Eight Days of the Spiritual Exercises

A book review on Eight Days of The Spiritual Exercises
by Florencio Segura, SJ and Randolph Lumabao, SJ

This book is a very good guide for one's Christian life and
can be read and reread many times for deepening one's
commitment to Christ

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola


The original Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
is written in a very terse and concise language meant mostly
for Jesuit spiritual directors or for lay people who have been
trained by the Jesuits to give the Spiritual Exercises. The
Spiritual Exercises is originally meant for a 30-day intense
period of much prayer and meditation and contemplation.

Eight Days of The Spiritual Exercises

Authors Florencio Segura, SJ and Randolph Lumabao, SJ have
come up with a summarized translation of the original Spiritual
Exercises and written it in a form that will be helpful for
those who cannot undertake an intensive 30-day retreat. The
main themes and topics of the origian Spiritual Exercises are
divided into eight days in this book. Provided within the eight
days are also text references to Scriptural passages that will
help the exercitant [the one taking The Spiritual Exercises]
pray and meditate more on the themes and topics of the Spiritual
Exercises.

A good book to read, reread and make as a guide for one's
Christian life

For many lay people who often are so busy and have many concerns
in marriage and family life or in a professional job or in a
business enterprise, this book will indeed help him with the
necessary tools for deepening his commitment to Christ. A
suggestion would be to read it from beginning to end first and
then reread it next time using it for prayer and meditation.
The more one goes through the text and the more one applies the
suggested Scriptural passages for meditation, the more one will
be filled with the love of God and the desire to do His will
more and more in one's life.

Content of the book

To give you an idea of what is inside the book a listing of the
titles and topics is given here:

• Part I: Meditations
• Introductory Meditation
• First Day
• First Principle and Foundation
• Introduction to the Ignatian Method of the Repetitions
• "The Truth Will Set You Free"
• Second Day
• The Lie: Sin and Personal Sins
• Colloquy with the Crucified
• Third Day
• The Way
• The Life: Through Christ, with Him, and in Him The
  Kingdom
• Fourth Day
• To Choose: Meditation on the Three Standards
• The Mission of Jesus
• The Style of Jesus
• Fifth Day
• Introduction to the Third Week
• Gethsemane
• The Tribunals
• The Way of the Cross
• Sixth Day
• The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross
• Three Attitudes of Compassion
• Christ: The Way, The Truth, and The Life
• The Sepulcher and the Eucharist
• Mary in our Exercises
• Seventh Day
• The Resurrection: To Forge a Light
• The Appearances
• Eighth Day
• The Face
• Angels and Archangels
• Meditation on the Bread, the Wine, and the
  
  Arms

A spiritual experience where one can integrate into
one's daily living

For many of us who have obligations to fulfill and cannot find
time to take us away from the context of our tasks,
responsibilities and family life, this is a good book to buy and
to purchase. And you can schedule how you are to go about
assimilating the content of the book in your Catholic life. A
good way to start is to read it casually first and get a feel
of what the contents are in the book. After reading it in whole
and finding some sense of how you are to integrate it into your
personal or professional schedule, you can then proceed to pray
and meditate with the suggested Scriptural texts in the book.
Traditional and contemporary classic translations of the Bible
which you can use for your prayer and meditation are:

• The New American bible
• The Jerusalem Bible
• The Revised Standard Version

Personally, I recommend the New American bible as the English
translation in this bible is often used for liturgical and prayer
purposes. The Jerusalem is also good. It is good for both
prayer and study. The Revised Standard Version is good mostly
for study as this bible translation is most often used for
scholarly studies. There is a new translation of the Bible and
this is also good. It is called the New Revised Standard Version.
The Catholic edition bears both the American and Canadian
imprimatur, meaning an official publication approved by
the Church.