Small Simple Ways is a wonderful book that offers compassion and encouragement to lift you up through 52 weeks (in 4 week sections) of spiritual growth, as taught by St Ignatius of Loyola. Each day connects you with an aspect or action of a healthy spiritual life including:
- Compassion
- Discernment
- Generosity
- Gratitude
- Integrity
- Courage
- Good habits
- Humility
- Joy
- Openness
- Wisdom
Sundays are reserved as a day for resting our hearts in God.
Through practice and repetition of these basic thoughts and actions that build upon themselves throughout the year, the book will help you step into your future with God.
- God in All Things (weeks 5 to 8)
- The Examen (weeks 9 to 12)
- Gratitude (weeks 13 to 16)
- The two standards (weeks 17 to 20)
- Spiritual freedom (weeks 21 to 24)
- Consolation (weeks 25 to 28)
- Desolation (weeks 29 to 32)
- Imagination (weeks 33 to 36)
- Emotions (weeks 37 to 40)
- The physical senses (weeks 41 to 44)
- Reflection (weeks 45 to 48)
- Love (weeks 49 to 52)
Ultimately, this book proposes to help you recognise grace each day, challenge you to take one action each day to live out your faith and accompany you with encouragement, with suggestions for next steps and reminders of God’s presence, mercy and abiding love.
Compassion: We think of compassion as a character trait, and we assume that some people are just naturally compassionate. But any virtue requires that we practice until it resides easily in our personality. When you see someone today – a person you know or a total stranger – silently ask ‘What is this person’s struggle today?’ Then offer this simple prayer: Help that person through the struggle.
Courage: Not the absence of fear, but the willingness to keep going, despite fear. Not all courage is dramatic. Pause for a moment and try to identify what you fear. Can you find the courage to choose to move into your day despite it, perhaps with a simple prayer for help?
Good habits: I can choose to include influences that will help shape me into the person God created me to be. I can choose daily prayer, regular conversation with people who encourage and teach me, and engagement in a community that helps me live out my faith.
Also read The Spirituality of Transformation, Joy and Justice (a wonderful exploration of the Ignatian faith, based on spiritual exercises developed by St Ignatius of Loyola of Spain). And The Ignatian Guide to Forgiveness 10 steps with stories and a powerful prayer for healing).
Use Ignatian Examen to Change Your Life
No matter what your faith, the Catholic Ignatian order has a very useful practice to help you live your life better. Called ‘the daily Examen‘, it’s basically a five-step process that was practiced by St Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish saint to help you see God’s hand at work in your whole experience. There are many Catholic orders (Franciscans focus on helping animals and the planet, Dominicans are more intellectual). Ignatians would be the ones that ‘ask you to use God’s gifts to help others). The idea is to:
- Become aware of God’s presence
- Review the day with gratitude
- Pay attention to your emotions
- Choose on feature of the day, and pray from it
- Look toward tomorrow
Ignatian spirituality also has good advice on how to make a decision (something we all often struggle with). This is a simple 11-step process that looks at the reasons for making the decision, how to weigh up the options, who to talk to, Scripture to read and how to ‘let go and let God’.
