The Midwest Province’s recently retired vice president for advancement and communications reflects on Annotation 22, her favorite part of the Spiritual Exercises

By Kristine Mackey

I consider myself a loved sinner who keeps trying to gain meaningful spiritual legs, some days more successfully than others. But I’ve gained some traction in this pursuit by the beautiful words of the inimitable St. Ignatius of Loyola. The words are found in Annotation 22, a footnote, if you will, to the Spiritual Exercises. Intended to establish a relationship between a retreatant and a retreat master, the words have relevance for all relationships, especially those threatened by conflict.

In Annotation 22, St. Ignatius says, “It is necessary to suppose that every good Christian is more ready to put a good interpretation on another’s statement than to condemn it as false. If an orthodox construction cannot be put on a proposition, the one who made it should be asked how he understands it. If he is in error, he should be corrected with all kindness. If this does not suffice, all appropriate means should be used to bring him to a correct interpretation, and so to defend the proposition from error.”

Saint Ignatius gives us not only encouragement but a map for assuming goodness in our brothers and sisters. He implores us to assume the other’s best intentions, and to kindly challenge and educate when necessary. The word “kindly” is key. A kind heart is far more prone to offer forgiveness, not take offense at a slight, and achieve harmonious interactions.

For years I’ve contemplated the words in the Lord’s Prayer, particularly “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” which presents one of life’s greatest challenges. I long considered those words to mean that God was offering a quid pro quo, that if I could find true forgiveness for the person(s) who did me wrong, then I, too, could be forgiven. Only recently have I read that passage differently, realizing that if we embrace a truly loving God, there would be no offer of a quid pro quo. That truly loving God would assume the best in me, and would assume that I too would offer forgiveness to others, again with an assumption—this one being that I am a good person with good intentions.

This lightbulb came on for me as I re-read Annotation 22, in which St. Ignatius gives the most practical method for moving toward forgiveness—always assume best intentions!

Theologian Fr. Anthony R. Lusvardi, SJ, who teaches sacramental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, wrote the following about Annotation 22 and its importance in ensuring civility in discussion: “Attributing presumed motives to others shifts the discussion away from the issue and onto the person—and thus shifts it away from the question of truth as well. Moreover,

attributing motives to others always strikes a false note for me because knowing someone’s motives requires knowing their internal psychological states, a rather dubious proposition.”

Saint Ignatius’ practicality for us also appears in the preface of The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, where regarding a spirit of cooperation with God (and by extension our brothers and sisters), he writes, “What helps most on our own part toward cooperation must be, more than any exterior constitution, the interior law of charity and love which the Holy Spirit writes and engraves upon hearts.” It is yet another more specific description of the path to harmony with others, and therefore with God.

As a result of living in the 21st century, we risk consuming a spirit of divisiveness, of taking polarizing stances on topics that can contribute to estrangement from our friends and families. On the most basic level, we routinely hear negative rhetoric and sometimes we repeat it. The straightforward words of a canonized 16th-century writer—St. Ignatius—could turn our thinking around. Perhaps his words will inspire all of us to adjust our own practices, and to view the world and our own lives with the spirit and method described in Annotation 22.

In Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical letter, entitled Fratelli Tutti (“All Brothers”), he offers similar ways of understanding and loving each other. Further, he invokes the words of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas and others whose ideas about seeing the best in each human mirror St. Ignatius’ words. Fratelli Tutti is yet another rich resource as we seek practical paths to avoid conflict, live in harmony and offer forgiveness.