Easter 2026 - Reading #10 - Piety
Reading
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in the Spiritual Exercises, teaches a method of prayer that cultivates the gift of piety through intimate conversation with God: "The colloquy is made, properly speaking, as one friend speaks to another, or as a servant to a master, now asking for some grace, now accusing oneself for some wrong done, now telling one's affairs, and asking counsel about them."
Ignatius further instructs: "In making the colloquy, one should reflect in oneself what one ought to say to the three Divine Persons, or to the eternal Word incarnate, or to His Mother, according to the subject matter, asking what one most desires. The prayer should be made with great reverence and humility."
For Ignatius, prayer is not a monologue directed at the ceiling but a genuine conversation, marked by the same honesty, vulnerability, and directness that characterize any deep friendship. The gift of piety, in the Ignatian tradition, is cultivated precisely through this practice of personal, dialogical prayer, where the soul speaks to God as to a trusted confidant and listens for God's response in the movements of consolation and desolation.
Reflection
Eleven days into Easter, Ignatius teaches us what piety looks like in daily practice: it looks like conversation. Not formal recitation (though that has its place) but the raw, honest dialogue of a person speaking to someone they trust. "As one friend speaks to another", this is the Ignatian definition of prayer, and it is piety in action.
Many of us learned to pray formulaically, memorized words, fixed postures, prescribed times. These are valuable, and the tradition rightly treasures them. But Ignatius understood that the gift of piety, if it is to take root, requires something more: the willingness to speak to God in our own words, from our own situation, with our own questions and struggles and gratitude. The colloquy is the place where doctrine becomes relationship, where the God we believe in becomes the God we talk to.
During Lent, we practiced many forms of discipline and self-examination. Now, in the Easter season, the emphasis shifts from what we are giving up to what we are receiving, and one of the greatest gifts is the capacity for this kind of prayer. If your prayer life has been formulaic, this week is an invitation to experiment with the Ignatian colloquy. Sit with God. Tell him what is on your mind. Ask for what you need. Accuse yourself of what you have done wrong, not with groveling but with the honesty of a child who trusts their father's mercy. And then listen. The gift of piety makes the conversation possible; the practice of prayer makes it real.