St. Ignatius of Loyola composed his "Spiritual Exercises" from 1522 - 1524. He divided them into four weeks and designed them to be carried out over a period of 28 to 30 days. He wrote them with the intention of assisting people on religious retreats to discern the will of God in their lives.
The first meditation of the first week begins with “the considerations of the end of Man." It is the basis of the whole spiritual edifice, because it is necessary to know thoroughly the end for which God created us. Knowing our end, and knowing the end of creatures*, we must then rightly order our lives towards that end and have a holy indifference toward created goods by using them as a means to draw nearer to God, and avoiding them if they draw us away from God.
* By the word “creatures,” St. Ignatius means in general all things that are distinct from God and ourselves; all things we find in nature, in society, as well as in the supernatural order; all events, all states of life, all situations.
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Considerations on the end of man from the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola.
Foundation Man was created for a certain end. This end is to praise, to reverence and to serve the Lord his God and by this means to arrive at eternal salvation. All other beings and objects that surround us on the Earth were created for the benefit of man and to be useful to him, as a means to his final end; hence, his obligation to use, or to abstain from the use of, these creatures, according as they bring him nearer to that end or tend to separate him from it.
Hence, we must above all endeavor to establish in ourselves a complete indifference towards all created things, though the use of them may not be otherwise forbidden; not giving, as far as depends on us, any preference... but we must desire and choose definitely in everything what will lead us to the end of our creation.
The End of Man Man was created for this end: to praise, reverence and serve the Lord his God and by this means to arrive an eternal salvation.
I come from God, I belong to God, I am destined for God.
God is my first principle, my sovereign master, and my last end.
The End of Creatures
All other beings and objects placed around an on earth have been created for him, to serve as means to assist him in the pursuit of the end for which he was created.
Creatures are for God through the medium of man. Creatures were formed for an end as well as myself, and this end is the glory of God; for God could only create for His glory.
Indifference to all Created Things If I should take from God the first place in my homage and substitute the creature in my thoughts and heart, I would be guilty of a species of idolatry. If I should use the beings that belong to him contrary to his will, I would be guilty of injustice.
To place my end in creatures would be to render myself miserable, for how can creatures constitute my happiness? Creatures are limited, full of imperfections, fragile and perishable, inconstant and unfaithful. What a void they would leave in my heart; what a source of disappointment and disgust; of regret, distrust and fear!
We must then above all things, endeavor to establish in ourselves a complete indifference with regard to all created things, even that of which the use is not forbidden us. Not preferring, as far as depends on us, health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to humiliation, a long life to a short one; since order requires that we wish for and choose in everything what will lead us most surely to the end for which we were created.
All creatures were given to man to lead him to this, his proper end.
How is it then that they so frequently draw him away from God and are the cause and instruments of his eternal ruin? This arises from the irregularity of our affections as regards creatures. The purpose of this meditation is to reform the disorder of our attachments and or aversions and to establish in us a perfect indifference. This indifference consists in neither seeking nor avoiding, with a free and deliberate will, any created thing for itself, but solely as it may bring us near to or separate us from God.
God is so perfect and so amiable that He ought to be loved above all things and that nothing ought to be loved except Him if I love creatures for themselves, for the pleasure they procure for me, soon perhaps I should place them above God himself.
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Rules for the Practice of Indifference:
In the use of creatures, only esteem and desire what leads to God. All the rest is useless for his glory and man's salvation.
In the use of creatures, firmly resolve to fly from all that God forbids, mortal sin, vinyl sin, and the occasion of both.
In the case of indifferent creatures, that is to say, of things that in themselves neither bring us nearer nor lead us farther from God, we must cease to feel indifference toward them only as it accords with the rule of the will of God.
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