1. Meaning of the exercises
2. How are to use the exercises?

- It is said, "Only one thing leads from knowing about to knowing how: exercise".

This we know to be true in many areas of life.  Our spiritual life has often been given too little consideration.  In these exercises possibilities will be suggested that can help individuals find their own way.  In particular this means engaging in the exercises by testing them out with our own practice and then determining from these experiences what is good for us and what is not.  First, we take the risk of becoming engaged and later after some time we develop a better perspective on what is most helpful for us in our spiritual journey.  That which determines the approach of this book is discovering what is most helpful, what the Ignatian Exercises call the "more" of love.

- Today the church is rediscovering the importance of the bodily dimension of being human.

This has to do with rediscovering that it is the human being in his or her totality that God originally intended and desires.  We are to love God with the strength of our entire being (Mark 12:30).  This is underscored in the belief that Christ became human.  With that thoughts of hostility toward the body are fundamentally overcome and a broadened understanding for living our faith is provided.  The Gnostics have always viewed the body with hostility regarding it as evil. This understanding has been fought by the church from the first century, unfortunately, such thinking still remains today.  When there are exercises that include body movements, one should be aware that for some Christians this may present problems. Whoever becomes aware of this problem within themselves should take care not to dismiss the exercise too quickly.  Be aware that others may respond quite differently and that precisely such exercises are experienced by many as helpful and fruitful for the deepening of their prayer life.  Learn to find your own way and then grant others the same freedom to discover what is best for them.

- It is normal and natural to prepare for the arrival of a guest.

However, it is not the making of the bed, the baking of the cake or the waiting at the door that causes the guest to arrive."   It must be very clear in all of the exercises that what is offered here is not a do-it-yourself salvation.  What is done in the exercises should be understood only as "preparation" and readiness for the encounter with God as far as that lies within our power.  The "if", "how" and "when" God is encountered remains entirely in God's hands.  Biblical images can also be used. For example, it is our task to prepare and till the soil, but it is up to God to plant the seed and bring forth the growth.  Preparation of the soil happens when we engage in the exercises provided in the regularly scheduled times for meditation.  We have already said that the time with God each day in silence is the core of the spiritual life.  Some clarifications here of the proper use of meditation time may be helpful.

- How long should the daily time of silence in prayer and meditation last?

There are no hard and fast rules.   However, the following is important in order to help foster a personal experience of God.  A person generally needs a continuous block of time of at least fifteen to twenty minutes.  Only then can the inner unrest subside.  Only then can something which is deeply hidden be awakened.  When we occasionally take as much as sixty minutes for prayer, other new dimensions often appear.  When we think before the prayer time that it will be difficult to "allow" ourselves twenty minutes, we realize afterwards that whatever we may have wanted to do was not as important as being present to God.  Then we can linger even an hour with God joyfully.

- How can we protect this time of daily silence for ourselves?

In light of this question it is important to have a clear and solid purpose.  How important is your relationship with God?  How much time in the day do you want to set aside intentionally to be with God?  (Exceptions will now and then need to be made, but they must truly be exceptions!)

We should then choose an undisturbed time (the early morning or the late evening are possibilities) and agree upon this time with our family or other members of our household.  This can be a great help.  A small sign on the door can also help: "Please do not disturb unless necessary".  Remaining with the same place and the same time each day is a suggestion not to be under estimated.  It is as though the space and time take on something from the atmosphere of prayer itself that is helpful and passed on to us again the next day.

- What possibilities and dangers lie in regular meditation at home

in contrast to the experiences in a meditation course or in days of retreat?  What takes place in the sheltered space of a course in the environment of shared silence often goes very deep.  Yet what happens there often remains connected to the surroundings so that the return to normal everyday work after these days becomes extremely difficult.

What prevents that from happening in the midst of the ordinary is that we may not go as far into the depths in our everyday situation.  Yet, meditation at home can have a stronger effect within our daily life.  Experience has shown that the actual time saved for meditation becomes a "leaven" which gradually permeates and draws together the rest of the day with all its tasks, joys and pains.  "Prayer goes with me the entire day", were the responses from most of the participants after a few weeks into the correspondence course.

- How do we deal with unexpected interruptions during our prayer time?

This question confronts us especially in our meditation at home.  Despite all our efforts to protect this time not all interruptions can be eliminated.  Interruptions belong to "meditating in the everyday" and the more we attempt to flee from them completely the more persistent they remain.  There is only one helpful suggestion here: "Remain calm!"  In our group we experienced again and again the "meditation demon" who tried valiantly to interrupt our silence.  This demon seeks with every possible tactic to prevent our praying at home and does this with choosing the point of greatest sensitivity and weakness for the one praying.  What is important here is that we understand this phenomenon and remain alert to it.  It may mean engaging in a real battle: a battle against our anger regarding the disruption (the anger often disturbs more than the disruption itself!) and the battle against the thought: "This doesn't make any sense to me... I'm going to give up praying!"

Disruptions come also from ourselves.  How do we deal with the negative elements arising in meditation?  This question emerges again and again.  The only way this can be cured is to bring this darkness to light: a great opportunity for Christian meditation!  There are also negative elements that return with every meditation that can push everything else aside.  We should not meditate on these negative images, but rather work them through in conversation.  Only in this way will we be free from them and, therefore, free for true meditation.  The third section has to do with the fact that we can only truly encounter our understanding of guilt when we know that we are hidden in the love and forgiveness of God.

- What can we do to bring prayer and daily life together?

In contrast to days of silence away, we must try to create a right "space" at home for our prayer time.  On the one hand, this "space" should separate prayer time from the rest of the day and, on the other hand, prayer should be inserted meaningfully into the whole of the day.

To accomplish this it is important to take a couple of minutes before the prayer so that we can "tune in" for an encounter with the living God just as one tunes in to a radio station.  Suggestions to do this are offered particularly in the first week of exercises.  Each person must discover for themselves what is helpful.

Following the prayer time we need a few moments to let "things rest awhile".  If we take a few notes writing down words to describe inner events (how it went for us) and important learning's (what became important for us) then these notes can become a help in subsequent prayer time to come into the mood of meditation more quickly.  Whoever requires a long initial time to enter into silence should definitely take this practice seriously.  Such notes can also help us later look at and profit from the overall direction of our life from a distance just as an artist steps back from an oil painting in order to see the whole.  (This is important for the "Discerning of Spirits" about which we will speak in the Third Section.)

Before the silence fades away it can be helpful for some to look ahead to the work facing them so that an organic transition can take place.  Meditation on preparing for work will have an important place in the Fourth Section.

And finally, there is a small exercise which requires only a brief amount of time but which should not be underestimated.  In the evening before falling asleep recall the most important incidents of your prayer time and place yourself again into these experiences.  This can be important for achieving greater depth.  That which goes with you into sleep has an especially strong influence on your life.  Now let us move from "knowing about to knowing how" by gathering personal experiences from our exercises so that we can find the way that "suits" us best.