A Theology of Spiritual Exercises

The Catechism reminds us that "Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself lived, and he lives it in us" (CCC, 521). Life "in Him" is the grace of graces, and our vocation is to receive it, to be good stewards of it, and to cooperate with it so that it may produce an abundant harvest of personal holiness and fruitful mission. This, too, is grace, and spiritual exercises are the ways in which we receive and cooperate with this grace. They are enactments of the wisdom of the saints, ...