16 Now it is recognised that among all the methods of Spiritual Exercises which very laudably adhere to the principles of sound Catholic asceticism one has ever held the foremost place and adorned by the full and repeated approbation of the Holy See and honoured by the praises of men, distinguished for spiritual doctrine and sanctity, has borne abundant fruits of holiness during the space of well nigh four hundred years; we mean the method introduced by St. Ignatius of Loyola, whom we are pleased to call the chief and peculiar Master of Spiritual Exercises whose "admirable book of Exercises" ever since it was solemnly approved, praised, and commended by our predecessor Paul III of happy memory, already to repeat some words we once used, before our elevation to the Chair of Peter, already we say "stood forth and conspicuous as a most wise and universal code of laws for the direction of souls in the way of salvation and perfection; an unexhausted fountain of most excellent and most solid piety; as a most keen stimulus, and a well instructed guide showing the way to secure the amendment of morals and attain the summit of the spiritual life." And when at the beginning of Our pontificate satisfying the most ardent desires and vows of sacred Prelates of almost the whole Catholic world from both Rites in the Apostolic Constitution Summorum Pontificum , given on July 22, 1922, We declared and constituted St. Ignatius of Loyola "the heavenly Patron of all Spiritual Exercises, and, therefore, of institutes, sodalities and bodies of every kind assisting those who are making the "Spiritual Exercises", we did little else but sanction by our supreme authority what was already proclaimed by the common feeling of Pastors and of the faithful; and what together with the aforesaid Paul III, our illustrious Predecessors Alexander VII, Benedict XIV, Leo XIII, had often said implicitly, when praising the Ignatian meditations, and what all those who, in the words of Leo XIII, had been most conspicuous "in the discipline of ascetic, or in sanctity or morals," during the last four hundred years had said by their praises and yet more by the example of the virtues which they had acquired in this arena. And in very deed, the excellence of spiritual doctrine altogether free from the perils and errors of false mysticism, the admirable facility of adapting the exercises to any order or state of man, whether they devote themselves to contemplation in the cloisters, or lead an active life in the affairs of the world, the apt co-ordination of the various parts, the wonderful and lucid order in the meditation of truths that seem to follow naturally one from another; and lastly the spiritual lessons which after casting off the yoke of sin and washing away the diseases inherent in his morals lead a man through the safe paths of abnegation and the removal of evil habits up to the supreme heights of prayer and divine love; without doubt all these are things which sufficiently show the efficacious nature of the Ignatian method and abundantly commend the Ignatian meditations.
Source: Mens Nostra (Vatican.va)