To distinguish “ghosts”, the teachings of the Jesuits with their retreat. In his series on spiritual Paths of religious orders and monasteries, Alfred Herrmann of the Catholic Church deals with the spiritual Exercises.
Chapel of the retreat house, high oaks in Dresden: The Ignatian way retreat provides guidance for life. Photo: Alfred Herrmann
Relax in the monastery. In the peace and seclusion of the answers to life questions, or a spiritual impulse received. Those who wish to engage on a stay in a Monastery, communities, the choice between different order. There are guest houses of the Benedictine monasteries or retreat centers of the Jesuits, an house of the silence of the Carmelites, or places active engagement in Franciscan communities. The monastery is not a monastery, Ordensweg is equal to Ordensweg. It is worthwhile therefore, to explore these different spiritual paths of Christianity.
“God in all things seek and find”, so in the spiritual order, Ignatius of Loyola, is sent by his Jesuit order. You may search “the presence of our Lord in all things, in Talk, in Walk, See, Taste, Hear, Think and all in all,” is how he describes the spiritual path of the Jesuit quest for God in a letter. This requires that the world of prejudice, to sense, in the creation of God, in the work, in others, in yourself God with one’s own senses to feel it.
Retreats to lead the Individual in his innermost being,
With the retreat developed Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century. Century a way of the eight seeds of Inner prayer. His spiritual Exercises are designed to lead the Individual to himself, to encounter Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with him to develop and build. Ignatius called this way as “the best of the best, what I think in this life, and understand it may feel, both to ensure that the person can use, like, fruit and many other help and to be able to use”. In this way, a person is new to God, and makes decisions for his life of Faith.
Because the Jesuits are convinced that God has for every human being is a personal vocation and that it is necessary to feel this on the way to the retreat. A person is required by means of the spiritual Exercises the understand what God is from him and his life. Retreats serve as an aid to the presence of God, to recognize the calling of God for your own life and to find Serenity and solace in the relationship to God.
A way of the decision
On the way to the retreat of the Exerzitant retreats into his inner self. He reveals the way that God made with him would like to go, and admits that out of the way, what’s to stop him in his innermost mind. He needs to learn to distinguish the “ghosts”, as stated by Ignatius in his spiritual exercises book. This happens first of all, objectively in consideration of the advantages and disadvantages and then in Listening to the internal sensations.
The man makes a choice for his life, by clarifying its inner movements. He is learning to trust the inner movements that lead to more life, and at the same time, those which prevent the to live. The retreats book speaks of a feeling of comfort and a sense of desolation: “When the prayer is the feeling of inner comfort, inner Peace, the inner peace is established, then trust that you wants to demonstrate, presumably, God.”
In the retreat house of the Jesuit high oaks at Dresden this can be done by anyone. For eight, ten, or even 30 days, the participants of a Retreat back into Silence. You meditate two to four hours of the day using the Jesus prayer or by means of biblical texts. In the daily, hour-long exchange with a retreat companion for you to try the traces of God in their meditation experience, to identify, to explore the way with God in his own life.
Alfred Herrmann, 1972 born in Würzburg and works as a freelance author in Berlin. Recently, his book appeared in the Bonifatius-Verlag “God-approach – women the North in Germany”.