I G N AT I A N Y E A R
Paris & Jerusalem: The Ratio Studiorum in the Ignatian Year
better use or towards a higher purpose. To use a modern phrase, conversion “upcycles” your gifts. It adds meaning and value. As it was with Saints I have put the best argument for my Paul and Augustine and many others, understanding into a book that came so it was with Saint out in 2019, In the School of Ignatius: Ignatius. In terms Studious Zeal and Devoted Learning. of his relationship to the Ratio studiorum, My focus is not merely on history I would like to or theory but on those things highlight that even most needed in this revolutionary, before his conversion contentious, and confused he knew the power moment in world history. and importance of Letters. Here I am using the word “Letters” CLAUDE PAVUR, S.J. ’70 Institute for Advanced to mean not epistolary literature Jesuit Studies but rather all kinds of significant Boston College written communication; it might be academic or poetic or historical or Pavur is a graduate of the Class of oratorical or spiritual or philosophical 1970. He serves on the staff of the or theological writing. Sometimes Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at “Letters” is used in the broadest way Boston College, and he specializes in the to mean education itself: if you are a translation of Latin documents relating “person of letters,” you have gotten to the Society of Jesus. an education. As a courtier, a man of the royal court, Ignatius knew the hat does the pilgrim importance of documents of many Ignatius, his mind set on types: deeds, charters, wills, official Jerusalem, have to do with royal decrees, official petitions, the Society’s official plan records of all kinds. He himself had of studies, the Ratio studiorum? That learned to read and write, and he document appeared in 1599—over 40 developed a special interest in the years after Ignatius’s death (1556), so creative literature connected with most people tend not to make much of his late medieval world of castles and a connection between it and Ignatius, knights. He would have also known nor between it and the original idea of the importance of Scripture and of the Society. In reality, the Ratio the patrimony of ancient texts and the studiorum is deeply connected to Church’s traditions. the stream of Ignatian and Jesuit It is precisely because Letters were spirituality, and to miss this point is to so real and so important to Ignatius miss something absolutely essential. that the books he was given during his This year we are recalling recovery from the battle at Pamplona Ignatius’s great conversion moment had such an impact and made such a 500 years ago, in 1521. Conversion difference. Ignatius’s convalescence often comes about through crisis, reading triggered his imagination, such as Ignatius’s injury, but it usually which engaged his affects and his deep builds on what is already there. It longings, and these put him in touch turns previously developed gifts to with the spiritual movements that
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were leading him to God. This moment in Ignatius’s life helps me to make a very important point for Jesuit education today: content matters. Elsewhere I say that the curriculum carries the mission. Where you turn your attention, what you study, when, and how, with what focus, with what inner uptake, response, reflection, whose voice you are listening carefully to—all of that is crucially significant. It is not enough to become a technical expert in something; the kind of learning that really matters is a living, inspiring flame that involves your heart and soul. In the conversation about curriculum there must be the right matter, delivery, and reception, operating within a well-fashioned plan under competent direction. Ignatius’s interest in Letters was already there at the start. It shaped his journey, and his journey shaped the Society of Jesus, which from the beginning conscientiously kept records, letters, assessments, catalogs, accounts, and histories concerning the compañía. In fact, the Society’s membership went on to produce “Letters” that distinguished its external profile in an astonishing number of publications. Even before he had gone to formal studies, Ignatius himself had respect for Letters and believed in their relevance for the spiritual life. His conversion was in 1521; by 1522, he was becoming an author. The Spiritual Exercises reveals how much Ignatius valued organization. It is a very structured work and Ignatius insisted on the order. Do not do second-week material in the first week. Things happen in sequence. There is a larger plan to follow. Accomplish each step as fully as possible on the way. Each meditation also follows a recurring structure. Already we see a sensibility that appears significantly in what will become the Ratio studiorum, a plan of studies that lays out a specific order and coverage, even if within that scheme much variety is possible.
