Ignatian Spirituality for Healing Hearts

Heartbreak doesn’t wait for perfect timing, and neither does grace. We open a gentle, practical pathway through grief by walking with the ten core elements of Ignatian spirituality—wisdom forged in the recovery of a wounded soldier who learned to listen for God in everyday life. This is a clear, story-driven guide to finding presence, freedom, and courage when the season feels heavy.

We start with Ignatius’s origin story to show why this tradition is so practical: it meets real people in real circumstances. From there, we explore how to recognize God at work in ordinary moments, cultivate a call-and-response rhythm in prayer, and use discernment to make sound choices when emotions run high. You’ll hear why the heart leads the journey, how imagination in prayer brings comfort and clarity, and why interior freedom—not clinging to outcomes—opens space for wiser decisions and deeper peace.

We unpack the Daily Examen as a five-minute anchor for reflection, gratitude, and next steps. You’ll learn the meaning of cura personalis—care for the whole person—and how Ignatian practice adapts to your pace, your story, and your limits. Community matters here: spiritual direction, collaboration, and shared mission keep us grounded and supported. Finally, we lean into the call to become contemplatives in action and men and women for others, finding God in family rooms, workplaces, hospitals, and holiday tables, and letting generous service transform sorrow into love.

If this conversation gives you language for your own healing, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope today.

The ten elements help you notice God in daily life, make freer choices, and find a practical path through the holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Chapters

• 0:44 Welcome And Purpose Of Solace
• 1:31 Holiday Note And Ignatian Overview
• 2:01 Roots In Ignatius’s Wounding And Conversion
• 3:28 God’s Presence In All Things
• 4:31 Call And Response In Daily Life
• 5:22 Praying With The Heart And Imagination
• 6:19 Interior Freedom And Detachment
• 7:04 The Daily Examen And Three Questions
• 7:53 Practical Humanism And Cura Personalis
• 9:09 Contemplatives In Action
• 10:48 Men And Women For Others
• 11:27 Closing, Credentials, And Holiday Blessing

Transcript

Candee: 0:44

Welcome to Solace: Soul + Grief. I'm glad you're here. We started this ministry to bring accompaniment and comfort to those who are grieving both, those in fresh grief, and those who have been on this journey for a while. The loss of a loved one is a life-changing event, and we know we have to learn to walk with God as we discover this new journey and this new place and this new time and our place in it. You're always welcome in this circle of healing, love, and care. Today I want to bring you up to date on some ideas about Ignatian spirituality. Because it's the holidays, a lot of you may not listen to a regular episode, so this will be there if you want to have more information about Ignatian prayer, the examine, and Ignation Spirituality in general. There are ten elements of Ignatian spirituality. Ignatian spirituality is one of the most influential and pervasive spiritual outlooks of our age. There is a story behind it and it has many attributes. This podcast will provide an introduction to it. Number one, it begins with the wounded soldier daydreaming in his sickbed. Ignatian spirituality is rooted in the experiences of Ignatius Loyola, who lived from 1491 to 1556. He was a Basque aristocrat whose conversion to a fervent Christian faith began while he was recovering from war wounds. Ignatius, who founded the Jesuits, gained many insights into the spiritual life in the course of a decades-long spiritual journey during which he became an expert at helping others deepen their relationship with God. Its basis in personal experience makes Ignation spirituality an intensely practical spirituality, well suited to laymen and lay women living active lives in the world. Number two, the world is charged with the grandeur of God. This line from a poem by the Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins captures the central theme of Ignatian spirituality. Its insistence that God is at work everywhere, in work, relationships, culture, the arts, the intellectual life, and creation itself. As Ignatius put it, all things in the world are presented to us so that we may know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. Ignatius spirituality places great emphasis on discerning God's presence in the everyday activities of ordinary life. It sees God as an active God, always at work, inviting us to an ever deeper walk. Number three, it's about call and response, like the music of a gospel choir. An Ignatian spiritual life focuses on God at work now. It fosters an active attentiveness to God, joined with a prompt responsiveness to God. God calls, we respond. This call response rhythm of the inner life makes discernment and decision making especially important. Ignatius's rules for discernment and his astute approach to decision making are well regarded for their psychological and spiritual wisdom. Number four, the heart has its reasons of which the mind knows nothing. Ignatius Loyola's conversion occurred as he became able to interpret the spiritual meaning of his emotional life. The spirituality he developed places great emphasis on the effective life. The use of imagination in prayer, discernment, and interpretation of feelings, cultivation of great desires and generous service. Ignatian spiritual renewal focuses more on the heart than the intellect. It holds that our choices and decisions are often beyond the mere rational or reasonable. Its goal is an eager, generous, wholehearted offer of oneself to God and to his work. Number five, free at last. Ignatian spirituality emphasizes interior freedom. To choose rightly, we should strive to be free of personal preferences, superfluous attachments, and performed opinions. Ignatians counsel radical detachment. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. Our one goal is the freedom to make a wholehearted choice to follow God. Six sum up at night what thou hast done by day. The Ignatian mindset is strongly inclined to reflection and self-scrutiny. The distinctive Ignatian prayer is the daily examine, a review of the day's activities with an eye toward detecting and responding to the presence of God. Three challenging reflective questions lie at the heart of the spiritual exercises. The book Ignatius wrote to help others deepen their spiritual lives. What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ? Number seven A Practical Spirituality. Ignatian spirituality is a devil. It is an outlook, not a program, a set of attitudes and insights, not rules or schemes. Ignatius' first advice to spiritual directors was to adapt the spiritual exercises to the needs of the person entering the retreat. At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is a profound humanism. It respects people's lived experience and honors the vast diversity of God's work in the world. The Latin phrase cura personalis is often heard in ignition circles. It means care of the person, attention to people's individual needs, and respect for the unique circumstances and concerns. Number eight, don't do it alone. Ignatian spirituality places great value on collaboration and teamwork. Ignation spirituality sees the link between God and man as a relationship, a bond of friendship that develops over time as a human relationship does. Collaboration is built into the very structures of the spiritual exercises. They are almost always guided by a spiritual director who helps the retreatant interpret the spiritual content of the retreat experience. Similarly, mission and service in the Ignation Mode is seen not as an individualistic enterprise, but as work done in collaboration with Christ and others. Number nine, contemplatives in action. Those formed by Ignatian spirituality are often called contemplatives in action. They are reflective people with a rich inner life who are deeply engaged in God's work in the world. They unite themselves with God by joining God's active labor to save and heal the world. It's an active spiritual attitude, a way for everyone to seek and find God in their workplaces, homes, families, and communities. Number ten, Men and Women for Others. The early Jesuits often described their work as simply helping souls. The great Jesuit leader Pedro Arupe updated this idea in the twentieth century by calling those formed in Ignation Spirituality, men and women for others. Both phrases express a deep commitment to social justice and a radical giving of oneself to others. The heart of this service is the radical generosity that Ignatius asked for in his most famous prayer as follows-- Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will. Amen.-- That concludes another episode. A new one drops every Friday morning. You can follow us on Apple, in the Amazon Music App, or on Spotify. I'm Candee Lucas, your host. I'm a grief chaplain and spiritual director trained by the Jesuits both at Santa Clara University and El Retiro Jesuit Center in Los Altos, California. Stay safe, be kind to yourself this week and with those you meet. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.