July 31 is the feast of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the
Jesuits.
I have been blest to have studied in two Jesuit universities
(the University of Scranton for my undergraduate degree and Boston College for
my doctorate).
I have also been privileged to have met some good Jesuits, one
of my favorites was Father Dean Brackley, S.J. After the 1989 martyrdom of the
six Jesuits at the San Salvador University of Central America (UCA), he joined
their faculty. He died in October 2011 of pancreatic cancer.
One of Dean’s books, The
Call to Discernment in Troubled Times, has been extremely significant for
my life, particularly helpful as I discerned whether God was rally calling me
to Honduras. (I heartily recommend the book, now available in Spanish
translation from the UCA.)
In this book Dean wrote:
“The spirituality we associate with [St. Ignatius] is all about tending the flame in us, as it is purified, flourishes, or even flags, and stirring the fire in others.”
In
2003 I went to Peru with a group sponsored by Maryknoll and the Catholic Campus
Ministry Association. In Cusco we met with some university students and I sad a
few words to them. After the meeting ended, I approached a group of students
and one asked me, “You have such chispa.
How do you keep it up?” (Chispa is Spanish for “spark.”)
My immediate answer
– without even thinking – was: My contact with students and my direct
contact with the poor, especially in El Salvador. As I reflected later, I would
have to add that I also need daily time for quiet prayer in the morning
About
a year later I was experiencing some conflicts in my ministry. I had sought out
a spiritual director and told her that I felt that the spark in me was growing
faint. In many ways I was asking the Lord to breathe on it and make it
burn more strongly.
This brought to mind for me a passage from Isaiah 42: 3:
“A bruised reed he will not crush, nor will he snuff out a smoldering wick.”
My spiritual director and a counselor helped God restore the
spark in me.
Now in Honduras I feel that God is keeping this spark alive,
stirring it into flame, as I work with the poor.
I also see that God is working through me to help stir the
fire in others. The last few weeks I have seen some marvelous advances in the
lives and ministries of so many people in the Dulce Nombre parish. God is truly
stirring the sparks into flame and I’ve been privileged to be part of this
process.
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2 comments:
Here's a link to a short biography of St. Ignatius Loyola: http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=5267
Brackley's book is extremely good. I can also recommend "Ignatius of Loyola. Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works" (G. E. Ganss, ed., 1991, Paulist Press) for those interested in Ignatius' life and methods. Ignatius' contemplation was more kataphatic, while Brackley was more apophatic. But the two agreed that we learn from both pleasant and unpleasant spiritual experiences and should not seek one or the other.
This idea traces back perhaps to the desert father Evagrius, who saw all beings, whether angels, devils, or humans as progressions on a ladder toward God. If one keeps on bumping into devils, it's a hint one is traveling the wrong direction, whereas the more angels one finds, the more apt one is to be on the right track. But even pleasant spiritual experiences can mislead one.
But this is doubtless familiar material for Dr. Brother John anything. :-)
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