The Ignatian Spirituality Workshop in September was an affirming, consoling, and enriching experience that connected me to my core being. It gave me peace yet animated and challenged me by the richness of the experience of interacting with participants coming from diverse cultures embracing one Ignatian Spirituality. I felt a strong sense of belonging, to be called and to celebrate it. It is an amazing gift. Despite our different backgrounds, we jelled and felt comfortable with one another, and we were blessed with an eagerness to listen to and learn from one another. It has been a very fruitful experience for me.
In relishing the experience of the workshop, I realised that the spiritual conversations we had, within or outside the formal sessions, affirmed the importance of the work we do in promoting Ignatian Spirituality among the members of our community in Ateneo de Naga University through retreats, workshops, conversations, seminars, and many other forms of spiritual support and accompaniment.
As a community, we are deeply blessed to be able to experience the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. That we can take part in this great mission as lay partners of the Jesuits is very humbling yet also very inspiring and moving. I love the mission entrusted to me. It has allowed me to stay close to the Lord and respond to His invitations generously, and I am truly grateful.
This kind of gathering should be sustained and shared with the rest of our Jesuit partners in the local community as well as across the globe. My experience of personally encountering fellow workers in Jesuit ministries, and listening to one another’s stories of gains and losses, challenges and achievements, consolations and desolations in the work we do deepened my sense of mission and my desire to serve the Lord even more.
Janet B Badong-Badilla is the Executive Director of the Office of Mission and Identity, Ignatian Formation Center at the Ateneo de Naga University in the Philippines.