In September of this year the Dominicans are holding their General Chapter in Rome at the same time as the Jesuits are holding their General Congregation. The occasion marks the opportunity for renewed dialogue and friendliness between these two great orders. As someone who has drawn from both spiritual traditions with great profit, I offer this article on Jesuit spirituality for those of a Dominican background, in the hope of contributing to mutual understanding and respect.

The last twenty years have seen a major upsurge in Ignatian spirituality and in the practice of the Spiritual Exercises - the form of retreat devised by St Ignatius and now given by Jesuits and many others all over the world. Inspired by the movement towards le ressourcement (or getting back to the sources) and by the Conciliar drive to rediscover the true spirit of each religious order, Jesuits began to research the early history of the Exercises.

They found that the lgnatian retreat had departed drastically from Ignatius’ original intention and practice in many ways, centring round one absolutely crucial respect: whereas the Exercises had come in modern history to be preached to groups of people, the true Exercises of Ignatius can only be given individually. There was consequently a movement from the ‘preached’ retreat to the ‘directed’ retreat, stressing the point that although a greater or lesser proportion of preaching may be suitable in some other kinds of retreat, the Spiritual Exercises as such can only be made in the process of private prayer under the individual guidance of a retreat-giver.