Seekers and Friends · Week 4 · Grades 9–12
Guided Notes: St. Ignatius of Loyola
- Name
- Date
- Class
Follow along as your teacher presents. Fill in each section when its slide is on the screen.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Ambition, interrupted
Iñigo López de Loyola was born in blank 1 to a noble Basque family in northern Spain. Trained at court, he later described his younger self as given to the vanities of the world, with a great desire to win fame.
On May 20, blank 2, he was defending the fortress of Pamplona against a much larger French force. He had persuaded the commander not to surrender. A cannonball shattered one leg and injured the other.
Back at Loyola, he chose to endure a second painful blank 3, largely so that his leg would look right in the fashions of the court. He limped for the rest of his life. He was about thirty, and his plans were finished.
The pilgrim’s road
Write what happened in each year.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1491 | Write your answer |
| 1521 | Write your answer |
| 1522 | Write your answer |
| 1523 | Write your answer |
| 1528 | Write your answer |
| 1534 | Write your answer |
| 1540 | Write your answer |
| 1556 | Write your answer |
Consolation and desolation
During his recovery Ignatius daydreamed for hours. Fantasies of fame and romance delighted him, then left him dry and dissatisfied. Thoughts of imitating the saints also delighted him, and blank 4 he remained content and joyful.
From that observation grew the Spiritual Exercises, a guide to a blank 5 of about thirty days. In it he names two movements of the heart. Consolation is whatever increases faith, hope and love and brings peace in God. Desolation is the opposite: darkness, restlessness and a pull away from God.
blank 6 means noticing these movements, asking where each one leads, and choosing accordingly. One of his rules is to make no major change of course in a time of desolation.
What he built
Write one detail for each card.
| Card | The detail |
|---|---|
| The Spiritual Exercises | Write your answer |
| The Examen | Write your answer |
| A fourth vow | Write your answer |
| Schools | Write your answer |
| Under suspicion | Write your answer |
| Growth | Write your answer |
Apply it
After a painful breakup, a student wants to quit the team, drop a class and delete every account tonight. Which response fits Ignatius’s rule best? Circle one.
- A Act now, since strong feelings show what is true
- B Wait, pray and decide when the darkness has lifted
- C Ignore the feelings and never think about them
- D Ask followers online to vote on what to do
Why is that the right answer?
Apply it
Which question is closest to the one Ignatius learned to ask during his recovery? Circle one.
- A How much time did I spend on this today?
- B How many people approve of what I did?
- C Did this feel exciting while it lasted?
- D What did this leave in me once it was over?
Why is that the right answer?
Virtues Ignatius lived
For each virtue, write how the saint lived it and one way you can practice it.
| Virtue | How the saint lived it | How I can practice it |
|---|---|---|
| Prudence | Write your answer | Write your answer |
| Humility | Write your answer | Write your answer |
| Magnanimity | Write your answer | Write your answer |
Take a side
Ignatius judged his daydreams by what they left behind, not by how they felt in the moment. Resolved: how a feed or game leaves you feeling afterward is a better guide to using it than any time limit.
My side: ☐ Agree ☐ Disagree
- Can you trust your own read of how an app leaves you, when it is designed to keep you there?
- A time limit is a rule from outside. Is a rule easier to keep, or easier to resent and ignore?
- Ignatius tested feelings against the Gospel and with a guide. What would that look like for your phone?
- Is one hour that leaves you empty worse than three hours that leave you more loving?
- Could the best answer be both: a limit, and a daily Examen of what the limit protects?
My strongest reason, with evidence from the slides:
The best argument for the other side, and my response:
Let us pray
Lord, you are at work in all things, even in our wounds.
Teach us to notice what leads us toward you and what leads us away.
Free us to choose whatever serves your greater glory.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
Amen.
My own prayer or intention:
Go and notice
A soldier who wanted fame learned to read his own heart and taught the Church to do the same. His feast day is July 31.
One thing I learned today:
One question I still have:
How could the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola shape the way I live, online and offline?
Challenge: Pray a five-minute Examen every night for seven days. Include your time online: where did it leave you more loving, and where more empty?