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EXERCITANTES
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All meditations

First Week

Meditation on Hell

An application of the senses, to feel inwardly the pain of eternal separation from God.

Preparatory prayer

Ask God our Lord for the grace that all my intentions, actions and works may be directed purely to the service and praise of his Divine Majesty.

Composition of place

See with the eye of the imagination the length, breadth and depth of hell.

Petition

Ask for an inner sense of the pain suffered by the lost, so that if I ever forget the love of the Lord, at least the fear of punishment will keep me from sin.

Points

  1. See with the imagination the great fires, and the souls as if in bodies of fire.
  2. Hear the weeping, the shrieks, the cries and the blasphemies against Christ our Lord and all his saints.
  3. Smell the smoke, the sulphur, the filth and corruption.
  4. Taste bitter things: tears, sadness and the worm of conscience.
  5. Feel with the sense of touch how the fires touch and burn the souls.

Colloquy

Speak with Christ our Lord, remembering the three kinds of people who were lost, and give thanks that he has not let me fall into any of them until now, and has shown me such pity and mercy.

Adapted from the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola (1548).