The first of the new Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAP) of the Society of Jesus is “to show the way to God through the Spiritual Exercises and discernment.” Naturally, that encourages the 12 members of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) Ignatian Spirituality Network (ISN) who met in May in Changhua, Taiwan. The Manresa Center of Spirituality, a work of the Chinese Province, provided a prayerful setting for the young network’s third annual meeting. Even with a few new faces in the group, Fr Chris Gleeson SJ from Australia noted that the level of “trust, connection and companionship” around the table was heartening.
Over the previous year, the JCAP major superiors had already identified two programmes for the ISN to pursue: one for the “training of trainers for discernment in common and apostolic planning” and another for the “training of spiritual directors and supervisors”.
Under the guidance of Fr Elton Fernandes SJ of the Chinese Province, the group spent an afternoon doing its own exercise in “discernment in common” on how to follow the spirit of the first UAP in the mission given them. As Fr General Arturo Sosa has emphasised, it is not about the Exercises as an end in themselves. Rather, they are a privileged instrument to help us “show the way to God”.
Sally Law from Hong Kong shared that their prayer and spiritual conversation yielded a “growing clarity” and enthusiasm, as the group moved from accepting the mission to identifying concrete steps forward.
First, ISN will host a training programme for “discernment in common” next year. Each provincial or regional superior is asked to appoint two to four representatives (Jesuits and colleagues) to gather in Changhua in late April to early May 2020. Then those who have been trained will be available to facilitate discernment in the Jesuit communities and apostolates of their home provinces and regions. The vision is to make such discernment integral to the Jesuit and Ignatian way of proceeding as broadly as possible. One key resource will be a comprehensive new website launched recently by the Jesuit Curia: www.ignatianresources.org.
Second, in 2021 ISN hopes to launch a two- to three-year training programme for spiritual directors, particularly to benefit the smaller units of JCAP. Fr Xave Olin SJ of the Philippine Province captured a key sentiment that will guide the committee designing this programme. “Training is a prayerful experience,” he said, and requires time to “learn through experience, not just input.”
The group also discussed the ISN Spiritual Profile of Jesuit Ministries (2018), the JCAP spirituality webpage and ways to improve their own functioning as a network. Finally, since one of ISN’s goals is to encourage reflection on Ignatian spirituality in the Asian context, the group was happy to receive a brand new anthology edited by Fr Ari C Dy SJ called “The Pilgrim and the Sage: Ignatian Spirituality and Buddhism in Dialogue” (Anvil Publishing 2019).
The network hopes that their reflections will ultimately contribute to the living out of all four preferences, as Jesuits and Ignatian collaborators pursue a deeper spiritual grounding to all their ministries.
“We are seeking ways in which the Exercises can engage both the rich spiritual traditions of Asia Pacific and the hopes of our contemporaries”, said ISN Coordinator Fr Tom Benz SJ. “The first ‘call to conversion’ in light of the first UAP, then, is to learn and practise our own Ignatian tradition more deeply and more broadly, so that we may become more faithful, discerning witnesses to the Gospel in the world.”