‘A volunteer is worth ten pressed men’, the proverb tells us. What volunteers may lack in experience or length of service, they can more than make up for in enthusiasm and a fresh outlook. Twenty-one years ago the Jesuits in Britain decided to sponsor what we would now call a form of gap-year programme. It was adapted from one that had already been offered in the United States for some years. Young adults putting themselves forward to spend a year as members of the Jesuit Volunteer Community would commit themselves to live by four values: Ignatian spirituality, a simple lifestyle, life in community, and a commitment to social justice. The whole idea of volunteering is one that is currently topical. It is now frequently seen by governments as a means of promoting social cohesion, and regarded as an important element of any adequate CV. Recent events have shown that a blind belief in market forces having the solution to whatever ails us is, at best, naive and unjustified. Volunteering can demonstrate the efficacy of a life rooted in different values. The four key values that the lives and work of Jesuit Volunteers bear witness to, spirituality, simplicity, community and justice, must find some echo in the experience of anyone seeking to live with integrity today.
Frank Turner, ‘Volunteering in an Ignatian Spirit: The Jesuit Volunteer Community’, 9–23
There are many volunteer programmes doing valuable work all over the world, but what makes JVC Britain distinctive is its central values, and in particular its spirit of gratuity—a free response to the grace of God.
Michael Kirwan, ‘Awakening Dangerous Memories’, 24–36
In the modern world people feel increasingly disempowered and their sense of identity is increasingly fragile. Volunteering is a way of fighting this disempowerment, for ourselves and for others, and of opening ourselves up to God.
Sarah Willis, ‘Spirituality and Living: Learning How to Love’, 37–40
The challenges and rewards of living in community are great. For JVC volunteers it is a source sometimes of stress and conflict, but also of growth, love, and becoming more fully alive.
Philip Harrison, ‘The Dignity to Which they Were so Gently Called: Towards a Spirituality of the Jesuit Volunteer Community in Britain’, 41–53
The spirituality of Jesuit volunteering is rooted in the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises, and it opens up the possibility of a crucial discernment that leads to human reorientation towards God and an affirmation of God's call to action.
Joanna Lewis, ‘Circles of Thought’, 55–57
The pastoral cycle can provide a useful model for thinking about social justice in the context of volunteering—what does the faith of volunteers have to say about their experiences, and how can they act on their thinking for a more just world?
Sarah Broscombe, ‘Volunteering: Where Mission and Development Meet’, 59–76
Volunteering can be of immense value both to recipients and to volunteers themselves. But it is important that volunteer programmes build solidarity rather than underlining differences. Christian volunteering has a vital part to play in seeing that volunteering is respectful and not divisive.
Paul Nicholson, ‘Exercises, Experiments and Experiences: Tools for Ignatian Formation’, 77–92
In Jesuit formation, the Spiritual Exercises are accompanied by five other experiences, known as 'experiments', including working in a hospital, teaching, making a pilgrimage on foot and doing menial household tasks. Placing the Spiritual Exercises in this context is valuable, not only for Jesuit novices, but for anyone undergoing a process of Ignatian formation.
, ‘On How to Help Students in Spiritual Matters’, 93–98
The Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary was set up for the spiritual benefit of the students of the Jesuit Roman College. Its rules set out a structure for the spiritual life and practices of the students, and also makes provision for them to do charitable work in hospitals and education.
Lillian Craig Harris, ‘Looking on Suffering and Seeing God: Reflections on Charity Work and Suffering’, 99–114
Suffering may often seem inexplicable, and Christians can value it both too little and too much. But living through suffering, and working to alleviate the suffering of others, remains a means of spiritual growth and of coming closer to God.
Michael Dallaire, ‘Education for Engaged Contemplation: The Ignatian Contribution’, 115–127
Engaged contemplation seeks to bring the social and the political into the contemplative journey. It can enrich secular education with a spiritual questioning, whether from within the Ignatian spiritual tradition or other spiritual traditions.