In the Present Tense

The Australian Jesuits recently published a 2018 poem of Caleb Ryan. Mr. Ryan is a religious education teacher; he “was part of a Jesuit Leadership Pilgrimage that saw him and a group of his peers walk in the footsteps of Ignatius through France, Spain and Italy.”

“A Basque Man Who Came to Know God” describes St. Ignatius of Loyola conversion story. It also considers the life-pilgrimage of Jesus as well as contemporary people with the goal of becoming “suitably free.”

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Image of O.L. of Montserrat at Manresa Jesuit Retreat House, Bloomifield Hills, MI by PDP

To Navigate What 2021 Brings

"We’re entering another year, one that I hope is marked by less volatility, uncertainty and chaos. But if it’s not, we can navigate it soberly if we learn the way of St. Ignatius: Cultivate a bonded attachment with the Giver instead of the gifts.” The words close Seth Haines’ 01 January 21 article in America Magazine. That “bonded attachment” is not limited to a few. 

St. Ignatius helped me get sober as a Protestant—and stay sober in 2020 as a Catholic @sethhaines https://t.co/GqOCkszs9X

— America Magazine (@americamag) January 1, 2021

Letting Go

The pandemic has removed things and activities from daily life. Clinging to them prevents choosing wisely to remain healthy. Clinging also denies opportunities to grow, even to notice God’s invitations to more life.

Jesuit Brother Joe Hoover suggested that “when we are asked to do a simple thing that makes sense, like letting things go during a ferocious pandemic, it might be God is preparing us to receive something profound in return.”

Sometimes it is just that simple. Christ often comes in what is common, clothed in what makes sense; in wisdom trite, cliched and earth-shattering. https://t.co/kt3RZiHwCb

— America Magazine (@americamag) December 9, 2020

Keeping Balanced

Consequential means stressful. Degrees of feeling stress vary by person. The U.S. Election stresses many even beyond that nation’s borders. Ignatian spirituality can help us regain balance during and after the election.

Stressed? Despairing? Freaking out? Here are some Jesuit tools to help you get through the election and its aftermath. https://t.co/1QoZS6Iedq

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) November 2, 2020

Today’s Jesuit Saint

Although the celebration of Sunday takes precedence on most feasts and memorials of saints, room for devotion to a day’s saint abides. In the opinion of St. Ignatius of Loyola St. Pierre Favre gave the Spiritual Exercises better than anyone. Edel McClean helps us appreciate Pierre’s personal qualities.

Edel McClean introduces today's #saint, an early #Jesuit who was admired by all who knew him but plagued by self-doubt: #PierreFavre. https://t.co/LNqpIlXmer

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) August 2, 2020

Thinking 'Chrisitan' = Thinking Differently

Thinking the same way as other social groupings does no think with the mind of Jesus. Radical individualism modern, Western people take for granted did not exist in the time of Jesus; it did not exist when the scriptures written about him and homilies proclaimed him and his risen life.

Helen Orchard contrasted “St Ignatius Loyola’s approach in the Spiritual Exercises with that of modern spiritualities that can mask a self-indulgent individualism. …while the Spiritual Exercises begins with the human person, he or she does not exist in isolation as the centre of a universe around which all else revolves.”

‘Thy will be done’ or ‘follow your bliss’? https://t.co/j8uXmbiumE #spirituality #AMDG

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) July 13, 2020

Asking Correct Questions

Relationship: relationship with God and relationships with others mutually illuminate. Can possessions hinder a relationship, even put it in jeopardy?  Meet Shannon Evans. She ponders these questions in central Iowa where she lives with her husband and their five children. As Shannon ponders she makes Ignatian spirituality more accessible.

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Wiki-image circular shape created using light painting by “Subhrajyoti07 | CC BY-SA 4.0"

Prayer Vigil Saturday Evening

Choose to participate at 8 p.m. in one of three time zones named at the web site.

It has been a long, hard winter.

But as people of faith & good will, we believe not only will it pass, but that we can be stronger together.

This Saturday, join the millions in the Ignatian family around the world for an #IgnatianPentecost Prayer Vigil.https://t.co/2f4xfLDWs4 pic.twitter.com/BpBm4wX4To

— Society of Jesus (@TheJesuits) May 25, 2020

Global Prayer on Vigil of Pentecost

The global Ignatian family—millions of people “in more than 100 countries”—will pray on the vigil of Pentecost, 31 May. People may choose to participate at 8 p.m. in one of three time zones named at the web site.

Have you ever been part of a world-wide prayer vigil? Join the global Ignatian family on May 30 as we welcome the Holy Spirit. #TogetherAMDG #IgnatianPentecost check us out at https://t.co/bmpwO5F5TS and choose your time.

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 28, 2020

Learning from St. Ignatius of Loyola

When people freely isolate themselves, they fare better than when circumstances limit their freedom. Retreat—which one may not immediately classify as isolation—is freely chosen. Dealing with shifting moods on retreat happens. Knowing the end-date of retreat is one help.

Pandemic isolation is less easy to choose, yet people choose it to respect the lives of others and self.  Jesuit David Lonsdale recalled that St. Ignatius of Loyola experienced both “necessary” and “voluntary self-isolation”. His “reflections on his experience of isolation…can offer us valuable help in our present circumstances.”

In a time of pandemic, when many of us are struggling to find hope, or to live in charity with ourselves and others, the prayer of ‘Contemplation for love of God’ in the #SpiritualExercises can help as an effective response. https://t.co/sg0GUkpI9u #coronavirus #AMDG

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 27, 2020

Bring Them Along

One help to praying that St. Ignatius of Loyola counselled was: engage with anyone present in a scripture that focuses one’s prayer. The Ascension of Jesus involves his disciples. It helps prayer to bring them along, particularly if we are grieving.

What Jesus’ ascension can teach us about coping with grief https://t.co/BkCqddTjqk

— America Magazine (@americamag) May 21, 2020

Mindfulness: New and Old

Y ale Medicine posted some physicians recommend the practice of mindfulness to help “patients cope with illness and the anxiety related to it.” A program developed in 1970 undergirds this contribution to health care.

People of faith recognize familiar elements in the practice that are older than 50 years. Jesuit Chris Krall noted 16^th-Century Christian foundations.

Modern neuroscience advocates the use of imagination and attention to bodily sensations as treatments for the long-term effects of trauma, but this approach is nowhere near as novel as it might sound, argues Chris Krall SJ. https://t.co/PblXQA5jmJ #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #AMDG pic.twitter.com/VwkXYoQ6VD

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 23, 2020

God Cherishes Deeds

Genuinely caring what another thinks, cherishing the actions of another: the result of both is a deeper relationship. It is so with God. Ignatian praying allows one to feel God cherishing, respecting, vivifying oneself. Spiritual director Tim McEvoy considered a dictum of St. Ignatius of Loyola: actions for others exceed words. Praying allows actors to notice and share God's delight. 

How does @Pontifex call us to transform our culture in order to care for our common home in #Laudatosi? https://t.co/9gpKaUrJQd

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) May 16, 2020

Earth-Time Letter from Ignatius

If one were to ask today some counsel from St. Ignatius of Loyola it might contain the 5 points in this “letter from heaven" written in “Earth time.”

What would the founder of the Jesuits say about coping well with #covid19 ? Here's a letter from heaven with some down to earth advice from St #ignatius. https://t.co/EVkZh845o4@NSintobin @JamesMartinSJ @JesuitsBritain pic.twitter.com/BxXWqXziC0

— Irish Jesuits (@jesuits_ireland) March 16, 2020

30-Day At-Home Retreat

Jesuit Mark Thibodeaux will be offering the retreat beginning this Saturday. His introduction is the video in this tweet posted by Jesuit Quang Tran.

30-Day-At-Home #Ignatian Retreat starting this Saturday with #Jesuit Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, SJ, author and former Novice Master of @JesuitsUCS Province https://t.co/rLdwdiDixr

— Quang D. Tran, S.J. (@LeMeTellUSumtin) April 22, 2020

More Resources

The Jesuits of Britain have "have put together some of our resources so that you can find ways to be near Jesus and pray with others around the world at this difficult time.”

In this time of crisis we are asked to spend more time at home and are not able to get to church. On Pathways to God you will find a collection of resources and ideas to help you be near Jesus and pray with others around the world at this difficult time. https://t.co/i6Y4d8fxLU pic.twitter.com/7wYwalnY1p

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 20, 2020

Thought Experiment

Iona Reid-Dalglish is a spiritual director and a member of the retreat team at St Beuno's Jesuit Spirituality Centre. In 2018 she offered a “thought experiment” to help her readers appreciate “four key things [Iona suggested] that Ignatian spiritual direction might tell us about encountering the risen Christ.”

The pandemic has upended everyone’s patterns of living. Our spiritual lives are as deeply or more deeply affected. The “four key things [about] Ignatian spiritual direction” remain valid. “Encountering the risen Christ” is a prescription very much in need.

What does the framework of Ignatian spiritual direction tell us about how we meet the risen Christ in our everyday lives? https://t.co/7oM0sBPmHG

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 13, 2020

Meaning of It

The Pope’s British biographer and Pope Francis conversed. Their conversation was published today. Francis spoke of the “meaning of the coronavirus pandemic.” His biographer, “Austen Ivereigh reveals exclusively to Thinking Faith how the interview—the pope’s first for English-language Catholic publications—came about, and how the pope sees a world in crisis being offered the chance to change.”

[Links to their conversation are at the end of this exclusive.]

Remembering our future: @Pontifex speaks to @austeni about the #corona crisis: https://t.co/0essHuseUF

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 8, 2020

Tackling Head On

Physical distancing is gradually replacing the contradictory phrase, social distancing. Physical distance was from the first and remains the way to lower infections among people. Humans, though, desire to come together; our inability to do so is the source of unease and pain as we cope. Working against our instinct is crucial to keep well and keep others well. Questions arise:

What form can love take when deprived of its touch, its immediacy, its flesh and bones? How do I still respond compassionately and humanely to the needs of others around me, even though physically separated from them?

      These are big questions that might challenge each of us in different ways. Of course, love takes many and varied forms depending on the concrete circumstances in which it finds itself.

At Thinking Faith spiritual director Tim McEvoy helps readers navigate these questions from the tradition of Ignatian spirituality.

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Wiki-image Symbol for collaboration by “pixabay free images | CC0"

Sunday word, 16 Feb 20

6th Sunday of the Year (16 Feb 2020)

Sir 15. 15-20; Ps 119; 1Co 2.6-10; Mt 5. 17-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., Close of Spiritual Exercises

“Deepest Loves”

Jesus reformed torah to be more humane. For Jesus interior states are more godlike than visible actions. Wednesday we heard Jesus: from within, from the heart of a person, come evils [that] defile one.¹ Today Jesus invites “to high holiness that we have…not seen or heard about.”² We personally have received from our triune God that same invitation—as each of us needed to hear it.

The late Jesuit John Kavanaugh revealed he had received it from the same Spiritual Exercises. He noted that

The Sermon on the Mount…is an excavation into our deepest loves, so that seeing what we love most, we will finally be given our heart’s desire. But it is a harrowing trip down into the mines of our motivation.³

Christ Jesus who announced his reformed torah constantly accompanies us. We neither excavate nor journey alone. Before we part let each of us share the singular grace we received from making these Spiritual Exercises.

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1. Mark 7.21-23.
2. “The Revolution Jesus Announced,” The Word Embodied.
3. Ibid.

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Wiki-images: Sermon of the Beatitudes. PD-US