EVENINGS OF REFLECTION
Ignatian Year Series
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n this Ignatian Year, many homilies across the world have highlighted different aspects of what made St. Ignatius of Loyola the memorable figure that has inspired so many. During the first two 2021 Evenings of Reflection, both speakers followed this theme. On Sept.16, Jesuit president Fr. John Brown, S.J., led the first reflection of the year. Brown retold the Bible story of Jonah and the whale in a novel and eye-opening manner. By comparing Jonah to St. Ignatius of Loyola and even tying in the late Fr. Raymond Fitzgerald, S.J., ’76, whose death occurred five years ago on Sept. 17, 2016, Brown had the whole Chapel of the North American Martyrs enthralled and engaged. “The life of Jonah does not map onto the life of St. Ignatius,” Fr. Brown said. “But understanding the story of Jonah will help you better understand the story of St. Ignatius and even better understand your place in the world.” Brown reiterated that God always wants to “turn over” our world because, like the Assyrians in the tale, we do not know our “rights from our lefts.” “The spiritual good that can come out of the inspiration from Raymond Fitzgerald, St. Ignatius, and even the story of Jonah,” Fr. Brown said, “is that we allow God to flip our world upside-down.
On Tuesday, Dec. 7, the eve of Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Jesuit’s chaplain Fr. Kevin Dyer, S.J., led a reflection in which he painted St. Ignatius as a therapist of the soul. “The Jesuit order has a lot of sayings,” Dyer said. “We have men for others, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, cura personalis, and the like, but the one that we do not hear often enough is the one that was most on his lips: vince te ipsum, which means ‘conquer yourself.’” Dyer said that St. Ignatius, through his Spiritual Exercises, left a way for us to act as a therapist for our own souls. Dyer continued to explain in his expertly crafted oration that, while St. Ignatius left plenty of lessons and instructions, ultimately our fate is up to God. “We must do many things,” Dyer said. “But, at the end of the day, the thing we rely upon most is grace. We are not in control of it. We must sit back and wait for the Lord.” Dyer and Brown intertwined many stories and lessons from their own lives and the life of St. Ignatius, but both recapitulated the theme of letting go for God. At the conclusions of both reflections, attendees were treated to receptions in the newly renovated cafeteria. Scan the QR code to access the Ignatian Year Series Evenings of Reflection homilies.
JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL | NEW ORLEANS |
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