Our Identity & Relationship in Christ – The Heart of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola with Fr. Anthony Wieck S.J.
Fr. Anthony Wieck and Kris McGregor continue this series centered around the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. This episode takes a look at the Spiritual Exercises through the lens of our identity in and relationship with Christ.
An excerpt from the conversation:
“So that’s what the spiritual exercises are, five forms of prayer, to help us be free, to help us enter into dialogue with the Lord, to help facilitate that encounter. What is the grounding now? And here’s where I’d like to focus today, if we may. What is the grounding of the spiritual exercises? How are they grounded? St. Ignatius calls this the principle and foundation, and he literally means that these are deep, fundamental or pillars, deep shafts, pylons, thrust into the earth, thrust into the rock, who is Christ upon which a solid spiritual edifice can be built.
So the principle and foundation holds true for all men and women. This is not unique to the charism of Ignatian spirituality. This is regardless of any spirituality or particular sense of God. It’s not a “Catholics only” proposition either. It’s for all Christians, for all men and women of every race, nationality, and tongue. To live from this principle and foundation, it begins, St. Ignatius says, that man is created for a purpose. We are created. Ignatius, by this assertion, uproots any false foundation which underlies most of our self-understanding today in the world. Namely, that we create ourselves, that we pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, we’re self-made American men and women. That’s nonsense, we’re created by God. This is an ongoing creation.”
Fr. Anthony Wieck is a Jesuit priest of the Central & Southern province. Sixth of nine children, raised on a farm in Oregon, Fr. Anthony began religious life in 1994, spending his first five years of formation in Rome, Italy, studying at the Casa Balthasar and the Gregorian. The former was under the watchful patronage of Pope Benedict XVI (then-Card. Joseph Ratzinger). Fr. Anthony currently acts as retreat master at White House Jesuit Retreat in St. Louis, Missouri. He also offers spiritual direction at the St. Louis diocesan seminary for 25 future priests there.
