Ignatian Spirituality and Discernment - Term Paper Example

The most astonishing fact has been that the Ignatian spirituality has quite a few similarities with much practiced religions like that of Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Ignatian spirituality basically deals with the spirituality of the daily life. It focuses on the fact that God is active in our regular lives and ‘his’ presence can always be felt in the world. Ignatian spirituality was formed by Ignatius Loyola, who was a war - wound. Ignatius was also the founder of the Jesuits. Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins noted Ignatian spirituality as “insistence that God is at work everywhere in work, relationships, culture, the arts, the intellectual life, creation itself”.

According to the words of Ignatius, the things in the world are presented to us “so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily”. The Ignatian spirituality focuses upon discerning the presence of God in the everyday activities of our lives (Ignatian Spirituality, n.d.) Discernment has been always a key issue in the Ignatian spirituality. In fact, the main thought of the spiritualism in this segment depends upon the realization and judgment of God in our daily life.

Discernment, according to David Lonsdale, a veteran of Ignatian spirituality, “involves us in a process of sifting our daily experiences by noting and reflecting regularly on our affective responses to God and to life and its events. It means noting, for example, situations and events in which we experience joy or sorrow, peace or turmoil, attractions or revulsions, an opening out to others or a narrowing in on ourselves, a sense of Gods presence or absence, creativity or destructiveness. The purpose of observing and reflecting on these patterns of responses is that they deepen our sense of ourselves and they can show us where, for each of us, our Christian path lies, where the Spirit of God is