When Ignatius Was Young

“He felt within himself a very great impulse to serve our Lord.”

-The Autobiography of Ignatius Loyola

St. Ignatius was a young adult when he had his conversion experience.

Even today, he can be our friend and guide.

When Ignatius Was Young is an 18th Annotation version of the Spiritual Exercises that centers the reality that Ignatius was a young adult when he had his “cannonball” experience, and that he was a young adult when he began to craft the methods that would become the Spiritual Exercises.

Ignatius’s insight into the meaning of our lives, how to discover our deepest desires, and how to grow in friendship with God are always relevant. They are especially relevant to today’s young adults, given the competing desires and pulls that we experience and the challenges of discerning how to live a life of faith with purpose and freedom.

We have designed When Ignatius Was Young to be flexible as an 18th Annotation adaptation. It can be experienced over the course of nine months with monthly cohort meetings, or in a more compressed format of approximately six to ten weeks. In either form, the experience centers on nine cohort-driven prayer experiences grounded in essential moments of the Spiritual Exercises.

This adaptation also places a special premium on your experience of savoring, of noticing what is happening in your prayer and reflection and expressing what you have received through creative and ordinary means: photography, playlists, journaling, and more.

We hope to open more pathways to the Spiritual Exercises for young adults through When Ignatius Was Young. Contact us to learn more.

Deepen your relationship with God

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Gain insights from the life of the founder of the Jesuits

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Meet once a month with fellow young adults

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Deepen your relationship with God ✳︎ Gain insights from the life of the founder of the Jesuits ✳︎ Meet once a month with fellow young adults ✳︎

An Invitation from the Associate Director for Ignatian Young Adult Ministries

My name is Dave de la Fuente. I hold a doctorate in systematic theology, and have been active as a lay Catholic minister for half of my life, thanks in large part to the transformative power of Ignatian spirituality. Sharing the graces of Ignatian spirituality is a personal, ministerial, and academic passion of mine.

I am lucky to be part of a dynamic ministry team in the Office of Ignatian Spirituality. We take to heart the Universal Apostolic Preferences, especially the first Preference—Showing The Way To God. As we envision our outreach to young adults, we want to break open the Spiritual Exercises more generously.

I invite you to consider experiencing When Ignatius Was Young. If you are affiliated with a parish, a diocesan young adult ministry, a retreat center, or a university, I also invite you to consider partnering with the Office of Ignatian Spirituality by implementing When Ignatius Was Young in your parish or organization.

Contact me using the form below.

When Ignatius Was Young: Nine Prayer Experiences for Young Adults

Movement One: God in All Things

Up to the age of twenty-six, Ignatius was a man given to the vanities of the world... Nevertheless Our Lord assisted him...
-The “Autobiography”
Movement Two: The Examen-ed Life

Up to the age of twenty-six, Ignatius was a man given to the vanities of the world... Nevertheless Our Lord assisted him...
-The “Autobiography”
Movement Three: Self-Scrutiny

“Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”
-Pope Francis, A Big Heart Open to God
Movement Four: The Call

What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ?
-The Spiritual Exercises §53
Movement Five: Imagining the Incarnation

“God became human so that humans may become divine.”
-St. Athanasius
Movement Six: The Senses

“God manifests Godself in historical revelation, in history. Time initiates processes, and space crystallizes them. God is in history, in the processes.”
-Pope Francis
Movement Seven: Feeling the Pain of the World

“The cross is Jesus’ most eloquent word of love.”
-Pope Francis
Movement Eight: Falling in Love With God

“In all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-Romans 8:37-39
Movement Nine: Graced Enough For Mission

“And I remembered the occasion when the Father placed me with the Son.”
-St. Ignatius Loyola, the Spiritual Diary