Ignatian spirituality is a way of following Jesus Christ based on the charism of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. As a result of his own conversion experience, Ignatius felt inspired to know and love Jesus in a deeply personal and intimate way.  Ignatius began to pray, to talk and to listen to God, and to pay attention to the movements of his heart, his desires, and his senses, as he felt led to follow and serve God. 

Ignatian spirituality is an incarnational spirituality. Ignatius uses our human bodies as sources of wisdom, discernment and revelation, and he views the world as our space to serve with grace, respect and inquiry. Ignatius invites us to view what is possible in all things of the world, and he invites us to imagine the possibilities of our own vocations as true contemporary disciples of Jesus Christ. Values commonly found in Ignatian spirituality are core values of the Gospel, such as authenticity, integrity, courage, love, forgiveness, hope, healing, service and justice. 

The living of Ignatian values through the charism of Ignatian spirituality involves an orientation towards serving Christ in the world using Ignatius’s tools of the Spiritual Exercises, including prayer, contemplation, spiritual direction, discernment and the daily Examen of Consciousness. Ignatian spirituality leads to a desire to find God in all things, often leading those followers to feel a sense of being “Contemplatives in Action” for Christ.