|
|
 |
Greetings From The Arrupe Coordinator |
|
|
So much has happened in the Arrupe Program since the publication of our last newsletter. We have had excellent presentations from Michael Smith SJ and Annmarie Paulin-Campbell from South Africa, as well as our annual retreat at Canisius in Pymble NSW. We also
held an extended praxis workshop earlier this month where all candidates had another opportunity to practice under supervision the art and grace of Ignatian spiritual direction. Lots of rich experiences to savour! If you are considering becoming a giver of the Spiritual Exercises, please join our information session on Thursday, September 19 (7.00pm-8.30pm AEST).
In this issue we take a closer look at Ignatian discernment. There are so many resources on discernment, and it is such a buzz word in contemporary religious discourse, that I thought I might take a slightly off-the-beaten-track approach to it. In my editorial I draw on a recent letter by Pope Francis to make the connection between the reading and study of literature and discernment. One of the podcasts (Andrew O'Hagan) offers a powerful and stimulating appeal for the vital role of literature in the contemporary world. But you will find links to lots more engaging and stimulating articles, books, and podcasts in this issue, as well as opportunities to participate in JISA retreats and workshops. We also extend an invitation to join us for a special presentation by
Javier Melloni SJ from Manresa in Spain on Saturday, September 29 (3.00pm-5.00pm AEST). Finally, I have just received the sad news that Fr Gerald O’Collins SJ has passed from this life. I have included a short tribute below.
I take this opportunity to wish all readers much grace, peace and joy as we move into Spring Season – a time of new life, freshness, and fecundity.
|
|
|
Vale, Fr Gerald O’Collins SJ AC
|
“When I enter my house, I shall find rest with her; for companionship with her has no bitterness, and life with her has no pain, but gladness and joy”
(Wisdom 8:16)
|
 |
The Society of Jesus is mourning the death of Father Gerald (“Gerry”) O’Collins SJ AC. I too mourn with them. I feel I am very fortunate to have known Gerry, and to have been his student at his last teaching role when he lectured at the Jesuit College of Spirituality in Parkville. Much has been said about his extraordinary academic achievements and the copious number of publications he has penned (I doubt there are many living scholars who have written as many books and articles as he). But what I remember most about Gerry is his
gentleness, his encouragement, and his warmth. Yes, he was erudite and learned, a genuine polymath; you could discuss any subject, and Gerry would broaden and deepen your understanding of it. If you mentioned a book, it turned out that he was probably on personal terms with the author! Notwithstanding his great achievements and his brilliance, I experienced Gerry as a humble and gentle man. I always went away from my conversations with him feeling better about myself, not smaller. He wore his giftedness lightly, which is the mark of true greatness. In his lovely book, The Beauty of Jesus Christ, written only a few years back, he quotes from the book of Wisdom: “When I enter my house, I shall find rest with her; for companionship with her has no bitterness, and life with her has no pain, but gladness and joy” (Wisdom 8:16) It is very much my prayer and my belief that the ever-industrious Gerry is now at complete rest, and that his companionship with
the Trinity is one of unalloyed gladness and joy.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis
(May his faithful soul find rest at the right hand side of God)
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Dreaming of ‘Overflow’ and ‘Unfinished Thinking’ |
“Discernment means to think through our decisions and actions, not just by rational calculation but by listening for His Spirit, recognizing in prayer God’s motives, invitations, and will. There is a principle worth remembering in these times: ideas are debated, but reality is discerned.” (Pope Francis, Let Us Dream)
“Those who truly learn to see, draw close to what is unseen”
(Paul Celan, quoted in Pope Francis “The Role of Literature in Formation”)
|
“Reality is discerned”, how important are those words in a time when reality itself is bending under the oppressive weight of misinformation, disinformation, and fakery? If ever there was a time when there was a need to bring to our collective awareness the forces that are creating and shaping our consciousness, it is now. This of course means that we must learn to make the unconscious conscious, for, as C.G. Jung wisely remarked, “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”.
One of the many beautiful gifts Pope Francis is bringing to our church is his aptitude for helping us (collectively), to make the unconscious conscious. In almost all his writings Pope Francis refers at some point to the importance of discernment. In this sense he is a true progeny of Ignatius Loyola. Should you wish to swim a little deeper into Pope Francis’s reflections on discernment, I would suggest you read Let Us Dream; it amounts to an extended reflection on Ignatian discernment in a contemporary context (check out also his
catechesis on discernment in ‘Articles’ below). In this brief editorial, I wish to focus on two concepts or ‘ways of thinking’ about discernment that Pope Francis raises in this text. The first is concept of “overflow”, and the second is the idea of “unfinished thinking”.
According to Pope Francis, “when we face choices and contradictions, asking what God’s will is, opens us to unexpected possibilities”. He describes these new possibilities as “overflow,” because they often burst the banks of our thinking. Overflow happens when we humbly set before God the challenge we face and ask for help. This is “discernment of spirits,” because it involves learning what is of God and what is seeking to frustrate God’s will. When we enter into discernment we need to “resist the urge to seek the apparent relief of an immediate decision, and instead be willing to hold different options before the Lord, waiting on that overflow”. Of course we weigh the options, knowing that Jesus is working with us. Over time
a solution arrives. Many struggle with this ‘patience’ aspect of discernment, and of course “those who are allergic to uncertainty and want to reduce everything to black and white. And it is quite impossible for ideologues, fundamentalists, and anyone else who is held back by a rigid mindset”. But this radical openness to the overflow of unexpected possibilities is vital to good discernment in Pope Francis’s view.
The second concept is “unfinished thinking”. Pope Frances reveals that he takes this idea of el pensamiento incompleto from Romano Guardini. When discerning, he invites us to give space to contemplate. A fruitful thought “should always be unfinished” in order to give space to subsequent development, and it creates room for you to encounter the good, the true and the beautiful. In this way you learn to navigate conflicts without being trapped in them.
This way of thinking, he argues, “opens us to the Spirit and to the discernment of spirits. If you don’t open up, you can’t discern”. This is why he has an “allergy to moralisms and other -isms that try to resolve all problems with prescriptions, equations, and rules”. Pope Francis, (like John Henry Newman, whom he declared a saint in October 2019), sees the truth lying outside us, always beyond us, but beckoning to us through our consciences. It is like a “kindly light” we reach not normally through reason but “through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description,” (quoting The Grammar of Assent).
Ignatian discernment is a potent antidote to all fatalistic and simplistic thinking, it is profoundly intentional, and at the same time open to the ‘God of surprises’; it is, in Pope Francis’s sense, ‘unfinished thinking’. And this is what is to be celebrated about Pope Francis, he is always stretching our thinking and expanding our horizons. One senses this “overflow” and “unfinished thinking” in almost everything he writes.
An example of this “overflow” and “unfinished thinking” for me is his recent letter on “The Role of Literature in Formation”. I have not seen anyone comment on this important letter here in Australia. To some, it will seem a little ‘left field’ or ‘irrelevant’. But for those who have been attentive to Pope Francis over the years, it comes as no surprise that for Francis the study of literature is not just an add-on to formation of those in every ministry in the church, it is, in his view, absolutely essential to their
formation as genuinely empathic human beings, and its absence “can lead to the serious intellectual and spiritual impoverishment”.
The beauty of reading great literature is that it allows us “to experience in an hour ‘all the possible joys and misfortunes that, in life, it would take us entire years to know even slightly’.” (Pope Francis quoting Marcel Proust) Francis explained that literature was “a telescope” that focused the reader's attention on a situation previously unknown to them, thereby opening their perception to “the totality of human experience.” Good literature helps us to never to lose sight of the “flesh” of Jesus Christ: “that flesh made of passions, emotions and feelings, words that challenge and console, hands that touch and heal, looks that liberate and encourage, flesh made of hospitality, forgiveness, indignation, courage, fearlessness;
in a word, love”. For Pope Francis, the beauty of literature is that it helps us to listen to another person’s voice.
Of course, this is what we do in spiritual direction, we listen to the other person’s unique voice; we develop “imaginative empathy”, and “become sensitive to their experience”. Literature is a formation for spiritual direction as it teaches us “patience in trying to understand others, humility in approaching complex situations, meekness in our judgement of individuals and sensitivity to our human condition”.
Reading then, is an act of “discernment”, as it directly involves the reader as both the “subject” who reads and as the “object” of what is being read. In reading a novel or a work of poetry, the reader actually experiences “being read” by the words that we are reading. Literature, in a word, “serves to interpret life, to discern its deeper meaning and its essential tensions”. (Quoting Antonio Spadaro SJ)
Pope Francis concludes this beautiful letter by stating that “the spiritual power of literature brings us back to the primordial task entrusted by God to our human family: the task of “naming” other beings and things (cf. Gen 2:19-20)”. We are entrusted “with the primordial task of “naming”, of bestowing meaning, of becoming instruments of communion between creation and the Word made flesh and his power to shed light on every dimension of our human condition.”
I suggest you complement this thoughtful and thought-provoking letter with the wonderful keynote address by Andrew O'Hagan which was delivered at the Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival in May of this year (see Podcasts of Interest below). It is quite riveting and elaborates and affirms Pope Francis’s reflections on the significance and power of literature.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Pedro Arrupe SJ: His Writings, His Inspiration |
Pedro Arrupe SJ, "Our Mission..."
in La Iglesia, pp. 72-3, quoted in Apostolic Discernment in Common
|
“We need to ask ourselves seriously before God whether our ministries and activities, both the more “spiritual” ones and the more “social” ones, and our own way of life reflect in fact all the liberating dimensions of our mission, its transcendence and its immanence. If such is not the case, then we need to ask whether we are taking the necessary measures to remedy the situation. We also need to ask ourselves whether, out of love of the poor and the oppressed, we have the evangelical audacity to break with the past if necessary, with “what we’ve always done.” Do we have the courage to abandon works and institutions less suited to
present-day needs and follow new paths with hope? Are we following the example of Christ and truly making an option for the poor and the oppressed? Are we struggling effectively against oppression and exploitation with all the evangelical means at our disposal, relying only on the hope of liberation that is already present in the world through Christ? Are we not only willing but inclined, when circumstances require it, to live side by side with the poor, to share in the state of the oppressed, as Christ did? Are we able to fight against everything that is sinful, unjust, and oppressive, not for reasons of ideology but for motivations that are truly evangelical and apostolic? Are we willing to do this while respecting persons and while refraining from destroying authority or weakening the unity and communion that unites us all, faithful and pastors, in one body? Are we ready to give an example of greater equity, solidarity, and evangelical poverty in our own daily
lives, in our houses, and in our Provinces, by avoiding unnecessary expenses and placing everything in common? Are we convinced that it was above all by his passion and death that Christ liberated us? And does this conviction find expression in our life and activity, in the value we give to the suffering and to the quiet, hidden work of so many Jesuits who die daily to free people from sin and its consequences and to inspire them to hope in God and in others? If we are not ready for all this, then we must make a choice: either to prepare ourselves for it through a profound metanoia, or to declare ourselves incapable of going to the depth of the fundamental evangelical option, which is loving the poor Christ unreservedly.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do you feel a calling to become a Giver of the Spiritual
Exercises of St Ignatius? If you do, consider joining us in the Arrupe Program in 2025.
|
We are accepting applications for 2025. If you feel you have a calling to become a spiritual director in the Ignatian tradition, we would be very happy to hear from you. Details of our program can be viewed on our website.
I can be contacted directly at michael.loughnane@arrupe.org.au.
|
|
|
We are holding an information session about the program for 2025 on the evening of Thursday, September 19, 7.00pm – 8.30pm. If you would like to join us for that session please contact me at michael.loughnane@arrupe.org.au and I will forward the zoom link to you.
|
|
|
The Arrupe Program is separate from, but collaborates closely with the Spiritual Direction course at ACU. Most of our students study at ACU as part of their formation to become givers of the Spiritual Exercises.
|
 |
Would you like to study spiritual direction at the Australian Catholic University? |
Develop knowledge, understanding and the foundational skills suited to the ethical, self-aware and safe practice of spiritual direction in the Ignatian tradition by enrolling in the Graduate Diploma in Spiritual Direction, or, the Master of Spiritual Direction.
|
 |
A Mystagogical Approach to the Spiritual Exercises |
A presentation by Javier Melloni SJ on Saturday, September 28, 3.00pm-5.00pm (AEST).
Presentation sponsored by JISA, Companions and the Arrupe Program.
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to spend time at the Cave of St Ignatius at Manresa in Spain will be well aware of the giftedness and deep knowledge of St Ignatius that Javier Melloni embodies. He has been immersed in the early sources for most of his Jesuit ministry and his understanding of St Ignatius is insightful and creative. When you listen to Javier, what you thought was familiar and well-trodden leaps into life with a powerful immediacy and freshness.
Michael Ivens SJ lavishes this praise on Javier’s book The Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola in the Western Tradition: “This study is a landmark in our understanding of both the specificity and the contemporary relevance of Ignatian spirituality, and every student and exponent of Ignatius should be aware of its findings.”
The focus of this Zoom presentation on September 28, will be on the adoption of A Mystagogical Approach to the Spiritual Exercises.
We hope you will consider joining us for this special event.
The Zoom link for this workshop/presentation is:
https://acu.zoom.us/j/7046885930?omn=87379855194
Join from dial-in phone line:
Dial: +61 2 8015 2088
Meeting ID: 704 688 5930
International numbers available: https://acu.zoom.us/u/kcBI2PfOX4
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Podcasts On The Theme Of Discernment |
|
|
Andrew O’Hagan's defence of literature and truth in the age of the machines
Discernment is about learning to see reality as it is (within and without). In this engaging podcast, Andrew O'Hagan makes an impassioned case for the role of readers and writers as "frontline workers" in the fight for reality in our contemporary world. This is a very thought-provoking and ‘lively’ conversation.
|
|
|
The Fact of Fantasy (Digital Jung) with
Jason Smith
In this episode, Jungian analyst Jason Smith discusses the role of fantasy and explores the important role that it plays in our decision-making processes.
|
|
|
Discernment of Spirits with Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, SJ - MAGISTALK Ep 5 with Dan Finucane & Ian Peoples
Mark Thibodeaux is a very experienced director and has written extensively on the topic of Ignatian discernment. He offers an excellent summary and overview of what Ignatian discernment actually is. If I were you I would skip the first 8 minutes of this interview. It really heats up after that!
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Poem On The Theme Of Discernment |
|
|
My own heart let me more have pity on
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
My own heart let me more have pity on; let
Me live to my sad self hereafter kind,
Charitable; not live this tormented mind
With this tormented mind tormenting yet.
I cast for comfort I can no more get
By groping round my comfortless, than blind
Eyes in their dark can day or thirst can find
Thirst’s all-in-all in all a world of wet.
Soul, self; come, poor Jackself, I do advise
You, jaded, let be; call off thoughts awhile
Elsewhere; leave comfort root-room; let joy size
At God knows when to God knows what; whose smile
‘s not wrung, see you; unforeseen times rather—as skies
Betweenpie mountains—lights a lovely mile.
|
|
|
This is a truly Ignatian Sonnet. Ultimately, it is about allowing ourselves to be ‘seen’ by God; but not our best-dressed self, but as we
truly are, in all the anguish and despair, a condition that every human being suffers at some point in their life. Here, in this ‘dark sonnet’ (penned in Dublin in 1885), Hopkins lays it all on the line before God. This is a soul in torment (the word appears three times in quick succession). But if the first eight lines are about the agony of desolation, the last six lines are all about the gentle “smile” of consolation that follows. Indeed, this heartrending poem could be read as a psalm of supplication, a lament from the very depths of the anguished heart, and, like many Psalms of Lament, (and other wisdom literature in the Hebrew Scriptures), things look very dark at first, but always end in consolation. Once the desolation has been expressed (‘out of the depths’), it miraculously lifts, and consolation returns, and “lights a lovely mile”.
But the line I personally find most moving in this beautiful gem of a poem is the first one: “My own heart let me more have pity on”. If only we could have more compassion for ourselves, how much more free and loving and “hereafter kind” we would be!
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Books On The Theme Of Discernment |
|
|
Ignatian Discernment of Spirits – for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Care
By Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ
Mark Thibodeaux SJ is an experienced spiritual director and former novice director and has written four popular books on prayer, including God’s Voice Within and Reimagining the Ignatian Examen. The focus of this book is the discernment of spirits, and what marks it out is its practicality and its clear easy-to-absorb approach and style. An excellent resource for spiritual directors, counsellors and pastoral workers.
|
|
|
The Discerning Heart: Exploring the Christian Path
By Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon Au
Wilkie Au is an experienced spiritual director and professor of theological studies. Noreen Cannon Au, is a practicing Jungian analyst and a faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. Another text that is intensely practical and down-to-earth, blending mature spirituality with helpful psychological insights.
|
|
|
A Handbook for Spiritual Directors: An Ignatian Guide for Accompanying Discernment of Gods Will
By Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V.
Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V. is a world-renowned expert in Ignatian Discernment; he has made it his life’s work. He holds a doctorate from the Gregorian University in Rome and is the author of numerous books on Ignatian discernment. The focus of this book is to help spiritual directors guide the process of Ignatian discernment in a very practical way.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Articles On The Theme Of Discernment |
|
|
A SPIRITUAL CONVERSATION Robert R. Marsh speaks to the editor, Philip Harrison
This is a beautiful conversation. I love the way Robert Marsh SJ speaks about the Spiritual Exercises and spiritual direction. He gets right to the heart of the matter.
“I think for Ignatius it [imagination] was key because it gave him access to God. He has a note early on in the Spiritual Exercises inviting the people who are praying to spend just a moment, ‘the length of an Our Father’ (Exx 75), considering how God is looking at you. That is an impossible question to answer. The only way you are going to know how God is looking at you is to look at God and ‘see God’s face’, metaphorically speaking. Metaphorically speaking is the key to how Ignatius sees the encounter with God. I think a good definition of imagination is that place where you look to see the answer to that question, ‘how is God looking at me?’ A bit convoluted! Most of the definitions of what imagination is trivialise it, as though it
is fantasy, or making things up, or indulging oneself, but I think for Ignatius it was contact with reality.”
|
|
|
Pope Francis’s Catecheses on Discernment Nos. 1-14
Many will remember that from August 2022 to January 2023 Pope Francis offered a series of 14 catecheses on discernment. They are wonderfully engaging, down-to-earth and chock full of homely practical wisdom. Here is an excerpt from his third catechesis:
Prayer is an indispensable aid for spiritual discernment, especially when it involves the affective dimension, enabling us to address God with simplicity and familiarity, as one would speak to a friend. It is knowing how to go beyond thoughts, to enter into intimacy with the Lord, with an affectionate spontaneity. The secret of the lives of the saints is familiarity and confidence with God, which grows within them and makes it ever easier to recognize what is pleasing to Him. True prayer is familiarity with and confidence in God. It is not reciting prayers like a parrot, blah, blah, blah, no. True prayer is this spontaneity and affection for the Lord. This familiarity overcomes fear or doubt that his will is not for our good, a temptation that sometimes runs
through our thoughts and makes our heart restless and uncertain, or even bitter.
|
|
|
Spiritual Accompaniment and Discernment
By Dermot Mansfield SJ
It so happens that I spent two years in the same community as the author of this article on spiritual accompaniment and discernment in the mid 1980s. He was working in the adjoining retreat house (Manresa House) while I was in the noviceship. I remember Dermot as being the most gentle and humble of men; someone who embodies the true spirit of Ignatius. I think these attributes shine through in this wise and gentle article. Witness his concluding comment:
“… in the midst of all we could say about discernment, we learn best from the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Spiritual guides, although they sometimes offer something special in terms of listening and wisdom, are always receiving and learning. None of us lives anywhere else but among God’s people—in that gathering, that communion of persons. And, although we need time apart and prayer, the simple sharing in one another’s lives, in humanity and faith, is among the greatest gifts of all under God. That sharing, whatever form it takes, provides the proper realism and rootedness for authentic discernment. And I happen to believe that it is the place where the authentic voice of the Shepherd is most heard today, calling by name, and calling
lovingly into truth.”
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
JISA - Season of Creation - Contemplations |
This year we will pray on creation with our senses. These contemplations were first created for IM24 Song of the Senses by Michael Hansen SJ, and have been adapted for you this Season of Creation.
There are five contemplations over five weeks to help you pause, heal and sustain your relationship with Earth, and with God in Earth. Contemplations to help us work together on behalf of all Creation.
Complete your registration to receive your contemplation in your inbox each week during the Season of Creation – from Wednesday 4 September to Wednesday 2 October 2024.
|
|
EXPLORE
|
Ignatian Silent Directed Retreats 2024 |
Our JISA team of Spiritual Directors warmly welcome you to come and rest, contemplate, pray, and discern, in our Ignatian Silent Directed Retreats.
Retreats are available in Sevenhill in South Australia, Pymble in New South Wales, Kew in Victoria, and Ormiston in Queensland. There are retreats of 2 days (2 nights), 4 days (5 nights), 6 days (7 nights) or 8 days (9 nights).
|
|
EXPLORE
|
Weekend Retreats – SA, VIC, NSW, QLD |
Explore a wide array of weekend retreats with a mix of silence and themed inputs such as discernment, we look forward to welcoming you…
|
|
EXPLORE
|
The Spiritual Exercises - all forms |
Discover God’s unique love for us
Becoming free
To love and serve in all things
The Spiritual Exercises can be made in the following ways:
Full Spiritual Exercises in silence over 33 days →
Full Spiritual Exercises in daily life over 30+ weeks →
First Spiritual Exercises over four weeks in daily life →
Concise Spiritual Exercises over 4 months →
Spiritual Exercises in silent retreats over 3 to 8 days →
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Grant me, O Lord, to see everything now with new eyes, to discern and test the spirits that help me read the signs of the times, to relish the things that are yours, and to communicate them to others.
Give me the clarity of understanding that you gave Ignatius
(Pedro Arrupe)
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
