Seeking God's Will, Pt. II

Promulgation and History
In our last post we sought to establish a foundation of Scriptural proof of the Ignatian notion of seeking God's Will; that is, that man has the capacity to seek God out who first seeks him. God seeks man out in his every work and action. The Catholic Catechism also refers to the very nature of mankind is to search for God as a religious being. [CCC, 27-30] God has created man to seek the greatest good ; that is, God himself, but only by man freely turning to God in faith, can man finally reach the happiness he is called to, above the natural happiness of earth. This natural happiness in seeking God can be blurred by this world's goods as well as thoughts and ideologies that seek to obscure the simplicity of God's call to each man in his individual conscience. St. Ignatius proposes, thru his Spiritual Exercises, which have shown to be fruitful over the course of several hundreds of years since their inception and promulgation by Pope Paul III (Allsandro Farnese 1468-1549).
The concern with St. Ignatius in leading others to rid themselves of all those things which encumber the souls finding God's Will is a direct work of God on his soul, both during some conversion experiences he had during a time of sickness and recperation, but also most prominenetly during a time he spent near the Cardoner River , near Manresa, Spain, during which he received a Mystical Illumination. This illumination left an indellible amount of spiritual understnading of the Mysteries of faith in his soul as well as the charity to share this with others. According to one of the original companions of St. Ignatius, Fr Lainez, the Spiritual Exercises were written shortly after that Mystical Illumination at the Cardoner, at least "in its substance." [Ganss, 1992, intro 3] Because grace had illumined him and strengthened him to change, he in turn sought to share this knowledge with others so that they , too, could come to that source of every good change, Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

Clinton R. LeFort
Immaculata Publishing 2006©