10 Ways Ignatian Spirituality Supports a Busy Life

Editor’s note: This post is part of “Counting the Gifts of Ignatian Spirituality.” 

There is no doubt that we are living a more rapid pace of life than we were even a decade ago. More than ever, I understand the value and gift of Ignatian spirituality in today’s world. While it was hard to limit this list, here are ten ways Ignatian spirituality supports a busy life.

1. Ignatian spirituality reminds us that God’s call to us comes even though we are busy.

We often think that we can only make time for God when we slow down enough. Ignatian spirituality reminds us that God calls us right now, even as we juggle many roles and responsibilities. God seeks to be infused into all of our activities and to offer us strength for our day-to-day life.

2. Ignatian spirituality reminds us that we are not alone.

In a world that is over-connected in many ways, loneliness continues to rise. Ignatian spirituality helps us understand the ways God is always with us, inviting us into relationship, seeking to complete us and make us whole.

3. Ignatian spirituality offers us trusted 500-year-old wisdom.

In this day and age, when we are often caught up in the latest trend or fleeting fad, I find relief in the credibility of a spirituality that has survived this long and continues to speak to people today. In a time when commitments and longevity are rare, there is a comfort in knowing this approach to prayer and life with God is not a latest trend but one that has survived and still thrives.

4. Ignatian spirituality connects faith and daily life by helping us see God in all things.

Ignatian spirituality teaches us how to find God in our most mundane minutes, our most joyful moments, and amidst our most difficult questions. It offers us a practical tool, the Examen, to reflect on our day and discover the ways God encounters us and is with us each day.

5. Ignatian spirituality helps us have the tools to know how to pause and be still.

We seek a respite to our busy-paced lives. Ignatian prayer tools such as the Examen, lectio divina, and imaginative prayer help us be still and pray our lives and bring all of our lives to God.

6. Ignatian spirituality is grounded in the reality of life.

St. Ignatius’s conversion came unexpectedly and through circumstances right in front of him. Our relationship with God happens within the realities of our lives, no matter our calls and vocations.

7. Ignatian spirituality awakens us to the depth of God’s love and gift of infinite mercy.

The rapid pace of life and looking at success as defined by the world can sometimes leave us feeling unworthy of love or feeling like our circumstances are hopeless. Ignatian spirituality reminds us that God’s gifts of love and mercy are available to us right now, as we are.

8. Ignatian spirituality offers us a model to follow and an intimate friendship with a busy person, Jesus.

This spirituality gives us a path to walk that grows a deep friendship with Jesus Christ. When we are busy and going at a rapid pace, we can look to Jesus as a model of how to pause, pray, and act.

9. Ignatian spirituality gives us the tools to discern from the abundant number of choices that are thrust in our faces every day.

In a world that offers us so many choices that it feels like drinking out of a fire hydrant, Ignatian discernment wisdom invites us to pause and listen to the still, small voice within us so that we can discern the greater good and greater yeses God seeks for us amidst all of the choices presented to us.

10. Ignatian spirituality calls us not only to be people of prayer in a busy world, but also to live as people of action seeking to live for others.

Ignatian spirituality gives our lives meaning and purpose. It invites us not only to be women and men of prayer, but people of action. This is what St. Ignatius called being a contemplative in action. Even with a busy life, we can make space for prayer in our lives and discern how God is inviting us to put our gifts and talents into action so that our busyness has purpose.