Spirituality: Founding Anniversary

Ignatius would be proud of us if he lived today. If he surveyed the work of the Jesuits, he would be astonished by our adaptability in different mission circumstances. In the U.S. and the West, we are aging and reducing our size to a more compact number and yet we do not worry about going out of existence. We can be compassionate to ourselves and still search for the new areas of life where the Spirit is present.

We remain in education because it is essential to our founding mission. The education of youth is primary and it creates compassionate, critically thinking citizens of the world and we find new ways to reach into the lives of the poor to give them something fundamental that helps them work towards their salvation - education.

We remain a missionary order going to all parts of the world to bring the good news the Christ offers salvation to them as well, and we remain missionaries in well-established professions - making sure we open new doors to the frontiers. All people, rich and poor, influential and powerless, of every race, gender, and nationality, deserve to hear the Christ desires them.

In this great year, we have been given a Pope with Jesuit formation and we delight in the certain knowledge that he loves us and cares for us. May we be sent pastors who continue to imitate his care for us because we trust that he is imitation Jesus Christ. We are blessed and this is our year of delight.

Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
Francis Xavier, pray for us.
Peter Faber, pray for us.
Alfonso Salmeron, pray for us.
Diego Lainez, pray for us.
Nicholas Bobadilla, pray for us.
Simon Rodriques, pray for us