The Theological-Spiritual Sense of the Principle and Foundation at the Different Stages of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
The Theological-Spiritual Sense of the Principle and Foundation at the Different Stages of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Summary/Abstract: The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola have been famous in the Church for almostfive centuries for their extraordinary effectiveness in building and deepening one’s relationship withGod. This effectiveness is attributable not so much to their content, which is related to the fundamen-tal truths of the faith of the Catholic Church and to the contemplation of the mysteries of the life ofJesus Christ, as to their precise method. The author of the Spiritual Exercises, by adapting their contentto the exercitant, helps them to open themselves more and more to the action of the Lord God and tocooperate with him, so that he may ultimately love him in everything and serve his Divine Majesty. Thisfinal chord of man’s spiritual union with God is already present, as it were, in embryo in the first exerciseof the Ignatian retreat, in the so-called Principle and Foundation (Principio y Fundamento). This exercise,commonly known as the Foundation, is, as it were, the root of the whole tree of spiritual developmentcontained in the Spiritual Exercises. This is because the content of the Principle and Foundation developsand deepens more and more during the different stages of the Spiritual Exercises. The purpose of thisarticle is to analyze scientifically the content of the Principle and Foundation and to show the theo-logical-spiritual sense of the Principle and Foundation in the different stages of the Spiritual Exercisesof St. Ignatius of Loyola. The text uses the method of analysis of the source texts and the literatureon the subject, as well as the hermeneutical method, and shows that the synthesis of the spiritual lifecontained in the Ignatian Principle and Foundation continually develops and reaches its culmination inthe last spiritual exercise of the Ignatian retreat – in the so-called “Contemplation to attain the love ofGod” (Ad amorem). In conclusion, it is shown that the content of the Principle and Foundation constitutesthe foundations of the spiritual life, which, on the path of development, leads the exercitant to be ableto “in all things love and serve the Divine Majesty.” (SE 233)

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