A saying attributed to Pedro Arrupe, SJ, begins: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.” It’s what Arrupe said next that strikes me.

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of
bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings,
how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who
you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you
with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will
decide everything.

I don’t know a better description of what Ignatius of Loyola intended when he put the Spiritual Exercises together. He wants us to fall in love. He’s interested in those deep currents of feeling that shape what we want, which in turn influences what we do. Psychologists talk about the three parts of the mind: the cognitive (reason and other mental processes), the conative (the will), and the affective (feelings and emotions). Ignatius zeroed in on the “affect.” Understanding is important, and the will is vital, but what gets you out of bed in the morning is what you love. This is what Ignatius wanted the Spiritual Exercises to influence.

- Excerpted from God Finds Us by Jim Manney