Ignatian Year: From Wounded Soldier To Pilgrim
(This article first appeared in the Belen Jesuit Alumni Magazine, Winter 2022 edition)
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Catholics who feel especially connected to St. Ignatius of Loyola honored his legacy on May 20, 2021. That day marked the 500th anniversary of an event that signaled a turning point for the 26-year-old young man. While defending the fortress of Pamplona, he suffered a serious injury from a cannonball which kept him convalescing for eight months in his family home on the outskirts of Azpeitia, Guipuzcoa, Spain.
During those months of forced idleness, the reading of the De Vita Christi (Life of Christ) written by Ludolph of Saxony, and a collection of short hagiographies by the Dominican friar Jacobus de Voragine, led him to reassess his life in the presence of God and to experience a radical conversion that would make him renounce everything to go and live in the Holy Land.
His original name was Iñigo and he began to refer to himself as “the pilgrim.” The first stage of his pilgrimage took him to the sanctuary of Montserrat and then to the town of Manresa, where he spent the rest of 1522. There he had strong mystical experiences and wrote the core of the book called The Spiritual Exercises.
The Exercises of St. Ignatius precede the foundation of the Society of Jesus. They do not belong to the Jesuits, but to all the people of God. When the definitive version was published, it was widely accepted by religious communities as diverse as the Carthusians and Dominicans, as well as by diocesan priests and laypeople in general. In the Exercises, one seeks to be what God wants each one to be. In the words of its author, “Spiritual Exercises to overcome oneself, and to order one’s life, without reaching a decision through some disordered affection” (EE. 21).
During Ignatius’ years of study, he was approached by other young men with a desire for perfection and ministry. Then, in 1540, he founded the Society of Jesus with them. Around that time, the pilgrim Iñigo would definitively adopt the name of Ignatius.
Ignatius and his companions took on the task of formalizing their “band of brothers.” In particular, they wrote the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius would also write instructions for Jesuits on special missions. He also dictated his autobiography, which has foundational value for the Jesuits.
A Catholic Spirituality
There are many religious institutes that live their own spiritualities. Just to mention one, there is the spirituality of the Carmelites, whose greatest representatives were St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross.
Ignatian spirituality belongs to the Jesuits and to the laity who are in tune with the spirit of St. Ignatius.
All Catholic spirituality should be theocentric, Christocentric, Eucharistic, ecclesial, apostolic, and Marian. But, each group lives these characteristics with different nuances and emphases.
The Spiritual Exercises propose a very detailed contemplation of all the mysteries narrated in the Gospels. Those who attend the spiritual retreat approach the Gospel scenes with the five senses of the imagination, especially sight and hearing.
Ignatian Year
The Ignatian Year invites Jesuits to examine the practice of evangelical poverty, taken as the first vow common to all religious. The founder of the Society of Jesus did not want to give detailed norms on many practical elements of life in common, aware of the changing “circumstances of persons, places and times.”
During this period, we ask for the grace to see all things new in Christ. The Jesuits around the world will practice several one-day spiritual retreats centered on identification with the Jesus of the Gospels. They will contemplate the Messiah King who did not want to be born in a royal palace, but in a stable where his cradle was a rustic manger (cf. Lk 2:7). Jesus grew up as a member of a poor family in an insignificant village from where it was doubted that anything good could come from it (cf. Jn. 1:46). He was believed to be simply “the carpenter’s son” (Mt. 13:55).
We are all challenged to reflect on our cannonball moment. It took a cannonball to the legs to shatter Ignatius’ false images of himself. What does it take for us? What was Ignatius thinking as the cannonball struck? What’s going through our minds during our own cannonball moments?
The Ignatian Year concludes on July 31, 2022, the day of his liturgical feast. But the jubilee event being commemorated is the fourth centenary of his canonization. It was celebrated by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622. On that day, St. Philip Neri, St. Teresa of Jesus, St. Isidore the Farmer, and St. Francis Xavier were also canonized.
Learn more about and find resources for the Ignatian Year at Jesuits.org/Ignatian-Year.
A prayer to celebrate the Ignatian Year from the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States God of all people, You were there when the cannonball shattered the leg of St. Ignatius, shattered his dreams, and shattered what he assumed his life would be. Even in a moment of pain and uncertainty, doubt and darkness, you spoke to Ignatius a word of peace and light. You showed him the path to you and the person he might become. We may not be soldiers, standing in the path of a literal cannonball. And yet, we’ve been hit all the same. Cannonballs shatter our own hopes and dreams and expectations. Like Ignatius, may we hear the compassionate voice of your Son in the aftermath of these cannonball blasts. May we seek the face of Christ even when our dreams are shattered. May we turn and follow Jesus with the courage it takes to change and grow. As we journey through this Ignatian Year, may we be shown the path to you, God of all people, and live out our vocation, becoming the person you have invited us to be. Give us the grace to work for reconciliation every day: with you, with others and with your creation. Open our eyes so we might see all things new in Christ. Amen. |
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the School property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit sits on a 30-acre site in western Dade County, only minutes away from downtown Miami.