Spirituality: Desires within the Spiritual Exercises

The desires or grace for which we pray in the Spiritual Exercises are:

• Ask for a growing and intense sorrow and tears for my sins;

• Beg for a deep sense of the pain which the lost suffer, that if because of my faults I forget the love of the eternal Lord, at least the fear of falling into sin;

• Ask of our Lord the grace not to be deaf to his call, but prompt and diligent to accomplish his most holy will

• Ask for an intimate knowledge of our Lord, who has become a man for me, that I may love him more and follow him more closely;

• Ask for knowledge of the deceits of the rebel chief and help to guard myself against them; and also to ask for a knowledge of the true life exemplified in the sovereign and true Commander, and the grace to imitate him;

• Beg for the grace to choose what is more for the glory of his divine majesty and the salvation of my soul;

• Beg God our Lord to deign to move my will, and to bring to my mind what I ought to do in this matter that would be more for his praise and glory;

• Ask for sorrow, compassion, and shame because the Lord is going to his sufferings for my sins;

• Ask for sorrow with Christ in sorrow, anguish with Christ in anguish, tears and deep grief because of the great affliction Christ endures for me;

• Ask for the grace to be glad and rejoice intensely because of the great joy and the glory of Christ the Lord.