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🌹 Through Mary to Jesus

“She it was who placed me with her Son.”

Ignatius’s Devotion Mary in the Exercises Pray with Mary

✨ Ignatius’s Devotion

St Ignatius of Loyola had an abiding love for the Blessed Virgin Mary. His conversion began under her gaze. While recovering at Loyola, he was moved by reading about Mary and the saints — and in their faith he found his own heart stirred toward God.

Later, in Montserrat, he kept vigil before an image of Our Lady, laying down his sword and dedicating his life to her Son — the true beginning of his new life as a “knight of Christ” under Mary’s protection.

Throughout the Spiritual Exercises, Mary appears as the first and most perfect companion of Jesus — quietly present at the Annunciation, Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection.

At a Glance

  • • Vigil at Montserrat: dedication to Christ through Mary.
  • • Mary present across the Gospel contours of the Exercises.
  • • “Place me with Thy Son” — an Ignatian heart-prayer.
St Ignatius and the Blessed Virgin Mary

St. Ignatius offering his sword before Our Lady of Montserrat.

đź’™ Mary in the Spiritual Exercises

  • The Incarnation: Mary’s “Be it done to me” invites our openness to God’s will.
  • The Nativity: She offers Jesus to the world with tender joy.
  • The Resurrection: Ignatius begins the Fourth Week by contemplating the Risen Christ appearing first to His Mother — a meeting of love and joy beyond words.

For Ignatius this is more than imagination — it reveals a spiritual truth: Mary embodies perfect union with God’s will and perfect joy in Christ’s victory.

đź•Š Mary, Model of Discernment

  • • She listens.
  • • She reflects.
  • • She consents freely.

“Mary’s discernment was not an argument but a listening — her freedom was not control but surrender in love.”

🌿 Praying with Mary the Ignatian Way

1) Contemplate the Annunciation

Ask for the grace to say “yes” with courage.

2) Imagine the Nativity

See God made small for love of us.

3) Pray with the PietĂ 

Bring your pain to the Mother’s heart.

4) Rejoice with the Risen Lord

Through Mary’s eyes of faith and joy.

🌸 Prayer: With Mary, to Her Son

O Mother of Jesus, Mother of my Lord,
teach me to listen with a quiet heart,
to receive God’s word with courage,
and to bear Christ into the world with joy.
Be near me in discernment and in mission,
that, like you, I may live only to say,
“Be it done unto me, according to your word.”
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