Article published by the website of Regnum Christi Spain about the pastoral and vocational work of Father Ignacio José González, L.C.
Father Ignacio José González, L.C., works on the university pastoral team at the Francisco de Vitoria University. And this academic year, he has a good number of spiritual exercises sessions for young people on his schedule and in his agenda. The father tells us that “spiritual exercises address questions and existential themes. They set you on a path and give you the tools to face these challenges.” He, for his part, “does not seek to give solutions but tries to accompany the exercitant so that they can welcome God’s work in their life.”
Read the full article on the Regnum Christi Spain website
As a preacher of spiritual exercises, Father Ignacio José learns a lot from young people. Among these things, his courage: “They have fears, but they face these fears and want to resolve them. This makes young people seekers. They are restless; anything won’t do.” This is a demand that calls for “living in truth and coherence. They realize if what you tell them is lived or not. Every session I lead is a personal challenge for authenticity. They detect lies and shut down; they simply leave.”
What do you consider to be the main challenge young people face today in their spiritual life, and how do spiritual exercises help them confront it?
I believe that the great challenge faced by today’s youth is overcoming disintegration, overcoming the fragmentation of life. Today, young people easily get lost in the present and atomize with a thousand things they must do, and in this way, they lose the sense of their lives, leaving the most essential questions unanswered: Where do I come from? Where am I going? What is the meaning of living? What is the meaning of my life? Why and what sense does evil and suffering have, especially for the innocent? Why do we die, and why do we live if in the end we will die?
Spiritual exercises address all these questions and themes. They set you on a path and give you the tools to face these challenges.
What topics and reflections do you consider priorities when preparing spiritual exercises, and how do you seek for them to resonate in the participants’ lives?
Spiritual exercises, according to the tradition of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, already have their structure and the path to be followed is fixed. It is a tradition backed by 500 years of practice and extensive literature that deepens them, and their fruitfulness is evident. The person leading these spiritual exercises does not seek to give solutions but tries to accompany the exercitant so that they can welcome God’s work in their life. It helps them to situate their life in God, from where they seek answers in their lives. The stages, known as weeks, are four. The first part of the Principle and Foundation aims to live in Christ and Christ in the exercitant. The second begins with the call to follow Christ and concludes with the heart of the exercises, the choice or reform and growth of life. The third and fourth are the confirmation of the path.
It has a spiral structure so that each day covers the entire course of the exercises, but progressing.
The final spiritual exercise prepares the exercitant to live the option for love in their ordinary life. It is called: Prayer to attain love.
In the exercises, the daily colloquy is fundamental to ensure the exercitant that they are living them from the truth.
As a preacher of spiritual exercises for young people, what have you learned from them?
The thirst they have for truth. The desire to find the truth about themselves, about God, about man, the world, and life. Each session leads me to change something for the next. Young people are changing. They are not the same year after year. Their sensitivity and way of living change, and I must speak to their lives; I cannot always say the same things in the same way.
Another thing I have learned from them is that they are very brave. They have fears, but they face these fears and want to resolve them. This makes young people seekers. They are restless; anything won’t do. For me, it is a demand to live in truth and coherence. They realize if what you tell them is lived or not. Every session I lead is a personal challenge for authenticity. They detect lies and shut down; they simply leave.
Read the full article on the Regnum Christi Spain website
What message would you give to a young person who has not yet participated in spiritual exercises but is seeking meaning and direction in their life?
Much hope. I would like to transmit a lot of hope and light. The darkness that sometimes surrounds them can never extinguish the flame they have inside, like a candle; the darkness of the room does not extinguish the candle, but the light of the candle gradually expels the darkness.
I would tell them to go ahead and experience this kind of experience. Sometimes our inner world frightens us; our history has stones that scare us and weigh us down, and we don’t know how to remove them. Exercises are a means to integrate and achieve a complete narrative, leaving behind living in flight from our own past. There is a love that precedes us and envelops us; discovering it in spiritual exercises is the beginning of change.
