Abstract

The article provides a comparison of the spiritual journeys of Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila, highlighting above all the common elements. Both start from the essential need for the acceptance by man of his spiritual poverty and the experience of the forgiveness of sins, feeling deeply loved by God in spite of their unfaithfulness. Then they bring up the struggle of the soul against the enemy of human nature who seeks in every way to prevent them from going any further along the spiritual path which they have undertaken. Both experience then preparation for union with God, implemented by the Lord Himself through His divine pedagogy in their regard, until, for Ignatius, he reached the point of the “illumination of Cardoner” and the vision at La Storta, as a mystical experience of loving service, and for Teresa, of engagement and of spiritual marriage, of nuptial and spousal mysticism which, at one and the same time is both the source and the basis of the downward movement, from top to bottom, which is characteristic both of Ignatian and of Teresian spirituality. Both mystical experiences lead the soul to a great forgetfulness of self, as it is now completely devoted to working for the honor of God, by now perceived as the Presence of personal love.