Customer Reviews

The Spiritual Exercise of St. Ignatius Loyola

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The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola outlines the Church's classic means of orienting one's soul toward God and eternal salvation. If you are to buy one of these books and will be reading it on your own and not attend a retreat. Then this is the version you want to buy. It is truly a self-taught edition. This book will make you stop and examine your life and will help head you to Heaven and away from Hell. Which is what we would expect from the man who founded the Society of Jesus.

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This edition SHOULD NOT bear Loyola's name. It is an intellectually inept hybrid of Loyola's text and its 'interpretation'-not stated as such-by some unnamed 'editor'. In other words, this is a REWRITING of Loyola claiming to be his text. The intellectual dishonesty is astounding. In it, we find for instance the following comment: "...--a prince wiser than Charlemaigne, more pious than St. Louis, more fortunate in war than Bonaparte in the days of his gretest prosperity;--"

Bonaparte?

Loyola died nearly two hundred years before Napoleon's death, yet SOMEONE is presenting these as his own words. It is simple enough to realise that this particular example has been added in, but what additions, elaborations, and 'interpretations' have been grafted in that are not so obvious? Whose ideas am I reading? Nowhere in this edition is it stated that the text has been tampered with, nor is there any indication of who has done the tampering. Loyola's name is the only one to appear anywhere. Is this representative of the state of theological scholarship? In no other realm of serious intellectual enquiry would such unethical and irresponsible manipulation of canonical texts be allowed to stand. Loyola is probably well worth reading, but having bought this edition, I'm in no position to say. Find a reputable publisher with some kind of scruples, put together and edited by someone at least honest enough to put their name on the book.


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The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius by Tan books is the only manual that I can find for independent use and presents the Spiritual Exercises in its classic form. The meditations, drawn from the Exercises, were written in pre-vatican style which, in my opinion, still very relevant by 21st century standards. The manual offers abridged versions of the meditations for readers who are familiar to the Ignatian style of meditation. A guide, found at the end of the book, offers options, arrangement of passages to be read, for "30 days" retreat (the prescribed length by St. Ignatius), "15 days" retreat, and "8 days" retreat. The book also prescribes spiritual readings from the New Testament and the Imitation of Christ by Thomas a' Kempis which, in my opinion, should be a companion to this manual. Although the book was made for independent use, there is still no substitute for a Spiritual Director for every person undertaking the Spiritual Exercises.

Some reviewers here criticize the publisher of this book. However, I have found TAN Publishers to be quite helpful in supplying foundational works of Catholic authors. This is a small book but thick. May I recommend a use? It is small enough to be quite portable to carry with you but it requires a meditative component of preparing oneself for the exercise in order to prepare the apropos disposition for the meditation and the exercise. So, this book is not appropriate for reading while standing in the long line at the airport or grocery store where distractions abound. If you pray at night, this on your night table may be of help. Sometimes, tiredness at night may produce aridity, the inability to pray as you unclutter your thoughts of the day. St. Ignatius helps you focus your mind on certain aspects of Catholic theology, and you most likely will not complete the exercise before you fall asleep. After all, prayer, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is the lifting up of the mind and heart to God. This is one way to accomplish that goal.

I read the review which said that this edition is someone elses handiwork, and since I have this edition, I did a little research. The original Exercises written by Ignatius suffered from poor grammar, and was also written in Basque, not Spanish, so translation can be difficult and at times vary between translators. I also read an edition from 1914, and looked up the phrase in question. This edition said to set up in your mind some powerful earthly prince. Therefore, this TAN self-guided edition is using a refernce to Napoleon to help the reader who is going through the exercises himself. This book is still Ignatius' Spiritual Exercies, and most importantly, you still will gain spiritually from using it.