From Brokenness to Community – L’arche

Exciting news from Manchester is that L’arche are opening a new community in Manchester.  The leader of the group, Kevin Coogan, came and gave a fascinating and engaging talk about his experience with L’arche and his passion for living with adults with learning disabilities.  He explained how L’arche, set up by the Canadian Catholic Jean Vanier, had pioneered the model of ‘care in the community’ in the 50’s and 60’s when those with serious mental or physical disability had been confined to large institutions and kept out of sight and mind.

He was so honest and open about the challenges of living with people who had often been abandoned at birth, confined to institutions which may have provided a safe but often not a caring environment.  So the psychological damage of  this experience created another level of difficulties. The power of L’arche is that these people become friends.  And it was fascinating to me to hear how an emotional co-dependence can actually be healing rather than destructive or limiting.  The Community is being part funded by the local authority as they are providing a quality of care for vulnerable adults that is unlikely to be matched. But that relationship has a very interesting tension – for instance where do you draw the lines between a true life-giving healing relationship and safe professional distance.

Kevin Coogan and his brother Steve raising money for L’arche

A fascinating example Kevin gave was his experience of going on holiday with his wife and kids and bringing two community members with them.  From a faith perspective this is a wonderful and inclusive act of generosity, an unforgettable experience that is priceless.  As a priest I am often grateful for the hospitality of being received into families whether for dinner or a brief break.  However from the cold hard gaze of the local authority – often the funding agency – it would be tempting to be cynical and say, this is a sneaky way of subsidising a family holiday.  Of course this is open to abuse, but when you see the compassion and the generosity with which they are received into the family environment you have to applaud the vision behind this, and bemoan the short-sightedness of the limited vision that comes from a cynical administrative approach.  It was a meeting that has left me much to ponder!

 

Irresistible

 

AMDG

Sometimes being snowed-in may save your life

 Today we remember St Jean Vianney – the famous ‘Cure of Ars’.  I was  researching a bit about him yesterday and found a fascinating story.  Born into revolutionary France, when the faith was outlawed, Vianney as a young boy would travel miles to mass with his family to remote farmhouses.  The windows would be covered in cloth, to hide the shine of candlelight. Impressed by the courage of the priests who were risking their lives and the guillotine to celebrate mass, the seeds of a vocation were planted.  Incredibly as a young man, Vianney was press-ganged into Napoleons army to fight the Spanish.  On a forced march to the Spanish border he managed to slip away and was stranded in the mountain village of Les Noes.  The deep snows of a winter stranded him and kept him safe from the zealous gendarmes who were searching for deserters.  During the the long winter he set up a rudimentary school for the children.  He was ordained and his holiness led to the radical spiritual transformation of the community of Ars and its surroundings.  His fame spread far and wide, and soon over 20,000 people a year would travel to Ars on a pilgrimage, and to make their confessions to him, and these was the days before Easy Jet!  In the summer he could spend up to 16hrs in the confessional.

No wonder he is the patron saint of Parish Priests.  What is striking about his story is  the growth of his vocation in the most hostile circumstances, with so many obstacles put up against him.  Echoed perfectly in today’s readings of the Prophet Jeremiah being delivered from execution, and the Gospel of John the Baptist beheading by King Herod. Kings, Emperors, Revolutions – no matter how powerful  they seem, Gods will, sometimes working imperceptibly, will always find a way.   The most powerful force in the world – even greater that the  Higgs Boson or the magnificent  Jessica Ennis.  With an open heart the will of God is irresistible. 

Related articles

• Thousands visit St. John Vianney’s heart in England (catholicnewsagency.com)

 

A rare and beautiful flower

AMDG

The Island of Eigg is part of the Inner Hebrides

There is an archetypal story of the flower or plant that is very rare but exceedingly beautiful, or has mystical healing powers. In order to pluck this treasure you have travel to a remote spot, a high mountain perhaps or a lost island to locate it. The Church of St Donan on the Isle of Eigg feels like the ecclesial equivalent of that magical flower or plant. The Isle of Eigg has a population of 88, mostly nominal Catholics and the parish is served here from Arisaig, which means weather permitting (it’s a one hour boat ride) the get mass once a month. So two of us set out yesterday not knowing what to expect. What we found was truly a rare flower, overlooking the stunning Bay of Laig. There has been no resident priest on Eigg since the fifties, so a sporadic service from nearby mainland parishes probably accounts for the small active congregation – but as is often the case it is quality not quantity. I was very inspired by their commitment and their plans.

When you walk into the church you are hit by the delightful smell of the pine floor. The Church clean and recently renovated is beautiful. Such work is not cheap however, on enquiry theirs was a fascinating story about how the church renovation was paid for. The former priest had left a beautiful painting in the adjoining presbytery (recently demolished as it had fallen into disrepair). In his will he had stipulated that it only be sold to pay for renovation of the church. Removed to Oban and hung in the bishops house – the painting went into a bit of limbo.

St Donan who was massacred with over 50 of his monks by a Pictish Queen in 617

Meanwhile the small and tenacious group of parishioners were fretting about the state of the historic church, exposed to the raw Atlantic winds and harsh winter storms. Recently they heard about the renovation and rededication of the Catholic Church on the neighbouring Isle of Skye. They went to visit to get tips for fund-raising and they were told the best thing to do was to pray to their patronal saint. This they duly did, and the forgotten about painting came back onto the agenda – with one of the final acts of the retiring bishop to get it valued. With the value coming back at between 15,000 – 20,0000 it seemed that they would still fall short by a long way. They kept praying and the painting went up for auction at Sotheby’s two days after the feast of their parish saint. It was sold for nearly £250,000! Mairi, one of the parishioners told me with a beaming smile they are convinced it was due to the intercession of St Donan.

Inside the newly refurbished church

Now their plans are to get more priests visiting the islands to say masses on a more regular basis. They are even considering raising money to build a small chalet next to the church for the visiting priests. Meanwhile however they will be treated to island hospitality! So if you know any priests looking for a week away – in a beautiful spot – with wonderful walking, fishing, sea kayaking opportunities please tell them to contact Mairi at the following address.

Mairi Mackinnon , Maranatha

7 Cleadale , Isle of Eigg, PH42 4RL

Of course all arrangements should also be made through the Parish priest, Fr Andrew Barrett, the Parish Priest at Arisaig whose takes responsibility for the parish on Eigg. I left Eigg inspired by their story and keen to help them. A small but incredibly committed group of faithful. They are not asking for money but simply for priests so they can practise their faith… let’s try and help them!

Arriving for mass on a quad bike

Satellites, Poets and School

AMDG

Chandra Observatory launched in 1991, at the time the heaviest payload, designed for 5 years, still going strong …pic from NASA

It is striking how well drilled Indian students are in learning and knowing about the lives of the towering figures of Indian History. Gandhi, Ambedkar (the Dalit author of the constitution), Roy, Nehru, the list goes on and on.  I was surprised yesterday in the Hostel with a conversation I had with a very bright student who has just returned. I had put up a display of images of the Solar System, rockets, astronauts, observatories and satellites, with a special focus on Indian hardware.  One of the three space observatories left is the Chandra X Ray Satellite.  NASA named this satellite after a great Indian physicist Chandraseka and it allows us to collect data from deep space.  I was trying to explain this to a gaggle of students who were pressing around, and one older girl knew all about him. I was surprised and very impressed.  Knowledge of these great figures serves to instill national pride and shared identity, a unifying factor to combat communal violence.  However as one of the Jesuits said to me, the education system, still heavily based on rote learning is not geared to encouraging a similar creativity and ingenuity in the majority of students.  Widespread corruption in the examination system is also preventing good practice and good schools to be identified and copied, especially in areas far from the metropolis.

My favourite among these Indian giants is the poet and educationalist, and author of the National Anthem,  Rabindrath Tagore (right).  He is known in India as ‘gurudeb’ – the great teacher.  I remember discovering his poetry at university and at once being mesmerised by its beauty and mysticism.  Tagore won the Nobel  Prize for Literature in 1913 after  Yeats did a lot to get translations of his work published and promoted on a visit to London.   He was knighted in 1915 but repudiated the honour four years later after a terrible massacre by British troops.  Like Ghandi his thoughts on Christ have always fascinated me, although remaining a Hindu he admired Christ greatly. However he did not admire Christians whom he identified with the British Imperial power he was working to overthrow.  In a letter to E J Thompson he said  ’Do you know I have often felt that if we were not Hindus…I should like my people to be Christians? Indeed, it is a great pity that Europeans have come to us as imperialists rather than as Christians and so have deprived our people of their true contact with the religion of Jesus Christ…What a mental torture it is to know that men are capable of loving each other and adding to one another’s joy, and yet would not!”

I am currently reading a biography of his – so imagine my delight when I found out that he was sent to a Jesuit school - St Xavier’s in Kolkota. It would be nice to say he loved school, this was by no means the case. He hated formal education and being a ‘mere pupil’.  In fact he was sent to St Xaviers as a last desperate attempt by his mother after other institutions had failed. At least it had some impact on him, in a previous school ‘the presidency college’  he only lasted one day! When his mother died he gave up school for good at the age of 13. Ironically he became one of Indias greatest educationalists setting up his own school in Santiniketan. In his memoirs, however I have discovered one reminiscence which I find beautiful ….

2010 – 150 year anniversary

One precious memory of St. Xavier’s I still hold fresh and pure—the memory of its teachers……. This is the memory of Father DePeneranda. He had very little to do with us—if I remember right he had only for a while taken the place of one of the masters of our class. He was a Spaniard and seemed to have an impediment in speaking English. It was perhaps for this reason that the boys paid but little heed to what he was saying. It seemed to me that this inattentiveness of his pupils hurt him, but he bore it meekly day after day. I know not why, but my heart went out to him in sympathy. His features were not handsome, but his countenance had for me a strange attraction. Whenever I looked on him his spirit seemed to be in prayer, a deep peace to pervade him within and without.We had half-an-hour for writing our copybooks; that was a time when, pen in hand, I used to become absent-minded and my thoughts wandered hither and thither. One day Father DePeneranda was in charge of this class. He was pacing up and down behind our benches. He must have noticed more than once that my pen was not moving. All of a sudden he stopped behind my seat. Bending over me he gently laid his hand on my shoulder and tenderly inquired: “Are you not well, Tagore?” It was only a simple question, but one I have never been able to forget. I cannot speak for the other boys but I felt in him the presence of a great soul, and even to-day the recollection of it seems to give me a passport into the silent seclusion of the temple of God.

Teachers often do not realise the impact they are having for good or ill, and what we think is success or failure might turn out different in the grand scheme of things!

——————

A week of Ashes!

AMDG

Wearing her ashes with pride (in Kabul Kabul)

Apologies for the blog silence over the last week – I had a fairly exhausting tour of some of the 51 chapels / ‘destinos’ celebrating the Ash Weds liturgy. It was a fascinating experience. The island has a population of over 90,000 (but only 15 cars / jeeps).  The numbers stem from the time when it was the worlds biggest leper colony (6,000+).  The doctors, nurses and patients all brought their families with them – so the population has grown since. Now there are only 6 patients with leprosy and they are confined to a hospital ward.  We celebrate mass with them once a week and last night I took my laptop and projector and we watched Jurassic Park together.  I think it might have scared them a bit too much!  But they were very excited and lots of hugs when I arrived and left.

Some of the remoter villages are electricity free, I remember one night showing a group of about 50 villagers webpages that I had saved on my laptop – their first experience of the internet!  The majority of the population in these areas are referred to as ‘IP’s’ (indigenous peoples).  The original inhabitants of the island they fled in fear to the remoter parts when the lepers started arriving.  The Jesuits have now turned their attention to helping them – with a literacy program ably assisted by the impressive Cart Wheel Foundation. The parish priest Fr Lito told me that this is already working wonders in terms of self-esteem and confidence.  When he first would go to the areas the IP’s would hide behind the coconut trees, too shy to come and talk. Now they are discussing and planning ways in which they can strengthen their communities.

The view from the Jesuit Community – the church built by the lepers. From this parish church the other 51 chapels are served by boat, jeep and foot

As a priest it has, paradoxically,  been one of the most enjoyable beginnings of Lent I can imagine.  As always the hospitality was wonderful – lots of crabs and freshly caught fish.  I suppose fasting is less meaningful when you are living a fairly subsistence lifestyle and life is more precarious for many as there are less fish and more competition for stock from technologically advanced mainlanders.

I have had my leg in a brace since my operation four weeks ago – so this became a useful prop for homilies.  The discipline of wearing a bandage and a leg brace to allow healing has its parallels with lent.   And slowly taking it off and unravelling the bandage certainly kept the children’s attention!  Many of them staring at me anyway – as though I was from another planet. It was said that for the younger children I was the first white person to visit their village.   One phenomenon that was unusual was that after 10 masses I would explain how I was available for confession – not one person took me up on it.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation certainly seems to be practiced more over here than in the West – so this lack of interest was a surprise.  I have since learnt that many priests have commented on the lack of the sense of personal sin amongst the people – which is an inheritance of the lepers colony.  I suppose that maybe a psychology of outcasts from the ‘morality’ of the world.  At one chapel – after mass they came rushing up to me – At last ! I thought, getting ready to celebrate the sacrament, but no they wanted to know if any of my friends wanted to buy their own island……

3 Million Pesos – (£50,000) – a snip if you ask me!  Anyone interested?

(Highlights of my week on video below)

Gratitude & Candles

AMDG

Image via Wikipedia

I was woken up by the sound of plainchant this morning at 6am!  I have to confess I was still in bed…. so I missed the striking sight of the theologians processing into chapel, in their white soutanes, carrying Candles to celebrate the feast of  the Presentation.  Today’s feast is popularly known as ‘Our Lady of the Candles’ here in the Philippines or otherwise known as  Candlemas.   As quite a few of my ex-students are reading this blog  - maybe  a small reminder of today’s feast would be helpful.  The presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (40 days after Christmas Day) – is when we recall Mary presenting the Child Jesus to God in the temple.  40 days was what the Mosaic law prescribed as a period of purification for women after childbirth.

It is a feast that is underplayed in the Church – at least in my experience. I would like to see  a mini-revival. Why? Because it is about gratitude .  For me this is a key to being happy in life.  The happiest people I meet are the most grateful, the most thankful.  2000 years ago in Judea, women showed their gratitude to God by presenting their new-born children at the Temple.  Often when I celebrate baptisms I think that part of the celebration is in offering the life (child or adult) back to God.  When we see things as gifts we are grateful.  Conversely the most miserable people you meet, and often the most angry are those who feel life ‘owes’ them something, or they have been cheated some way.  This sense of entitlement may have been behind the recent credit crash.

So today at mass – I prayed in gratitude for my Mum, who gave birth to two of us!  and also my nieces and nephews. Maybe I’ll never be a dad – but there is still some  joy and privilege in baptising, in celebrating new life.  I hope next week to be celebrating more baptisms in the remote Palawan islands…. but more of that later.  So what are you grateful for? and how are you going to show that gratitude today?

The following video from Igniter – gives fantastic food for thought on that.  The background of volunteers and a soup kitchen remind us that gratitude often leads to generosity.  This time of year we need more grateful people! Good luck to all those working in the night-shelters back where Winter is hitting hard.

Scorsese and ‘Silence’

AMDG

The history of Christianity in Asia is marked by terrible suffering and persecution, mixed with power, corruption, ignorance, prejudice, cultural suspicions, terrible mistakes, acts of great  generosity and sacrifice. Some of the fiercest persecution was in Japan – after the success of the initial journeys of St Francis Xavier.  The story of the   martyrs of Japan is powerful and it should be known by a wider audience…….

Well hopefully it will be thanks to two men, award-winning Japanese author Shusako Endo and one of the greatest film directors of all-time, Martin Scorsese. Scorsese has announced his next project will be a film based on Endo’s classic novel  Silence.   Scorsese as a young man seriously considered the priesthood, even entering the seminary.  Now, having married 5 times he recently said –  ”I’m a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there’s no way out of it.  You do not have to look  hard at many of his films to see the Catholic influence.

–

The novel is based on the historical figures of three Jesuits –  and at the center of the story is the infamous Fr. Cristóvão Ferreira, who was the head of the Jesuit mission in Japan.  Ferreira was captured and committed apostasy after being tortured for five hours. The tortures for Christians were terrible often being hung upside down over a pit and slowly bled unless they denied the faith – often by publicly trampling on a crucifix.  Ferreira became the most famous of the “fallen priests”, converting to Shintoism, changing his name and writing a book entitled The Deception Revealed in 1636(a treatise against Christianity). He also participated in government trials of other captured Jesuits.  This was a great scandal and shame to many Christians.  Two young Jesuits were sent to Japan to succor the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor,  and if possible ‘bring him back’.

—

Having read the novel about twenty years ago, it has, according to Scorsese himself, “given me a kind of sustenance that I have found in only a very few works of art.”  Daniel-Day Lewis, Benicio Del Toro, and Gael Garcia Bernal are all reported to have major roles locked down.In a forward to a recent edition of the novel – Scorsese explains his fascination   ”How do you tell the story of Christian faith? The difficulty, the crisis, of believing? How do you describe the struggle? … [Shusaku Endo] understood the conflict of faith, the necessity of belief fighting the voice of experience……. Questioning may lead to great loneliness, but if it co-exists with faith – true faith, abiding faith – it can end in the most joyful sense of communion. It’s this painful, paradoxical passage – from certainty to doubt to loneliness to communion – that Endo understands so well, and renders so clearly, carefully and beautifully in Silence.“

I hope that the film is made.  Roland Joffe (The Mission) – had been working on a script about the life of St Ignatius but disappointingly put it to one side to make the recently released There be Dragons, about the life of Opus Dei founder St Jose Maria Escriva.  I hope this project sees the light of day – until then Endo’s masterpiece  is available for purchase here on Amazon.  Join me on GoodReads  as I work my way through it!

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The Power of Devotion

AMDG

Today sees quite an event in Manila. Up to 8million people will throng the streets for the procession of the Black Nazarene.  This is a black statue of Jesus carrying his cross.  Placed on a shoulder-borne carriage, the image is carried by marshals (you can see them in yellow shirts).
 Originally a statue with fair complexion the ship that carried it from Mexico to Manila caught fire. It barely survived the fire, thus its charcoal color. Last year, the procession took 14 hours to travel the short distance. Referred to as the translation - the annual procession commemorates the transfer of the Black Nazarene on Jan 9, 1787  to St. John the Baptist Church in Quiapo Manila. 
As tertians we visited Quiapo back in September – on just a normal day – and it was crowded with people with queues of up to an hour just to visit the statue. What is behind this devotion?  Filipinos identify with the struggles and sufferings of Jesus Christ’   In the statue Jesus is depicted getting to his feet after falling under the weight of the cross – this  resilience is valued strongly by Filipinos – even in the most difficult circumstances they never seem to lose hope.

There is something of a frenzy about today’s event – in previous years people have died from stampedes.   We were advised not to attend because of the dangers inherent – and also we are occupied most of the day – so I have taken a video clip from last years procession to give you a flavour.  You will see people desperately trying to touch the statue – and also throwing handkerchiefs so that they may be rubbed on the statue and passed back.  You will also see the crush, danger and discomfort that many of the ‘devotees’ voluntarily undergo.  From a Western perspective – this is unsettling – and such religious fervour is challenging to witness.  One of the ways to cope with this discomfort is to dismiss it as hysteria or superstition. But maybe there is something deeper at work…..  the power of the incarnation ….. an almighty God who came down to Earth, renounced power and privelege – and entered into the reality of our suffering .

So the event can be interpreted as being many different ways. It is a popular devotion – to non-Catholics it may seem superstitious . Having lived here for a few months with the privilege of sharing life with so many Phillipinos – in the slums, in mountain villages – having seen two devastating tornadoes – I have only admiration for their hospitality, warmth and cheerfulness. Their identification with the sufferings and resilience of Christ makes sense to me.  This year organizers believe thousands of survivors of  tropical storm Sendong will attend.

The German Philosopher Rudiger Safranski says that religion in Western Europe has become “a cold religious project”: a “mix of social ethics, institutional power thinking, psychotherapy, techniques of meditation, museum curation, cultural project management, and social work.”  This insipid form of a religion, yearning to be socially acceptable in a society that has changed rapidly, some argue has helped to empty Western Europe’s churches. It is through this lense that I believe we should watch, with a certain humbleness, the outpourings of  ’popular religiosity’.  It is easy to mock or scoff, but it always leaves you with a sense of emptiness….

Epiphany, Supernova & Arthur C Clarke

AMDG

What is Brian Cox going to say about this wonder?

Today is the Epiphany –  the climax of Christmas Celebrations for many Christians.  In Spain today is the day for present giving – the Reyes Magos – remembering the gift of the Wise Men.  Children throng the streets as the wise men throw sweets to them from their motorised floats (having done away with camels).   But the story of the star – in fact much of the infancy narratives – these are just childs stories – not really historical – right?   Think again – there is surprising evidence that might stop you from going down the demythologisation‘ route too quickly.  Astronomy – and its close cousin Astrology – one of the oldest forms of ‘science’ – has a remarkable set of records, of positions of the stars, conjuctions with the wandering planets. So we can delve into history and see what was recorded in the heavens.  It is a spectacular conjunction of planets and stars of this type that some have argued gave rise to the star of Bethlehem. Others point towards a supernova.  If you are interested, two Jesuits working at the Vatican Observatory, Br Guy Consolmagno and Fr Chris Corbally have written fascinating articles about the historicity of the Star.

Why is the Epiphany so important for Christians? it underlies the cosmic significance of the God who crated the universe becoming man, it also shows the universal relevance of the incarnation – Jesus is for all – the Magi, the Wise Men from the East probably came from Iraq. And as the Pope beautifully said, ‘The wise men followed the star. Through the language of creation, they discovered the God of history.’  It is worth also mentioning that after the two volume ‘Jesus of Nazareth’,  Benedict has said he is considering publishing a monograph on the infancy narratives.

Something I discovered a couple of years ago was Arthur C. Clarke’s short story ‘‘The Star’’.  It is a fascinating twist on the Star of Bethlehem story – not very edifying I am afraid – but interesting and thought provoking. Reprinted in a collection of Clarke’s short stories in 1958. In his introduction to this collection, Clarke noted that he wrote the story for a contest in the London Observer on the subject ‘‘2500 AD.’’  The narrative is the interior monologue of the central character, a Jesuit astrophysicist. He is aboard a starship on a mission to investigate the causes of a supernova in a distant galaxy. He and the rest of the crew discover the artifacts of a highly developed civilization, carefully preserved on the only planet that remains in orbit around the supernova. Knowing that all life would be wiped out when their sun flared into a supernova, this advanced race of sentient beings left a record of who they were and what they accomplished. The pictures, sculptures, music, and other relics of a very human-like race doomed to destruction depress the crew and investigating scientists, who are far from their own homes and lonely. What the narrator has learned but not yet communicated to the others is that the supernova that destroyed this civilization was the Star of Bethlehem, which burned brightly in the sky to herald the birth of Jesus Christ. His discovery has caused him to reexamine and to question his own faith.

So I will leave the last words to the Pope – ‘ The great star, the true supernova that leads us on, is Christ himself. He is as it were the explosion of God’s love, which causes the great white light of his heart to shine upon the world. ‘

The greatest thing you can do with your life!

AMDG

My cheesy ‘helping-others’ picture

The turning point in the life of St.Ignatius was when he encountered God whilst recovering in Loyola and realised that God wants to help us.  These may seem obvious, but I have met many people who feel God is there just to judge them, or catch them out, or disapprove of their sex-life, or stop them from doing what makes them happy.  I think this is Freud’s ‘God’ – who as far as I am concerned, doesn’t really exist, or at  least is a stranger to me.  On the contrary, like Ignatius and many of us, when you have first-hand experience of  the goodness and kindness of God you realise that you are invited to share in and spread this goodness and kindness (easier said than done!).  The ministry of helping others like God helps us is the greatest thing that we can do with our lives! Another way of putting it is to that we can become ambassadors of the goodness and kindness of God.  (Note – Before I get complaints I am not saying it is to be a Jesuit! although for some of us it helps!)

This calling to spread the goodness and kindness of God is why Ignatius and his companions understood their mission to be one of a ‘Ministry of Consolation’.

Or put into his own words and more simply ‘To help Souls’.

But as a wise Jesuit once said (excuse the English) - to be ‘helpers’ we need to be helped!   How can we get help so that we can be helpers?  This is where our way of life comes in (not just lifestyle – but more than that – how we life our lives.  If you believe in an infinite God that there must be different ‘paths’ or ways to God….. some are better than others…. others can be false paths or dead ends.  For Christians – there is a uniqueness about the claim that God became a man – in the figure of Jesus.  But even within Christianity God calls us in different ways –  for most Jesuits – serving others within the Society of Jesus seems to be the best way for us.  So this month has been put aside to study the ‘institute’ of the Society of Jesus. Institute here means our way of living and working, which is most concisely expressed in our Constitutions.

Ignatius dedicated the last 16 years of his life in Rome working on the Constitutions – in fact they weren’t finalised until after his death.

As a former tertian-master said ‘The Spiritual Exercises are what make us Ignatian – the Constitutions are what makes us Jesuit’   So this January – we are encouraged to have a ‘sapiential‘ reading of the Constitutions of the Jesuits.  Sapiential reading,  reading wisely, listening with the heart – as opposed to a purely academic or dry technical reading.I think we are all relieved to just be in the same place for a month! Our feet on the ground and some valuable reading and reflection time.  The experiences have been so rich that is good to do a bit of ‘digesting’.  And we are very priveleged to have this space and time, but also to have the lense of the Constitutions to do so.

Some approach the Constitutions with a bit of trepidation – calling it the ‘Law’ of the Society of Jesus (which of course we all fall short of).  But maybe the approach taken below in the video – of a former US Tertian Master – is more helpful, more ‘sapiential’ .