What is Spirituality?

Spirituality is hard to define. It has to do with the "style" or the "spirit" of our life -- with the way in which we live out our faith in God: our way of being religious. Richard McBrien has written:

To be "spiritual" means to know, and to live according to the knowledge, that there is more to life than meets the eye. To be "spiritual" means, beyond that, to know, and to live according to the knowledge, that God is present to us in grace as the principle of personal, interpersonal, social and even cosmic transformation. To be "open to the Spirit" is to accept explicitly who we are and who we are called always to become, and to direct our lives accordingly. [ Catholicism , Winston Press: Minneapolis, Minn. 1980. 1057.]

Each of the great religious families in the Church, like the Benedictines, Franciscans and Dominicans, has a distinctive way of following the Risen Christ and responding to the Holy Spirit. This pamphlet is designed to introduce you to Jesuit spirituality, to give you a sense of its contours or distinguishing characteristics. A written description, however, can only go so far. The best way to come to know Jesuit spirituality is to incorporate some of its principles and prayer into your daily life, and to talk with Jesuits and other people who live by the spirituality of St. Ignatius. To help you get started, the following pages offer some suggestions for prayer and reflection which will give you a feel for our way of following Jesus. Refer to these pages often in the weeks and months ahead. Developing some habits of regular prayer and reflection are essential for someone considering a vocation to religious life.

from www.stignatiussf.org