Rome and the Gesù

I arrived in Rome in mid-afternoon Friday.

After getting settled into the small lodging, I had to decide how to best use the time I had left that afternoon.

I decided to look to my Jesuit roots; I have my undergraduate degree from the Jesuit University of Scranton and my Ph.D. from Boston College, and I deeply appreciate Ignatian spirituality, the witness of Jesuits like the martyred Jesuits of th UCA in El Salvador, and the writings of the late Dean Brackley and of the Salvadoran theologian Jon Sobrino.

So I went first to the Gesù church, which is very Baroque. (I almost called it a Baroque monstrosity.)

Much of the church was roped off and so I didn't get close to the tomb of Ignatius or the relic of the arm of St. Francis Xavier, with which he baptized thousands in India and other places in the Far East. Nor could I get close to the image of the Madonna Della Strada.

So I sought out the rooms of St. Ignatius in the building next door. I entered and soon ran across a young US Jesuit explaining the exhibit in the rooms on the first floor, I passed him and headed upstairs.

There is what was Ignatius' office and bedroom, as well as the chapel, where he said Mass and where he died.

I looked around and when the young Jesuit came I listened in.  What really was important though was just sitting in the chapel for probably close to half an hour.

I sat without much attempt to develop any thoughts. It as enough just to be there.

Yet, all of a sudden, I recalled the "Suscipe" prayer of St. Ignatius, especially the sung version:

Take, Lord, receive all my liberty,
My memory, my understanding, my entire will....
Give me only your love and your grace;
That's enough for me.

This prayer was all sort a culmination of the message and sense I had of Francis and the Gospel in Assisi.

Give me yourself, trust in me.

I prayed and felt the peace of that call, as well as the challenge of mission and trust in the loving Providence of God.

Stirring the spark into flame

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.