Center for Ignatian Spirituality (Phil)

CIS Jubilee Pilgrimage: A Jubilee Gift

2006-07-14T16:17:00.000+08:00

By: Riza Carasig

The Ignatian Pilgrimage is a retreat giver’s dream come true, a meeting of intense desires that cannot but find fulfillment. This was how our previous article described the pilgrimage being organized then by CIS. And we, who in one way or the other have been involved in this ministry of retreat-giving and spiritual direction, began to witness the unfolding and fulfillment of such a dream as we found ourselves together in the early morning of May 2, 2006.

It was the day our group was to leave for a three-week pilgrimage in Spain and Rome. Just a few days before this, we were all wondering how and where we could possibly celebrate mass. There was no concern as to who would say mass for the group since we were blessed to have in our company four wonderful Jesuits: Fr. Noel Vasquez, Fr. Vic Salanga, Fr. Arnie Bugtas and Fr. Totet Banaynal. Where to have the mass that day however was another matter. Hence, one of the early blessings in this pilgrimage came when we were given the permission to have mass at the airport chapel. Our Eucharistic Celebration that morning thus formally signaled the beginning of our pilgrimage. It was also our way of celebrating the birthday of Eva Galvey, former CIS Executive Director.

A Recap of the Pilgrimage ……

We left Manila that same morning, landed in Amsterdam early evening for our connecting flight and finally arrived in Madrid at close to midnight of May 2. We were met by fellow pilgrims Sr. Mely Vasquez, RSCJ and Maria Luna, who both left for Spain some days earlier.

The group stayed at the convent of the RSCJ in Madrid for 2 days and 3 nights. During this time we went to Toledo and Alcala – the place where Ignatius spent time to care for the sick. The place where he stayed was still there and the pilgrims were particularly thrilled seeing the kitchen in the house where Ignatius stayed and the well where he used to preach. In our trip to Alcala, we were joined by Madrid-based Fr. Louis Catalan. Of course, our stay in Madrid would have not been complete without seeing the cultural side of the place. So we likewise went to see the Royal Palace, the Prado Museum and the Plaza Real among others.

We left Madrid early morning of May 5 and made it to Avila where we visited the convent of St. Teresa. We had our mass at the convent’s chapel before leaving for Salamanca on the same day. Upon reaching Salamanca we went to the Spirituality Center of the Jesuits where we were met by its head, Fr Paco Arrondo. Salamanca was significant to Ignatius because it was one of the places he went to study. The group also went to San sebastian Church where Ignatius was allegedly held.

May 6 saw us heading to Loyola with a brief stop at the Burgos Cathedral on the way. We reached Loyola by mid-afternoon and immediately after taking our lunch we went to the Basilica of St Ignatius and of course the Santa Casa, the birthplace of Ignatius. That same day we met Fr. Lucio, the head of the Spirituality Center. And like in Salamanca, we had a glimpse of the work of CIS Philippines’ counterpart on this part of the globe. The pilgrims seemed not to have enough of the previous day’s visit to the holy house that majority of us opted not to go to the scheduled tour of San Sebastian and chose to spend the day relishing the place. Good choice for most of us because that gave us time to see Ermita de Magdalena, the chapel that was frequently visited by Ignatius. It was here where Ignatius was said to have formed his devotion to the Blessed Mother. The highlight of our visit in Loyola was the Sunday mass held at the Chapel of Conversion.

Even if we wanted to stay longer in the place of Ignatius, we could not keep his other companion waiting so off we went to Javier, the birthplace of Francis Xavier on May 8. But before reaching Javier, we first made a stop-over at Pamplona and there we saw the very spot where Ignatius was hit by a cannon ball. It was beside the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church where a small chapel was dedicated to Ignatius. As we reached Javier, we immediately had mass at the chapel of Francis Xavier. Touring the castle of Javier was another experience for us. On our way out of the castle, we had a chance to pray and spend some quiet time before the image of the “Smiling Christ.”

The following day, May 9 was a long travel for us as we headed to Manresa. But the long trip was certainly worth it. In La Cova de St. Ignasi we spent the next 5 days in silent-retreat. And again we were blessed to see and pray in the places where Ignatius went to during his stay in Manresa. We held our daily mass at the very cave where Ignatius retreated and wrote the Spiritual Exercises. Aside from the cave most of us found the banks of the Cardoner River, the La Guia Chapel and the Basilica of Seu as our sacred spaces for prayer during the retreat. On our last day in Manresa, we had our Ignatian walk. Ignatius spent nearly a year in this place and many known and little known places became very important and significant to him.

We left Manresa on May 16 and went to Montserrat on the same day. Interestingly, the mountain of Montserrat could be seen from La Cova and was a beautiful site for us to behold during the retreat. We heard mass at the Church of our Lady together with the hundreds of other pilgrims that were there. As we know, Montserrat was very important to Ignatius because this was where he offered his sword, the sword that meant a lot to him, before he went to Manresa.

After Montserrat we went to Barcelona and stayed there until May 19. Like what we did in Manresa we also had our Ignatian walk here, visiting the places that were significant to Ignatius. It was also in one of the churches that we visited and had our mass where we saw the actual sword that was offered by Ignatius in Montserrat.

The Spain leg of the pilgrimage ended on May 19. From Barcelona some of us went back home to Manila, some stayed behind for Madrid and the majority flew to Rome. In Rome, we found ourselves well taken care of by the 3 Rome-based Filipino Jesuits. Fr. Vic Baltazar welcomed us at the airport and was with us each day. We toured the Vatican on the day we arrived with Fr. Joe Quilongquilong as our able tour guide. We then went to the Curia to meet the Fr. Edward Mercierca, SJ Head for Spirituality and also to have our mass there. On our 2nd day, we visited La Storta together with Fr. Eric Eusebio, and the seven basilicas that Ignatius and his companions went to. We proceeded to Colegio San Belarmino for our mass and dinner (courtesy of the Philippine Ambassador to the Vatican). Finally on our last day, we had our Ignatian walk in Rome and had our closing mass in Gesu. We ended the pilgrimage at the very room where Ignatius’ earthly sojourn ended.

A Brief “History” of this Pilgrimage........

If you missed our pre-pilgrimage article, let me share with you a portion of what fellow pilgrim Lynn Enriquez wrote. “To better appreciate the significance of this event, allow me to go back to another trip, this time to Baguio, one early morning in January 2004. Eva Galvey who was then the Executive Director of CIS and Oyet Bustamante of EMMAUS were on their way to give the Spiritual Exercises to some members of SJSA. Fr. Noel Vasquez, SJ and the SJSA retreatants were with them. As Fr. Noel, Eva and Oyet chatted about the events and activities of the Society, there was a realization that the two retreat givers have been giving the Exercises for years and yet have not been to the Ignatian sites. Thus was born the idea of putting together a pilgrimage and a retreat for those who have been giving and continue to give the Exercises. As an interested listener, I sensed that Fr. Noel was moved to express his and the Society’s thanks to Eva and Oyet, not just for their work with SJSA, but for all the self giving that is part of and has marked all the 20 plus years they have been in the apostolate.

Fast forward to mid 2005, Fr. Arnie is now the ED of CIS while Eva has moved on to EMMAUS to re-join Oyet. In a meeting with Tina Mossesgeld, CIS Program Manager, who Fr. Arnie has requested to plan the pilgrimage – Fr. Noel has enlarged the original group of retreat givers to include those who have done the Exercises and are potential retreat givers and another circle to include those who desire to have a personal experience of Ignatian spirituality.”

Our Heartfelt Thanks ……

The pilgrims cannot but sincerely thank the people who thought of the pilgrimage and really worked hard for it to become a reality. The support of the SJ Philippine Province was one of the forces that made the pilgrimage possible: from Fr. Danny Huang and Fr. Noel Vasquez to Fr. Arnie Bugtas, Fr. Vic Salanga and Fr. Totet Banaynal. And of course, our dear Jesuits in Spain and Rome: Fr. Louis Catalan, Fr. Vic Baltazar, Fr. Joe Quilongquilong and Fr. Eric Eusebio.

Likewise, to quote our pre-pilgrimage article, “Special mention needs to be made of the invaluable contribution of Maria Luna, the Espanola Teresiana who is turning out to be a natural travel organizer.” Much credit is due Maria for having planned so well the trip. Maria introduced us not only to her country but to her family as well. Her father, Papa Antonio and sister, Pili were such a welcome presence in the pilgrimage.

Lastly, one can be certain that in the heart of every pilgrim is a profound gratitude to God for the blessing of this pilgrimage. A friend once asked me as she was listening to me recount the pilgrimage if it would have to take another 50 years, hence another jubilee celebration, before a similar pilgrimage could happen. Indeed, how truly meaningful and significant this pilgrimage was because we had it on this special year – the Jubilee Year of the 1st Companions. And so our heartfelt thanks also to the 1st Companions – Ignatius, Francis and Peter – for having gifted us with such a wonderful jubilee present.

(WE INVITE YOU TO CHECK ON THE SHARINGS AND REFLECTIONS OF SOME OF THE PILGRIMS)

Impressions of Ignatian Pilgrimage

2006-07-12T16:41:00.000+08:00

(Maria Luna shares with us her thoughts on the pilgrimage and that of her father - Papa Antonio, sister - Pili and our driver companion - Javier. Except for Barcelona, Pili joined us throughout the Spain leg of the pilgrimage. Papa Antonio was with us up to Rome. And Javier who drove for the group from Madrid to Manresa was very much part of the pilgrimage too.)

ANTONIO LUNA:

I am very, very happy to have joined this trip. I found all the participants to be good people, very kind to me and relating well even if we did not share same language. They expressed in many ways that they appreciated my being there that is why I felt very comfortable being with them. Thus, I was inspired to write some good wishes for all of them and I was impressed to see their reaction of welcoming to those simple words.

Personally, the trip has been an encounter with Ignacio de Loyola, a saint I have heard of but I did not know much about. During the trip I have been getting pamphlets everywhere we passed by, by now I have read all including the 2 good ones you gave me as a gift in Rome about the lives of Ignacio and Javier. All that made an impact on me, I would like to be a better person and help others to be the same. I do what I can among the old people of the Day Care Center for the elderly where I spend most of my time.

Thanks to all of you for allowing me to have this experience. I also requested my daughter to tell you that I asked her that I will be seated on the place where I was in the bus because as an old person I have some quirks, there is where I feel more secure when I travel.

PILAR LUNA:

The best about the trip has been to know you all! There have been thousands ways of communication between us. I found you happy, simple, generous and prayerful people.
I will always remember you and even more because you all wrote something to me and from time to time I read the translation of it all. You left in me unforgettable memories.

Together, we have discovered more Spain, Ignacio and Javier and also the Jesuits and how well they work and treat people. Ignacio has imprinted a footprint in me and I remember him everyday. I notice since the trip I want to give a special value to every person and circumstance I encounter for not to fall in superficiality of worldly things.

Hasta pronto y hasta siempre amigos!

JAVIER

This trip has been very special to me. I have never brought a group like that. They are all happy, very well mannered, treating me like one of the group, they are quite young and beautiful and still they pray, they give importance to things of the Church even if they are learned people. I am an ordinary young Spanish person who even if baptized in the Catholic Church, has not been mindful of it. That is why I was very surprised to see this group. They made a big impact on me, so much that after leaving them in Manresa, I cried and I thought there are things of my life that have to change. I started to pray the way I know and now I am telling my wife we have to pray together.

I was very happy to know the place after which I am named: Javier. I got some information about Saint Francis Xavier and I am reading it.

Regards to all peregrinos.

MARIA LUNA

I am very happy and very grateful for having joined the Pilgrimage starting from the months of preparation up to the end. All throughout it has been a good learning experience and deep spiritual one of self-knowledge and encounter with God in many different ways.

It was the first time I had been in the organization and acted as a guide of a trip. This helped me to get to know how to get places, contact people, make and change certain decisions, look for funds to contribute to it, find cheaper but good places, get along a group… A times, during the trip, I felt tired and I saw myself in charge of almost all that was going on. That, even if hard, made me see and understand other aspects of the group and of my person that I took for granted before. But in that and through that, God made Himself present and very close to me. I really felt He was guiding us all the time.

Getting closer to Ignacio has also been of great spiritual help to me. At the same time I was feeling proud of such a Spanish saint, I was absorbing more his spirituality, his ways, and his impetus to work and pray. Getting in contact with his places and his people encouraged me a lot in my own life.

I like to thank you all for your collaboration, for making the whole trip a good one, for sharing your lives and for praying the way you do it. You are good people and that is what makes the difference! It has been a pleasure to be with you during this May 2006. I also like to ask for forgiveness for my impatience and my pushing you hard.

An Ignatian Journey Remembered

2006-07-12T16:38:00.000+08:00

By: Edith L. Ontiveros, OSU

Almost two months ago now, the Center for Ignatian Spirituality (CIS), Philippines organized an Ignatian pilgrimage for staff, volunteers, collaborators and friends. The three-week journey brought us to Ignatian Spain and Rome. Together we shared the experience of visiting Ignatian places, celebrating liturgy, praying, sharing our on-going reflection not to mention the ordinary and mundane activities of listening, eating, loading and unloading luggage, waiting etc.

Experience of its very nature is difficult to capture in words simply because it happens in the being and doing of the present moment. However, our lives are enriched through the sharing of experiences and the telling of stories. So here I attempt to share some of my memories associated with the Ignatian places central to my ongoing spiritual journey.

There was the ‘conversion room’ or convalescent room of Inigo in the family castle in Loyola. I was moved to deep prayer as I reflected on Aqui se entrego a Dios Inigo de Loyola. As I examined the surroundings of the small room and gazed at the ceiling the way Inigo would have done as he lay wounded - experiencing physical pain, anxiety and despair, I recalled the times in my life when I felt helpless and almost hopeless. Fortunately for Ignatius, providence stepped in and he was able to turn despair to deep thoughts after reading and rereading Ludolph of Saxony’s Life of Christ and The Golden Legend, a book on the lives of saints. These two books got him so absorbed and introduced him to Jesus Christ who changed his way of living. I imagined the peace, the freedom and glow in his soul as he
entrusted himself to God, opening a new world for him. I too experienced deep peace recalling past experiences of surrendering and entrusting difficult decisions in God’s hands.

There were three places in Manresa that called forth much devotion – the cave, the Cardoner River, and the place of Rapture. The times I prayed in the cave during the five-day retreat in Manresa were nothing compared to the ten months Ignatius spent there. However, in the cave, I identified my heart’s deepest desire not without the conflict and struggle that Ignatius himself would have experienced as depicted graphically on the marble altar piece. But like Ignatius, I also experienced enlightenment and illumination by the Cardoner River.

For several years now I have been intrigued by Ignatius’ mystical experience by the Cardoner. I have asked several Jesuit friends to explain what happened there but I was never satisfied by their responses. Perhaps I have not quite understood or captured the spiritual journey of Ignatius then as I do now. After the experience of praying in the cave and reflecting by the Cardoner, I understood the effect of the Cardoner experience as “a magnet pulling into unity and integration the iron filings of the pieces of Ignatius’ whole previous life”(Walter Farrell, S.J.). In the place of ‘rapture’ in Manresa, I received the gift of tears. I was so deeply moved as I prayed and kissed the feet of Ignatius (lying in rapture!) that a tear dropped as I stood up. In that moment, I received the grace I asked for during the retreat in La Cova and quietly savored it as we sang and prayed in silence.

The camarette, in Rome where Ignatius governed the Society and spent the last, and not the least easy, remaining years of his life filled me with awe. The restored rooms evoked reverence and prayer. The chapel where he died and the Holy Family painting which he had special devotion to, testify to his relationship with Jesus and Mary throughout his life.

From Azpeitia (Loyola) to the heart of Ignatian Rome, I experienced an ever deepening and developing relationship with Jesus that reminded me constantly of the central purpose of the Spiritual Exercises. What made the five places personally significant (at least in this pilgrimage of May 2006) are the moments of deep prayer, the desires that surfaced and got expressed in the colloquys, the graces received and the responses and resolutions made for the future. These were made possible by the overwhelming spirit that permeated our journey together appropriately expressed in “the whole group of believers was united, heart and soul…” (Acts 4:32). There was a genuine spirit of openness and generosity as well as depth of prayer and reflection. It was indeed a privilege to take part in this ‘once in a lifetime’ Ignatian pilgrimage. While it was an affirming experience, it was also a challenge to continued growth and commitment to the collaborative ministry of the Center of Ignatian Spirituality, Philippines.

Jubilee Excerpts

2006-07-12T16:35:00.000+08:00

By: Sr. Mely Vasquez, RSCJ

Ignatius’ transhistorical or spiritual pilgrimage takes place, in the Autobiography, within the context of his historical pilgrimage, but the two levels are not co-terminous nor do they always have the same peak points. They are symbiotically related, taking place within the one man Ignatius who is both historical actor and recipient of spiritual impressions, his activity and mystical experience being inextricably linked. “Mysticism is an interior pilgrimage, pilgrimage is exteriorized mysticism” (Victor Turner and Edith Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture, p.7). What the pilgrim wears and eats, his manner of conveyance—these are for all to see. But “what is secret in the Christian pilgrimage is the inward movement of the heart” (Turner, 8).
***********

Ignatius’ Autobiography presents the life journey and transformation of a sixteenth-century Spanish soldier into one of the greatest spiritual leaders of all time. In it we see how his religious milieu and culture gave him an ideological framework, life-models, and behavioral patterns to guide him in his search. The medieval church had provided him with a heritage of sacred places, saintly exploits, and ritual acts that had been the security of spiritual sojourners.

At the outset of his pilgrimage, the apparent foci of his journey were the famous sacred places and institutions, Jerusalem and Rome, the geographical and political centers of religious power. But these provided to be tangential to his depth experiences which took place in unnoticed, out of the way places and occasioned by personal limit situations.

The irruption of God in these unexpected ways relativized his attachment to the fixed centers assigned by his religion. God gave him a center in via: in the core of his person. This remained the locus of his encounter with God as he moved towards places and circumstances, engaging himself with people and events. In this sense, God was now everywhere present to Ignatius. “Each time and hour that he wanted to find God, he found Him” (Autobiography 11, 93).

The climax of Ignatius’ pilgrimage liberated him from the ambiguities of his culture; though remaining a man of the Church and in union with the community of which Rome and Jerusalem were centers, it was now given him to find his goal beyond them.

Every Place A Grace

2006-07-12T16:09:00.000+08:00

By: Lyn Enriquez

AVILA

I was touched and moved by Teresa de Jesus' Solo Dios Basta. What could have caused such an intense and generous response from her?

Fr. Noel Vasquez' homily invited the peregrinos to pray for the grace to know God's will for each of us - and for us to be able to not only know it, but to obey it. There are times when I may be "too certain" that what I am doing is what God wants me to do, more so when those works are "good works". Times like these, I may forget to ask God if those desires indeed come from Him, or do they come from me only?

LOYOLA

God was waiting for Inigo between the pages of the two books he read while recovering from the leg wound he suffered in Pamplona - the Imitation of Christ and a book on the Lives of the Saints.

Where was God waiting ever so patiently for me - and where is He still waiting for me to get to the point where I, like Inigo, can surrender myself totally into God's hands.

So how do I get to the point where I am so caught up in God's love, where I am so enamoured with Christ that nothing else matters, nothing buy His love and grace. Then, with Teresa and Inigo, I can also pray:

Nada te turbe
Nada te esparte
todo se pasa
Dios no se muda la paciencia
todo la alcanza
quien a Dios tiene
nada le falta
solo Dios basta.

JAVIER

As we paused to pray before the Laughing Christ in the chapel in the Javier castle, I wondered what could have happened in that tiny chapel that made Francisco choose to leave everything behind, not knowing what lay ahead and certain that he will never return to his family again. What made him say "send me" to Ignacio when there was a need to send someone to the Indies. What made Francisco pray "Pagkabighani"?

I remember reading somewhere Ignacio checking the clothes of his friend Francisco as he was about to leave Rome, asking if he was warm enough. Sending his friend, the friend he loves, must have caused a thousand deaths in Ignacio.

Avila, Loyola, Javier - in each of these places, God touched a soul so intensely it was never the same for all three again - Teresa de Jesus, Ignacio de Loyola and Francisco Javier.

I begged God my Lord for the grace to be able to eventually say with Teresa "solo Dios basta", with Ignacio "I surrender myself totally to God" and with Francisco "send me".

MANRESA

My spirit needs to catch up with me. The past days since May 02 have been too fast, too full, too rich - I need to stop and let my spirit catch up with me.Salamat San Ignacio for bringing me back to Manresa.

On Day 2 of our retreat, feelings of negativity and aridity slowly surfaced making me lose my taste for prayer. Instead of denying them, I decided to confront them and again, found myself face to face with my old issues, my ghosts, my demons which wouldn't leave me even here in Manresa, especially here in Manresa.

It was the evil spirit taunting me, chanting "it is no use, you will never make it, you may think you can, but eventually, you will fail again. How can you even entertain such thoughts when you are not able to do it even while here at Manresa,what more when you are back in the world?" Whatever I do, no matter how intensely I desire it nor how hard I try to fight it, I will not be able to accept a life "na walang langit".

On the other hand, while I was being hounded by the evil spirit in not doing anything about my un-freedoms because I will only fail, I was also sustained by my faith that Ignacio knows what I am going through because he went through so much himself in this very place where he spent eleven months struggling with himself and his own demons - surely, he will help me fight my own demons.

A River Runs Through My Life

2006-07-12T16:06:00.000+08:00

By: Nerry Gool

Retreat in Daily Life

It was in year 2000 when my friend Ayie Santos first invited me to take the Retreat in Daily Life (RDL) offered by the Center for Ignatian Spirituality (CIS). The RDL is actually the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola designed for men and women who desire to encounter the Lord in their daily routine. As an active member of Ang Lingkod ng Panginoon (ALNP) - a catholic charismatic movement of single professionals and working people - I felt that I did not need it anymore. However, when the RDL run for 2002 came, Ayie literally “craned” me from the office to Ateneo to attend a prayer workshop to prepare me for the retreat. In that workshop, I learned about St. Ignatius and the Ignatian Spirituality.

The retreat I was trying to run away from turned out to be very grace-filled! Of all the graces I received, I was most grateful for the healing of my scrupulous conscience which I carried for thirty long years. Ever since I was nine years old, I would receive the sacrament of Confession only to feel overly disturbed and guilty for forgetting to confess some other sins no matter how small and/or committing the same sins all over again. I have always been taught that God was a loving Father who was always ready to forgive but I was chained by a subconscious belief that for every mistake I made, He had a corresponding punishment. The RDL gave me a deep understanding of how utterly unconditional God’s love was and is.

After the retreat, I was invited by my spiritual director, Sch. Jordan Orbe, SJ, to pursue courses on spiritual direction and retreat giving and the rest is history. I accepted the invitation to be a CIS lay volunteer to facilitate individual spiritual direction and group-directed retreats. For the past two years, I have been blessed to witness the unfolding of unique “love stories” between God and the people I accompany in their journey. What a great privilege it is!

Joining the Pilgrimage

Last January, we were informed that there would be an Ignatian Pilgrimage in celebration of the Jubilee Year of the First Companions – St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier and Bl. Peter Faber. It was to be a once in a lifetime experience to those invited. When I learned that I was invited, I did not put my hopes up because I knew for sure that I could not make it anyway. First, it was not easy to seek permission for a month-long vacation given the demands of my job as an HR Manager most especially when a lot of ongoing projects were due for completion. Second, my role as National Women’s Moderator of ALNP required me to participate in a one-week training of its key leaders, the schedule of which coincided with that of the Pilgrimage. Still, since I badly wanted to join, I took the courage to ask the permission of my bosses at work and in service. To my great surprise, both of them readily allowed and encouraged me to take the rare opportunity. No doubt about it, I was very happy! It did not even matter that the last sentence I spoke in Spanish was uttered twenty years ago.

During the orientation, we were told that we would visit a good number of Ignatian sites and it excited me! But more exciting was the thought the schedule included a five-day silent retreat in Manresa where, as a layperson, St. Ignatius wrote his most precious legacy to the Church – the Spiritual Exercises. The idea of going through a retreat was most welcome at a time when I was discerning God’s direction for my life in the area of my career. It was a time when I would often catch myself asking, “Will I continue with my present job or consider another path? Is this where the Lord wants me to be? ” Such were not easy to answer and I was hoping to hear God speak to me clearly.

“Grace in Every Place”

We finally flew to Madrid on May 2 and from there, started visiting Ignatian sites. There was “grace in every place” but Pamplona and Loyola were significant to me. In Pamplona, I felt a deep sense of joy when I touched the exact spot where Ignatius fell when he was hit by a cannonball during a battle of Spain against France. In Loyola, it was God’s special love for Ignatius that struck me. As I moved around Sta. Casa, I kept wondering how he was like as a little boy, running and playing around the house; or how disgusted he must have felt after his knee was shot in Pamplona; or how intense his religious experience must have been when he read the The Life of Christ (by Ludolph of Saxony) and Lives of the Saints (by Jacobo Voragine) that led to his conversion during his convalescence.

In all the places we visited, we automatically touched or kissed the holy images, felt the holiness of the place, and contemplated on the encounter that happened between God and St. Ignatius. You may ask: What is the point of touching the dusty road in Pamplona where Ignatius fell 485 years ago, or feeling the rooms of Sta. Casa in Loyola? I have no logical answer, but what makes sense to me is that the experience gave me a deep understanding of the rightful place and value of sacraments, rituals and liturgical celebrations in our Catholic Church where physical objects help us feel God’s presence and where bodily gestures allow us to express our love and devotion to the Lord.

Showered with abundant graces as we traveled, I did not notice the desire of my heart silently changing. By the time we departed for Manresa, I had totally forgotten my career concerns. I just wanted to love God the way St. Ignatius did.

Arriving in Manresa

Finally, we arrived in Manresa for the retreat! We stayed at La Cova – the House of the Exercises and the residence of the Jesuits. Outside were many chapels and churches which St. Ignatius frequented during his time but one had to “walk an extra mile” to visit them as they were not situated close to each other.

On the first day of the retreat, I went to La Guia Chapel, the first place Ignatius found upon arriving in Manresa. Unfortunately, it was closed. I moved to La Seu Basilica which was the place where St. Ignatius used to pray and receive the sacrament of Confession. Thank God, it was open! But when I was about to enter, I was told that there was an entrance fee of 1 euro. Ironically, throughout the entire pilgrimage, I had always brought my wallet except on that day because I thought I would not need to spend a cent. I was so disappointed. Trying to keep my cool, I went back to the house to get money. But when I arrived back at La Seu, I could not enter anymore because visiting time had already ended. Sadly, I had just walked to La Coveta - the “cave turned chapel” where St. Ignatius wrote the Spiritual Exercises - but when I entered, there was a choir singing so loudly nearby that I could not concentrate on my prayers.

Tired and frustrated, I decided to just pray inside my room. While silently in prayer, I looked outside from my window and gazed upon the Cardoner River – the place where St. Ignatius received great understanding. Seeing the river flow gently and generously, I was so moved that I wrote this prayer:

ANG ILOG CARDONER

Walang entrance fee
Walang oras na sinusunod
Ang tubig ay umaagos
Maging araw man o gabi.

Ang pag-ibig ng Diyos
Tulad nitong ilog
Walang entrance fee
Walang oras na sinusunod
Patuloy na dumadaloy
Mga grasya Niyang dulot.

Bakit nga ba nalilimutan
Kahulugan nitong buhay ?
Ikaw lamang ang kailangan
Hanggang sa aking kamatayan.

Bakit nga ba hinahanap
Sa mga maling lugar at nilikha
Ang matimyas na pag-ibig
Na sa ‘Yo lang makakamit?

O kaluluwa ko, magpahinga ka na
Sa katatakbo at kahahabol
Sa mundong parating magkukulang
Na punuin ang hanap ng puso.

Mahal na puso ni Hesus
Bihagin itong puso ko
Upang mabuhay at mamatay
Na umiibig lamang sa’Yo.

Movements of the Spirit

The next day, my pilgrimage spiritual director, Fr. Vic Salanga, SJ, asked me what grace I wanted to receive through the retreat. I told him that I wanted to love God like St. Ignatius did. He instructed me to review my life’s history and spot those moments when I felt the love of God most intensely. He said that a deep and genuine experience of the love of God – which he termed as a “religious experience” - brings one to love Him more and do great things for Him.

As I prayed, the most joyful and painful moments of my life came alive again. However, it was the painful moments that highlighted His presence and love. I remembered that when I was a child, people would always compare me with my three sisters in every respect. We were a study in contrasts. While they were considered pretty and healthy, I was thought of as plain and sickly. My sisters were also naturally soft-spoken and well-mannered, I was just naturally talkative and naughty earning me a citation as the noisiest student in elementary class. They were homebodies who were helpful in doing the house chores, I preferred to be an “out-body” playing and making friends away from the house and escape from chores. When we were scolded by my parents, my sisters would be submissive like little lambs and not say a word. However, with me, I would speak my mind out even if it meant being punished for being “disrespectful”. Expectedly, my sisters were considered the ideal mold and I felt that I needed to fit into such to be accepted and loved.

When I brought those memories to prayer, I heard God say, “Your desire is to love me more but My desire is that you may love yourself more.” I seem to have heard St. Ignatius whisper to me, “I will teach you the love of self.”

The next prayer periods were “crying periods”. I realized that my experiences of unacceptance, rejection and being misunderstood during my childhood and adolescent years had lasting effects in me, making me feel very insecure. I feel very uncomfortable when people praise me. I overly admire other people as if they are always a lot better than me, or overly envy some people as if they do not deserve to have better things and qualities than what I have. And when I share my accomplishments to people, I am uncertain if I do it out of pride, the need for approval, or mere expression of joy.

Before the retreat ended, I experienced God’s healing grace as I forgave the people who had hurt me and in spirit, asked for forgiveness from those whose love I had failed to see.

Greater Freedom

In my RDL, my image of God was corrected. I began to see Him as someone who loves me unconditionally regardless of my sins, weaknesses and limitations. Knowing that I do not have to be a certain kind/mold of a person to merit His love gave me great peace which I carry until today. That was actually enough for me but not for Him. He wanted to make me whole.

In my Manresa Retreat, it was my self-image that He corrected. Yes, it is true that there are unlikeable things about me but the greater truth - incomparably far glaring truth - is that I am a person with much uniqueness, talent and beauty. I am intelligent, witty, creative, courageous, strong and loving. I am lovable and worthy of His love and the love of other people. I left Manresa with unexplainable joy knowing that I have a unique place and contribution in this world.

As we continued to trace the steps of St. Ignatius in Montserrat, Barcelona and Rome after the retreat, they only heightened the consolations and echoed the graces that I received in Manresa. Looking back, I am awed at how my desires shifted from one direction to another during the pilgrimage: at one point, I wanted clarity in the direction of my career; then it shifted to a deep desire to love God like; then finally, to have a genuine love for myself.

I smile when I remember that day when I sought Him in several churches only to find Him in a river outside my window in the confines of my little room. The Holy Spirit moves where it wills and I yield in utter openness as every direction it takes is an invitation to greater freedom.

How can I repay the Lord for all the good done for me? (Psalm 116:12) Fr. Vic said that a deep and genuine experience of the love of God brings one to love Him more and do great things for Him. May his words come true as I allow Him to use me for any work that will give Him honor and glory. Like a flowing river, may His Spirit run through my life which will declare His goodness to people near and far.

So Much Blessed, So Much Loved

2006-07-12T16:03:00.000+08:00

By: Riza Carasig

One of the things that made me excited about the Ignatian Pilgrimage was the five-day retreat scheduled in Manresa. Somehow, I was hoping it to be like a discernment retreat where God would unfold before me His plans; what He wanted me to do; how He desired me to live the coming years of my life. I guess, being a mid-lifer like myself, one naturally begins to be more reflective of how the past years have been lived and more importantly, how the future is to be even more fruitfully lived.

During the retreat, I was blessed to be accompanied by Fr. Salanga who invited me to pray over and revisit my past starting with the most distant on to the most recent – recalling how God moved and was present in those years of my life. As I did this I saw how God’s presence was so real particularly during the younger years of my life. As I looked back at my childhood, for instance, I had seen how God protected me from what could have be very hurting episodes in my life. How God blessed me with plenty during my adult years or how He simply stayed with me when the times became trying and hard– all these were brought back to my memories very vividly. One morning during the retreat, I decided to spend my time at the Basilica of Seu (one of Ignatius’ favorite and frequently visited places). In my prayer, I was asking God how high and wide and deep His love for me was. I said I knew I would not be able to fully measure it but if I could just get a glimpse of it. As I looked up and around the basilica, I was struck with how huge it was, how imposing the structures were, how the beautiful and colorful stained glasses seemed to be telling of many wonderful stories. And in my heart, I began to hear God whisper to me, “tulad nito ang pagmamahal ko sa ‘yo- malawak, malaki, makulay at buhay!” Soon after I realized I was the only person inside the basilica. For some reason there was not a single churchgoer or tourist around at that time. And there I felt how precious I was in His eyes - gazing on me as if He was preoccupied only with me and me alone.

As these thoughts freely flowed into my mind, I was brought back to the moment I first stepped into Santa Casa, the house of Ignatius and La Cova, the cave in Manresa. Both instances that were initially surreal for me turned out to be an overwhelming experience. There was so much awe and joy welling up in my heart as I imagined Ignatius as a baby when I got into the very room where he was born. I imagined Ignatius’ tiny feet running on the same floor I was stepping on. I imagined Ignatius taking his meal at the dining table that I was seeing and touching. I imagined Ignatius reading books on the lives of saints and Christ in the same room where we had our Sunday mass – the room now known as the Chapel of Conversion. At the cave in Manresa, I imagined Ignatius stripped off of everything he had, humbly coming before God and beginning to write one of his greatest gifts to the Church – the Spiritual Exercises.

My experience in Loyola and Manresa and in all the other places where the pilgrimage brought me, was to me a clear and concrete manifestation of God’s love for me through Ignatius. The love that God was describing to me during the retreat – “huge, vast and overwhelming, full of colors and alive” – that was how I would also describe my experience. I joyfully found all my senses in use - I was not only seeing and feeling, I was also hearing and touching every bit of that love in the places I had been. When we left Spain, I thought we had received more than what we could have asked for after being in the house of Ignatius in Loyola and after having our retreat in Manresa and after seeing Madrid, Alcala, Toledo, Avila, Salamanca, Burgos, Javier, Pamplona, Montserrat and Barcelona. But apparently God was not yet done and prepared for us so much more when we moved to Rome. The last leg of the pilgrimage was equally well taken care of by the three Rome-based Filipino Jesuits. We toured the Vatican and the Jesuit Curia and also visited La Storta and the seven basilicas that Ignatius and his companions went to. Finally on our last day, we had our Ignatian walk in Rome and had our closing mass in the very room where Ignatius breathed his last. I thought what could be a more fitting and more meaningful way but to end our pilgrimage this way.

A lot of times during the pilgrimage, I could not help but think of my many Jesuit friends. I could not describe how I felt upon realizing that I got to see even ahead of them the places that were both important and significant to their founder. I felt so blessed for the opportunity yet perhaps there was too a tinge of guilt with the thought. When I took the 19th annotation some years ago, the pilgrimage was farthest from my mind. I became very interested and eventually fell in love with the Spiritual Exercises yet I never thought I would one day see the very place where it came to form. Maybe if there was one thing that crossed my mind, it was that the pilgrimage was too big a dream to aspire for yet God honored a dream that was not even fully articulated. I am not a Jesuit, I can never be and will never be one yet God still gifted me with this privilege. The only contribution I knew I had was my being a CIS lay partner (doing something that I in fact love doing) yet God deemed it more than enough for me to receive this blessing.

I brought with me in this pilgrimage a desire to know the will of God as I move on with my life yet a profound experience of His love was His response. I was hoping to encounter the will of God but instead I encountered the great love of this God who wills. The pilgrimage made me experience in the most palpable way not only the love of God but also the love of this wonderful man named Ignatius. And I must say that the feeling was mutual. For I am certain that I moved out of the pilgrimage more in love with God and more in love with Ignatius and the ministry that he inspired us to do.

CIS Jubilee Pilgrimage to Spain and Rome

2006-04-19T17:41:00.000+08:00

by Lyn Enriquez

The year of the First Companions (03 Dec. 2005 - 03 Dec 2006)
is a very special year, not just for the Society of Jesus, but also for many others, lay men and women, whose lives have been profoundly touched and greatly enriched by the lives of
St. Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber.

On 31 July 1556, 450 years ago, Ignatius died in Rome.
500 years ago were born Francis Xavier in Navarre, Spain on 07 April 1506 and Peter Faber at Villaret, in Savoy, France on 13 April 1506.
Jubilee Pilgrimage and a Retreat:

The Center of Ignatian Spirituality celebrates this Jesuit Jubilee by organizing a pilgrimage to those places in Spain and Rome that influenced the lives of Ignatius, Francis Xavier and Peter Faber and inspired the birth of the Society of Jesus. The highlight of the trip will be a 5-day retreat at La Cova de Sant Ignasi in Manresa where the Spiritual Exercises were written. The pilgrimage will start in Madrid on 02 May and end in Rome on 22 May.

... retreat givers have been giving the Exercises for years and yet have not been to the Ignatian sites...

To better appreciate the significance of this event, allow me to go back to another trip, this time to Baguio, one early morning in January 2004. Eva Galvey who was then the Executive Director of CIS and Oyet Bustamante of EMMAUS were on their way to give the Spiritual Exercises to some members of SJSA. Fr. Noel Vasquez, SJ and the SJSA retreatants were with them, including Lynn Enriquez. As Fr. Noel, Eva and Oyet chatted about the events and activities of the Society, there was a realization that the two retreat givers have been giving the Exercises for years and yet have not been to the Ignatian sites. Thus was born the idea of putting together a pilgrimage and a retreat for those who have been giving and continue to give the Exercises. As an interested listener, I sensed that Fr. Noel was moved to express his and the Society's thanks to Eva and Oyet, not just for their work with SJSA, but for all the self giving that is part of and has marked all the 20 plus years they have been in the apostolate.

Fast forward to mid 2005, Fr. Arnie is now the ED of CIS while Eva has moved on to EMMAUS to re-join Oyet. In a meeting with Tina Mossegeld, who Fr. Arnie has requested to plan the pilgrimage, Fr. Noel has enlarged the original group of retreat givers to include those who have done the Exercises and are potential retreat givers and another circle to include those who desire to have a personal experience of Ignatian spirituality.

From the first group of ten retreat givers, the number of CIS and non-CIS pilgrims is now 25. It includes 4 Jesuits, Frs. Noel, Vic Salanga, Arnie Bugtas and Totet Banaynal, 2 nuns, Sr. Edith Ontiveros and Amelia Vasquez, rscj, and one Teresiana, Maria Luna who will be joined by her father and sister in Spain.

Eva and Oyet are joined by the CIS retreat givers Riza Carasig, Lynn Enriquez, Nerry Gool, Liesl Lim, Monchito and Tina Mossesgeld, Mila Santillan, Daisy Santos, Filaine Tan and Gigi Tobias.

The others are Luz Asuncion, Metti Jimenez, Melvi Lejano and Tess Naval.

Pilgrimage Itinerary:

From Madrid, the pilgrims will go to Alcala de Henares, Toledo, Avila, Salamanca, Burgos, Loyola, San Sebastian, Xavier, Pamplona, Manresa, Barcelona and Rome.

It is a retreat giver's dream come true, a meeting of intense desires which cannot but find fulfillment. More so since the desires come from the hearts of God, Ignatius, Xavier, Faber and all 25 pilgrims. God's blessings are many and wondrous to behold throughout the months of planning. Special mention needs to be made of the invaluable contributions of Maria Luna, the Espanola Teresiana who is turning out to be a natural travel organizer.

And yet, without the support of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus, all these would not be possible. Riza put it so well when she thanked Fr. Provincial Danny Huang.. "the generosity of the Province will be repaid a hundred fold." The prayer in each retreat giver's heart is expressed by Gigi.."that the pilgrimage will deepen our commitment to our work and strengthen our friendship as one community."

Dear Saints Ignatius and Francis Xavier and Bl. Peter Faber, watch out, your current companions are coming!

Ignatian Spirituality and Leadership

2006-01-31T10:24:00.000+08:00

In Celebration of the Jubilee Year
of the First Companions
The Center for Ignatian Spirituality (Phil)

invites you to
Ignatian Spirituality and Leadership

A Lecture by Karel S. San Juan, SJ

on March 3, 2006, Friday
8:00 p.m. at Pedro Calungsod Hall
Loyola School of Theology
Ateneo de Manila University Campus
Loyola Heights, Quezon City

CIS Modular Courses & LST MA in Spirituality and Retreat Directing

2006-01-27T10:16:00.000+08:00

In a Memorandum of Agreement with the Center for Ignatian Spirituality (CIS), Loyola School of Theology (LST) officially recognizes the modular courses of the CIS as professional subjects that can earn credits for the degree MA in Spirituality and Retreat Directing.

Those who wish to earn MA credits from the CIS modular course may apply for admission to the MA program in Spirituality & Retreat Directing in LST-AdMU (admission deadline is March 31, 2006). Applicants to the MA program must have a college degree with at least 12 units of undergraduate theology. They must pass the graduate entrance examination administered by the Ateneo Center for Educational and Psychological Assessment (ACCESS) on any of these dates: Jan 28; Feb 11 & 22; Mar 11 & 22. Once accepted into the program, he or she may now register the modular courses for MA credit at LST on April 17-19, 2006.

For details visit the LST website http://www.lst.edu/

Application forms may be obtained from the LST Registrar, or downloaded from the Ateneo Website http://www.admu.edu.ph/

The Year of the First Companions: Ignatius, Francis and Faver

2005-11-21T23:12:00.000+08:00

Companions in the Lord,

Doing God's Work,

For the Hope of the World

The jubilee year officially begins 3 December, 2005 and celebrates the spirit of these founders of the Society of Jesus:

Ignatius Loyola-died 31 July 1556 in Rome
Francisco Javier-born 7 April 1506 at Javier in Navarre
Pierre Favre-born 13 April 1506 in Villaret in Savoy

In these three first companions, we see personal symbols of the essential aspects of the "original spirituality" of the Society. As Jesuits and lay partners, we wish to celebrate this jubilee year by contemplating and appropriating the unique gifts of each of the companions, for our challenging time and Philippine context.

THE GIFTS OF THE FIRST COMPANIONS

Ignatius Loyola and apostolic spirituality

Ignatius' unique gift to the Society and the Church was an apostolic spirituality: a spirituality of labor with God, in God's labor in the world. Ignatius had a mystical vision of a Trinitarian God at work in the world for the salvation of humanity. Christ is not so much a great figure of the past, but a living Lord, inviting men and women today to labor with him in his ongoing struggles against "the enemy of human nature" (Exx 136), in his ongoing project of filling the world with "knowledge of the true life" (Exx 139). Thus, for Ignatius, it was "not sufficient... to do some work for God." "Ignatius wishes to insert himself into the very work of God." (Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Society of Jesus)

Francis Xavier and mission

Francis Xavier, "a man of intense missionary activity, stops at nothing to proclaim the good news." (Kolvenbach) If Ignatius reminds us that it is God's work we participate in, Xavier symbolizes the human response to God's invitation. In Xavier, we see the passionate sense of urgency and the total giving of onself in gratuity to the work of evangelization. We see in him that burning desire to "help souls," precisely because so many "are deprived of their proper humanity and are plunged into misery." (Kolvenbach)

Pierre Favre and cura personalis

Pierre Favre embodied the dimension of cura personalis. "Not gifted for governance as was Ignatius or impelled toward great exploits as was Francis, Favre devoted himself to the spiritual companionship of a great number of people who were searching for God." (Kolvenbach) Reflecting the consoling ministry of the risen Christ, he accompanied people in a personal way, with delicacy, charity, kindness, "as friends are accustomed to console friends" (Exx 224).

In a College Room: A Play for Voices

2005-11-21T14:52:00.000+08:00

(A letter to Fr. Roy Cosca, SJ from an Upper Canadian Jesuit)

Dear Roy -

Pax Christi! I hope this finds you well and happy in your ministry!

Attached is a little "Play for Voices" written for the 2006 anniversaries, together with a brief informal introduction and a reflection on a chapter from The Imitation of Christ. I hope to have it soon in a Spanish translation, if that interests you.

We will have a dramatic reading here at Loyola House the 31 January in the Chapel. Perhaps your novices might be interested in doing something with it. If it is translated into any other languages, please send me the text so that it can be posted on our Upper Canada Web Site.

I would appreciate it if you could forward the play to Directors of Education in your Provinces, who could in turn pass it on to schools and colleges.

It has gone out to the 17 or 18 Provinces of India, as well as Australia and Oceanea.

The weather is bright and sunny today, with a few inches of snow on the ground and -12 C temperature this morning! I thought you would want to know this.

Advent blessings,

Eric

IN A COLLEGE ROOM

THE FIRST JESUITS

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE

Music: Musica Viva, Ensemble Claude Gervaise, Track 2 (drums)

Good evening! Welcome to the inaugural lecture in our series to mark three Jesuit anniversaries in this year 2006: the 450^th anniversary of the death of Ignatius Loyola and the 500^th anniversary of the birth of Pierre Favre and Francis Xavier, the three foundation stones, as it were, of the Jesuit order, the Society of Jesus.

This evening we’ll present a dramatic reading of a play for voices, entitled In a College Room: The First Jesuits. It was written to be read rather than staged, though I suppose it could be staged with a little more effort. But we wanted to create something very simple - something that almost anyone could perform in almost any place, without sets or costumes.

THE SETTING

The play is set in Paris in the year 1530, and it does something that Ignatius himself frequently does in his Spiritual Exercises: it invites us to use our imagination, to create in our mind’s eye a particular place, with its dimensions and textures, to see the people there, to listen to what they say and to watch what they do. Or, as Shakespeare put it somewhat later, "Think, when we speak of horses, that you see them, printing their proud hoofs in the receiving earth." Think, when we speak of Jesuits, that you see them! Except that, in 1530, there were as yet no Jesuits, just three unusual students at the great University of Paris, Ignatius being the most unusual of the three.

When Ignatius - or Inigo, to use his original Basque name - arrived in the French capital, the University of Paris was already more than three hundred years old, having been founded in the year 1200 as a company of teachers and students. In the beginning the university had no buildings or grounds - no classrooms even. But by the year 1500 there were sixty-eight colleges in the city. These were endowed residences providing room and board for poor students who could not otherwise afford to attend the university. The colleges eventually became centres of teaching, with lecture halls as well as living quarters and dining rooms. The great universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and others, including the University of Toronto, are all modelled on the University of Paris with its incorporated colleges.

It was the colleges of the University of Paris that became the model for the many Jesuit colleges that sprang up all across Europe and eventually in other parts of the world. These were in effect boarding schools, with four years of secondary education based on the humanities, that is, the classical languages - Latin and Greek - and their literature, plus four years of undergraduate studies that focused on logic and rhetoric (or persuasive speech), as well as philosophy, and led to a Bachelor of Arts degree. Loyola College in Montreal was originally such an eight-year institution until it separated from Loyola High School and joined with another college to become Concordia University. So was St. Paul’s College in Winnipeg, until it separated from St. Paul’s High School and became part of the University of Manitoba.

One thing especially that distinguished these Jesuit institutions was their use of drama. The Cambridge History of Drama has four double-column pages devoted to Jesuit drama. Students wrote and produced elaborate plays in Latin, and in the process they learned not only the Latin language but also a lot of ancient history, as well as moral and religious precepts Behind these Latin plays of the colleges were the vernacular medieval dramas of the towns. Every town, with its various guilds or associations of craftsmen, would stage biblical plays in their own local dialects. These were presented on the many religious feast days. Biblical plays dramatized the whole history of salvation, while "morality" plays dramatized the struggle of the human soul, attracted to virtues and vices in personified form. Ignatius, like Shakespeare after him, would have been exposed to a great deal of this rich culture, both Latin and vernacular. What we offer here tonight is nothing so elaborate as those early Jesuit plays, but it can claim to have its roots in Jesuit drama.

THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND

When Ignatius arrived in Paris in 1528, he encountered, perhaps for the first time, the controversies that were swirling around the reform of the Church. Luther had many supporters in France, and his ideas were hotly debated at the University of Paris, as well as those of Erasmus, the Dutch humanist scholar, who had been a student there at one of the same Colleges where Ignatius studied. Rome had been captured and plundered by Emperor Charles V just the year before, and the Pope taken prisoner. Henry VIII of England was trying to divest himself of his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon, and was soon to break with Rome. Paris was a dangerous place at this time. Five years before Ignatius’ arrival in the capital, Luther’s books had been burned in the square in front of Nôtre Dame, and just one year before, two young men, one a student and the other a graduate, had been found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake.

THE CHARACTERS

Of the three people on whom our play focuses, Francis Xavier is probably the most widely known and revered. He was a Basque from the Kingdom of Navarre in north-eastern Spain, but his political ties were with France, and his family had fought against the Spaniards at the famous battle of Pamplona, where Ignatius had been wounded fighting on the Spanish side. He would later become one of the most famous missionaries in history, sailing to India and Japan, and dying while preparing to get into China. Dozens of churches and colleges are named for him, especially in India but also in North America - for instance, St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

Peter Faber - Pierre Favre - is perhaps the least known of the three. He was from the Duchy of Savoy in the French Alps, and spoke a very distinct dialect. He and Xavier had already been at the University of Paris for four years when Ignatius arrived. He was not of the nobility as were the other two - in fact, in his early years he had been a shepherd boy, for whom any kind of education would have been an unusual luxury. But he had an uncle who was a priest and something of a scholar, who soon realized that Pierre was especially gifted intellectually, and prepared him to study Latin and Greek in Paris. He and Xavier were friends and room mates when Ignatius met them at the University.

Ignatius - Inigo - was already in his late thirties when he arrived in Paris. He was born in 1491, a year before Columbus claimed America for Spain. He had very little education, which is to say he had no Latin. His formation had been that of a courtier, which meant learning the refined manners, dignified bearing and elegant speech required of someone who served in the royal court. It also involved training in the use of arms, though he was never a professional soldier or military strategist, as he is often portrayed. He lived a rather wild and reckless life during his youth, but after being wounded at Pamplona, he underwent a profound religious conversion.

Having aspired to serve the greatest king in Europe, Ignatius now discovered a very different master, Christ the King. He felt drawn to serve this King in a dramatically new way: not in pride but in humility, not in riches and splendour but in poverty. He wanted to follow in Jesus’ footsteps - quite literally - by living and working in the Holy Land. He also had a deep desire to make Jesus known to everyone he met - ordinary people, and especially children. This desire is reflected in the missionary order he later founded. The special vow that Jesuits take is not only one to the Pope, pledging to go anywhere in the world - it also includes a promise to teach catechism to little children. Ignatius is reputed to have said that if a candidate for his order did not have the ability to speak to ordinary people in simple language about spiritual things, he did not have a vocation to be a Jesuit.

When Ignatius met the youthful and enthusiastic Pierre Favre, he quickly won him over to his ideal of poverty and to his project of going to preach in the Holy Land. Xavier was something else again. He and Ignatius had a great many traits in common, but they were both very strong and unique characters, and out of this clash of character comes the dramatic tension of our play.

THE PERFORMERS

At this point I’d like to introduce those who will read our play tonight, as they come up and take their places. First in order of appearance is Bill Clarke of Loyola House, who plays a young serving boy, and who introduces and concludes the play as that same servant many years later as an old man. Elemer Vizi is a young Hungarian Jesuit who is with us this year for our Staff Associate Programme at Loyola House: he has the role of Ignatius or Inigo Loyola. Joe Brzezicki of Holy Rosary Parish has the role of Dr. Pena, a professor who introduces Inigo to Pierre Favre. Greg Kennedy lives with the Jesuits at the Red House. He is a candidate preparing to enter our Jesuit Novitiate. He has the role of Pierre Favre. And Dan Kelly, a young Jesuit in our Province and also part of the staff Associate Programme at Loyola House, has the role of Francis Xavier.

A DEVOTIONAL MOMENT

Before actually moving into the dramatic reading of our play, I thought we might prepare the way with what can be called a "devotional moment". The intention is to put us in touch with a piece of medieval devotional literature dear to the heart of Ignatius - The Imitation of Christ - which became his favourite book. The text we’ll use, however, is not the original Latin that Ignatius would have read, but Richard Whitfords’s very beautiful English translation, that dates from the year 1530 - the very year in which our play is set! Richard Whitford, like Erasmus, had studied at the University of Paris. His language is contemporary with that of his friend, Thomas More, who is sometimes called the father of English prose. It may well have influenced the language of William Shakespeare, who began writing for the stage about sixty years after this date, and also the language of the King James Bible, published some eighty years later.

While at the University of Paris, Ignatius actually took time out each year to beg money from wealthy Spanish merchants in London and other centres of trade, and so he would have had some contact with the English of this period. The language of Richard Whitford is no doubt different from the many dialects that Ignatius would have heard in the streets of the English capital, but it gives us a sense of the rhythms and roundness of speech employed by scholars and educated people in that period of time.

The Imitation of Christ is important for the influence it had in shaping Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, in which intimate conversation with Jesus has a central place. In the very first exercise of the First Week, Ignatius encourages the retreatant to speak to Christ "as one friend speaks to another or as a servant to his master." In The Imitation of Christ, the reader learns to speak to Christ "as a lover is wont to speak to his beloved, and a friend with his beloved friend." Here we have the prime model for this kind of Ignatian colloquy.

The text of this service is found in your programmes. It’s taken from The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter VIII: "Of the Familiar Friendship of Jesus."

Music: Musica Viva, Ensemble Claude Gervaise, Track 3 (Lute).

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST

Book II, Chapter 8

Leader: When our Lord Jesus is present, all things are liking -

All: - and nothing seemeth hard to do for his love;

Reader 1: but when he is absent all things that are done for his love are painful and hard. When Jesus speaketh not to the soul there is no faithful consolation, but if he speak but one word only, the soul feeleth great inward comfort. Did not Mary Magdalen rise soon from weeping when Martha showed her that her Master, Christ, was nigh and called her?

Leader: Yes, truly. O that is an happy hour -

All: - when Jesus calleth us from weeping to joy of spirit!

Reader 2: He that findeth Jesus, findeth a great treasure that is best above all other treasures; and he that loseth him hath lost more than all the world. He is most poor that liveth without Jesus, and he is most rich that is with Jesus. It is great wisdom to be well conversant with him, and to keep him is right great wisdom.

Leader: Be meek and peaceful, and Jesus shall be with thee;

All: be devout and quiet and he will abide with thee.

Reader 3: Thou mayst anon drive away thy Lord Jesus and lose his grace, if thou apply thyself to outward things; and if through negligence of thyself thou lose him, what friend shalt thou then have? Without a friend thou mayst not long endure, and if Jesus be not thy friend before all others, thou shalt be very heavy and desolate and be left without all perfect friendship . . .

Leader: We should rather choose to have all the world against us -

All: - than to offend God;

Reader 4: and therefore, of all that be to thee lief and dear, let thy Lord Jesus be to thee most lief and dear, and most beloved to thee above all others. And let all others be beloved for him and he only for himself. . . Desire not that anything be occupied with thee in thy heart, nor that thou be occupied with the love of any created thing; but that thy Lord Jesus may be in thee, and in every good man and woman.

Leader: And if it happen so with thee [that grace withdraweth], yet despair not overmuch therefore -

All: - and leave not thy good deeds undone,

Reader 5: but stand always strongly after the will of God, and turn all things that happen to thee to the laud and praising of his name. For after winter cometh summer, and after the night cometh the day; and after a great tempest showeth again right clear and pleasant weather.

The Imitation of Christ, From the First Edition of an English Translation Made c. 1530 by Richard Whitford, edited by Edward Klein, Harper, New York, 1943, pages 72-74.

IN A COLLEGE ROOM

The First Jesuits

Paris, AD 1530

A Play for Voices

Eric Jensen, sj

HISTORICAL PREFACE

How did the Jesuits come into being? The Company or Society of Jesus, as it is properly called, had its first official recognition and approval by Pope Paul III on the 27 September 1540. At the time it had twelve members. Since then, all sorts of myths have grown up about the Jesuits, and about their founder, Ignatius Loyola, who has often been portrayed as a military strategist - someone who carefully planned to form an army of spiritual shock-troops to fight the Reformers in a Counter-Reformation. The reality is quite different.

Personal Formation

Many influences helped shape the character of Íñigo (or Yñigo), as he was named at his baptism - his birth in 1491 as the youngest of thirteen children, his Basque culture and language, his noble lineage, his nurturing and upbringing among Basque peasants and craftsmen, the early loss of his mother and, a little later, of his father, his youthful formation as a page, his reading of the popular tales of Arthurian legend. Though he enjoyed sword-play, Íñigo was a courtier rather than a professional soldier. After a vain and hopeless attempt to prevent the French from taking the town of Pamplona, in 1521, where his leg was smashed by a cannonball, he underwent a profound though gradual religious conversion. He was about thirty years of age.

When his wounds had healed, Íñigo spent almost a year in prayer and penance at Manresa, near Barcelona, living as a beggar. There he reflected on his experiences and made notes which would eventually become his Spiritual Exercises. His growing desire was to help ordinary people find God, in their life and in their prayer. His pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1523 left him with an obsession to return to the Holy Land, together with a few companions if possible. He intended to spend the rest of his life in the places where Jesus had lived. In Barcelona he made attempts to attract others for this project, but without much success.

After several encounters with religious authorities, Íñigo began to realize that he would need some formal education in theology if he was going to be allowed to teach others about God. He spent a little time at the universities of Alcalá and Salamanca, where he and a couple of companions were imprisoned for a few weeks. Then the pilgrim went to Paris. It was during his years at the University of Paris that the Jesuit Order had its real beginning. There he met Pierre Favre and Francis Xavier, the first two of several companions who were later to become the core of his Company.

The University of Paris

In a college setting at a great university is where it all began. The modern university, like our cathedrals and parliaments, had its origin in the Middle Ages. This phase of European history is the invention of historians. There is a negative view of a single “Middle Age” - le moyen âge - as a dark period of ignorance and superstition, lasting a thousand years, from the barbarian invasions and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West (in the fifth century) to the rebirth or renaissance of Greek and Roman culture and learning in Italy (in the fifteenth century). “The romantics of the early nineteenth century replaced this negative view of the Middle Ages with the shining image of a Gothic culture steeped in idealism, spirituality, heroism, and adoration of women” (Norman F. Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages, published by Quill, William Morrow, New York, 1991, page 29). Íñigo was very much the product of the late Middle Ages, and he embraced and identified with all those qualities so much admired by people of a later period.

Prior to the revival of learning in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there was “an earlier revival, less known though in its way quite as significant, which historians now call the renaissance of the twelfth century“ (Charles Homer Haskins, The Rise of Universities, Cornell University Press, Ithica, NY, 1957, page 4). It began with the flow of new knowledge into Western Europe through Sicily and Italy, and especially through Spain, with its highly developed Arab civilization. It was Arab scholars who introduced to Western Europe the works of Aristotle, Euclid, and Ptolemy, as well as the new arithmetic, making use of Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals.

The rudiments of the seven liberal arts had been taught in the schools of monasteries and cathedrals: Latin grammar, rhetoric and logic (the trivium), and the elements of arithmetic, astronomy, geometry and music (the quadrivium). The new learning went far beyond this, and demand for the teaching of medicine and law, philosophy and theology, is what led to the formation of universities - first, a medical university at Salerno, then a school of law at Bologna, and later, at Paris, a school of theology. Grammar became not just the study of parts of speech but the art of interpreting phenomena, and logic developed into dialectics - the science of testing arguments. Both grammar and logic were necessary for metaphysics and theology.

The University of Paris (which was granted its first royal charter in the year 1200) became the model for many other universities, including those of Oxford and Cambridge, as it was the model also for all the colleges later established by Ignatius (as he came to call himself). It began in the cathedral school of Notre Dame, whose chancellor licenced teaching in the diocese. A university was thus originally a way of training teachers, and graduate degrees - master, doctor - have preserved these teaching designations.

The University Colleges

A university, however, had at first no buildings or grounds - no library or laboratory, no playing field or stadium. It was in the beginning simply a society of masters and scholars, that is, of teachers and students. What began at Paris were the colleges. These were endowed residences providing room and board for poor students who could not otherwise afford to attend the university. Haskins tells us that there were sixty-eight such colleges in Paris by the year 1500. Íñigo de Loyola arrived on the scene twenty-eight years after this date. He was thirty-seven years old, attending classes with boys of fourteen or fifteen!

By this time, the colleges had long been centres of teaching, with lecture halls as well as living quarters. The University of Paris had developed into a corporation, a university of masters, with four faculties, each under a dean: arts, canon law, medicine, and theology. The pre-eminence of theology is what made Paris pre-eminent among universities. But, before one could study theology, there were the years, similar in many ways to what we today would call secondary schooling and undergraduate study, leading to a bachelor’s degree. Those in the arts, who were more numerous than the others, were grouped into four “nations”: the French, the Norman, the Picard, and the English. There were great rivalries and hatreds among these so-called nations, which led to name-calling, fist-fights and even riots.

The colleges, which varied in size (Sainte-Barbe had about two hundred students), were often filthy and infested with vermin. Íñigo, despite his passion for poverty, was fastidious about cleanliness and order. He lodged first at Saint-Jacques, a hospice for pilgrims, and took courses in Latin at the Collège Montaigu, where Erasmus, the famous Dutch humanist, had studied. The hospice was about three kilometres - almost two miles - from the college, and so he had to be up before four o’clock in order to be on time for his first class of the morning at five. There were also boarding houses where students could rent rooms, and he later moved to one of these.

A Poor Student in Every Sense

Unable to find employment with any professor, Íñigo was forced to beg in the streets, and eventually he took two months off every year to beg for alms in the port cities of London, Antwerp, and Bruges (it was then a port - the Venice of the North - before the harbour silted up). These towns were centres of great wealth (Bruges was the birthplace of the first stock exchange - De Beurs or La Bourse). In them Íñigo met generous Spaniards who even sent him letters of credit in Paris. In 1529 he was admitted to the Arts Faculty at Sainte-Barbe (the college of Saint Barbara), where he began the study of Aristotelian logic and philosophy.

Various professors were associated with the colleges, and at Sainte-Barbe Íñigo studied under Doctor Juan de la Peña, the only teacher mentioned in his Autobiography. Doctor Peña was at first displeased with the way Íñigo influenced other students, who, in imitation of his poverty, gave away their possessions - even their books - and took to begging in the streets. He reported him to the Rector, who threatened to have him flogged in public. Íñigo soon befriended the Rector, but he also changed his ways, and ceased talking in public about spiritual matters. It seemed the prudent thing to do, if he was ever going to become serious about his studies.

While most of the students were “clerks” or clerics, like Chaucer’s “Clerke of Oxenford” (that is, had received the tonsure prior to admission to minor orders, as had Íñigo), there were still relatively few students in theology, for the simple reason that theological studies were not a prerequisite for ordination to the priesthood. This requirement came in only with the Council of Trent (1545-1563). A “clerical” education originally prepared a person to become a good secretary, skilled in taking notes and writing letters in Latin. Íñigo had come late to studies. He was not good at mastering languages, either ancient or modern, and was much more inclined to action than to intellectual pursuits. But, by hard methodical work, he came to appreciate the value of academic learning, which included an integrated knowledge of Scripture and the writings of the early Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church, as well as the theology of the “schoolmen” or scholastics, and the philosophy of the pagan Greek Aristotle, upon which this scholasticism was built.

The Reformers

Paris was a dangerous place at this time. Íñigo had already run into difficulties with the Inquisition in Spain for attempting to teach others about sin and prayer, since he had no academic qualifications for teaching anything. At the University of Paris there were factions that favoured the doctrines of the Reformers, and the ideas of both Luther and Erasmus were hotly debated by students as well as professors. In 1523 Luther’s books had been burned on the square in front of Notre Dame, and, in 1526, two young men, a student and a graduate, who were found guilty of heresy had been burned at the stake.

Íñigo did not involve himself in these conflicts. He was not someone who feared for his life or avoided risks. He humbly accepted insults (for instance, when jeered at for begging), but he would tolerate no slanders against his orthodoxy. Whenever such occasions arose, he went at once to the authorities, presented whatever evidence was required (usually the notes which became his Spiritual Exercises), and asked to have his name cleared in writing. His passionate desire was to teach ordinary people about the things of God, and he would overcome any obstacle in order to be able to do so.

While Íñigo during these years was still a vagabond, a pauper, and a pilgrim, he did not at all fit the stereotype of those wastrel students celebrated in the Latin songs and verses of the Middle Ages. If we were to form an opinion from these songs alone, we would have to conclude that students frequented the taverns as often as the lecture halls, and were interested less in studies than in drinking and carousing and fighting. Íñigo had already outlived this phase of his youth in Spain. He was now almost forty years old, and felt at last that he understood with a certain clarity what God wanted him to do with the rest of his life. It was to lead others to find God, and to do this in the Holy Land, with the help of a few like-minded companions. His life was yet to unfold in ways that he could not possibly foresee, but at the University of Paris he finally gathered the first companions who would be part of this unfolding.

Eric Jensen, sj
Loyola House
Ignatius Jesuit Centre of Guelph
Ontario, Canada

INTRODUCTORY NOTES

Ignatius Loyola (Íñigo de Loyola), Francis Xavier (Francisco de Javier, or, as he called himself in the language of Navarre, Francés de Xavier) and Peter Faber (Pierre Favre) are the first companions out of whose friendship the Jesuits (the Company or Society of Jesus) eventually came into being. They were its foundation stones. This play, which attempts to capture something of their initial encounter at the University of Paris in 1530, was written to commemorate the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of Loyola (1556), and the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of Xavier and of Faber (1506), all celebrated in the year 2006.

The title (and much of the inspiration for this little work) comes from the brilliant biography, Ignatius of Loyola: The Pilgrim Saint, by José Ignacio Tellechea Idígoras, English translation by Cornelius Michael Buckley, sj, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1994 (based on the second Spanish edition of Ignacio de Loyola: solo y a pie, Ediciones Cristiandad, S.L., Madrid, 1987). Edmond C. Murphy, sj and John W. Padberg, sj have provided a very useful introduction to their edition of The Spiritual Writings of Pierre Favre (the Institute of Jesuit Sources, Saint Louis, 1996). The First Jesuits, by John O’Malley, sj (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1993), is also a great source of background information.

While the play is intended for voices (radio, recording, or dramatic reading), a few directions are provided for those who may wish to stage it. Any additional music should be very simple, perhaps with recorder or flute.

To bring out their different origins (French, Basque, Spanish, Savoyard) it would be helpful to cast the characters with slightly different accents, since (whatever language we may imagine them speaking - French, Latin, or Spanish) most of them would not be using their mother tongue.

Íñigo should have a restrained but passionate intensity, Pierre a youthful enthusiasm, and Francisco a blunt yet refined stubbornness. The level of language is that of informal yet respectful conversation among equals.

ORDER OF VOICES: Servant

Íñigo de Loyola

Doctor Juan de la Peña

Pierre Favre

Francisco de Javier

IN A COLLEGE ROOM

The First Jesuits

Paris, AD 1530

A Play for Voices

________

Scene One

(A Latin song is sung softly by Íñigo, not with the Latin stresses but with equal stress on each syllable and with more stress on the final syllable of each line, as is the tendency in French [the h in nihil is pronounced as a k]. Each syllable is sung as a quarter note, except for the last syllable of each line, which is held for a full note.)

Pau - per sum e - go;
F3 C3 D3 C3 F2

Ni - hil ha - be - o;
F3 E3 F3 G3 A3

Cor me - um da - bo.
A3 G3 F3 E3 F3

Servant: I was a young serving boy when Íñigo de Loyola arrived in Paris, alone and on foot. It was February, 1528, though I did not meet him until two years later. He came from Salamanca in Spain, where he had been imprisoned for “helping souls,” as he put it, through spiritual conversation. He was forbidden to speak of matters such as sin without first acquiring a theological foundation. And so he came to the University of Paris, renowned for its school of theology.

After spending a year and a half studying Latin grammar and rhetoric, he began to give what he called “spiritual exercises” to students and teachers in the Latin Quarter, which again got him into trouble. The following year, he enrolled in the course in humanities at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, and, a few months later, he found a room in a high tower, where he could study and pray. My mother and I were servants there.

What was he like? He was different from the other students. He was much older than most of them, some of whom were not much older than I was. He was very kind and gentle with almost everyone, but there was a certain fire in his eyes as well. He was fierce about injustice and dishonesty. He dressed very poorly but he was always neat and clean. I was struck by his fingernails - how clean and carefully trimmed he kept them. There was something else about him harder to describe. He had a kind of presence that was more than just piety. I always felt privileged just to be around him.

(The same song is sung again by Íñigo in translation.)

A poor man am I;
F3 C3 D3 C3 F2

No - thing do I have;
F3 E3 F3 G3 A3

I will give my heart.
A3 G3 F3 E3 F3

Servant: Where shall I put your things, Monsieur?

Íñigo: Put the books on the shelf, please, and hang the cloak on that hook by the bed. Oh, what a splendid view from this window! I can look upon the whole world from here!

Servant: Is this all you have, Monsieur?

Íñigo: There are so many poor students in the Quarter - poorer than I am! It’s impossible not to give them something when they’re freezing in the cold. (Laughingly) It seems that I haven’t much left to give away. Do you provide candles here?

Servant: No, Monsieur, only the inns do that. But you can buy some at the chandler’s shop just down the street.

Íñigo: Thank you, boy. Say a little prayer for me that my stay here may be blessed by God.

Servant: I don’t know any prayers, Monsieur.

Íñigo: I will teach you the Our Father, if it please you.

Servant: Perhaps another time, Monsieur. Good day.

(There is the sound of a door closing as the servant boy leaves. Íñigo groans a little as he gets down on his knees. His prayer is spoken slowly and is full of whispered sighing.)

Íñigo: O good Jesus, my Creator and Lord . . . I kneel in your sight . . . here in this room. I thank you with all my heart . . . that you have once again answered my poor prayers . . . and have led me here, to this place of solitude . . . where I can study . . . and be alone to speak with you.

(There is a knock at the door, followed by a pause as Íñigo rises painfully from his knees.)

Íñigo: Yes, come in, come in . . . Ah, Doctor Peña! How good to see you!

Peña: Good day, my dear Íñigo. With your permission, I would like to present to you a young man who has asked to meet you: this is Master Pierre Favre.

Íñigo: With pleasure!

Pierre: I am delighted to make your acquaintance! I am not yet a Master, sir, but am soon to receive that degree, God willing.

Peña: Yes - summa cum laude. Pierre is one of the finest students that it has ever been my pleasure to instruct. And now I will leave you. My opinion is sought on a matter of great importance to the English.

Pierre: The English?

Peña: Yes. After twenty years and four children, King Henry VIII now has grave doubts about the validity of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

Pierre: And the King seeks your opinion on this matter?

Peña: Doctor Thomas Cranmer of Cambridge University has recently asked the universities of Europe to consider the case - thus taking it out of the hands of the ecclesiastical courts. I am invited to help set up a commission to deal with his request.

Pierre: It seems that the English embrace Spanish wine only to reject Spanish women!

Íñigo: Poor Catherine! I saw her once at Alcalá when she was a young girl just a few years older than I. We must pray for her.

Peña: And for me! Good day, my friends.

Pierre: Good day, Doctor Peña.

Íñigo: Adiós, Doctor.

Pierre: Forgive me for being so bold, sir, but Doctor Peña has told me a little about you.

Íñigo: Has he indeed?

Pierre: Yes - about your zeal for spreading the Gospel. He’s told me how you spend much of your time teaching little children the catechism, and conversing about prayer with everyone you meet.

Íñigo: I no longer speak much in public about spiritual matters - it only gets me into trouble with the authorities.

Pierre: Doctor Peña says you’re on fire with the love of God!

Íñigo: I cannot deny it.

Pierre: Deo gratias! You’re a gift of God to me! How I’ve desired to open myself to another about the longings of my heart! But those I meet prefer to engage in controversy - to debate the doctrines of the Reformers, to talk about abstractions, or to argue whether all are saved or only a few.

Íñigo; God is not an abstraction.

Pierre : Yes, I know!

Íñigo: And salvation is not a proposition to be debated! It’s a goal to be striven for by following in the footsteps of Jesus, our Saviour.

Pierre: That’s exactly how I feel! I want to follow Christ our Lord more closely, but I don’t know where or how to begin.

Íñigo: Begin with yourself.

Pierre: I find myself . . . paralysed!

Íñigo: Paralysed? How?

Pierre: Trapped in doubts. . . fears. . . scruples.

Íñigo: I too have had these subtle temptations.

Pierre: The result is that I can trust nothing anymore - not my judgment, not myself!

Íñigo: Your trust must be in God before you can begin to trust yourself.

Pierre: Yes, in God . . .

Íñigo: Have you asked God’s help?

Pierre: I’ve asked and sought and knocked until I’m almost ready to give up!

Íñigo: When you are ready to give up - that’s when the door is opened!

Pierre Well, I’m almost at that point!

Íñigo: You must also trust in God’s Church - in the sacraments.

Pierre: I’ve known some wonderful churchmen, but all too often the priests and even the monks are corrupt. Or they’re ignorant of spiritual things.

Íñigo: Sad but true.

Pierre Some of the Reformers here in Paris are ready to throw out everything - even the Mass! But, as Erasmus says, the Church is desperately in need of reform.

Íñigo: The Church is always in need of reforming - now more than ever! But I have determined to begin, first, by reforming myself.

Pierre: I must remove the wooden beam from my own eye before trying to remove the speck of sawdust from someone else’s eye!

Íñigo: I can see that we will get along well, we two!

Pierre : So, I ask you, how should I go about this task of reforming myself?

Íñigo: Well, I can tell you this much: it’s hard work. It’s not to be done by drifting with the current, but rather by swimming with all your force against the currents that draw you downstream, away from God.

Pierre: Towards self-destruction?

Íñigo: Yes, but at first only toward self-interest.

Pierre: In what way?

Íñigo: You are trapped in your scruples?

Pierre: Yes . . .

Íñigo: You could easily be trapped in something else.

Pierre: For example . . . ?

Íñigo: You could be trapped in your gifts of intelligence or in your desire for fame.

Pierre: Or in my desire for love?

Íñigo: (He speaks slowly at first.) We all desire love - the love of a woman, a family. We long for sons and daughters, for a hearth, a home.

Pierre : Or?

Íñigo: (He begins to speak faster and faster.) Or we set our hearts on a career in the world of letters - to be sought after by brilliant students, to have degrees and titles and honours heaped upon us. We’re carried along by ambition. We make plans and schemes and grand designs, and one thing leads to another - struggles, failures, successes all pile up. But never is the question asked, “Where is God in all my grand designs and noble purposes? What is God’s purpose for my life?”

Pierre : You overwhelm me with an avalanche of words!

Íñigo: And you mystify me with your strange words! What is the meaning of this avalanche you speak of? Is it dialect or patois?

Pierre: It’s Savoyard. In my country - in Savoy, where I grew up as a shepherd boy - snow accumulates in the Alps in winter and, as it melts in spring, it often cascades down a mountainside, ripping up rocks and trees, and sweeping away whole villages. This is an avalanche. And this is how your words overwhelm me and sweep me off my feet!

Íñigo: I must speak less.

Pierre: No, not less, just less quickly!

Íñigo: And yet I cannot stop up the Word that’s in my heart, burning like a fire in my breast.

Pierre: You sound like Jeremiah! But this is indeed what I wish to talk about with you. I feel that I’ve been led here, to Paris and to this university, by God. I’ve been carried along in my studies - by a desire for knowledge, for truth, for wisdom. But, now that I’m soon to have my efforts crowned with the degree of Master of Arts, I feel a certain emptiness in my soul. I find myself unsure where to go next, or what to do.

Íñigo: What attracts you?

Pierre Knowledge and learning are what attract me most of all! As a child I wept because I couldn’t go to school!

Íñigo: Your Parents . . . ?

Pierre: They kept me at home tending sheep.

Íñigo: “Peter, do you love me more than these?”

Pierre More than these sheep? Yes!

Íñigo: Do you love Jesus?

Pierre: More than any thing or any other person!

Íñigo: What else attracts you?

Pierre Marriage and family life attract me. I could stay on at the university and make a living as a teacher. Ordination to the priesthood is also open to me - I could acquire a rural parish, and live quite comfortably, but I desire . . . something more.

Íñigo: Yes, something more! That’s the desire by which you must allow yourself to be led! This more you speak of is not something more for yourself. It’s something more for God.

Pierre: “Our hearts are made for you, O Lord . . .”

Íñigo: “ . . . and we are restless till we rest in you.”

Pierre: I also love the great Augustine!

Íñigo: How I envy your learning! It does not come as easily to me as I grow older. But God has reached down to me in my poverty and ignorance, and taught me things that cannot be learned from books. Tell me about your way of praying.

Pierre: I have a pattern of devotions which I go through every morning when I arise at four o’clock, before going to class - certain prayers I say, petitions I make, saints whose intercession I ask. After the first class there is Mass at six.

Íñigo: Devotions are good, but I will teach you something more, since this is your desire. I will teach you to reflect on your daily experience, beginning by giving thanks to God for all that has been given to you that day.

Pierre: I already do this! I count my blessings every night, and often I find my heart swelling with gratitude!

Íñigo: Gratitude is essential. There is no greater sin than the sin of ingratitude. But there are other movements of the soul as well, movements quite the opposite of gratitude.

Pierre : What do you mean?

Íñigo: Besides this kind of spiritual consolation there is also, often, a certain spiritual desolation.

Pierre: Spiritual desolation? You mean discouragement? Depression? I’m often depressed!

Íñigo: No, that’s not what I mean - not just a feeling of wretchedness, but a spiritual state that comes with a loss or diminishment of the gifts of faith, hope and love.

Pierre: In that order?

Íñigo: No, hope is usually the first thing to go. We may find our hope subtly eroded by disappointments, and when this happens, we begin to doubt that God is present, or that our prayers are heard, or, if heard, that they’ll be answered.

Pierre: Yes, I’ve known something of that desperate condition!

Íñigo: Unless we reflect upon ourselves, first to become aware of these movements, and then to act against those that trap us in our own helplessness, we can gradually slide into a state of despondency.

Pierre: Without hope?

Íñigo: Almost. Then faith withers and love dries up, and prayer becomes difficult and distasteful.

Pierre: You say to act against these movements. Do you mean by praying more?

Íñigo: Not by praying more, but by insisting more on praying.

Pierre: I see . . .

Íñigo: When we find ourselves in this kind of spiritual desolation, the first temptation is to give up praying altogether. What’s the point of praying, we think, if God isn’t listening or is not going to answer our prayers?

Pierre: And so to pray more - to say more prayers or to spend more hours in prayer - would only wear us out in times like this?

Íñigo: Exactly. I say simply that we must be more insistent on praying. We must not abandon our habits or patterns of prayer, but stay the course we’ve set out upon. To do this is to go against the temptation to give up praying. It takes a certain effort. But we are never alone in our struggles.

Pierre: If only my roommate, Francisco, could hear you talk like this, it would do him much good.

Íñgio: Francisco?

Pierre: Francisco de Xavier - he’s a fellow countryman of yours, a Basque.

Íñigo: Yes, I know the name, but I served the kings of Aragon and Castile, and his family served the kings of Navarre and France.

Pierre That may be one reason why he resisted the request to come with me to meet you. But he’s also heard many negative things about you - about your outlandish way of life, as he calls it, and about your difficulties with the Inquisition in Spain. He’s formed a certain prejudice against you. Perhaps if you wrote to him, he would consent to visit you.

Íñigo: Allow me to reflect on this and pray about it.

Pierre: I must be on my way. You’ve lifted my spirits and given me much practical advice! I would be honoured if we could meet again to continue this conversation.

Íñigo: Nothing would please me more. I feel that the Lord will do much good through you. May God be with you!

Pierre : And with you! Salve!

(As Pierre leaves, we hear him singing the opening Latin song in translation.)

A poor man am I;
F3 C3 D3 C3 F2

No - thing do I have;
F3 E3 F3 G3 A3

I will give my heart.
A3 G3 F3 E3 F3

Scene Two

(The servant boy comes to Íñigo’s room.)

Servant: You called for me, Monsieur?

Íñigo: Yes, my boy, be kind enough to take this letter to the room of Master Pierre Favre, who was here the other day. It’s for his roommate.

Servant: What is this strange name, François Zavier? Savier? Shavier? How do you pronounce this letter X?

Íñigo: Shavier is close enough. The Portuguese are the only ones to get it right, though, like me, he’s from Spain.

Servant: And what’s to be my reward for running this errand, Monsieur?

Íñigo: I’ll teach you the Hail Mary.

Servant: I’ll go without the reward.

(The servant boy goes out, closing the door. Íñigo goes over to the table beside his bed and picks up a book. He sits on a chair and begins to turn the pages slowly.)

Íñigo: Ah, the De Imitatione Christi. Let me see where I last left off - “Book the Second, Chapter the Eighth: Of the Familiar Friendship of Jesus.” How this chapter never fails to move me! Jesus, you are indeed my familiar friend . . .

(Íñigo’s eyes seem to be fixed on something above. He is silent for a while. There is a knock at the door. Íñigo stirs from a kind of ecstasy.)

Íñigo: Enter, please!

Francisco: Señor Íñigo de Loyola?

Íñigo: Yes . . .

Francisco: I am Francés do Yasu y Xavier.

Íñigo: Do come in, please!

Francisco: I trust I am not disturbing you?

Íñigo: No, I was just reading this little book, The Imitation of Christ. Do you know it?

Francisco: Is there anyone who has not heard of it?

Íñigo: I suppose not. But to know it is something else again. There are whole chapters that I have learned almost by heart. (He puts the book on the table.) I thank you for coming to see me.

Francisco: I could not refuse a fellow countryman, could I? But that is not really why I came here.

Íñigo: Is it not?

Francisco: No. Until now I have avoided you, Señor. But your letter was so simple and so direct - it touched something in me that eloquence could not touch - and here I am!

Íñigo: Ah, yes, one stubborn Basque confronts another! We are both cut from the same cloth, are we not?

Francisco: This is true, but we’ve served different kings, you and I.

Íñigo: I now serve only Christ the King.

Francisco: Had I been old enough to take up arms at the siege of Pamplona, we might have faced each other across the fortifications.

Íñigo: You were how old then?

Francisco: Fifteen years old. And You?

Íñigo: Almost twice your age.

Francisco: And now we face each other here in Paris.

Íñigo: Nine years later.

Francisco: Yes, you and I, together at last - but still worlds apart!

Íñigo: How so?

Francisco: Here am I with my determination to become a scholar and Master at a great university, and there you are, with your wild project of going to Jerusalem to conquer the Moors! Pierre has told me of your plans.

Íñigo: Not to conquer by force of arms - I hung up my sword and dagger long ago at the Abbey of Montserrat.

Francisco: Then how?

Íñigo: I intend to conquer souls, not foreign lands or fortified cities. And to conquer only with the sword of God’s Word.

Francisco: I would rather leave that work to another Francis - Il Poverello of Assisi. The Friars are already there in the Holy Land, doing well enough without you or me.

Íñigo: True. But I’ve gone to Jerusalem, and I’ve been filled with love for her very stones!

Francisco: Psalm one hundred and two, verse fourteen.

Íñigo: You know the Scriptures better than I do. But I’m talking about the land - the land where Jesus lived and worked and walked. His feet and hands made holy everything He touched. To live and work and die where He lived and died for me, for you - does my desire not fill you with a longing to do the same?

Francisco: That’s a life for others, not for me. To have spent these many years in the study of logic and rhetoric, of philosophy and theology, so that I might become a professor, and then to toss it all aside for the sake of some quest for the Holy Grail - that smacks of those fabulous tales of romance, does it not?

Íñigo: I once loved those tales - I lived those tales!

Francisco: Indeed?

Íñigo: My whole existence revolved around a dream of doing heroic deeds to win the heart of a fair princess - a real princess!

Francisco: Who was she?

Íñigo: I will not reveal her name. I’ll say only that she was young and very beautiful - the most beautiful woman I ever set eyes upon.

Francisco: Well, there you have it! A dreamer! A starry-eyed lover! A knight in shining armour! How can I take you seriously?

Íñigo: You’re right. I once was all those things. I was a fool for love and honour and glory. I too had other plans.

Francisco: What sort of plans?

Íñigo: In the early days it was simply a desire for noble service.

Francisco: This is my desire also.

Íñigo: Yes, but I grew up as a courtier of the Gran Contador of Castile, at Arévalo. There I was surrounded by noble lords and ladies. I learned refined manners and elegant speech - a most excellent Castilian. I learned to compose verses in a fine Italic script - all things of which I was inordinately proud, and all of it meant to prepare me to serve in the royal court.

Francisco: And all quite admirable!

Íñigo: I also engaged in practices of which I was not so proud: I gambled and played at cards and dice, and I chased after women and fought duels. Then came the siege of Pamplona, where, for the honour of my King, I resisted the French.

Francisco: And the King of Navarre!

Íñigo: But I could not resist a cannon ball that left me lame.

Francisco: So I see. I wondered why you are wearing only one alpargata - one silly rope-soled sandal!

Íñigo: Yes, one leg is slightly shorter than the other. I suffered all this gladly for the King of Aragon. Now, however, I serve another King who suffered much more for me, and I strive to make him known, as I try to make amends for my past life.

Francisco: Why then have you come to Paris? Why did you not stay in Jerusalem, to be close to your King?

Íñigo: I went to Jerusalem as a pilgrim, and I would gladly have stayed there, but it was not permitted me by those in authority. Since then, my pilgrimage has taken me to many places - even to prison.

Francisco: Ah, yes! The Inquisition is on to you and your schemes!

Íñigo: I have no schemes. I seek only to win souls for Christ, to make Jesus better known and more loved.

Francisco: And how do you do this?

Íñigo: Through simple conversation - and through what I call “spiritual exercises”.

Francisco: Spiritual exercises? Are you an alumbrado? An illuminatus? A charismatic charlatan? A pious mountebank peddling indulgences? No wonder the Inquisition clapped you in jail!

Íñigo: No, I am none of these things. But this is why I’ve come to the University of Paris: to acquire enough theology to be permitted to speak to ordinary people about spiritual matters - about God, about sin, above all about prayer.

Francisco: Well, my friend, those are fine aspirations, but they’re not mine. I don’t think that they’re Pierre’s either.

Íñigo: Pierre has agreed to make my spiritual exercises when he can find the time to go apart for a month.

Francisco: So, you’ve already begun to win him over!

Íñigo: It’s the Lord who is winning him over. And He will win you over too, some day, I feel sure.

Francisco: We shall see what we shall see.

Íñigo: If we must part, let it not be as enemies.

Francisco: No, not enemies, but . . . not quite friends.

Íñigo: Not yet friends, perhaps, but we shall be friends - friends in the Lord. God go with you.

Francisco: And with you.

(As Francisco leaves we hear Íñigo humming the familiar Latin song.)

Hmm - mm - mm - mm - mm;
F3 C3 D3 C3 F2

Hmm - mm - mm - mm - mm;
F3 E3 F3 G3 A3

Hmm - mm - mm - mm - mm.
A3 G3 F3 E3 F3

Scene Three

(Íñigo is kneeling in the middle of his room, holding his rosary beads, and softly praying.)

Íñigo: . . . Sancta Maria . . . mater Dei . . . ora . . . pro nobis peccatoribus . . . nunc . . . et in hora mortis nostrae . . .

(There is a knock at the door. Íñigo rises slowly to his feet.)

Íñigo: Come in, please.

Servant: Pardon, Monsieur, your friends are downstairs, asking if they may see you.

Íñigo: Pierre and Francisco? By all means, tell them to come up.

Servant: What’s that in your hands?

Íñgio: This is a rosary - with beads of olive wood from the Holy Land. I would like to give it to you for your many kindnesses. Here, take it.

Servant: Do I have to learn to pray these beads?

Íñigo: (He laughs.) No, just wear them around your neck, like a true pilgrim!

Servant: In that case, I accept. Thank you, Monsieur!

(The servant boy puts on the rosary, grins, then bows in mock piety, with his hands together like an altar boy, and leaves. Pierre and Francisco enter the room.)

Pierre: Forgive us, my friend, for disturbing you at this late hour.

Íñigo: You are both most welcome - at any hour!

Francisco: I’ve just received official confirmation that I am now a Master of Arts!

Íñigo: Why, that’s wonderful!

Francisco: I want you both to be the first to know, and to celebrate this event with me!

Íñigo: You include me in your celebration?

Francisco: Yes, our Basque blood must count for something! See, I’ve brought a fine bottle of wine from Navarre to share with you!

Pierre: And I’ve brought three glasses - and a cheese from Savoy, which I’ve kept for just this occasion!

Íñigo: And I have a fresh loaf of bread, given to me by the mother of that young lad who runs my errands.

Francisco: Excellent!

Íñigo: This is good news indeed! Come and sit down. I have only one chair, but we can sit on the bed. Tell me, what will you do, Francisco, now that you’ve attained your goal?

Pierre: You can at least bid farewell to the wretched life of a poor student!

Francisco: I wish that were so, Pierre, but you forget: there are expenses entailed in the honours I’ve been granted. True, I’ll soon have a chair at the Collège de Beauvais, but the position doesn’t pay much, at least not at first. I shall have to hire a serving man - not just to keep up appearances, but so that I can devote my time to preparing lectures. As well, I’ve engaged a lawyer to establish the nobility of my lineage, which will help my advancement.

Íñigo: How will you manage all this? I know that your family has fallen on hard times - I don’t imagine that they can provide much assistance.

Francisco: True. But for this very reason I feel honour-bound to establish my name and to rebuild my family’s fortune.

Íñigo: And in the meantime . . . ?

Francisco: I suppose that I shall have to find students to tutor in Latin and Greek. Perhaps you can send a few my way.

Íñigo: Gladly. I raise a glass to the success of all your endeavours!

Pierre: I sense, Íñigo, that you don’t quite approve of all these changes in our friend’s way of living.

Íñigo: It’s not my place to approve or disapprove. While I share your joy at this success, I also observe the complications that honours bring.

Francisco: And what will you do when you attain your degree?

Íñigo: I’ll go back to my old ways, and - at last without hindrance - I’ll speak about God to everyone I meet in the streets!

Francisco: That will not put bread on your table.

Íñigo: As you can see, my table has bread - enough even to entertain my friends!

Pierre: And so you’ll continue to live the life of a beggar?

Íñigo: I have less time for begging now that I must study, but the Lord provides nonetheless.

Francisco: But what is the point of living in poverty when you don’t have to?!

Íñigo: And what is the point of having degrees and honours when they bring you so much anxiety?

Francisco: But honour is . . . everything!

Íñigo: The honour of God is the only thing.

Francisco: And without money, who can live?

Íñigo: As St. Paul says, I have learned how to be rich and how to be poor, and I prefer to be poor - the way Jesus was poor.

Francisco: Well, please don’t quote me that line about what it profits a man to gain the whole world! I don’t desire the whole world - just a small part of it!

Íñigo: As for myself, I already have all that I really need. I’m free from care and worry, and, in my poverty, I meet God each and every day.

Pierre: What do you mean by that?

Íñigo: I mean that, while philosophers and theologians may argue about proofs for the existence of God, I place my needs each day in God’s hands, and I can verify each day that my prayers are answered.

Francisco: Well, then, pray for my needs while you’re at it!

Íñigo: I do, my friend, I assure you that I do! But my prayers for your needs take a little longer to answer! However, let me suggest one possible solution to your present predicament. I propose that we throw in our lot together.

Francisco: Throw in my lot with you?!

Íñigo: I mean the three of us together. The two of you are already roommates, and have been for some years. It would be less expensive if the three of us were to share a single room - why not this room?

Pierre: It is a fine room - a paradise in comparison to the one that we share, Francisco!

Francisco: A room with a view will not compensate for all this talk of spiritual exercises and poverty!

Íñigo: I give you my word that I will talk only about the things that you wish to talk about. I will pray only while you are sleeping. And, whatever Providence sends my way, I will share with the two of you.
Francisco: I shall have to think about this. Pierre and I will discuss it together. But let me say at once that I admire your generous spirit.

Pierre: Thank you, my good friend! Your offer does indeed seem to be an answer to prayer. You never fail to bring light into my life! How can I ever repay you?

íñigo: You could leave me the rest of that excellent cheese! (All three laugh.)
__________

Servant: Íñigo, Pierre and Francisco eventually became roommates and, finally, lifelong friends. They also attracted other students, who joined them in their project of going to the Holy Land. But this was not to be. War with Turkey made it impossible to sail across the Mediterranean. The companions went at last to Rome. There the Society of Jesus was given official approval. Ignatius, as he came to call himself, was chosen as the order’s superior - this despite his resistance. He spent the rest of his days organizing the Society’s structure and overseeing its phenomenal growth. Pierre Favre became a skilled director of the Spiritual Exercises, and Francisco de Javier - Francis Xavier - was sent to the Far East, where he preached the gospel in Goa and Japan, and died on an island off the coast of China. And I? I still wear those olive wood beads around my neck - I even pray them now and then!

(The opening song is sung again, in Latin only, this time as a round, by Íñigo, Pierre, and Francisco.)

Pau - per sum e - go;
F3 C3 D3 C3 F2

Ni - hil ha - be - o;
F3 E3 F3 G3 A3

Cor me - um da - bo.
A3 G3 F3 E3 F3

The Gifts of the First Companions Today

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Ignatius and vision

We need the vision of Ignatius, that will allow us to see God, the world, our work, and ourselves differently.

In an increasingly secular culture, we need his capacity to see the invisible God “who works and labors in all things.” (Exx 236).
At a time of much discouragement in the country, we want to see again that we are not the only agents of change, but that the “risen Christ, far from being absent from the world, …is now present…and continues to mediate God’s work of brining salvation, justice and reconciliation to a world that is still broken by its sins.” (GC 34)
We need to see our works, not as isolated personal projects, my work, my ministry, but our privileged sharing in God’s great work in the world.
We need to see ourselves, not primarily as parish priests, or educators, or social workers, or artists, or formators, but as servants of Christ’s mission. Thus, we might rediscover freedom: that readiness to continue, adapt or let go of particular works, as we seek to discern and serve God’s ongoing work and unfolding plan.

Xavier and passion

We desire to receive a share in the passion of Francis Xavier.

In times of complacency or resignation, partially due to the magnitude of problems and concerns, we need a reawakened “urgency to announce the good news.” (Kolvenbach)
We need a share in Francis’ acute sense of the need of those around him and his desire to bring the hope of the risen Lord to those most deprived of it: “Francis bears the good news to help those who no longer reflect the image of God and are deprived of their proper humanity and are plunged into misery.” (Kolvenbach)
At a time when we are tempted to despair because of the seemingly unending cycle of poverty, corruption and political instability, we want a share in Francis’ dauntless spirit of perseverance in the face of trial and apparent failure, his unalterable conviction that the Truth and the Life which is the Lord can transform human life.

Favre and caring

We hope to be given some of the caring spirit of Pierre Favre.

At a time when the burdens that we need to bear are so many, because of the many needs, our fewer numbers, our increasing elderly and sick, our over-extended men, we desire to fulfill better the office of consoler to each other and so build apostolic community. We long to be able to say with Xavier. “Society of Jesus…Society of love.”
We hope, by bound not simply by bonds of employment, but of spirit, mission, friendship.

CONCLUSION

This Jubilee Year, as we contemplate the special gifts of our founding companions, Ignatius, Xavier, Favre, we pray that our Province may be blessed with:

Ignatius’ vision that brings hope and freedom;
Xavier’s passion to bring God’s life to those deprived of it and endures despite difficulty;
Favre’s caring that builds true community.

With the First Companions, we pray that we, Jesuits and Lay Partners together, may be Companions in the Lord, Doing God’s Work, for the Hope of the World.

Meet the CIS Staff and Volunteers

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Fr. Arnulfo O. Bugtas, SJ, Executive Director
Fr. Roy Rolando L. Cosca, SJ
Sch. Jose Mari V. Manzano, SJ
Cristina A. Mossesgeld, Programs Officer

Fr. Celerino I.M. Reyes, SJ, Assistant Director
Dalisay A. Santos, Program Coordinator
Rosemarie S. Sandrino, Admin Assistant
Johmarose Drilon-Panti , Programs Assistant

Your Partners in the Ignatian
Spirituality.