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Tag: Ignatius Loyola

The wounded Ignatius responds to God’s call at Loyola

I delivered this talk for the Christian Life Community Asia Pacific online gathering for the start of the Ignatian year on Saturday 15 May 2021.

We start this Ignatian Year in the middle of a global pandemic. Like Ignatius in 1521, our lives have changed course this year. Just as for Ignatius, God is calling us through our experience.

Our beloved Ignatius was hit by a cannon ball 500 years ago this week, while leading his fellow soldiers into battle at Pamplona. Returning to his family home in Loyola to recover, his injuries confined him to a bedroom and he was reliant on the care of others. He asked for books to read: tales of soldiers like him who excelled in chivalry, power and glory. Ignatius accepted the only books available: The Lives of the Saints and The Life of Christ. He began to imagine and daydream over his desires for the future.

Ignatius’ active imagination left him feeling tired. However there was a difference between the two kinds of thoughts he experienced. The desires and dreams for personal glory with armour and romance gave him temporary delight which soon faded away. The desires and dreams toward giving service to God left him feeling deep satisfaction and joy for a long time.

God spoke to Ignatius through his experience. The reflective Ignatius discovered the movements of the heart which lead to God and away from God – his initial grasp of ‘the discernment of spirits’. As insight dawned, Ignatius listened deeply and so heard God’s call. He responded to this call with an open, generous and trusting heart.

The painful injury and long recovery gave Ignatius an opportunity to begin life again. Who he was, what life was for, and how God moved, could all be seen from a new perspective. Ignatius walked away from Loyola as a pilgrim.

This graced story of God at work through injury, pain, transformation and recovery can help us to live this time of pandemic. Pope Francis writes in Let us Dream: “A ‘stoppage’ can always be a good time for sifting, for reviewing the past, for remembering with gratitude who we are, what we have been given, and where we have gone astray. These are moments in life that can be ripe for change and conversion. Each of us has had their own “stoppage”, or if we haven’t yet, we will someday: illness, the failure of a marriage or a business, some great disappointment or betrayal. As in the COVID lockdown, those moments generate a tension, a crisis that reveals what is in our hearts.”

As with Ignatius’ experience, this pandemic has placed a stoppage on our former lives. We no longer travel to the same rhythms as before. We have been at home much more than usual, just like Ignatius at Loyola. Our communities and members have experienced pain, grief, lost jobs, upheaval for livelihoods, long lockdowns, family members contracting the virus, and the deaths of loved ones. Countless things have changed for us, some we do not understand. We have encountered our faith from a new perspective. Some CLC communities rightly describe this pandemic as a defining time in our lives.

In this meeting let us listen to God at work in our hearts. Let us open ourselves to hear God’s call. Let us reflect deeply and share with trust in each other.

We ask God our Lord for grace, that we may live this time with open and generous hearts. Saint Ignatius, pray for us!

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The wounded Ignatius is transformed at Loyola

On Saturday 15 May 2021, CLC in Asia-Pacific met for a virtual meeting celebrating the start of the Ignatian Year. The Jesuits and wider Ignatian family are marking 500 years since Saint Ignatius of Loyola was injured on 20 May 1521 while leading troops into battle at Pamplona. His subsequent transformation became evident while recovering in his family home at Loyola.

I wrote a reflection “Ignatius responds to God’s call at Loyola”, which was used as an input for reflection, and then members shared in small break-out rooms. I wrote the following two poems on the morning of the meeting.

Ignatius and transformation

He was struck low in body
and found himself low in spirit.
Wounded physically and mentally
recovery would take a long time:
he could not skip any stage
but be drawn slowly towards life
by the God of life. This much
is true: that pain can open windows
into transformation, and gentle light
wakes the sleeping heart.
A long season spent dreaming and hoping
will prepare you to embrace a larger world,
one of service and glad reconciling,
of graced relationships. You do not know
where you are going, but a trusting
heart is what matters.

A reflection corner
I prepared a reflection corner for the day. Clockwise from top left: Mary, Empress of China; a gift to the members of the CLC Asia-Pacific animating team on their election in Korea late in 2019 – each member was given one letter out of “CLC AP”; a statue of Ignatius placing his sword down before the Black Madonna at the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat; a contemporary translation of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises which I prayed with during my 2011 30 day retreat; Open My Eyes, a hymn we sing at my parish; a crucifix bought at Los Angeles cathedral; a quote from St Paul in English and Chinese bought while in Hong Kong in late 2019.

Postscript

Grace starts a person’s journey into thanksgiving
and praise – giving glory to God.
Each day made for us is good:
filled with encounters, leaning toward
gladness, opening a path to walk in.
Enthusiasm is a path into joy,
fullness of life in God’s presence.

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