul wherein his soul “wants and desires” and asks God for grace to realize his desires. It is these states of the soul that guide the person in forging a more and more secure union of his soul with Christ our Lord.

One very typical example of St. Ignatius’ concept of the “mystical” can be found in what he says about “tears” during the First and Third Weeks. He actually has us asking God for the gift of tears. Does he consider that these are the sure sign of repentance and spiritual grief that the remembrance of our past sins and the contemplation of Christ’s Passion ought to stir up in us? Does he consider tears a normal grace or an exceptional grace? It would seem that there is no satisfactory answer to such questions—and there are many more like these—that would apply to every person at all times. Tears, like contrition and interior joy, can be a natural reaction to feelings, but they can also be a “sudden and unexplained” grace from God or the result of an activity that combines the human and the divine. The director’s role is to help the retreatant steer clear of illusions and search in his encounters with God for perfect sincerity and honesty. There is always one test that never fails, however, in determining the authenticity of all mystical phenomena, and that is this: Do the …mystical phenomena bring on an increase of faith, hope, and charity? If so, they are good. If not, they are vain occurrences, and at times they can even greatly harm the soul.St. Francis de Sales gives an enlightening interpretation of St. Ignatius’ thinking on this point. In his treatment of “spiritual raptures”, he distinguishes between ecstasy of the intellect, ecstasy of the will, and “ecstasy of activity, of life”. The first two, he says, are liable to illusions and even to pride. Only the third, which manifests itself in daily self-renunciation and submission to the will of God, is reliable and is the measuring stick for the other two. It alone causes us to die to ourselves and “live in God with Jesus Christ”. Are not we then able to say with St. Paul: “The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me” (Gal 2:20)? This attitude alone is the criterion for living in accord with genuine love. (Cf. bk. 7, chap. 6 in St. Francis de Sales, The Love of God: A Treatise, trans. and introduced by Vincent Kerns [Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1962], 286-89.)