Feast Of St. Ignatius Of Loyola

[Era Might]

Does anyone have any thoughts on Ignatian / Jesuit spirituality, or resources. Today is his feast day. The Pope's homily is here:

 

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/07/31/pope_francis_celebrates_mass:_a_jesuit_perspective_/en1-715795

 

He's a Jesuit, if you didn't know.

 

 

 

And I come to the final point. In the Gospel, Jesus says to us: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it . . . If anyone is ashamed of me . . .” (Lk 9:23). And so on. The shame of the Jesuit. The invitation that Jesus makes is for us to never be ashamed of Him, but to always follow Him with total dedication, trusting Him and entrusting ourselves to Him. But looking at Jesus, as Saint Ignatius teaches us in the First Week, above all looking at Christ crucified, we have that very human and noble feeling that is the shame of not reaching the highest point; we look at the wisdom of Christ and at our ignorance; at His omnipotence and our weakness; at His justice and our iniquity; at His goodness and our wickedness (cf. Sp. Ex. 59). Ask for the grace of shame; the shame that comes from the constant dialogue of mercy with Him; the shame that makes us blush before Jesus Christ; the shame that puts us in tune with the heart of Christ who is made sin for me; the shame that harmonises our heart in tears and accompanies us in the daily following of “my Lord”. And this always brings us, as individuals and as a Company, to humility, to living this great virtue. Humility that makes us understand, each day, that it is not for us to build the Kingdom of God, but it is always the grace of God working within us; humility that pushes us to put our whole being not at the service of ourselves and our own ideas, but at the service of Christ and of the Church, like clay pots, fragile, inadequate, insufficient, but having within them an immense treasure that we carry and that we communicate (2 Cor. 4:7). It is always pleasant for me to think of the sunset of the Jesuit, when a Jesuit finishes his life, when the sun goes down. And two icons of the sunset of the Jesuit always come to me: one classical, that of Saint Francis Xavier, looking at China. Art has painted this sunset so many times, this ‘end’ of Xavier. Even in literature, in that beautiful peace by Pemàn. At the end, having nothing, but in the sight of the Lord; it does me good to thing about this. The other sunset, the other icon that comes to me as an example, is that of Padre Arrupe in the last interview in the refugee camp, when he told us – something he himself said – “I say this as if it were my swan song: pray.” Prayer, the union with Jesus. And, after having said this, he caught the plane, and arrived at Rome with the stroke that was the beginning of so long and so exemplary a sunset. Two sunsets, two icons that all of us would do well to look at, and to go back to these two. And to ask for the grace that our sunset will be like theirs.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Era Might

[Apotheoun]

I prefer the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Antioch.   :smile3:

[Era Might]

I prefer the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Antioch.   :smile3:

 

Actually, they're pretty similar figures in terms of their approach to life, both very actively spiritual and driven by soldierly imagery.

 

"From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated." — Ignatius to the Romans

[Oremoose]

 

 

 

 

[Oremoose]

Two Words....Spiritual. Exercises.



 

[Era Might]

Two Words....Spiritual. Exercises.



 

Can you expand for people who haven't done them.

[Apotheoun]

Actually, they're pretty similar figures in terms of their approach to life, both very actively spiritual and driven by soldierly imagery.

 

"From Syria even to Rome I fight with wild beasts, by land and sea, by night and by day, being bound amidst ten leopards, even a company of soldiers, who only grow worse when they are kindly treated." — Ignatius to the Romans

St. Ignatius of Antioch's spirituality is far more incarnational and medicinal than that of the later saint of that name, but then he is a man of his own time just as St. Ignatius of Loyola is a man of his time (i.e., the counter-Reformation era).

[Era Might]

St. Ignatius of Antioch's spirituality is far more incarnational and medicinal than that of the later saint of that name, but then he is a man of his own time just as St. Ignatius of Loyola is a man of his time (i.e., the counter-Reformation era).

 

What do you mean by incarnational and medicinal?

[Oremoose]

Can you expand for people who haven't done them.

 

 

Well The best way that I can Explain is that is  is like Boot camp for your soul.

 

It is supposed to be a month long retreat but I have been on 2 four days and 2 eight day. complete silence. Awesome topics, not to mention reforms of life (an attack plan to identity your root sin and eliminate it)!

[Spem in alium]

Just read this book - "Finding God in All Things: A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius". It goes through each "Week" of the Exercises and each chapter has questions for prayer and discussion. Truly amazing book and I definitely recommend it.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Finding-God-All-Things-Companion/dp/0877934606

[Apotheoun]

What do you mean by incarnational and medicinal?

What I mean by incarnational is that the incarnation of the Logos is seen as the primary means of our salvation, for it is only because of the union of God and man in one person that salvation (i.e., the restoration of the created order) could take place. As far as the second term is concerned, I am contrasting the common Eastern patristic notion that sin is an illness that needs healing to the dominant Western notion of sin as a breaking of a law that requires justification as a legal form of forgiveness, which is an idea that has permeated both Protestant and Roman Catholic thought since the time of the Reformation and the counter-Reformation. Another way of putting this is that the Eastern focus is on theosis, while the Western focus is placed on legal justification.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Apotheoun

[arfink]

The Exercises are pretty good. They aren't something you only do once in your life, you can (and many people do) do them several times. When you go into the Exercises it is usually because you are seeking some particular grace and/or healing.

 

WARNING: SPOILERS! If you are planning to do the exercises soon, please don't read this next part.

 

[spoiler]

You start with meditations on sin and hell. Then you do meditations on Christ as King, contemplating his Incarnation, the Nativity, the flight to Egypt, and that sort of time period of Jesus as a child. Then you do mediations on Christ's public life. Then you go into what is normally called the Election stage, which is where you begin to do discernment. This is where the graces you are seeking come into focus a bit more. Then of course you do meditations on Christ's passion and death, and finally the resurrection.

 

Through all these experiences you are supposed to be on the lookout for the graces you are seeking, to find ways to be closer to Christ and hear His will for you. It's obviously far more involved than that, but that's kinda the basics.

[/spoiler]

[Era Might]

What I mean by incarnational is that the incarnation of the Logos is seen as the primary means of our salvation, for it is only because of the union of God and man in one person that salvation (i.e., the restoration of the created order) could take place. As far as the second term is concerned, I am contrasting the common Eastern patristic notion that sin is an illness that needs healing to the dominant Western notion of justification as a legal form of forgiveness, which is an idea that has permeated both Protestant and Roman Catholic thought since the time of the Reformation and the counter-Reformation. Another way of putting this is that the Eastern focus is on theosis while the Western focus is place on legal justification.

 

Sounds like your ideas of incarnation and medicine jive very much with St. Ignatius. The premise of the Company of Jesus is to be companions with Christ in his mission, like the Apostles accompanied him. Jesuits take that "restoration" to many different contexts, and "incarnate" it. "All for the glory of God." Jesuits take things and make them the best they can be.

[Apotheoun]

Sounds like your ideas of incarnation and medicine jive very much with St. Ignatius. The premise of the Company of Jesus is to be companions with Christ in his mission, like the Apostles accompanied him. Jesuits take that "restoration" to many different contexts, and "incarnate" it. "All for the glory of God." Jesuits take things and make them the best they can be.

I have never heard of Ignatius of Loyola seeing Christ as the Great Physician or referring to Him in that way, but I have not by any means read everything written by the man. What I have read tends to make me think of a more Western approach to salvation, which is focused more on justification rather than deification. The Eastern approach also involves participation in God's being directly through His energies, and not through the Western notion of created grace, but perhaps the Jesuits reject created grace. If they do I would love to read the texts that address that issue.

[Era Might]

I have never heard of Ignatius of Loyola seeing Christ as the Great Physician or referring to Him in that way, but I have not by any means read everything written by the man. What I have read tends to make me think of a more Western approach to salvation, which is focused more on justification rather than deification. The Eastern approach also involves participation in God's being directly through His energies, and not through the Western notion of created grace, but perhaps the Jesuits reject created grace. If they do I would love to read the texts that address that issue.

 

St. Ignatius, interestingly, was converted in the hospital, after a great life-threatening injury. The Great Physician is central to his story. :)