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A 12-Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

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I have been in 12-Step work for almost 28 years, beginning December 13, 1972. I have come to believe that you are either moving away from your addiction or that you are moving toward your addiction. Staying on a plateau for very long is dangerous to maintaining spiritual progress. This book was instrumental in moving me from being stuck in the spiritual mud, so to speak.

I had been reading one of the Classics of Western Spirituality books, "Ignatius of Loyola: The Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works" for about a year - off and on with varying degrees of success. I found that Jim Harbaugh's approach through the 12-Step Methodology to be extremely helpful in putting Ignatius' Exercises in a framework that has been very fruitful in applying the 11th Step to my life.

(Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.)

During my first lent with Jim's book, I spent a day on each of the 52 exercises. Now, at Jim's suggestion, I am spending a week on each of the 52 exercises and I am finding this way more fruitful. However, at present, I have paused after Exercise 17, The Examen, while I complete another 4th Step.

I have put together a set of cards, calling card size, front and back, with the prayer for the week on one side and ideas for meditation from the book on the other. I can email this word document to anyone who wants a copy. My email address is bobballow@juno.com.

It has often been remarked that there seems to be some correspondence between the principles of the Twelve Steps of AA and parts of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Few if any books or articles have sought to explicitate that correspondence between the two with the thoroughness of this text of Harbaugh. As a Jesuit and Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor, he is well acquainted and involved in both guiding people through the Spiritual Exercises and counseling those in recovery. His treatment uncovers whatever relationship exists between the spiritual dynamics of the two texts. Sometimes the relationships are profound and enlightening, occasionally they are merely superficial and accommodating. For the student of the Exercises these latter instances may seem forced, for the person in recovery it will be an acceptable use of familiar and comfortable language. The Exercises are a series of meditations that in its most concentrated form take about 30 full days, but for a person with limited time available they can be adapted to a 12 month period, which is what Harbaugh does. He suggests the 52 meditations be taken one week at a time (though one is free to give more or less time to each), and wisely urges that they be done with the help of a spiritual director, sponsor or others. The book is a guide for prayer, but even a quick read could be informative and profitable. The Exercises are quintessentially Christian, and so Harbough's text is meant for use by Christians in recovery. It goes beyond the principles of AA, but enlightens the Christian content of the Exercises with AA language, principles and parallels to the fullest extent possible. While one need not be in recovery to use this book for prayer, it is a fine way for someone in recovery to work the Eleventh Step.

Wonderful book easy to read and a tremendous aid to an ever evolving spiritual path.

This is a wonderful book for anyone in (or familiar with) a Twelve Step program who wishes to grow spiritually. It is now only well-written, but also extremely well-documented. As I read it and contemplate the passages, I can feel myself growing spiritually.

I am sure the reader will receive a better, if somewhat different, understanding of the Spiritual component of the AA 12-Step program. This is not meant to replace the tenants of the Big Book, but is a worthwhile companion.

A 12-Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

The book is a useful tool for improving your spiritual life. It works well when read and used alone and, as in my case, I started a group that meets once a week to read the weekly meditations and then all in attendance share about what they got and experienced from the meditation.A 12-Step Approach to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

This book was hugely disappointing. After two editions of the _Spiritual Exercises_ sat on my shelf for years, I finally started doing them at the beginning of 2005. I found the Spiritual Exercises to be one of the most effective and "practical" forms of Catholic spirituality I've studied. But the essence of the Exercises is acknowledging the reality of Sin, evil, Hell, etc., realizing the unimaginable Mercy of God, and the fact that every sin deserves eternal damnation.

So, in the hopes of helping a relative, a lapsed Catholic who was attempting addiction recovery and needed both spiritual and psychological help, I purchased this book.

What I found when it arrived was just the opposite of what I'd hoped for he: this jerk waters down the entire Catholic faith to psychology and teaches the lie that Satan is nothing more than a metaphor.

Where he *ought* to be elevating the psychology with religion, he's doing just the opposite.