Eat, Pray, Love: Renewal of Ignation Spiritually

A Book Review of Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life: A Practical Guide to Prayer for Active People By Fr. Robert J. Spitzer

I was privileged to be a student at Jesuit affiliated Gonzaga University during the tenure of Fr. Robert Spitzer, who was president of the university. During this time, I took the only class which Fr. Spitzer taught once each spring semester, entitled “Faith and Reason.”

It was a pretty weighty course not for the faint of heart, mind or body. The course explored the depths of time, space and the human soul in relation to the Almighty. This spring, I received Fr. Spitzer’s latest publication as a gift. To my surprise, Five Pillars is a mere 171 pages of totally accessible material, ripe to aid the spiritual development for any Christian.

This book puts a new slant on Ignation Spirituality, which is the core of the Jesuit life. Spitzer lists five pillars that he deems essential for an active spiritual life, (1) the Holy Eucharist, (2) spontaneous prayer, (3) the Beatitudes, (4) partnership with the Holy Spirit and (5) the contemplative life. The pillars lead us to live sacramental lives as well as prayerful contemplative lives.

Most appropriately the first pillar is the Eucharist for these reasons, “It is Christ’s unconditionally loving presence healing us, transforming us, unifying us, and granting us peace.” For me, while the whole book brought me to a higher sense of my own spirituality, the first chapter really struck me and gave me new insight into God’s unconditional love. With some parsing of the consecration, “This is my Body which will be given up for you,” Spitzer shows in that phrase, Christ (God-Incarnate), gives not only His body, but His mind, body and soul. Indeed, Christ gave His whole being and with it all His love. Knowing that the gift of the Eucharist is the whole being and love of our Creator, the effects on the human soul are none other than unity with the Creator, peace and transformation shared in community with the whole Church. It is certainly a stirring thought to behold.

In the chapter on spontaneous prayer, Spitzer delivers almost anecdotal prayers common to Christian life. He expounds prayers such as, “Offer it up,” “Thy Will be done,” “Let good come out of this suffering.” However, Spitzer points out that in the Gospels Christ calls us to ask for forgiveness from the Father and from each other more than anything else. Asking for and accepting forgiveness is the most important form of spontaneous prayer. Forgiveness is the first step to a pure heart and to a real relationship with the Creator. He points out that without forgiveness there is no forgetting and without forgetting the sin remains the road block between God and the sinner. Therefore, the sinner is cut off from God’s unconditional love. God’s goal is to deliver to each and every one of us His whole being and all His love. Forgiveness, desiring it and accepting it, is essential to communion with God.

To sum in very popular, contemporary phraseology, Spitzer‘s Five Pillars ask us to “Eat, pray, love.” We are to eat of the Lord’s whole being. We are to pray spontaneously–“without ceasing.” We are to live the Beatitudes. We are to discern daily with the Holy Spirit. We are to be the recipients of the God’s unconditional love and be bearers of His love throughout our lives. Fr. Spitzer has taken the longer, formulaic Ignation Examen, in which one takes stock of one’s daily life, prays about it, and reconciles to the Lord, and he has adapted it both into a practical, moment-by-moment examination and at the same time a long-term aspiration. The Five Pillars is a renewed effort to enliven the Christian heart to “eat, pray, love,” in God.

Renee is a Byzantine Eastern Catholic, stay-at-home mom of preschoolers, writing about her faith and family at Claytonopolis.