WEEK 2 SEEKING WISDOM AND PURPOSE In the Second Week of the Exercises we commit ourselves to growth in wisdom and goodness. In this week we embrace our capacity to choose, set goals for our own growth, and seek to grow as human beings guided by our relationship with the divine and with the spiritual companions in our lives who want our growth and happiness. Ignatius’s intent for the second week is that we would consider the many ways that the life of Jesus provides us with a model for how to live. We consider especially Jesus’ teachings, how he taught people to live and the kind of God that his life revealed. If we understand Jesus to be the embodiment of humane qualities of kindness, care, justice—the one who notices who is not present, who searches for the one who is missing, who attends to the one who is in pain, and who teaches and models responsible care for others and right relationships—the Second Week is also a time for reflecting carefully on Jesus’s ways of interacting with others. We seek to learn from this example and to put it into practice—to cultivate our humane qualities and the gift of community.
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