Pius XI: The Spiritual Exercises and modernity
Pope Pius XI's Apostolic Letter 'Meditantibus Nobis' pays tribute to St Ignatius of Loyola and St Francis Xavier, and affirms their enduring importance.
Pope Pius XI's Apostolic Letter 'Meditantibus Nobis' pays tribute to St Ignatius of Loyola and St Francis Xavier, and affirms their enduring importance.
Editor’s Notes
In this newly translated Apostolic Letter, Pope Pius XI tells us:
Why the legacy of St Ignatius of Loyola and St Francis Xavier remains vital in our current crisis of modernity, heresy, worldiness and naturalism
How St Ignatius, through the Spiritual Exercises, strengthened the Church in crisis, offering a remedy perfectly suited to our modern world
What made St Francis Xavier a true Apostle, and how he can encourage us to share the faith today in a world similar to the pagan nations he evangelised.
He shows us that, as Ignatius and Xavier renewed the Church, Catholics today must embrace their legacy—deepening the interior life and labouring for souls.
About the recipient
The letter is addressed to Father Wlodzimir Ledóchowski, Superior General of the Society of Jesus.
Ledóchowski himself is surrounded by an intriguing set of links.
Before taking holy orders, Ledóchowski was a page in the Habsurg Court.
His uncle was Cardinal Mieczysław Halka-Ledóchowski, who was Prefect for the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.
His sisters were Maria Ursula of Jesus and Maria Teresa Ledóchowska, who were canonised and beatified respectively by conciliar popes.
His predecessor as Superior General was Fr Franz Xavier Wernz SJ, one of the two contributors to the famous Wernz-Vidal commentary on Canon Law.
He established the Pontifical Oriental Institute (the Orientale) and the Pontifical Russian College (the Russicum), where men such as Fr Walter Ciszek SJ were trained before being sent to the USSR as secret missionaries.
Meditantibus Nobis
Apostolic Letter On the Third Centenary of the Canonisation of Ss Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier
Pope Pius XI
To the Rev. Father Wlodzimir Ledóchowski
Superior General of the Society of Jesus
Time and purpose of the letter
As we reflect, at the threshold of the Supreme Pontificate, on how we may seek a better state for the Holy Church both within and without—these being, as it were, the principal duties of our office—it happens most auspiciously that the memory of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, along with that of other saints, is renewed with great solemnity on the third century since they were decreed celestial honours.
The former, by divine gift, was given as a helper to the Bride of Christ at the dawn of a new age, when she was called to the very midst of struggle and trial; the latter was adorned with such great and manifold gifts of the Holy Spirit in his tireless and diligent diffusion of the light of the Gospel that he seemed to be the heir of that zeal and that virtue by which the first Apostles had excelled.
Yet the perilous time in which Ignatius stood by the Church has not yet come to an end, for nearly all the evils of the present day have sprung from that very root; and today, as never before, “a great and evident door is opened” (1 Cor. 16.9) to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially in that region where Xavier laboured.
Therefore, beloved son, it has seemed good to us, not only for the sake of your Order but also for the common cause, to send you this letter concerning the praises of your Lawgiving Father and of his greatest disciple; for it greatly concerns us that, through the institutions of the one, the Christian name may flourish more and more, and that, under the auspices of the other, its propagation may be renewed with fresh vigour.
The life of St Ignatius
This indeed is common to all who obtain the praise of sanctity by the authority of the Church: that they excel in every kind of virtue. Yet, just as “one star differs from another in brightness” (1 Cor. 15.41), so do holy men differ marvellously among themselves, in that some shine with singular excellence in one virtue, others in another.
If we consider the life of Ignatius, before all else, we are struck with admiration at his great magnanimity in most eagerly seeking the greater glory of God; for, when it did not suffice for him to labour in every part of the sacred ministry and to embrace all the works of Christian beneficence for the salvation of souls, he gathered to himself companions who were ready and eager, like a well-trained militia, for the enlargement of God’s kingdom among both Christians and barbarians.
Yet he who examines the matter more deeply will easily discern that Ignatius was marked by an extraordinary spirit of obedience, and that he was assigned by God a mission, as it were, to lead men with greater zeal towards the cultivation of this very virtue.
The Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance
For just as it is commonly known in what times Ignatius lived, so it is no secret that, amid that most turbulent storm by which the Church was afflicted, the root of all evils was this: that men, for the most part, refused to serve God in obedience.
Those who attributed the rule of divine faith to the private judgment of each individual and contumaciously rejected the authority of the Catholic Church became the foremost leaders in this rebellion against the service of God. But beyond these, there were far too many who, if not in profession, yet in practice, seemed to have cast off obedience to Christ God, and who lived more like pagans than Christians, as if, with the revival of humanistic and literary studies, some vestige of ancient superstition had likewise been revived.
Indeed, it may be affirmed that, had not an unbridled licence of thinking and living, like a poisonous virus, infected Christian society so widely, the heresy of the Innovators would never have burst forth from the body of the Church.
Therefore, since not only among the faithful laity but even among those in holy orders themselves, reverence for divine laws had almost disappeared, and since, through the agitation of the Innovators, many nations, where the bonds of duty had been loosened, were being torn from the maternal embrace of the Church, there arose among all good men a single voice and supplication to the divine Founder of the Church that he would, in so necessary a time, mindful of his promises, aid his Bride.
God raises up aid for the Church
He did indeed aid her, when it seemed to him the fitting time, most marvellously, by the celebration of the Council of Trent. Furthermore, for the consolation of the Church, he raised up those illustrious examples of every virtue—Charles Borromeo, Cajetan of Thiene, Anthony Zaccaria, Philip Neri, Teresa, and others—who not only testified by their lives to the perennial sanctity of the Catholic Church but also restrained, by their voice, their writings, and their example, the impiety and moral corruption that had spread so widely.
These all laboured with great and most useful effort; yet the hidden and deeper root of the evil itself had to be torn out. And to this very task, it seems, was Ignatius especially destined by divine providence.
For, in the first place, he was endowed with a character so excellently fashioned that he was as fit for commanding as for obeying; and this disposition, even from childhood, he had strengthened through military discipline. Therefore, possessing a soul thus shaped by nature and by training, as soon as, enlightened by divine grace, he recognised that he was called to promote the glory of God and the salvation of souls, it is marvellous with what ardour and determination he entered into the army of the King of Heaven.
St Ignatius’ mission from God and The Spiritual Exercises
Thus, in order to inaugurate his new militia with due solemnity, he spent an entire night in arms before the altar of the Virgin; and shortly afterwards, in that retreat at Manresa, he learned from the very Mother of God how he was to fight the battles of the Lord, receiving, as it were, from her hands that most perfect and complete code of laws—for such it may truly be called—which every good soldier of Christ Jesus ought to use.
We speak of the Spiritual Exercises, which are said to have been divinely imparted to Ignatius; not that other exercises of this kind, employed by others, should be held in slight regard, but because in those which are practised according to the Ignatian method, all things are so wisely ordered and so closely connected that, provided one does not resist divine grace, they renew man from his very roots and render him wholly obedient to divine authority.
Having thus prepared himself for action, Ignatius took care that those whom he had gathered to himself should likewise be formed in this way, desiring that they should be obedient, in an exemplary manner, to God and to the Vicar of God, the Roman Pontiff, and that they should bear this virtue as the distinguishing mark of their Society.
Therefore, he not only established that they should make it their solemn practice to nourish the fervour of their spirit principally through these Exercises, but he also armed them with this very instrument for all time, that they might use it to recall to the Church those wills that had been alienated from her, and to bring them wholly under the dominion of Christ.
The successes of St Ignatius
History bears witness, even the enemies of the Church do not deny it, that the Catholic world, fortified by the timely assistance of Ignatius, soon began to recover; for it is difficult to recount the deeds and great works which the Society of Jesus, under the leadership and guidance of Ignatius, accomplished for the glory of God.
One could see his zealous companions victoriously repelling the obstinacy of the heretics, striving everywhere for the reformation of corrupt morals, restoring the shattered discipline of the clergy, leading many souls to the very summit of Christian perfection, and devoting themselves with great diligence to the education of youth in piety and in the liberal arts, thus preparing a truly Christian future generation.
Meanwhile, they laboured zealously to bring infidels to the faith, that they might propagate and extend the dominion of Jesus Christ with fresh increases.
The crisis of modernity
We have willingly touched upon these matters in writing, not only because they bear witness to the divine benevolence towards the Church, but also because they seem to have great relevance to the wretched times in which we have been raised to this Apostolic See. For if we trace the evils that afflict mankind today to their ultimate source, we must acknowledge that they have all sprung from that defection from the divine authority of the Church which the Innovators introduced.
This defection gained great strength in the eighteenth century amid the upheaval of all things, when the rights of man were so arrogantly asserted, and now it is being carried to its ultimate consequences. We see human reason exalted with insolent pride; whatever exceeds the power and comprehension of man or lies beyond the bounds of nature is despised and rejected; the most sacred rights of God, both publicly and privately, are treated with utter indifference; and with the very source and principle of all authority, which is God, being rejected, it naturally follows that no human power is any longer held in reverence or esteemed as sacred.
Thus, with the divine authority of the Church despised, the very foundations of civil government soon began to waver and collapse, since, as unrestrained passions and madness gained strength, all the laws of human society were overturned with impunity.
The need for a remedy for modernity
Yet in such a grievous and perverse state of human society, it is clear—as all good men feel—that some remedy must be applied, and this can only be done by restoring among men obedience to God and submission to his will.
For throughout all the vicissitudes of time and events, it remains the first and greatest duty of mankind to serve obediently the supreme Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of all things; and whenever men depart from this duty, they must speedily return to it, if they wish to restore the disrupted order of things and be freed from the misery that oppresses them.
Moreover, this alone contains the sum of Christian life; indeed, the Apostle Paul seems to indicate as much when he expresses the entire life of the divine Redeemer of men in these few but marvellous words:
“He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Phil. 2.8).
For just as “by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one shall many be made just” (Rom. 5.19).
The Spiritual Exercises are that remedy for modernity
Now, the Spiritual Exercises are a most effective aid to bringing men back to obedience, for, especially when conducted according to the Ignatian method, they most certainly persuade one to perfect submission to the divine law, which rests upon the eternal principles of faith and nature.
Therefore, desiring that their use may spread more widely every day, we, following the example of many of our predecessors, have not only commended them anew to Christ’s faithful in our Apostolic Constitution Summorum Pontificum, but we have also decreed that Saint Ignatius of Loyola be the heavenly Patron of all Spiritual Exercises.
For although, as we have said, other methods of conducting Exercises exist, it is certain that the Ignatian method excels among them, and, especially because of the well-founded hope it offers of solid and enduring spiritual benefit, it enjoys the fuller approbation of the Apostolic See.
If, therefore, the greater part of the faithful diligently employ this instrument of sanctity, we may already hope with confidence that, once the unbridled desire for excessive liberty is curbed and the sense of duty, both in conscience and in observance, is restored, human society will at last obtain the gift of the longed-for peace.
St Francis Xavier: Missionary activity and the Spiritual Exercises
What has thus far been recalled properly pertains to the internal and domestic welfare of the Christian name. But it remains to touch briefly upon that which concerns its external expansion, namely what we wish to say about Francis Xavier—although his work is most closely connected with the very institution of Ignatius that we have praised.
For when Ignatius found Xavier wholly given over to the vanities of human glory, he so transformed him through his discipline that he quickly gave him to the farthest East as a vigorous preacher of the Gospel, indeed, as an Apostle. This marvellous transformation of the man must rightly be attributed to the power of the Spiritual Exercises.
For if Xavier traversed vast regions by land and sea more than once, if he was the first to bring the name of Christ to Japan, which may justly be called the island of martyrs, if he endured immense dangers and incredible labours, if he baptised an innumerable multitude of souls in the sacred waters of baptism, and if he performed countless miracles of every kind, all these things, as he himself testified in his letters, he ascribed, after God, to his spiritual father, Ignatius, from whom, in the sacred retreat of the Exercises, he had thoroughly imbibed the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.
Here indeed shines forth the goodness and wisdom of God’s providence, for at the very time when the Church, being violently agitated at home, was suffering immense losses among the nations, he provided her with a twofold remedy of the utmost timeliness by means of the Spiritual Exercises: together with the restorer of her domestic discipline, he raised up one who, by bringing foreign nations to the faith of Christ, would compensate for her losses.
For Xavier seemed, after so long an interval, to renew the example of the Apostles. Having cultivated numerous barbarian peoples with great toil and moved them to piety by his extraordinary virtues, he firmly established the Christian faith among them and opened vast regions, which had previously been closed to the Christian name, to our missionaries.
Moreover, he bequeathed his own spirit, as was fitting, first and foremost to his religious brethren, whom we know never to have degenerated from his virtue to this very day, but always to have carefully preserved such an inheritance. Yet the memory and example of Francis Xavier have always been a perpetual encouragement to other preachers of the Gospel as well, to such an extent that, by the solemn decree of this Apostolic See, he has been proclaimed the heavenly Patron of the Work of the Propagation of the Faith.
His relevance to the modern world
This present age, too, bears a certain resemblance to the age of Xavier, in that the ancient faith, spurned by the haughty disdain of many among our own people, now seems to wish to migrate to other nations who eagerly desire it.
Indeed, we often learn from the letters of missionaries that in distant regions of Africa and Asia, the Gospel harvest is already whitening for the reaping, whereby the losses suffered by the Church in Europe may be repaired. Moreover, the faithful today show themselves much more eager than before in promoting the spread of the Gospel.
We therefore greatly desire that this zeal, certainly inspired by divine grace, may everywhere be enkindled, with the example and patronage of Xavier invoked, so that the Lord of the harvest, being entreated, may send labourers into his harvest, and that every devoted Christian may aid them with his prayers and not fail to support them with his resources.
The popes exhortation to the Jesuits
Wherefore, beloved sons, all of you who belong to the Society of Jesus, we exhort you to commemorate solemnly the memory of your Lawgiving Father and your eldest Brother, and to strive, by following their example, to continually increase your Order—so highly praised by this Apostolic See—by new services to the Church. Above all, we desire that you reap a twofold fruit from this solemn commemoration.
First, that you may daily strive to turn the Spiritual Exercises to greater benefit for yourselves and for others. We know that you have already, most successfully, laboured in this regard, especially with a particular diligence for the benefit of workers; it is our desire that you pursue this work with equal success in all other ranks of society.
The second is that you promote Catholic missions with ever greater zeal. Although we are aware of your singular diligence and effort in this regard—for we know that among you, nearly two thousand missionaries are labouring in about forty missions among the infidels—we earnestly pray to God that he may ever more inflame and sustain this most noble endeavour in you.
May all these things, undertaken for the greater glory of God, for the benefit of the holy Church, and for the salvation of souls, receive our Apostolic blessing as a pledge of divine gifts and a token of our fatherly goodwill, which we lovingly impart to you, beloved son, and to all the members of the Society of Jesus under your leadership.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on the third day of December, the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, in the year 1922, the first of our Pontificate.
PIUS PP. XI
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I'm sorry to hear that. You have gone in the right direction.
Also, the exercises live on in the traditional world—even if the given group doing them may give some amount of time in a more or less tiresome presentation of their "positions" and party lines (as I have heard is the case sometimes). If you can bring a pinch of salt to such things, which surely distract from the retreat, that tedium is still a price worth paying.
You're right, they are stretched thin. Possible that group of indult benedictines might do it, but I wouldn't want to encourage going there because of the orders question. We will be publishing something interesting which is specifically on the five-day format in due course.