Although Pope Francis embodies Ignatian spirituality on a very large stage due to the prominence of his office, there are many Jesuit saints and non-Jesuit saints (both men and women) who have lived this spirituality in a less visible way. The early Jesuits were scrupulous about promoting the canonization of our martyred or saintly members, as St. Ignatius encouraged his missionaries to always write two letters back to Rome — one with all the positive details for publicity purposes and one with all the problems for internal use. And the first Jesuits were forward-thinking in the way they carefully documented everything: When the Society of Jesus was suppressed in 1773, the Jesuit archives filled an entire building, while the Capuchin Franciscan archives barely occupied a single room!
Partly because we Jesuits are such zealous researchers and writers, the long black line of canonized Jesuit saints now stretches further than those of many other religious orders: There are currently about 350 Jesuit servants of God, venerables, blesseds, and saints in the various stages of canonization. And we observe many common virtues of Ignatian spirituality in the lives of these men, springing from the foundational quality of humility that Pope Francis spoke about. In the next chapters of this book, I will look at the following virtues in some of the most prominent Jesuit saints and their companions:
• Trust: Saints who surrendered themselves profoundly to God
• Openness: Saints who dreamed big, listened to God, and went outside the box
• Generosity: Saints who gave without counting the cost
• Simplicity: Saints who learned to have or not have things, insofar as it served God
• Dedication: Saints who followed Jesus even when things got tough
• Gratitude: Saints who saw everything, including themselves, as a gift from God
Finally, I will conclude the book with a reflection on the transformation we seek in reading the stories of these holy people, suggesting some takeaways from the lives of the Jesuit saints for our own spiritual lives.
Why does any of this matter? Well, as I hope to show, the Holy Spirit has given us Pope Francis not just for the present time, but for the future as well. He’s modeling a particular way of relating to God for all Christians as we progress in our journey through this life to the next. If some readers don’t care much for Pope Francis or for his way of speaking about Jesus, they may not like this book very much either, but I hope they will read it in the spirit in which I have written it: with an openness to considering those spiritual influences which have guided the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who we now know as Pope Francis.
Ignatian spirituality calls all of us — not just Jesuits or Catholics — to greater trust, openness, generosity, simplicity, dedication, and gratitude in our relationships with God as we journey through salvation history. Like the Jesuit saints who formed him spiritually, the example of Francis invites all of us to develop Christ-like habits in our lives.
The Gift of Ignatian Spirituality
Having given us a Year of Mercy, and nearing the end of what he foresees as a short papacy, Pope Francis will leave the Catholic Church with the ongoing gift of his Ignatian spirituality — a missionary perspective on discipleship that emphasizes passionate engagement with the world, calling upon Christians to value all that is beautiful and good in God’s creation while rejecting all that is selfish and distorted.
From St. Ignatius to Pope Francis himself, this is a spirituality lived by and for hardworking people trying to make it in the world, and it has helped many pilgrims in their life’s journey to God. Through the stories of Jesuit saints both famous and obscure, as well as the oft-unsung lives of the heroic men and women who collaborated with them on mission, I hope this book will challenge all Christians to follow Jesus with compassion and renewed energy.
The way Francis has lived out this spirituality, handed down to him by St. Ignatius and his brother Jesuits over the centuries, is distinctively bold and tender at the same time. Jesuit saints often inspire people with their intense fusion of the intellectual and the passionate, the sensitive and the bold. We sons of Ignatius value an integration of mind and heart that continues to attract people in our hectic world, calling all of us to an intelligent orthodoxy that’s all about tuning in to the broader culture with sympathy for what’s going on, rather than rejecting everything secular out of hand.
My book, then, strives to set the right tone and spirit for a deeper relationship with God. It’s about engaging the world in a positive way, but with our eyes wide open to painful realities. St. Ignatius wanted Christians to be immersed in the world, leading our lives boldly and getting our hands dirty. Like Pope Francis telling pastors to “smell like the sheep,” embracing the model of a “field hospital” church in which we all find solace, faith, and healing, St. Ignatius didn’t want fearful followers praying behind closed doors, safely isolated by creature comforts and clerical privileges from the struggles of ordinary people.
This missionary image of the Catholic Church is not unique to Pope Francis, but distinctive of the Society of Jesus in which he, many others, and I have vowed our lives to God. The message of St. Ignatius is that any person of good will, without reading long theological tomes or taking classes, can hear and speak to God. And the Jesuit saints can show us how to do it.
St. Ignatius of Loyola started his own life as a two-bit “man on the make,” seeing very little beyond the end of his nose. By his own telling, he should have died young in a gutter or a brawl, forgotten to history. But he changed the world and became a saint in the process because he woke up to God’s love in the nick of time. His story reminds us that Jesus Christ remains active in our world, waiting for us to let him draw us closer into his friendship. We need only to put him in the center, surrender to his invitation, and embrace our reality as loved sinners.
If St. Ignatius could do it, why can’t we?
Chapter Two
Trust
The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb.
— Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI)
Sometimes I don’t feel very close to God, but I feel close to the saints who are close to him.
For many dedicated Christians, even Jesuits like me, God can feel abstract and distant at times. Whether we’re talking about the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, it doesn’t matter. Because I can’t see or touch the Triune God directly, it can be hard for me to sense his presence at certain moments in my life even if I know on an intellectual level that he’s there.
All sorts of things can block my relationship with God and keep me from bringing my messy life to him. At times, I may keep God at arm’s length simply because I don’t want him to see the ugly or broken parts of my soul. Or I may shut him out because I’ve suffered something awful, preventable or not, that makes me doubt the reality of his goodness.
But even when I don’t find it easy to talk with God, I often find it easy to talk with one of his saints, whose deeds and words invariably steer my heart gently back to him. By the example of their trust in God, the saints strengthen my ability to open up to him in trust