spiritual exercises
Practices for transcendence
Spiritual exercises are practices undertaken to develop religious devotion, moral discipline, or inner growth.
The term encompasses prayer, meditation, fasting, contemplation, and similar activities meant to strengthen one's relationship with the divine or cultivate virtue.
Most famously, it refers to the structured retreat program developed by Saint Ignatius of Loyola for Catholic practitioners.
More broadly, any deliberate practice aimed at spiritual development: Her morning spiritual exercises included scripture reading and silent meditation.
- prayerAddress to deity
- contemplationSustained reflective attention
- meditationFocused attention practice
- JesuitsIgnatian Catholic religious order
- asceticismSevere self-denial practice
discernment · spiritual director · retreat center · Ignatius · mysticism · finding God · breathwork · introspection · self-awareness · soul searching · fasting · labyrinths · Loyola · chanting · Catholicism · centering · theology · sacred texts
- CatholicismVatican, cardinals, pope, Holy Communion, popes
- contemplationcontemplation, meditation, reflection, pondering, musing
- meditationbreathing meditation, breath, breath meditation, mantra, breathing
- devotional literaturedevotionals, devotions, prayer books, meditations, breviaries
- devotionsdaily devotions, daily devotion, devotional, devotionals, devotions
- Penanceconfession booth, act of contrition, contrition, penitent, public penance
spiritual exercisesgoing through the motions
Performing without genuine effort
spiritual exercisescalisthenics
Equipment-free resistance exercises
gym workout · bodybuilding · somatic practices · weight training · physical therapy