Two Jesuits took their final vows at Loyola Marymount University’s Sacred Heart Chapel in spring 2022, committing their lives to the 482-year-old Society of Jesus. The religious order they joined is a worldwide leader in education, renowned for its service work, and distinguished for its spiritual practices. In addition to their spiritual vocation, Jesuits engage in a dynamic range of artistic, academic, scientific, and other occupations that connect them to the world in fascinating ways.
Jesuits have been, in the words of writer Chris Lowney, “confidants to European monarchs, China’s Ming emperor, Japanese shogun, the Mughal emperor of India” and “boasted a Rolodex unmatched by that of any commercial, religious, or government entity.” It is not an easy history, though: Jesuits have been persecuted and expelled from as many countries as they have been welcomed to. At the center, always, was their faith in action.
LMU’s assistant dean of students, Paul Vu, S.J., entered the Society of Jesus in 2000 a week after completing his doctoral internship, and was ordained in 2011. “I believe that being a Jesuit best unites my interests – spreading the Good News and drawing others into God’s friendship – and my concerns – ameliorating and helping others [young people at LMU] resolve their difficulties through compassion, charity, and spiritual comfort/conversation – and the skills I feel I possess,” said Father Vu, who professed his final vows in June 2022.
“Indeed, to be a Jesuit is to be open to new possibilities, and to use Father Pedro Arrupe’s phrase, to be ‘persons for and with others.’ By giving God permission, He has led me to the Society of Jesus,” Father Vu said.
In addition to their spiritual vocation, Jesuits engage in a dynamic range of artistic, academic, scientific, and other occupations that connect them to the world in fascinating ways.
Radmar Jao, S.J., took a different path to the society. “I was a professional actor before entering the Jesuits,” he said. “When I was discerning, I was told that as a Jesuit I could be an actor and a priest at the same time, which piqued my interest.” Father Jao, who took his first vows in 2003 and his final vows in March 2022, added, “But I was drawn to religious life, versus diocesan priesthood, because of the variety of ministries that were available to me in which I could be of service.”
Connection to St. Ignatius
When asked about his calling into priesthood, Eddie Siebert, S.J., rector of LMU’s Jesuit Community, is certain that it wasn’t a particular moment that beckoned him; rather, it was a series of moments, a succession of things that happened, that led him to be more adamant in his spiritual and personal choices. In other words, there was no particularly revelatory moment when he instinctively decided to join the Jesuit order; but, like his faith, and his connection with God, it is a choice he makes every day. He mentions the conversion St. Ignatius himself had when he first sought out God; “I think that conversion doesn’t stop at just one; we are constantly called to go deeper and deeper, to who we really are, what we’re about, how God is interfacing with us. These are the questions we need to ask ourselves every single day,” Father Siebert said.
Father Vu and Father Jao were also attracted to the society by the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the order on Sept. 27, 1540. The conversion of St. Ignatius is of particular importance to Father Vu. “I’m drawn to the Society of Jesus because of my strong devotion to St. Ignatius, especially his humility, humanity, and ability to find God in all things after his personal conversion. Without his conversion, there wouldn’t be a Society of Jesus.”The conversion that Father Siebert and Father Vu refer to is the signal moment in Jesuit lore. In 1522, a young Ignatius had been wounded in war, his leg shattered by a cannonball. His recovery proved to be revelatory, a self-pruning. He began living a life of austere practices: fasting for hours on end, giving up his garments to someone else in need, praying ceaselessly, and trying at all turns to move away from the vanities of this mortal life. He would first encounter despair, and gradually move on to a more balanced sense of self. He had been a soldier, a nobleman, a worldly man whose interests and curiosities had never advanced to more than his own. In his time of need, he became a man seeking the truth, seeking to find God, a man in a desperate need to live a life that would bring meaning to others.
Jesuits in Education
There are more than 200 Jesuit higher education institutions in six regions of the world, a Jesuit network in partnership with numerous lay people. In the U.S., there are 27 Jesuit colleges and universities and 62 Jesuit high schools. Together, the Jesuits educate more than 1 million students, from all kinds of religious, cultural, social, and language backgrounds in more than 50 countries. The International Association of Jesuit Universities is the international coordinating body for Jesuit higher education; in the United States, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities brings the campuses together for a common mission. The first Jesuit university in the U.S. was Georgetown, established in 1789.
John O’Malley, S.J., has written about the Jesuits’ humble beginning in education. Ten members of the society opened the first Jesuit school in 1548, in Messina in Sicily, Father O’Malley wrote in “The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: 400th Anniversary Perspectives.” That event, Father O’Malley asserted, “would have immense repercussions on the character of the Society of Jesus, giving it a new and quite special relationship to culture; but it was also a crucial event in the history of schooling within the Catholic Church and in Western civilization.” Within a few years the Jesuits had opened 30 additional primary and secondary schools, and the so-called Roman College, which would soon develop into the first real Jesuit university, Gregorian University. In time, the Jesuits’ excellence at education attracted some of the most promising thinkers of their time, including Descartes, Moliere, and Voltaire. In Latin America they had constructed magnificent schools of stone and brick, with huge libraries, before any serious school of any kind had been founded in the British colonies.
Together, the Jesuits educate more than 1 million students, from all kinds of religious, cultural, social, and linguistic backgrounds in more than 50 countries.
Jesuits’ Spiritual Practices
Perhaps the most significant advance Ignatius brought to the world is the Spiritual Exercises. During the 1530s, St. Ignatius Loyola began writing about the emotions that he experienced in everyday life — feelings of gratitude or anguish, consolation or sadness. Those meditations eventually became the Spiritual Exercises, first published in 1548. The Spiritual Exercises, a compilation of meditations, prayers, and other contemplative practices, is a handbook, especially for use by spiritual directors who accompany and guide people through this dynamic process of reflection. The goal of the Spiritual Exercises is to help people develop their attentiveness, their openness, and their responsiveness to God.
The Spiritual Exercises usually are a four-week process – also called periods – of meditation, contemplation, and discernment in a retreat setting with a spiritual guide.
- The purpose of the first week is to meditate on a deeper meaning of sin, both globally and personally, conceptualizing sin as being out of step with God’s love and light. With this deeper understanding, one comes to embrace a freedom from personal ego and an acceptance to move forward in a renewed life;
- During the second week, retreatants reflect on the life and ministry of Jesus, studying scriptures that illuminate Christ’s work in the world and offer inspiration to make the change to continue this work themselves;
- The third week focuses on the concept of suffering as transformation through meditation on Christ in his Passion and death;
- The fourth week is a celebration of the Resurrection and a focus on how to specifically take the insights gained to continue God’s work in the world by bringing comfort and restoration to those in need.
One of the most well-known prayers in Ignatian Spirituality is also given at the end of the fourth week of the Exercises. It’s known as the Suscipe, which asks the Lord to take and receive every aspect of one’s being.
Underscoring the exercises are meditation, contemplation, discernment, and magis.
Ignatian meditation is a method that uses visualization and imagination, based on the style of prayer that St Ignatius used. Jesuits are called to be contemplatives in action, meaning they adopt a contemplative stance toward the world. Instead of seeing the spiritual life as enclosed within the walls of a monastery, Ignatius taught his followers to see the world as the monastery. Discernment is about finding the voice of the spirit of God speaking to Jesuits in the ordinary and practical details of life.
Magis, a term variously translated, can be viewed in terms of practicality relating to the sources, and correspondence to other Ignatian themes as “the more universal good.” It is closely linked to the unofficial motto of the Society of Jesus: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, “for the greater glory of God.” The Center for Ignatian Spirituality is LMU’s source for information and opportunities for guided practice in the Spiritual Exercises.
There is a saying among the Jesuits, who are known to often poke fun at themselves: If you meet one Jesuit, you’ve met one Jesuit. Or, more striking, if you have three Jesuits, you’ll have four opinions. That saying remains true as the Jesuit order is unlike any other within the Catholic Church. Embedded within the spiritual pursuit, is also a rather courageous persistence to be in the world, with the world; not living in seclusion, away from the struggles and afflictions of people, but embracing a sense of urgency that calls each Jesuit in his own unique path to serve the world, to seek to find God everywhere. How does one find God everywhere, especially in a turbulent world? The answer, though not easy, is one that emboldens seekers to rethink where God is. To be able to recognize the struggles of others and partake in their afflictions; to be able to bring meaning to their lives with what we are given, to be able to live in the world, to be in the world, and see the presence of God everywhere – both in the smallness of things, which we can marvel at, and in the vastness of the world too, which is equally wondrous.
Embedded within the spiritual pursuit, is also a rather courageous persistence to be in the world, with the world; not living in seclusion, away from the struggles and afflictions of people, but embracing a sense of urgency that calls each Jesuit in his own unique path to serve the world, to seek to find God everywhere.
Jesuits in Service Work
After education, service work is the Jesuits’ most salient characteristic. “Walking with the excluded” is the guiding principle of Jesuit service, and it has inspired the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, based in Baltimore, the Jesuit Refugee Service in Washington, D.C., the Ignatian Solidarity Network of University Heights, Ohio, and many more local entities. According to the Jesuits mission, “our communities desire to be more hospitable and open, learning how to live more deeply in the spirit of Jesus, a spirit that welcomes.” Each of these organizations, guided by Jesuit principles, seeks to bring care and comfort to people and communities that suffer difficult circumstances. Thousands of volunteers annually make a difference in people’s lives through these organizations.
The Pam Rector Center for Service in Action fulfills this role at LMU, affording students and graduates opportunities to volunteer their time serving those disadvantaged or oppressed on campus, in Los Angeles, and abroad through dedicated service groups or special events.
Jesuits in the World
Lowney writes in “Heroic Leadership” that St. Ignatius Loyola sought a ministry of opportunity and enunciated a wide-open mission: “The aim and end of this society is, by traveling through the various regions of the world at the order of the [pope] or of the superior of the society itself, to preach, hear confessions, and use all the other means it can … to help souls.” With that motivation, Jerónimo Nadal, a close associate of St. Ignatius, traveled through Europe spreading the Jesuit message; St. Xavier established the Jesuit presence in China and Japan; Acquaviva planted a stake in India. The Jesuits also began a characteristic method of connecting their spiritual practice to the local customs they found themselves in. They began following the lead of Roberto de Nobili and his work in India, where he studied local traditions and wisdom seeking to find where religious and cultural traditions separated. He then could help Jesuits identify with local customs as they spread the Gospel. The Jesuit order would in time spread their work throughout the globe, including Colombia in 1567, Mexico in 1572, and Canada in 1611.
Jesuit history is not without conflict. In 1595, Abraham de Georgiis, S.J., was the first of eight Jesuit martyrs in East Africa, killed for defying the governor of a local sultanate, and refusing to deny his faith; Matteo Ricci was expelled from Nanking, though he later returned to open a seminary. In 1645, Henry Morse, S.J., known as the “priest of the plague” for his care for plague victims, was hanged, drawn and quartered in Tyburn, England. There followed many famous episodes of suppression and redemption, including Spain, Prussia, Colombia, Mexico, Sicily, Germany, and more.
And there have been harrowing scenes of faith martyrdom through the centuries: eight missionaries killed in Canada in the mid-1640s; 20 people killed in Argentina in 1683; 40 martyrs of England and Wales from 1535 to 1679, including Robert Southwell in 1595; Victor Emilio Moscoso Cárdenas in Ecuador in 1897; six Jesuits killed in El Salvador in 1989.
Jesuits Work in Many Fields
Jesuits have been involved in all kinds of scientific, creative, and academic endeavors. Father Jao is an actor; Father Vu is a psychologist; Father Siebert is the founder and president of Loyola Productions. Jesuits throughout history include Jacques Marquette, S.J., a French missionary who founded Michigan’s first European settlement; Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., a French scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher, and teacher; Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S.J., an Italian astronomer known for his experiments with pendulums and falling bodies, for his discussion of 126 arguments concerning the motion of the Earth, and for introducing the current scheme of lunar nomenclature; Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., an English poet whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets; Brother Guy J. Consolmagno, S.J., an American research astronomer, physicist, religious brother, and director of the Vatican Observatory; Patrick J. Conroy, S.J., an American lawyer who served as the 60th chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives; Brian Reedy, S.J., visiting assistant professor of philosophy at LMU and a lieutenant of the United States Navy Chaplain Corps; and many more. This list of prominent Jesuits shows the depth and breadth of their work.
A Jesuit Legacy
It may be too difficult to get a full measure of the Jesuits’ influence on the world; or perhaps it is too soon. But one of the many Jesuit stories may stand to exemplify what it means to be a Jesuit.
The story centers on Father Arrupe. He is renowned for the phrase “men for others,” presented in his 1973 address “The Promotion of Justice and the Formation in the Alumni Associations,” that instructs Jesuit-educated people who “will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ.” Over time, the text has been adapted to include “men and women” to make its powerful message applicable for a contemporary Jesuit alumni audience. Still later, it became “persons for and with others” to reflect a sense of solidarity in addition to service. Father Arrupe was the Jesuit superior in Japan in 1942, living in suburban Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945. He was one of eight Jesuits who were within the blast zone, yet he survived the destruction, protected by a hill that separated the novitiate from the center of Hiroshima. Father Arrupe described that event as “a permanent experience outside of history, engraved on my memory.” He used his medical skills to help those who were wounded or dying, and the Jesuit novitiate was converted into a makeshift hospital where between 150 and 200 people received care. Father Arrupe recalled, “The chapel, half destroyed, was overflowing with the wounded …” But there, in a world of pain and chaos, Father Arrupe lived his Jesuit mission: comforting the stricken, attending to the wounded, and welcoming the dispossessed to his house of worship.
Father Arrupe’s final words, many years later: “For the present, Amen; for the future, Alleluia.”
