Presidential Inaugural Addresses

A Noster Modus Procedendi
Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D.
Le Moyne College, April 24, 2009

Presidential Inaugural Address
Michael E. Engh, S.J.
Santa Clara University, April 24, 2009

Presidential Inaugural Address
Eugene Cornacchia, Ph.D.
St. Peter's College, October 20, 2007

In Ten Thousand Places: The Jesuit University and Humanism in a Pluralistic Age
Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J.
Inaugural Celebration Introduction at Loyola University New Orleans, October 15, 2004

Presidential Inaugural Address
Gerard Stockhausen, SJ
University of Detroit Mercy, October 1, 2004

Engaging the Tensions, Living the Questions
President John J. DeGioia
Inaugural Address, October 13, 2001

Scholars, Saints and Citizen-Servants
Michael Graham, S.J., President of Xavier University
Inaugural Address at Xavier University, September 8, 2001

Other Addresses and Keynotes

Companions in Mission: Pluralism in Action
Superior General Adolfo Nicolas, S.J.
Loyola Marymount University, February 2, 2009

Michael Graham, S.J., President of Xavier University
Keynote Address at the 18th annual Salute to Catholic School Alumni
Louisville KY, March 4, 2008

The Influence of the Spiritual Exercises on Six Dimensions of Jesuit Education
Michael Graham, S.J., President of Xavier University
Academic Day Address at Xavier University, October 2, 2006

The Catholic University of the 21st Century: Educating for Solidarity
Paul Locatelli, S.J., President of Santa Clara University
Keynote Address at Commitment to Justice Conference at John Carroll University, October 15, 2005

Justice in Higher Education
Dean Brackley, Ph.D. Universidad Centroamericana
Keynote Address at Commitment to Justice Conference at John Carroll University, October 14, 2005

Who Are Our Leaders?
Chris Lowney, author of Heroic Leadership
Chicago Province Luncheon at Xavier University, February 16, 2005

Cura apostolica
Howard Gray, S.J., John Carroll University
Keynote at the Jesuit Secondary Education Association, June 23, 2004

Ignatian Spirituality: What are We Talking about and Why?
Howard Gray, S.J. at John Carroll University, Staff Services Address, May 1, 2002

The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus
Keynote Address at Santa Clara University's Justice Conference, October 6, 2000

Lectures and Special Clips from Fordham University 

The 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States have educated over one million living graduates to be people of competence and compassion. See some of the famous, influential, and noteworthy alumni from Xavier University and elsewhere.

IMAGE RIGHT: Julie Isphording, seen here, graduated from Xavier University in 1983 and went on to become a member of the first-ever women's U.S. Olympic Marathon team.

"For the greater glory of God." Motto of the Society of Jesus.

As the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus from 1965-1981, he was the central figure in the renewal of the Society after Vatican Council II, paying attention both to the spirit of Ignatius the founder and to the signs of our times. From the Basque country of northern Spain, he left medical school to join the Jesuits, was expelled from Spain in 1932 with all the other Jesuits, studied theology in Holland, and received further training in spirituality and psychology in the U.S. Arrupe spent 27 years in Japan (where among many other things he cared for victims of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima) until his election in 1965 as superior general. He is considered the founder of the modern, post-Vatican II Society of Jesus.

Pedro Arrupe's Mysticism of Open Eyes  Kevin Burke, SJ, Jesuit School of Theology (PDF)

The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities

Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities

Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts at Valparaiso University
The National Association of Church-Related Colleges and Universities

Cristo Rey Network

Jesuit Secondary Education Association

National Catholic Education Association (Elementary - University)

From the Greek word biblia, meaning “books”, the Christian Holy Bible is a collection of scripture, including the sacred writings of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible), containing 39 books, and the New Testament, containing 27 books. When the early Judeo-Christian writings were bound together, they were called “bibles”.

Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises reflects the relationship he had with the Bible. Through scriptures and imagination, he guided himself and others to greater faith, love and understanding.

For more information see Ignatius and the Bible by John Padberg, SJ

For a number of Christian Bible versions translated in numerous languages, see here.

See the Qur’an, the Muslim Bible, via each surah (chapter)
One of the most famous passages is Surah 2:255. Surah 19, Marium (mother of Jesus), refers to the birth of Isa (Jesus) an important prophet of Islam.

Finding God in All Things: A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises
(William Byron, 1991)

Draw Me Into Your Friendship: A Literal Translation and a Contemporary Reading of the Spiritual Exercises
(David Fleming, 1996)

The First Jesuits
(John O'Malley, 1993)

Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year Old Company That Changed the World (Chris Lowney, 2003)

Ignatius of Loyola: Founder of the Jesuits
(John Patrick Donnelly, 2004)

Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works
(George Ganss, Ed., 1991)

Jesuit Saturdays: Sharing the Ignatian Spirit with Lay Colleagues and Friends
(William A Barry, 2000)

A Jesuit Education Reader
(George Traub, SJ, 2008)

 




An Ignatian Spirituality Reader
(George Traub, SJ, 2008)

A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II
(Edward P. Hahnenberg, Theology Department, 2007)

Alice in Academe and Other Stories
(Joseph Wessling; emeritus, English Department, Illustrated by Holly Shapker, Art Department, 2006)

Christianity and Process Thought: Spirituality for a Changing World
(Joseph Bracken, Theology Department, 2006)

Ethics and AIDS: Compassion and Justice in Global Crisis
(Kenneth Overberg, Theology Department, 2006)

Faith and Action: A History of the Catholic Diocese of Cincinnati , 1821-1996
(Roger Fortin, Provost and Academic Vice President, 2002)

Spirituality in the Mother Zone: Staying Centered Finding God
(Trudelle Thomas, English Department, 2005)

To See Great Wonders: A History of Xavier University
(Roger Fortin, Provost and Academic Vice President, 2006)

Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity
(Gillian T. W. Ahlgren, Theology Department, 1998)

Through the Years with Oscar Romero
(Irene Hodgeson, Translations, Modern Languages Department, 2005)

Xavier University: A Celebration of Art - A Tribute to the 175th Anniversary of Xavier
(Kittie Uetz & Jenny Shives, Art Department, 2007)

(Latin meaning "care for the [individual] person") - A hallmark of Ignatian spirituality (where in one-on-one spiritual guidance, the guide adapts the Spiritual Exercises to the unique individual making them) and therefore of Jesuit education (where the teacher establishes a personal relationship with students, listens to them in the process of teaching, and draws them toward personal initiative and responsibility for learning [see "Pedagogy, Ignatian/Jesuit"]).

This attitude of respect for the dignity of each individual derives from the Judaeo- Christian vision of human beings as unique creations of God, of God's embracing of humanity in the person of Jesus, and of human destiny as ultimate communion with God and all the saints in everlasting life.

(also "Discernment of spirits") - A process for making choices, in a context of (Christian) faith, when the option is not between good and evil, but between several possible courses of action all of which are potentially good. For Ignatius the process involves prayer, reflection and consultation with others - all with honest attention not only to the rational (reasons pro and con) but also to the realm of one's feelings, emotions and desires (what Ignatius called "movements" of soul). A fundamental question in discernment becomes "Where is this impulse from-the good spirit (of God) or the evil spirit (leading one away from God)?" A key to answering this question, says Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises, is that, in the case of a person leading a basically good life, the good spirit gives "consolation"-acts quietly, gently and leads one to peace, joy and deeds of loving service-while the bad spirit brings "desolation"-agitates, disturbs the peace and injects fears and discouragement to keep one from doing good.

Inspired Choices

Jesuit universities and schools are respected for academic excellence, the promotion of social justice, and ‘finding God in all things'. These mission-driven values, as well as the necessity to prepare students for a rapidly changing multicultural and global society, draws Jesuit educational institutions to lead in the  call for diversity and inclusion of all peoples. A respect for all human persons and differences is a significant aspect of the history of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius Loyola's befriended peers who were quite different from himself with regards to social class, age, and nationality – rather unique in the 1500's; they became the founding companions. Most recently, the Society has addressed relationships with non-Catholics and women, see GC 34. 

A collection of resources from the Office of Diversity at Xavier University

Best Practices for Promoting Inclusion

Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions, who founded the Society of Jesus in 1540, did not originally intend to establish schools. But before long they were led to start colleges for the education of the young men who flocked to join their religious order. And in 1547 Ignatius was asked to open a school for young lay men.

By the time of his death (1556), there were 35 such colleges (comprising today's secondary school and the first year or two of college). By the time the order was suppressed in 1773, the number had grown to more than 800-all part of a system of integrated humanistic education that was international and brought together in a common enterprise men from various languages and cultures. These Jesuits were distinguished mathematicians, astronomers and physicists; linguists and dramatists; painters and architects; philosophers and theologians; even what today would be
called cultural anthropologists.

These developments are not surprising; the order's founders were all University of Paris graduates, and Ignatius' spirituality taught Jesuits to search for God "in all things." After the order was restored (1814), however, Jesuit schools and scholars in Europe never regained the prominence they had had. Besides, they were largely involved in the resistance to modern thought and culture that characterized Catholic intellectual life through the 19th century and beyond.

In other parts of the world, especially in the United States, the 19th century saw a new birth of Jesuit education. Twenty-one of today's 28 U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities were founded during that century. These schools served the needs of an immigrant people, enabling them to move up in the world while maintaining their Catholic belief and practice in a frequently hostile Protestant environment. After World War II, U.S. Jesuit higher education (as American higher education generally) experienced enormous growth and democratization under the G.I. Bill. Significantly, this growth entailed a shift from a largely Jesuit faculty to one made up increasingly of lay men (and more recently women). Further, Vatican Council II (1962-1965) released a great burst of energy in the Catholic church and Jesuit order for engagement with the modern world, including its intellectual life. Finally, Jesuit schools in the 1970s and 1980s moved to professionalize through the hiring of new faculty with highly specialized training and terminal degrees from the best graduate schools.

These sweeping changes of the last 50 years have brought U.S. Jesuit schools to the present situation where they face crucial questions. Will so-called Jesuit institutions of higher education simply merge with mainstream American academe and thereby lose any distinctiveness and reason for existing-or will they have the creativity to become more distinctive? While taking the best from American education and culture, will they still offer an alternative in the spirit of their Jesuit heritage? Will they foster the integration of knowledge-or will specialization reign alone and the fragmentation of knowledge continue? Will they relate learning to the Transcendent, to God-or will spiritual experience be allowed to disappear from consideration except in isolated departments of theology? While developing the mind, surely, will they also develop a global, cross-cultural imagination and a compassionate heart to recognize and work for the common good, especially for bettering the lot of the poor and voiceless [see "Men and Women for Others"/"Whole Persons of Solidarity" and "The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice"]-or will the dominant values present in them be self-interest and the "bottom line"?

Jesuits and Jesuit Education: A Primer
Jesuit Community at Boston College

A collection of discipline-specific business resources from the Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility at Xavier University

The Woodstock Theological Center
an independent nonprofit institute at Georgetown University

A method of prayer that Ignatius of Loyola taught in his Spiritual Exercises.  He considered it the most important a person could do each day.  It takes only a few minutes. A contemporary adaptation of Ignatius' teaching broadens the traditional "Examination of Conscience" (preparation for confession) into the "Examination of Consciousness."  As presented by Creighton U. theologian Dennis Hamm, SJ, this prayer has five steps:  (1) Pray for light to understand and appreciate the past day.  (2) Review the day in thanksgiving.  (3) Review the feelings in the replay of the day.  (4) Choose one of those feelings (positive or negative) and pray from it.  (5) Look toward tomorrow.

Examen and Ignatian Prayer

The Examen: A Daily Prayer

Latin and English version of Pierre Favre, University of Paris student from the south of France who roomed with Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier and together with them and several others founded the Society of Jesus. In the course of seven years, he traveled some 7,000 miles and served in seven different western European countries. The largest part of his ministry was in Germany. There he drew up guidelines for ecumenical dialogue with Lutherans, but these were, sad to say, hardly put into practice. Among the early companions, he was known to be the finest guide for those making the Spiritual Exercises.

Ignatian spirituality is summed up in this phrase. It invites a person to search for and find God in every circumstance of life, not just in explicitly religious situations or activities such as prayer in church (e.g., the Mass) or in private. It implies that God is present everywhere and, though invisible, can be "found" in any and all of the creatures which God has made. They reveal at least a little of what their Maker is like-often by arousing wonder in those who are able to look with the "eyes of faith." After a long day of work, Ignatius used to open the French windows in his room, step out onto a little balcony, look up at the stars and be carried out of himself into the greatness of God.

How does one grow in this ability to find God everywhere? Howard Gray draws the following paradigm from what Ignatius wrote about spiritual development in the Jesuit Constitutions: (1) practice attentiveness to what is really there. "Let that person or that poem or that social injustice or that scientific experiment become (for you) as genuinely itself as it can be." (2) Then reverence what you see and hear and feel; appreciate it in its uniqueness. "Before you judge or assess or respond, give yourself time to esteem and accept what is there in the other." (3) If you learn to be attentive and reverent, "then you will find devotion, the singularly moving way in which God works in that situation, revealing goodness and fragility, beauty and truth, pain and anguish, wisdom and ingenuity."

The second stage of a Jesuit's formation and education, consisting of two years of philosophy studies and a year of theology, while living in a Jesuit community at a university.

See also Novitiate, Regency, Tertianship and Theology

The supreme legislative body of the Society of Jesus consisting of major ("provincial") superiors and locally elected representatives. It is called to elect a new superior general when the previous one dies or resigns and/or to address major issues confronting Jesuit works and Jesuit life. There have been 35 such congregations in the 450+ years of the order. The most recent one met from January to March 2008 to accept Peter-Hans Kolvenbach's resignation at age 80 and to elect his replacement, Adolfo Nicolas.

GC 35    2008 Election of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas as the new Superior General
                     of the Society
                     Description (George Traub, S.J.)
                     Document
                     Its meanings and messages (SCU's Ignatian Center for
                     Jesuit Education)
                     Congregation video clip

GC 34    1995
                     Description (George Traub, S.J.)
                     Document

GC 33    1983 Election of Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach as the new Superior
                     General of the Society

GC 32    1974-1975
                     Decree 4
                     See Service of Faith and Promotion of Social Justice

GC 31    1965-1966 Election of Fr. Pedro Arrupe as the new Superior
                            General of the Society
 

Various titles or names are given to the Mystery underlying all that exists-e.g., the Divine, Supreme Being, the Absolute, the Transcendent, the All-Holy-but all of these are only "pointers" to a Reality beyond human naming and beyond our limited human comprehension. Still, some conceptions are taken to be less inadequate than others within a given tradition founded in revelation. Thus, Jews reverence "the Lord" (the name of God, YHWH, is holy and its vocalization unknown); and Muslims worship "Allah" (the [only] God).

Christians conceive of the one God as "Trinity," as having three "ways of being"-(1) Creator and covenant partner (from Hebrew tradition) or "Father" (the "Abba" of Jesus' experience), (2) incarnate (enfleshed) in Jesus-the "Son," and (3) present everywhere in the world through the "Spirit." Ignatius of Loyola had a strong Trinitarian sense of God, but he was especially fond of the expression "the Divine Majesty" stressing the greatness or "godness" of God; and the 20th century Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner could talk of "the incomprehensible Mystery of self-giving Love."

The reluctance of some of our contemporaries to use the word God may be seen as a potential corrective to the tendency of some believers to speak of God all too easily, as if they fully understood God and God's ways.

The good news or glad tidings about Jesus.

Plural. The first four works of the Christian scriptures (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that tell the story of Jesus-each with its own particular theological emphasis-and thus invite a response of faith and hope in him.

The Heartland/Delta Conference is a consortium of the following eleven schools within the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities: Creighton University, John Carroll University, Loyola University-Chicago, Loyola University-New Orleans, Marquette University, Regis University, Rockhurst University, St. Louis University, Spring Hill College, University of Detroit Mercy and Xavier University. Sponsored conferences include the Magis National Faculty Retreat, Heartland/Delta Faculty Conversations, and the Heartland/Delta triennial gathering to be held at Xavier University in 2010.

Arrupe Jesuit High School
Denver, Colorado
Bellarmine College Preparatory
San Jose, California
Bellarmine Preparatory School
Tacoma, Washington
Boston College High School
Dorchester, Massachusetts
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
Indianapolis, Indiana
Brophy College Preparatory
Phoenix, Arizona
Canisius High School
Buffalo, New York
Cheverus High School
Portland, Maine
Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola
Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
Creighton Preparatory School
Omaha, Nebraska
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Baltimore, Maryland
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Chicago, Illinois
Cristo Rey High School
Sacramento, CA
Cristo Rey Jesuit High School -- Twin Cities
Minneapolis, Minnesota
De Smet Jesuit High School
St. Louis, Missouri
Fairfield College Preparatory School
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fordham Preparatory School
Bronx, New York
Georgetown Preparatory School
North Bethesda, Maryland
Gonzaga College High School
Washington, D.C.
Gonzaga Preparatory School
Spokane, Washington
Jesuit College Preparatory School
Dallas, Texas
Jesuit High School
New Orleans, Louisiana
Jesuit High School
Portland, Oregon
Jesuit High School
Sacramento, California
Jesuit High School of Tampa 
Tampa, Florida
Loyola Academy
Wilmette, Illinois
Loyola Blakefield
Towson, MD
Loyola High School
Detroit, Michigan
Loyola High School of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Marquette University High School
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Loyola School
New York, New York
McQuaid Jesuit High School
Rochester, New York
Red Cloud Indian School 
Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Regis High School
New York, New York
Regis Jesuit High School
Aurora, Colorado
Rockhurst High School
Kansas City, Missouri
St. Ignatius College Prep
Chicago, Illinois
St. Ignatius College Preparatory
San Francisco, California
St. Ignatius High School
Cleveland, Ohio
St. John's Jesuit High School
Toledo, Ohio
St. Joseph's Preparatory School
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
St. Louis University High School
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Peter's Preparatory School
Jersey City, New Jersey
St. Xavier High School
Cincinnati, Ohio
Scranton Preparatory School
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Seattle Preparatory School
Seattle, Washington
Strake Jesuit College Preparatory
Houston, Texas
University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy
Detroit, Michigan
Verbum Dei High School
Los Angeles, CA
Walsh Jesuit High School
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Xavier High School
New York, New York

In order to assist University hiring committees and their chairs in addressing Jesuit, Catholic identity, departmental chairs, directors and senior administrators at Xavier University were invited to offer comments that they have found helpful in guiding meaningful discussions with candidates during the interview process.

Questions and Comments from Chairs, Directors, and Senior Administrators

Jesuit History: A Time-Line of Milestones

1491 Ignatius Loyola was born in the Basque region of northeastern Spain

1521 While defending Pamplona, cannon fire shattered Ignatius' right knee

1522 Ignatius stays in the town of Manresa while struggling with his relationship with himself and God; this experience forms the basis of his Spiritual Exercises.

1528 Ignatius begins schooling at the University of Paris where he meets Francis Xavier, Pierre Favre and other early companions.

1537 Ignatius and companions were ordained

1540 Pope Paul III gave Ignatius and companions official approval to found the Society of Jesus

1541 Ignatius is elected Superior General of the Society of Jesus

1548 The first Jesuit college opens in Messina, Sicily

1556 Ignatius dies in Rome; 34 Jesuit schools have been founded

1773 The suppression of the Society was declared by Pope Clement XIV

1789 Georgetown University is founded, becoming the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the
United States.

1814 The suppression was ended by Pope Pius VII

1954 Wheeling Jesuit University is founded, becoming the youngest of the Jesuit universities in the United States

1983 Peter-Hans Kolvenbach is elected the 29th Superior General of the Society

1996 The Christo Rey model of college preparatory education for inner city youth with the founding of Christo Rey High School in Chicago

2006 This Jesuit Jubilee year marks the 450th anniversary of the death of Ignatius and the 500th anniversary of The births of his companions Francis Xavier and Pierre Favre.

2008 Adolfo Nicolás is elected the 30th Superior General of the Society

Adjective, from the noun Ignatius (of Loyola). Sometimes used in distinction to Jesuit, indicating aspects of spirituality that derive from Ignatius the lay person rather than from the later Ignatius and his religious order, the Society of Jesus.

Ignatian Colleagues Program

This leadership opportunity, an initiative of the Heartland/Delta universities and five sponsoring Provinces, supports higher education administrators throughout the ACJU in affirming and advancing the Ignatian mission on their campus.

Ignatian pedagogy (from the International Center for Jesuit Education [Rome, 1993]), is a model that seeks to develop men and women of competence, conscience and compassion. Similar to the process of guiding others in the Spiritual Exercises, faculty accompany students in their intellectual, spiritual and emotional development. They do this by following the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm. Through consideration of the context of students' lives, faculty create an environment where students recollect their past experience and assimilate information from newly-provided experiences. Faculty help students learn the skills and techniques of reflection, which shapes their consciousness, and they then challenge students to action in service to others. The evaluation process includes academic mastery as well as ongoing assessments of students' well-rounded growth as persons for others.

For more information see:
Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy, September 2005

Letters from Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. (1993) regarding the Paradigm

The Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (St. Aloysius College, Australia)

The Characteristics of Jesuit Education (Bruce Bradley, S.J., Ireland)

Ignatian Pedagogy, Compatible with and Contributing to
Jesuit Higher Education
Dissertation of Joseph Defeo, Ph.D., 2009
 

Drawing on a variety of contemporary sources which tend to confirm one another, one can construct a list of rather commonly accepted characteristics of the Ignatian/Jesuit vision. It...

• sees life and the whole universe as a gift calling forth wonder and gratefulness;
• gives ample scope to imagination and emotion as well as intellect;
• seeks to find the divine in all things-in all peoples and cultures, in all areas of study and learning, in every human experience, and (for the Christian) especially in the person of Jesus;
• cultivates critical awareness of personal and social evil, but points to God's love as more powerful than any evil;
• stresses freedom, need for discernment, and responsible action;
• empowers people to become leaders in service, "men and women for others,""whole persons of solidarity," building a more just and humane world.

The relative consensus about these should not be taken to indicate that the six characteristics exhaust the meaning of the living Ignatian tradition. Like the living tradition of Christian faith, of which it is a part, no number of thematic statements can adequately articulate it. At the heart of both traditions stands the living person of Jesus, who cannot be reduced to a series of ideas.

No one claims that any of these characteristics are uniquely Ignatian/Jesuit. It is rather the combination of them all and the way they fit together that make the vision distinctive and so appropriate for an age in transition-whether from the medieval to the modern in Ignatius' time, or from the modern to the postmodern in ours.

Youngest child of a noble Basque family fiercely loyal to the Spanish crown (Ferdinand and Isabella), he was named Inigo after a local saint. Raised to be a courtier, he was trying valiantly to defend the fortress town of Pamplona in 1521 when a French cannonball shattered his leg. During a long convalescence, he found himself drawn away from the romances of chivalry that had filled his imagination from an early age to more spiritual reading-an illustrated life of Jesus and a collection of saints' lives.

After his recovery, he set out for the Holy Land to realize a dream of "converting the infidel." On the way he stopped in the little town of Manresa and wound up spending nearly a year there during which he experienced both the depths of despair and great times of enlightenment.

Ordered to leave Palestine after being there little more than a month, Ignatius decided that he needed an education in order to be able to "help souls." In Barcelona, he went to school with boys a quarter his age to learn the rudiments of Latin grammar, then moved on to several Spanish university cities. In each he was imprisoned and interrogated by the Inquisition, because he kept speaking to people about "spiritual things," having neither a theology degree nor priestly ordination.

Finally, turning his back on his homeland, he went to the foremost university of the time, the University of Paris, where he began his education all over again and with diligence, after five years, was finally awarded the degree "Master of Arts." It was here at Paris that he changed his Basque name to the Latin Ignatius and its Spanish equivalent Ignacio.

While at the university, he had roomed with and become good friends with a fellow Basque named Francis Xavier and a Savoyard named Peter Faber. After graduation, these three, together with several other Paris graduates, undertook a process of communal discernment and decided to bind themselves together in an apostolic community that became the Society of Jesus. Unanimously elected superior by his companions, Ignatius spent the last 16 years of his life in Rome directing the fledgling order, while the others went all over Europe, to the Far East, and eventually to the New World. And wherever they went they founded schools as a means of helping people to "find God in all things."

The first three letters, in Greek, of the name Jesus. These letters appear as a symbol on the official seal of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits.

IMAGE RIGHT: The seal of the Society of Jesus being lifted onto Bellarmine Chapel on the campus of Xavier University.

A modern theological concept that expresses a principle of Christian mission implicit in Ignatian spirituality-namely, that the gospel needs to be presented to any given culture in terms intelligible to that culture and allowed to grow up in the "soil" of that culture; God is already present and active there ("God's action is antecedent to ours"-Jesuit General Congregation 34 [1995], "Our Mission and Culture").

Thus in the first century Saint Paul fought against the imposition of Jewish practices on non-Jewish Christians. And in the 16th and 17th centuries, Jesuits like Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) fought to retain elements of Chinese and Indian culture in presenting a de-Europeanized Christianity to those peoples, only to have their approach condemned by the Church in the 18th century.

Ideally, the gospel and a culture mutually interact, and in the process the gospel embraces some elements of the culture while offering a critique of others.

Documents on inter-religious dialogue at Creighton University

The Boisi Center for Religion and Public Life at Boston College

The Brueggerman Center for Inter-Religious Dialogue at Xavier University

Reflections of a Muslim Faculty Member at a Jesuit University, Anas Malik, Ph.D.

Noun. A member of the Society of Jesus. The term was originally coined as a put-down by people who felt there was something terribly arrogant about a group calling itself the Company or Society of Jesus, whereas previous religious orders had been content to name themselves after their founder (e.g., "Benedictines," "Franciscans," "Dominicans"). Later the title was adopted as a shorthand name by members of the Society themselves, as well as by others favorable to them.

Adjective. Pertaining to the Society of Jesus. The negative term, now that Jesuit has been rehabilitated, is Jesuitical meaning "sly" or "devious."

The number of Jesuits world wide
6,260 Europe
4,020 South Asia
2,950 United States
2,890 Latin America
1,670 East Asia & Oceania
1,430 Africa
The average age of Jesuit priests in 2007 was 63 years.

The Jesuit Volunteer Corps provides essential services to low-income people and those who live on the margins of our society. About 250 JVs each year work for and with people who are homeless, unemployed, refugees, people with AIDS, the elderly, street youth, abused women and children, the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled. JVC has become the largest Catholic volunteer program in the country.

The historical person Jesus of Nazareth whom Christians acknowledge to be, by his life (what he taught and did) and his death and resurrection, the true revelation of God and at the same time the exemplar of what it means to be fully human. In other words, for Christians, Jesus shows what God is like and how they can live in response to this revelation: God is the compassionate giver of life who invites and empowers human beings, in freedom, together with one another, to work toward overcoming the forces of evil-meaninglessness, guilt, oppression, suffering and death-that diminish people and keep them from growing toward ever fuller life.

In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius has the retreatant devote most of the time to "contemplating" (i.e., imaginatively entering into) the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, so as to become more and more a companion of Jesus. And when Ignatius and his companions from the University of Paris decided to establish a religious order, he insisted that it be called the Company or Society of Jesus [see "Jesuit"-noun].

Here is a version of the Judaeo-Christian vision or story, told with certain emphases from Ignatius of Loyola.

The great and mysterious Reality of personal love and self-giving that many call God is the origin and destiny of all creation, the whole universe. God is present and at work in everything, leading it to fulfilment. All things are originally good and potentially means for those creatures called human beings to find the God who made and works in them. Still, none of these things are God, and therefore they are all radically limited.

Indeed, in the case of human beings (who somehow image God in a special way), their relative freedom results in a new dimension of being whereby not just good but also evil exists in the world: selfishness, war, domination-racial, sexual, economic, environmental-of some over others. Human history, then, is marked by a struggle between the forces of good, or "life," and evil, or "death."

God has freely chosen to side with struggling, flawed humanity by participating more definitively in human life and living it "from the inside" in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. This irrevocable commitment of God to the human enterprise grounds and invites people's response of working with God toward building a community of justice, love and peace-the "kingdom" or "reign" of God that Jesus preached and lived.

As with Jesus, so for his followers, it takes discernment-a finely tuned reading of oneself and one's culture in the Spirit of God-to recognize in any given situation what helps the coming of God's reign and what hinders it. In the face of human selfishness and evil, the way ultimately entails self-giving, going through suffering and death in order to gain life-indeed, life everlasting. And along the way, because the followers of Jesus are wary of idolizing anyone or anything (that is, making a god of them), they are less likely to become disillusioned with themselves or others or human history for all its weight of personal and social evil. Rather do they continue to care about people and the human enterprise, for their hope is in God, the supreme Reality of personal love and self-giving.

Dutch-born superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1983, when the Jesuits were allowed to return to their own governance after a time of papal "intervention," until 2008, when he resigned at the age of 80.

He entered the Jesuits in 1948, went to Lebanon in the mid-1950s, earned a doctorate from the famous Saint Joseph's University in Beirut, and spent much of his life there, first as a professor of linguistics and then as superior of the Jesuit vice-province of the Middle East.

By his own admission, he was relatively "ignorant of matters pertaining to justice and injustice," when he went from Beirut to Rome for Jesuit General Congregation 32 and witnessed the faith-justice emphasis emerge from the Congregation under the leadership of Pedro Arrupe [see "The Service Faith and the Promotion of Justice"]. Still, as superior general, he worked tirelessly in collaboration with his advisors to implement and extend the direction in which his predecessor had been leading the Society [see "Men and Women for Others"/"Whole Persons of Solidarity for the Real World"].

He leaves a legacy to Jesuit higher education in a series of major addresses, most notably Georgetown University (Assembly '89) and at Santa Clara University (2000).

29th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1983 to 2008)
A biography

Addresses of Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. delivered at American universities

The Service of Faith in a Religiously Pluralistic World (Xavier University, 2006) (PDF)

Cooperating with Each other in Mission (Creighton University, 2004)

A Focus on Solidarity (Spring Hill College, 2004)

Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education (Santa Clara University, 2000)

Themes of Jesuit Higher Ed. (Georgetown University, 1989)

The people of a religious faith as distinguished from its clergy; within Catholic circles, however, members of religious communities who are not ordained (i.e. "sisters" and "brothers") are often popularly associated with priests and bishops and not with lay people. (It would be more accurate to see them as neither, as having their own unique role and style of life; see "Religious Order/Religious Life.")

The House of Loyola's coat of arms

Loyola is a town in the Basque Country of Spain, near France, where Ignatius (of Loyola) was born and raised. The name Loyola is derived from the Spanish Lobo-y-olla, meaning wolf and kettle. The coat of arms of the House of Loyola is depicted in the crests of many universities and schools.

Crests of Loyola University-New Orleans and Loyola High School-Montreal.

The "Continuous Quality Improvement" term traditionally used by Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits, suggesting the spirit of generous excellence in which ministry should be carried on. (See A.M.D.G.-"For the greater glory of God.")

Rethinking Magis
Trudelle Thomas, Xavier University

On November 16, 1989, shortly after 1:00 a.m., six Jesuit priests at the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA) were assassinated along with their housekeeper and her daughter by an Atlacatl commando unit of the El Salvadoran military.

Those killed in the attack were:

• Ignacio Ellacuria, 59, rector of the Central American University, native of the Basque region of Spain
• Ignacio Martin-Baro, 50, vice-rector, founder and director of the Public Opinion Institute
• Segundo Montes, 56, a sociology professor and Jesuit priest who did work on Salvadoran refugees in the United States
• Arnando Lopez, 53, a philosophy professor and Jesuit priest
• Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, 71, a native Salvadoran Jesuit priest, co-founder of the UCA, and director of a university-affiliated center for humanitarian assistance
• Juan Ramon Moreno, 56, a Spanish-born Jesuit priest and director of two university-related programs
• Julia Elba Ramos, 42, housekeeper and cook, and Cecilia Ramos, her daughter, 15

The UCA Jesuits had been vocal advocates of social change in El Salvador. For this reason, the El Salvadoran military considered the priests to be "intellectual godfathers" of the FMLN guerilla movement and therefore a threat to the government.

In addition, the priests were accused by the El Salvadoran military of being communists, supporting the FMLN movement, and hiding weapons at the University. None of these accusations were ever substantiated.

In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 761, "Remembering and commemorating the lives and work of [the Jesuit Fathers, their housekeeper and her daughter] on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their deaths at the University of Central America José Simeón Cañas in San Salvador, El Salvador." The resolution was sponsored by Rep. James McGovern (D) of Massachusetts.

Hear how Dr. Gillian Ahlgren's approach to Jesuit education was influenced by this event

Universidad Centroamericana's webpage dedicated to the martyrs

In a now famous address to alumni of Jesuit schools in Europe (July 31, 1973), Pedro Arrupe painted a profile of what a graduate should be. Admitting that Jesuit schools had not always been on target here, Arrupe called for a re-education to justice:

Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others... people who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; people convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for human beings is a farce.... All of us would like to be good to others, and most of us would be relatively good in a good world. What is difficult is to be good in an evil world, where the egoism of others and the egoism built into the institutions of society attack us.... Evil is overcome only by good, egoism by generosity. It is thus that we must sow justice in our world, substituting love for self-interest as the driving force of society.

Following up on what Arrupe had said, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, challenged the 900 Jesuit and lay delegates from the 28 U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities gathered for "Assembly '89" to teach our students to make "no significant decision without first thinking of how it would impact the least in society" (i.e., the poor, the marginal who have no voice). And 11 years later, speaking on "the faith that does justice" to a similar national gathering at Santa Clara University (October 6, 2000), Kolvenbach was even more pointed and eloquent in laying out the goals for the 21st-century American Jesuit university:

Here in Silicon Valley, some of the world's premier research universities flourish alongside struggling public schools where Afro-American and immigrant students drop out in droves. Nationwide, one child in every six is condemned to ignorance and poverty.... Thanks to science and technology, human society is able to solve problems such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, or developing more just conditions of life, but stubbornly fails to accomplish this.

- - - - -

The real measure of our Jesuit universities, [then,] lies in who our students become. Tomorrow's "whole person" cannot be whole without a well-educated solidarity. We must therefore raise our Jesuit educational standard to "educate the whole person of solidarity for the real world."

Solidarity is learned through "contact" rather than through "concepts." When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Our universities boast a splendid variety of in-service programs, outreach programs, insertion programs, off-campus contacts, and hands-on courses. These should not be too optional or peripheral, but at the core of every Jesuit university's program of studies.

- - - - -

Faculty are at the heart of our universities. Professors, in spite of the cliché´ of the ivory tower, are in contact with the world. But no point of view is ever neutral or value-free. A legitimate question, even if it does not sound academic, is for each professor to ask, "When researching and teaching, where and with whom is my heart?" To make sure that the real concerns of the poor find their place, faculty members need an organic collaboration with those in the Church and in society who work among and for the poor and actively seek justice.

What is at stake is a sustained interdisciplinary dialogue of research and reflection, a continuous pooling of expertise. The purpose is to assimilate experiences and insights in "a vision of knowledge which, well aware of its limitations, is not satisfied with fragments but tries to integrate them into a true and wise synthesis" about the real world. Unfortunately, many faculty still feel academically, humanly, and, I would say, spiritually unprepared for such an exchange.

- - - - -

If the measure of our universities is who the students become, and if the faculty are the heart of it all, then what is there left to say? It is perhaps the third topic, the character of our universities-how they proceed internally and how they impact on society-that is the most difficult.

In the words of [Jesuit] General Congregation 34, a Jesuit university must be faithful to both the noun "university" and to the adjective "Jesuit." To be a university requires dedication "to research, teaching, and the various forms of service that correspond to its cultural mission." To be Jesuit "requires that the university act in harmony with the demands of the service of faith and the promotion of justice." [A] telling expression of the Jesuit university's nature is found in policies concerning hiring and tenure. As a university it must respect the established academic, professional, and labor norms, but as Jesuit it is essential to go beyond them and find ways of attracting, hiring, and promoting those who actively share the mission.

- - - - -

Every Jesuit academy of higher learning is called to live in a social reality and to live for that social reality, to shed university intelligence upon it and to use university influence to transform it. Thus Jesuit universities have stronger and different reasons than do many other academic institutions for addressing the actual world as it unjustly exists and for helping to reshape it in the light of the Gospel.

The first two years of a Jesuit's formation. A Novice engages in the study of Jesuit history and Jesuit life (including the vows common to all forms of religious life), the making of the full Spiritual Exercises over 30 days and other "experiments" like insertion among the poor, work in hospitals, going on pilgrimage, work in a Jesuit-sponsored ministry while living in community with Jesuits who have completed their course of (early) formation.

See also First Studies, Regency, Tertianship and Theology

A native of Spain, Nicolas entered the Jesuits in 1953. In 1960 he left for Japan and four years of language study. From 1964-1968, he studied theology in Tokyo and was ordained a priest there. After three years of doctoral studies in Rome, he returned to Tokyo and taught systematic theology at the Jesuit-sponsored Sophia University from 1971 to 1978, and again from 1984 to 1993.

From 1978 to 1984, he was director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute (Manila, Philippines), which had wide influence in the theological renewal of all Asia in the aftermath of Vatican II. In 1993, he was appointed provincial of the Jesuit Province of Japan, and in this capacity he participated in General Congregation 34 (1995) and was elected secretary of the congregation.

On completing his term as provincial, he chose to live in a poor parish in Tokyo, where, amid great difficulties, he was able to help thousands of Philippine and other Asian immigrants. At the time of his election as superior general, he was head of the Jesuit Conference of East Asia and Oceania, a vast territory.

The Jesuit Conference

Provinces
California
Chicago
Detroit
Maryland
Missouri
New England
New Orleans
New York
Oregon
Wisconsin

Jesuit Provinces World-Wide

Jesuits in English Canada

Jesuits in North West Africa

Jesuit in Ireland

Ignatian Solidarity Network
The Network facilitates existing social justice and advocacy efforts that are present in Jesuit affiliated high schools, universities and colleges, parishes, retreat centers, independent organizations and individuals.

Jesuit Volunteer Corps
About 250 volunteers commit themselves to working with people in the United States and 7 countries marginalized by society.

Ignatian Lay Volunteer Corps: 
The IVC, in partnership with hundreds of service sites, provides women and men, aged 50 and older, opportunities to serve others, to address social injustice, and to transform lives.

Jesuit Refugee Service 
JRS’s mission is to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people. Serving in over 50 countries, with the support of an international office in Rome, JRS provides assistance to refugees in refugee camps, to people displaced within their own country, to asylum seekers in cities and those held in detention.

Having to do with Ignatian/Jesuit teaching style or methods.

In one formulation (Robert Newton's Reflections on the Educational Principles of the Spiritual Exercises [1977]), Jesuit education is instrumental (not an end in itself, but a means to the service of God and others); student centered (adapted to the individual as much as possible so as to develop an independent and responsible learner); characterized by structure (with systematic organization of successive objectives and systematic procedures for evaluation and accountability) and flexibility (freedom encouraged and personal response and self-direction expected, with the teacher an experienced guide, not primarily a deliverer of ready-made knowledge); eclectic (drawing on a variety of the best methods and techniques available); and personal (whole person affected, with goal of personal appropriation, attitudinal and behavioral change). See Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm for a second formulation.

Both these approaches were developed in the context of secondary education, but could be adapted for higher education.

Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy
Peter Hans Kolvenbach, SJ

Prayer is a dialogue with the Divine. It is an opportunity for a deeper experience with God and a connection with what is True and Real.

Daily online prayers and reflections:
Creighton University
Irish Jesuits
Loyola Press
Xavier University

Follow the Irish Jesuits on Twitter here.

The geographic regions within a country created for the purpose of governance within the Society of Jesus. The major administrator of each province is the Provincial, appointed by the Superior General of the Society of Jesus for a period of six years. Presently there are ten provinces in the United States: California, Chicago, Detroit, Maryland, Missouri, New England, New Orleans, New York, Oregon, Wisconsin.

The U.S. Provincials are in the planning stage of reconfiguring this present arrangement.

California
Chicago
Detroit
Maryland
Missouri
New England
New Orleans
New York
Oregon
Wisconsin

The Society around the world

Jesuit Provinces World-Wide

Spirituality is not a "sometime" thing. It is not a technique or a methodology that is applied in certain circumstances. It is a way of ordering oneself and through the ordering of one's self, developing a standard that can serve as a benchmark for deciding and acting. It provides access to an affective feeling, which can, with care and patience, and much intentional effort and close supervision, become something you can trust.

John J. Degioia, Ph.D., President, Georgetown University
May 25, 2004, Heartland-Delta IV Conference at Marquette University
For the complete presentation

Jesuit education seeks to open students' minds to the vast riches of human experience and thought, to promote a greater understanding of our world and to enable them to discern truth. Jesuit education accepts the inherent value and power of intelligent and dispassionate thought. ……Colleges and universities are, and must remain, hallowed places of intellectual discussion. But if we are to be true to our educational mission, we must ensure that academic freedom--the freedom to pursue truth in all areas of human understanding-remains vibrant.

Eugene Cornacchia, Ph.D., President, St. Peter's College
October 20, 2007, Presidential Inaugural Address
For the complete address

...Scientific advances, perhaps more than theology, have inspired amazement. Photographic images from the Hubble Telescope, first available to the public in 1990, reveal that the universe is much vaster, more ancient, and more grand than we imagined. The majesty of the cosmos shows how limited the human perspective has been. Similarly, discoveries about DNA and quantum physics are inspiring awe in scientists and non-scientists alike. Such discoveries have caused some thinkers to see a profound connection between the human mind and the works of God... Viewing God as Mysterium Tremendum is conducive to dialogue among different religious traditions. In a time in history when many discussions deteriorate into stand-offs between the Left vs. Right, Saved vs. Unsaved, Enlightened vs. Benighted, appreciation for Mystery reminds us that all truth is limited. We can let uncertainty cause us to latch on to partial truths--or we can let it lead us into greater exploration...

Trudelle Thomas, PhD.
English Department, Xavier University
Expanding Horizons: A Christian Female Talks at Length with a Muslim Male
For the complete presentation

I believe that what we must do is ensure a globalization without marginalization or confrontation…a globalization that recognizes our common humanity, community, and solidarity… How Jesuit universities can work toward this “globalization of hope,” this ideal is not only a necessity, it is a moral imperative—and it will require that we do three things: Remember the past … engage the present … and influence the future.

John DeGioia, Ph.D.
President, Georgetown University
Globalization of Hope, October 20, 2008
Celebrating the inauguration of Julio Giulietti, S.J. as 8th president of Wheeling Jesuit University

A document, the definitive form of which was published in 1599 after several earlier drafts and extensive consultation among Jesuits working in schools. It was a handbook of practical directives for teachers and administrators, a collection of the most effective educational methods of the time, tested and adapted to fit the Jesuit mission of education. Since it was addressed to Jesuits, the principles behind its directives could be assumed. They came, of course, from the vision and spirit of Ignatius. The process that led to the Ratio and continued after its publication gave birth to the first real system of schools the world had ever known.

Much of what the 1599 Ratio contained would not be relevant to Jesuit schools today. Still, the process out of which it grew and thrived suggests that we have only just begun to tap the possibilities within the international Jesuit network for collaboration and interchange. [See also "Education, Jesuit" and "Pedagogy, Ignatian/Jesuit."]

The Ratio Studiorum

The Curriculum Carries the Mission (2008)
By Claude Parvur, S.J.

Jesuit Education and Ignatian Pedagogy (2005)
By Peter Hans-Kolvenbach, S.J.

After the first five years of study and formation, the Regent devotes 2-3 years to full-time apostolic work (ministry) with supervision, often in a Jesuit high school, sometimes in a Jesuit university or other Jesuit ministry. In addition to the ministry provided, he thus also gains experience for reflection and integration in the next stage, Theology

See also Novitiate, First Studies, Tertianship and Theology

In Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity (less frequently in Anglican/Episcopal Christianity), a community of men or women bound together by the common profession, through "religious" vows, of "chastity" (better called voluntary "consecrated celibacy" [and thus not to be confused with the imposed celibacy of Roman Catholic clergy]), "poverty" and "obedience." As a way of trying to follow Jesus' example, the vows involve voluntary renunciation of things potentially good: marriage and sexual relations in the case of "consecrated celibacy," personal ownership and possessions in the case of "poverty," and one's own will and plans in the case of "obedience."

This renunciation is made, not for its own sake, but "for the sake of [God's] kingdom" (Matthew 19:12), as a prophetic witness against a culture's abuse of sex, wealth (greed), and power (domination) and toward a more available and universal love beyond family ties, personal possessions, and self-determination. As a concrete form of Christian faith and life, it emphasizes the relativity of all the goods of this earth in the face of the only absolute, God, and a life lived definitively with God beyond this world.

This way of life first appeared in the second half of the first century in the person of "virgins" (mostly women but also some men) who lived at home and, by refusing to marry and produce offspring (they claimed to be "spouses of Christ"), countered the absolutist claims of the state (Rome) and hence many of them became martyrs. After Constantine's conversion to Christianity (313) and Christianity's establishment as the state religion, "religious life" developed further as a major movement away from the "world" and the worldliness of the church. The monastic life of monks and nuns is a variation on this tradition. At the beginning of the modern Western world, various new religious orders sprang up (the largest being the Jesuits) that saw themselves not as fleeing from the world but as "apostles" sent out into the world in service. In more recent centuries, many communities of religious women were founded with a similar goal of apostolic service, often with Jesuit-inspired constitutions.

To be fully prepared to find one's place in a rapidly changing global society, experience in the world, including the local community, is an integral part of Ignatian pedagogy. As the former Superior General, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, stated, “Solidarity is learned through 'contact' rather than through 'concepts'...When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change…..All American universities, ours [Jesuit] included, are under tremendous pressure to opt entirely for success in this sense [acquiring professional and technical skills]. But what our students want - and deserve - includes but transcends this ‘worldly success’ based on marketable skills. The real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become.” Service experiences challenge people to use their talents and abilities to make this a better world, to become “agents of change” and become people of competence and compassion.

Service learning offices and officers at Jesuit universities
from the Service Learning Office at LMU

Commitment to Justice in Higher Education

The Ignatian Solidarity Network

The Institute for Transnational Justice at Marquette University

The Jesuit Center for Faith and Justice of the Irish Jesuit Province

The Jesuit Refugee Service

Jesuit Volunteer Corps

Catholic religious order of men founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola and a small group of his multinational "friends in the Lord," fellow students from the University of Paris. They saw their mission as one of being available to go anywhere and do anything to "help souls," especially where the need was greatest (e.g., where a certain people or a certain kind of work were neglected).

Today, numbering about 20,000 priests and brothers, they are spread out in almost every country of the world ("more branch offices," said Pedro Arrupe, "than Coca-Cola")-declining in numbers markedly in Europe and North America, but growing in India, Africa, Latin America and the Far East.

The abbreviation "S.J." after a person's name means that he is a member of the Society of Jesus.

Any of a variety of methods or activities for opening oneself to God's spirit and allowing one's whole being, not just the mind, to be affected. The methods-some of them more "active" and others more "passive"-might include vocal prayer (e.g., the Lord's Prayer), meditation or contemplation, journaling or other kind of writing, reading of scripture or other great works of verbal art, drawing, painting or molding with clay, looking at works of visual art, playing or listening to music, working or walking in the midst of nature. All of these activities have the same goal in mind-discontinuing one's usual productive activities and thus allowing God to "speak," listening to what God may be "saying" through the medium employed.

An organized series of spiritual exercises put together by Ignatius of Loyola out of his own personal spiritual experience and that of others to whom he listened. They invite the "retreatant" or "exercitant" to "meditate" on central aspects of Christian faith (e.g., creation, sin and forgiveness, calling and ministry) and especially to "contemplate" (i.e. imaginatively enter into) the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Ignatius set all of this down in the book of the Spiritual Exercises as a handbook to help the guide who coaches a person engaged in "making the Exercises" After listening to that person and getting a sense for where he/she is, the guide selects from material and methods in the book of the Exercises and offers them in a way adapted to that unique individual. The goal of all this is the attainment of a kind of spiritual freedom, the power to act-not out of social pressure or personal compulsion and fear-but out of the promptings of God's spirit in the deepest, truest core of one's being-to act ultimately out of love.

As originally designed, the "full" Spiritual Exercises would occupy a person for four weeks full-time, but Ignatius realized that some people could not (today most people cannot) disengage from work and home obligations for that long a time, and so it is possible to make the "full" Exercises part-time over a period of six to nine or 10 months-the "Spiritual Exercises in Daily Life." In that case, the "exercitant," without withdrawing from home or work, devotes about an hour a day to prayer (but this, like nearly everything in the Exercises, is adaptable) and sees a guide every week or two to process what has been happening in prayer and in the rest of his/her life.

Most of the time people make not the "full" Spiritual Exercises but a retreat in the Ignatian spirit that might last anywhere from a weekend to a week. Such a retreat usually includes either a daily individual conversation with a guide or several daily presentations to a group, as preparation for prayer/spiritual exercises.

Ignatius had composed and revised his little book over a period of 25 or more years before it was finally published in 1548. Subsequent editions and translations-according to a plausible estimate-numbered some 4,500 in 1948 or about one a month over four centuries, the total number of copies printed being around 4.5 million. It is largely on his Exercises-with their implications for teaching and learning in a holistic way-that Ignatius' reputation as a major figure in the history of Western education rests.

Collaborative Ministries at Creighton
an online version of the Spirit Exercises

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola
translation by Elder Mullan, SJ

What are the Spiritual Exercises?

People are often helped to integrate their faith and their life by talking on a regular basis (e.g., monthly) with someone they can trust. This person acts as a guide (sometimes also called a spiritual friend, companion or director) for the journey, helping them to find the presence and call of God in the people and circumstances of their everyday lives.

The assumption is that God is already present there, and that another person, a guide, can help them to notice God's presence and also to find words for talking about that presence, because they are not used to doing so. The guide is often a specially trained listener skilled in discernment and therefore able to help them sort out the various voices within and around them. While he/she may suggest various kinds of spiritual exercises/ways of praying, the focus is much broader than that; it is upon the whole of a person's life experience as the place to meet God.

The spiritual is often defined as that which is "non-material," but this definition runs into problems when applied to human beings, who are traditionally considered "body-spirits," both bodily and spiritual. In some modern philosophies and psychologies, however, the spiritual dimension of the human is denied or disregarded. And many aspects of our contemporary American culture (e.g., the hurried sense of time and need to produce, produce) make it difficult to pay attention to this dimension.

Fundamentally, the spiritual dimension of human beings can be recognized in the orientation of our minds and hearts toward ever more than we have already reached (the never-satisfied human mind and the never-satisfied human heart). We are drawn inevitably toward the "Absolute" or the "Fullness of Being" [see "God"]. Consequently, there are depths to our being that we can only just begin to fathom.

If every human being has this spiritual dimension and hunger, then even in a culture like ours, everyone will have-at least at times-some awareness of it, even if that awareness is not explicit and not put into words. When people talk of a "spirituality," however, they usually mean, not the spirituality that human beings have by nature, but rather a set of attitudes and practices (spiritual exercises) that are designed to foster a greater consciousness of this spiritual dimension and (in the case of those who can affirm belief in God) a more explicit seeking of its object-the Divine or God.

Ignatian spirituality with its Spiritual Exercises is one such path among many within Christianity, to say nothing of the spiritualities within other religious traditions, or those more or less outside a religious tradition. ("Peoples' spiritual lives [today] have not died; they are simply taking place outside the church [Jesuit General Congregation 34, "Our Mission and Culture"].)

Spirituality in Higher Education: A National Survey of Students Search for Meaning and Purpose
Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles

Ignatian Spirituality in Music

Ignatian Spirituality from the College of Holy Cross

Ignatian Spirituality from Jesuit Media Initiatives in England

Ignatian Spirituality from Loyola Press

Superior General is the title given to the world leader of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order. There have been 30 since the formation of the order, beginning with Ignatius of Loyola in 1541. Superiors general are elected for life by Jesuit delegates from around the world, gathered together in a general congregation. The current leader, elected in January 2008 during GC 35, is Adolfo Nicolás (1936-    ), a Spaniard who had spent most of his Jesuit life in Japan and the Far East.

Go forth and set the world on fire.
Ignatius Loyola, SJ - 1st Superior General

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.
Pedro Arrupe, SJ - 28th Superior General

Solidarity is learned through contact rather than through concepts. When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change.
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ - 29th Superior General

And then [living in a world as different as the Far East] has taught me to smile at the difficulties, at human imperfection, the human reality.  In Spain I was a little intolerant, thinking in terms of order, of commands, because I thought of religion as fidelity to religious practices, and in Japan I learned that true religiosity is more profound that one must go to the heart of things, to the depths of our humanity, whether we are speaking of God or we are speaking of ourselves and of human life.
Adolfo Nicolás, SJ - 30th Superior General

Superiors General (from Ignatius Loyola to Adolfo Nicolás )

At the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in October 2006, 12 presidents agreed to launch the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Since then, a number of Jesuit university presidents have signed the Commitment, including Michael J. Graham SJ who stated, "As a Catholic, Jesuit University, it is Xavier's responsibility to undertake issues which have an impact not only on our campus, but on all of today's society". See how the universities are fulfilling their pledge: College of the Holy Cross, Fairfield University, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Clara University, Seattle University and Xavier University.

Image Right: A universal symbol for environmental awareness

The Sustainability issue of EXPLORE
Produced by The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education at Santa Clara University

Video clips of addresses on climate change from Dr. Jame Schaefer and Archbishop Celestino Migliore

Other initiatives can be found at the following Jesuit universities:

Boston College
Creighton University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
Gonzaga University
Le Moyne College
Loyola University - Chicago
Marquette University
Regis University
University of Detroit Mercy
University of Scranton

The last phase of a Jesuit's (early) formation. It takes place only after several years of full-time (ordained) ministry. The name comes from the Latin word for "third" and so this stage is sometimes called "third probation" (the first two years of probation being the Novitiate years back at the beginning of Jesuit life). The Tertian once again makes the 30-day Spiritual Exercises under individual guidance and often spends some time living and working among the poor. T-ship lasts anywhere from a semester to a whole academic year or, in a common contemporary adaptation, two consecutive summers. Given today's longevity, it often becomes important for a Jesuit to pursue some further formation later in life and in an ongoing way.

See also Novitiate, Regency and First Studies

The fourth stage of a Jesuit's formation and education consisting of 3 years of theological studies and supervised ministry leading to the professional degree of Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and in a 4th year study for an advanced master's degree or further ministerial work. Ordination, for those going on to priesthood, usually takes place after the third year. In contrast to the practice before Vatican Council II, the Jesuit brother now goes through the same stages pursued by a "scholastic" (one headed to priesthood), with minimal adjustment because he won't be ordained.

See also Novitiate, Regency and First Studies

Theology on the Internet
A Resource from the Xavier University Library

Boston College
Canisius College
College of the Holy Cross
Creighton University
Fairfield University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
Gonzaga University
John Carroll University
Le Moyne College
Loyola University Maryland
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University New Orleans
Marquette University
Regis University
Rockhurst University
Saint Joseph's University
Saint Louis University
Saint Peter's College
Santa Clara University
Seattle University
Spring Hill College
University of Detroit Mercy
University of San Francisco
University of Scranton
Wheeling Jesuit University
Xavier University

Here are several significant new perspectives coming from the Council: celebration of liturgy (worship) in various vernacular languages rather than Latin, to facilitate understanding and lay participation; viewing the Church as "the whole people of God" rather than just as clergy and viewing other Christian bodies (Protestant, Orthodox) as belonging to it; recognizing non-Christian religions as containing truth; honoring freedom of conscience as a basic human right; and finally including in its mission a reaching out to people in all their human hopes, needs, sufferings as an essential part of preaching the gospel.

Of equal importance with these new perspectives is the style or genre in which they were delivered. The documents of earlier councils always had a negative tone; they listed errors to be corrected and condemned anyone who held them. The documents of Vatican II, in contrast, were written in a positive tone, in keeping with the “pastoral” approach that Pope John had called for in his initial remarks to the gathered bishops. These documents addressed not just Catholics, but all people; and they urged ideals that many could embrace.

There were at times heated interventions from the floor and a good deal of maneuvering behind the scene. Yet in the end a huge majority of the bishops voted to approve each of the documents in turn. The conviction and determination of those in the tiny minority, however, did not go away with the closing of the Council. To this day Catholics are seriously divided on the question of Vatican II, some ("conservatives") considering it to have failed by giving away essentials of tradition and others ("liberals") feeling it has been too little and too imperfectly realized.

Each fall, six western Jesuit universities sponsor a conference called Western Conversations in Jesuit Higher Education bringing faculty delegates together for in-depth discussions on important topics related to the Jesuit Catholic educational mission. Participating institutions include Gonzaga University, Loyola Marymount University, Regis University, Santa Clara University, Seattle University and the University of San Francisco.

GC 34, Decree 14: Jesuits and the Situation of Women in Church and Civil Society

A Woman Jesuit

The Influence of Mary on Ignatius Loyola (Download PDF)
Drs. Margo Heydt and Sarah Melcher

The Role of Women in Jesuit Education (4.58MB PDF)
by Amalee Meehan

Native like Ignatius of the Basque territory of northern Spain, Francis became a close friend of Ignatius at the University of Paris, came to share Ignatius' vision through making the Spiritual Exercises, and realized that vision through missionary labors in India, the Indonesian archipelago and Japan. He was the first Jesuit to go out to people of non-European culture. And as he moved from his early missionary endeavors in India to his later ones in Japan, it seems that the implications of what we call inculturation started to dawn on him.

In the Footsteps of Saint Francis Xavier
Mark Antulov

Francis Xavier: A Contemporary View of His Life and Work
Debra Mooney, Xavier University

St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) on the Catholic Information Network
Kate O'Brien

Quick Facts:

• Founded in 1831
• Private, coeducational university
• Provides a liberal arts education in the Catholic, Jesuit tradition
• The third-largest independent institution in Ohio
• Sixth-oldest Catholic university in the nation
• One of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities nationwide

Notables

• U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges issue ranks Xavier No. 2 among 142 master's-level colleges and universities in the Midwest. Xavier has ranked in the report's top 10 for 10 straight years.
• Xavier was named one of the "Best 366 Colleges in America" by The Princeton Review.
• The Williams College of Business is listed as one of the "Best 290 Business Schools" in the nation, according to The Princeton Review's guidebook of business schools.
• Xavier is ranked as the most desirable institution to attend among 139 master's-level colleges and Universities, according to a survey of college-bound students by Carnegie Communications.
• Xavier's freshman retention rate of 88 percent exceeds the national average of 75 percent.
• Xavier's five-year medical school acceptance rate of 80 percent for applicants to enter vs. national acceptance rate of 46 percent.
• The average rate of graduation for student-athletes (approximately 80 percent) ranks among the best in the nation.
• International study opportunities are offered in more than 16 countries; service learning semesters offered Nicaragua, Ghana, India, Nepal and urban Cincinnati.

The community of Jesuit education provides opportunities for students to look after their mind, body and well-being through reflection, thought and involvement with others. We are pushed towards greatness.
Max Spread

Selflessly giving and placing others before ourselves in any possible way is our call of duty.
David Lorentz

Rather than having a part of my life devoted to serving others, I am working to make everything I do be service of others.
Betsy Hoover

As a biology major, my studies in the intricacies of our world have caused me to reflect upon a divine presence in our midst. I can see the fingerprints of God touching not only the macroscopic world, but also the world under the microscope.
Ashley McMaster

In order to function, you must have food, shelter and clothing. In order to fulfill your full potential, you require much more – most of which tend to be ideas that are forgotten by an active college student…..It is important to set aside a regular time for personal reflection
Joseph Van Deman

Still, after each of these failures, not only have I grown as a leader and person, but I have avoided making the mistakes that caused these failures in future endeavors.
William Buckley

The quotes are taken from Go Forth and Set the World on Fire – Student Life in the Jesuit Tradition.

(1586-1670) an Italian astronomer and professor who designed one of the earliest reflecting telescopes by constructing an apparatus which uses a lens to observe the image focused from a concave mirror. With this telescope, Zucchi discovered two belts of the planet Jupiter and examined the spots on Mars (1640). This was the model for many of the later designs by scientists such as James Gregory and Isaac Newton. Zucchius Crater on the moon is named in his honor.

A list of Jesuit scientists