Ignatian Heritage Month: Five Questions with Dorian Llywelyn, S.J., Director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality.

What is St Ignatius of Loyola most remembered for?

"Founding the Jesuits" would be most people's immediate response. It is a good one. Ignatius was born into a family of minor nobility in 1491, and was a Basque soldier. While he was defending the city of Pamplona in a battle against French forces, he was terribly wounded in the leg. That injury effectively shattered all his previous ambitions. While he was recuperating, he began to re-evaluate his life and began a long religious conversion. After some years of wandering, he got to the University of Paris, to study theology. There he met six companions who together founded the Society of Jesus, (aka the Jesuits). For the last 17 years of his life, he organized, led, counseled, and guided the work of the Jesuits, whom he sent out across Europe and into Africa and Asia as missionaries, preachers, and teachers.

During the early years of his conversion, he spent several months living in a cave in a town called Manresa, praying intensely. He wrote down his experiences, and his notes became the basis for what turned out to be his most influential writing, the "Spiritual Exercises."

Why are the "Spiritual Exercises" so influential?

The exercises are a set of Christian meditations and prayers, but much more than that. Ignatius was a master of psychology long before psychology developed as an academic subject or professional skill. His basic intuition is that people tend to get de-centered, mistaking what should be a means to an end for the end itself. Our more superficial desires, our noisy egos, get in the way. We make inauthentic choices the exercises are intended to re-calibrate the person making them, recentering themselves on God and in the process, finding greater freedom to opt for the better over what is merely good.

Ignatius has a realistic yet hopeful vision of the human person - we are sinners, but loved sinners and we are always in process, hopefully toward what is better, more integral, freer, and more generous. One important element in the exercises is discernment - which is fundamentally about who we seek to become. Another principle is flexibility. Ignatius gave very concrete, detailed guidelines about prayer, but also stresses that things can and should be adapted to whatever is going to be more helpful to the person doing the exercises.

The full version of the exercises is a monthlong silent retreat under the guidance of a spiritual director, with up to five hours of daily prayer. But they can be adapted, too, for people who can't take a month out. They have been done by hundreds of thousands of people, if not more - lay people, members of religious orders, and priests. And not only by Catholics, either: many Christians of other churches have also found them transformative. One new development over the past few decades is that people of other religions (including people here at LMU) have also done some adaptation of the exercises.

One practice from the exercises, the Examen, involves taking a short time out every day to ponder where God is working in someone's life and how they are responding to that. When we do over the long term, we become more attuned to the subtle ways in which God is not only present, but active and interested in our lives. Many people know the phrase "finding God in all things"; what Ignatius actually wrote more often is "seeking and finding God's will in everything." The Examen supports that ongoing search and discovery - so that our actions will then be freer and more authentic.

Why is St. Ignatius so significant for LMU students today?

Without Ignatius, there'd have been no Jesuits. A group of French women in 17th century France wouldn't have met Pierre Medaille, S.J., and founded the Sisters of St Joseph there. Nor would the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary have received any influence from Ignatian spirituality. So, without him, and the influence of his Spiritual Exercises, LMU wouldn't have existed.

But simple history is just part of the answer. The more interesting response is "Ignatian DNA," those deep principles that are part of LMU's distinctive way of being and doing. Sometimes, these are expressed in modern terms, e.g. "people with and for others." That phrase derives from a famous 1973 speech on the purpose of Jesuit education by Father Arrupe, the 28th Jesuit Father-General, but in fact echoes a text by Cicero on moral duty that was part of the curriculum of all Jesuit schools for well over 300 years. The concern for justice and reconciliation, academic excellence, the education of the whole person, the search for finding the divine in all things and people - all these are in the water supply here. These DNA strands aren't unique to Jesuit education, but they are characteristic of what makes this ongoing project uniquely "us" and far more than just another very good university.

Why do we honor St. Ignatius in November?

Honest answer: I don't know. And apparently, neither does Chat GPT. What is more important than the exact month is the fact that we take this opportunity to deepen our awareness and appreciation of this legacy. The Jesuit historian Father John O Malley wrote "there is something stabilizing, even invigorating, about being part of a long-standing tradition." Knowing what we have come from gives us a sense of identity in the present, and orients us for the future. It helps keep us authentic to our truest selves. Our Ignatian heritage is living and evolving. We all have a role in shaping it and then passing it on.

Anything else you would like to add?

Two things: First, Ignatius wrote that we should be more inclined to interpret other people's words and actions positively than negatively. I wish that DNA strand were better known and practiced. After this bruising election, half the country is elated and half is deeply dejected and worried. Both sides are suspicious of the other. In academia, we hold our convictions passionately - and we are not shy about sharing them. The principle of assuming good will, especially when people disagree, is practical and helpful. (It is also, by the way, truly hard work, a real workout for the mind and heart).

Second (and this answer is for every single student, and faculty and staff member), sometime while you are here, meet at least one Jesuit, a Sister of St Joseph of Orange, or a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. Even better, several. Each of those conversations will add another personal dimension to what "Ignatian heritage" is all about.

For a complete list of the activities celebrating St. Ignatian Heritage Month click here.

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