Whether as individuals or communities we are invited to collaborate with God in our everyday lives. This issue of The Way explores the dynamics of that collaboration through labour undertaken, not for reward, but out of love. While motivations from outside can sustain us, only those from within can us give us a lasting sense of accomplishment. Many who have devoted their lives to quiet labours of love have gone unnoticed. However the role they have played in the fulfilment of God’s will has often been decisive. While the articles in this issue touch upon varied spheres of human life, they coincide in affirming that love is reward enough.
Thomas M. Kelly, ‘A Spirituality of Encounter: St Ignatius Pope Francis and Lessons from the School of the Poor’, 9–21
Thomas Kelly identifies the leitmotif of St Ignatius’ understanding of poverty as an encounter with the poor, a desire to experience actual poverty and a spiritual dependence upon God. He argues that Pope Francis extends the harmonics by emphasizing that the poor are collaborators in the project of evangelization because they teach us something about God.
Paul Dominic, ‘God’s Tricksters: Lessons from Esther for Religious Life’, 23–36
The Book of Esther recounts a story from the Jewish diaspora in the Persian Court. Queen Esther and Mordecai resist idolatry and and their trickery reveals how human action is entwined with the hidden action of God. The narrative will help all those troubled by internal conflicts and religious politics.
Ian Coleman, ‘Robert Southwell: The Lyrics of the Jesuit Baroque’, 37–50
In his continuing reflection on the ‘Jesuit Baroque’, Ian Coleman turns to the poetry and mission of Robert Southwell. In the work Mary Magdalen’s Funeral Tears he discerns a new style that opened a door to contemporary European art but was animated by Southwell’s zeal to labour in the dangerous mission back home in England.
Eric Clayton, ‘A Prayer of Lamentation: The History and Uncertain Future of the Jesuits in Tomsk, Russia’, 51–63
The Jesuit School in Tomsk was the only Roman Catholic secondary school in Russia, founded after Jesuits returned there in 1992 after an absence of 200 years. Eric A. Clayton traces the history of the Jesuit mission and the labour of Jesuits who worked there today in a spiritual landscape marred by decades of dehumanisation.
Brett McLaughlin, ‘Authentic Selfhood from Silence: Francis de Sales’s Dextrous Invitation into Contemplation’, 65–75
The writings of St Francis de Sales orientate the reader in the direction of contemplative silence. It is there where authentic selfhood is formed in the presence of God. It bears fruit in the numerous acts of devout love with which his writings are permeated.
Mukti Clarence, ‘The Spiritual Exercises and Psychological Capital’, 77–87
‘Psychological capital’ is a term used to describe the positive sum total of what someone is. Mukti Clarence explains how hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism offer a thematic paradigm for the developing awareness of oneself as an active agent of God.
Iain Radvan, ‘Laudato si’ and the Spiritual Exercises Revisited’, 89–96
The dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises is a powerful tool to bring about ecological conversion. Iain Radvan recounts how he immersed the participants in nature at the International Ignatian Ecospiritual Conference in 2022. The method brought about a change of heart and a passionate determination to work for the care of God’s creation.
Gerry O’Neill, ‘Synodality at Work’, 97–104
As the desire for a more synodal church begins to deepen, Gerry O’Neil draws parallels with the secular terms ‘collaboration’ or ‘synergy’. He presents a straightforward framework to help workplaces and communities develop a more synodal approach and invites us to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit rather than getting stuck.
James Hanvey, ‘Ignatius of Loyola: Theology as a Way of Living’, 105–114
St Ignatius gives us an everyday theology of lived experience that comes to shape the course of our whole lives. Although expressed in a sparse language, it enables us to appropriate a theology of our own experience rooted in the radical freedom to labour for Christ.
Luis Orlando Pérez, ‘Bulletin: Bishop Orlando Alvarez’, 115–116
The Mexican human rights activist and theologian Luis Orlando Pérez SJ gives a clear account of false imprisonment of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez. He reminds us that the Church in Latin America is still on the side of the poor.