To Know My Purpose : Praying with the Principle & Foundation

Gregory Vigliotta
Dec 30, 2023
2 min read

Updated: May 8, 2024

"I am created to praise, love, and serve God."

In the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius invites us to pray over the 1st Principle and Foundation. He presents us with a road map for life, of who we are, our purpose and destiny, and how best to live our lives to achieve that end. In this prayer exercise, we reflect on our fundamental vocation of being a person created by God, made in His Image and Likeness, created with particular gifts and aptitudes to use for giving glory to God, as we co-labor with Him in building the Kingdom.

Preparatory Prayers

The Preparatory period is a time for recollection to dispose ourselves rightly with an offertory and a petition of asking for grace what we want and desire from the Lord based upon the meditation exercise. Each prayer lasting a minute.

Offertory Prayer

Beginning your prayer time: At the beginning of each prayer period, offer yourself to the Lord. Pray the “Take and Receive”

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding, and my entire will,

all that I have and possess.

Thou hast given all to me.

To Thee, O Lord, I return it.

All is Thine; dispose of it wholly according to Thy will.

Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this, is sufficient for me.

Amen

Preparatory Prayer

“The preparatory prayer is to ask, God Our Lord for the grace is that all my intentions (wants and desires), actions, and operations (interior mental activities), maybe order purely to the service in praise of the Divine Majesty” (SE 46).

Write in your own words your intentions ____________________________________________

Petitionary Prayer

Now being situated within the mystery, after reading it the night before (or before the prayer period begins) we ask for what we desire from the Holy Spirit to reveal to us how we may go forth to meet the will of God.

Share your desires with the Lord for this day's retreat. _________________________________

Suggested: Lord grant me a deepening awareness of my fundamental vocation to praise, love, and serve God and others; a desire for greater indifference in my life; a willingness to embrace who I am before our loving God.

When we allow disordered loves and self-preoccupations to clutter our lives, we find ourselves out of balance, unhappy, and discontented.When we live out of this vocation, we are truly happy and fulfilled. This is our true calling and vocation.