A Contemplative Glossary

The 18th Annotation is one of Ignatius of Loyola's own adaptations of the full Spiritual Exercises for people who cannot leave their everyday lives for an extended silent retreat. Instead of 30 days in isolation, the journey unfolds over several weeks in the middle of your regular life — your work, your family, your responsibilities. You bring God into your ordinary days rather than stepping away from them.

Ready to begin your own 18th Annotation journey? Explore Finding Your Way.

The 19th Annotation

The 19th Annotation is the complete Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, adapted for people living ordinary lives. Rather than entering a 30-day silent retreat, you make the full journey over nine months — one week at a time, in the middle of your work, your relationships, your everyday world. It is a slow, unhurried pilgrimage through the life of Christ — from creation to resurrection — designed to deepen your love for God, increase your freedom in Him, and form you from the inside out. This is not a study program. It is an encounter. By the end, you will know yourself differently, and you will know God more.

Ready to begin? Explore She Who Dwells.

A Christian mystic is one who is comfortable with the mystery of God — comfortable, too, with the limits of their own understanding. Rather than demanding certainty, the mystic leans into the unknown as a form of trust.

At the heart of the mystical life is a longing for union with God — not merely knowledge about God, but a lived, embodied experience of God's presence, love, and movement in the ordinary moments of life. The mystic believes that God is not distant but near, not silent but speaking, not absent but woven into the fabric of everything.

Christian mystics who have shaped my own contemplative journey include Howard Thurman, Teresa of Avila, and Lerita Coleman Brown.

Consolation and desolation are two of the most practical concepts in Ignatian spirituality. Consolation is what you feel when you are moving toward God — a sense of peace, joy, hope, or deepening love even in the middle of difficult circumstances. Desolation is the opposite — a heaviness, restlessness, or spiritual dryness that pulls you away from God and toward isolation and doubt. Ignatius teaches us to pay attention to both. Neither is permanent. But both are speaking. Learning to read consolation and desolation is like learning a new language — the language God uses to guide you from the inside out.

Contemplative spirituality is the ancient practice of slowing down to pay attention to God. It is less about doing and more about being — learning to notice where God is already present and active in your everyday life. While the word may be unfamiliar, the longing behind it is not. If you have ever sat in church and felt something stir in you that the sermon could not quite reach, you already know what contemplative spirituality is pointing toward.

Discernment is the practice of learning to recognize God's voice and respond to His invitations. It is what you do when you are facing a decision and you want more than your own opinion — you want to know what God thinks. But discernment is not only for big crossroads moments. It is also a way of moving through everyday life with your spiritual ears open, paying attention to what draws you closer to God and what pulls you away. The goal of discernment is not certainty. It is freedom — the freedom to say yes to God with your whole heart.

Disordered attachments are the things — people, roles, opinions, outcomes, comfort, control — that have quietly moved into the center of our lives and taken up space that belongs to God. They are not always bad things. In fact, they are often good things that have simply become too important. A disordered attachment is anything you cannot imagine surrendering — anything that, if God asked you to loosen your grip, would cause you to hesitate. Ignatius believed that naming and releasing our disordered attachments is essential to spiritual freedom. You cannot move freely toward God when something else has your whole heart.

The Examen is a simple daily prayer practice developed by Ignatius of Loyola. It invites you to look back over your day — not to judge yourself, but to notice. Where did you feel most alive? Where did you feel most distant from God? What was life-giving and what was draining? The Examen trains you to see your ordinary day as the place where God is speaking. It is less than fifteen minutes, and it will change the way you move through the world.

Holy indifference is one of those phrases that sounds cold until you understand what it actually means. It has nothing to do with not caring. It is the spiritual freedom to hold your preferences, plans, and outcomes loosely enough that you can say yes to God whatever He asks. It is the posture of Mary when she said let it be unto me according to your word. It is not the absence of desire — it is desire surrendered. Holy indifference is what happens when you want God's will more than you want your own way. It is one of the hardest and most liberating things you will ever cultivate.

Holy listening is sitting with someone and God in the manner of two children nestled in the same lap — the listener attending to the heartbeat of the other person and the heartbeat of God at the same time.

It is the creation of a safe, prayerful space where someone can speak honestly, be deeply heard, and begin to notice how God is already moving in their life — without being judged, rushed, or fixed. It is not problem-solving. It is not advice-giving. It is a deep form of love and care rooted in abiding in Christ and bearing the fruit of the Spirit.

Holy listening is the posture at the heart of spiritual direction. The term is explored with depth and beauty by Margaret Guenther in Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction.

Holy listening is at the heart of everything I do. Learn more about spiritual direction.

Ignatian Contemplation is a form of prayer that invites you to enter into a scripture passage using your imagination. Instead of reading about the story, you step inside it. You notice the sights, the sounds, the smells. You observe the people. At some point, you place yourself in the scene and meet Jesus there.

This may feel unfamiliar at first — many of us were never given permission to pray this way, or were taught to be suspicious of it. But your imagination is not a distraction from prayer. In Ignatian Contemplation, it becomes the very place where God meets you.

Lectio Divina is Latin for sacred reading. It is a slow, prayerful way of reading scripture that is less about studying the text and more about letting the text speak to you. Instead of reading to gather information, you read to encounter God. You read a short passage. You sit with whatever word or phrase catches your attention. You pray from that place. You listen. Lectio Divina is for the woman who has read the same scripture a hundred times and is ready to let it read her.

Spiritual direction is a sacred conversation between a trained spiritual director and someone seeking to grow deeper in their relationship with God. The spiritual director is not a counselor, a coach, or an advice-giver. She is a holy listener — someone who helps you pay attention to where God is already moving in your life and what He may be inviting you into. The Holy Spirit is the real director. We simply create space for Him to work.

Want to explore working together? Learn more about spiritual direction.

The Spiritual Exercises are a collection of prayers, meditations, and contemplative practices developed by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century after a profound encounter with God during a long recovery from a battle wound. They were designed to help people clear away whatever gets in the way of their relationship with God and move toward greater freedom and clarity in following Him. In their fullest form, the Exercises take place over 30 days in silence. Most of us, however, encounter them through shorter adaptations designed for people living ordinary lives — which is exactly where God meets us anyway.