Magis Action Day (MAD) is an annual formation activity of the Indonesian Magis community. It serves as an avenue where Magis participants can apply the principles of Ignatian spirituality learned in their Magis formation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, MAD was carried out by visiting and serving in orphanages, hospitals, social villages, or other marginalised communities. Since we could no longer do those, we decided to look for MAD activities that require only minimum direct contact, can be done anywhere, and with an impact on people and the environment. After discussion, we agreed to focus on ecological actions.
We kicked off MAD 2021 on 23 May with a webinar on “Why is Ecological Action Needed?” It served as an introduction for the participants before they decided on their four-months’ personal commitment and actions. Seeing that ecology is a global issue, we made the webinar open not just to Magis youth but to all young Catholics throughout Indonesia. True enough, more than 50 young people from various regions in the country joined the event, besides the 10 participants from the 2021 Magis formation programme and 15 Magis Yogyakarta members.
Before proceeding with the topic, Fr Alexander Koko Siswijayanto SJ gave a brief introduction of Magis, the spirit and objectives of MAD, and how this year’s focus on ecological issues is in line with the Jesuits’ Universal Apostolic Preference on Caring for Our Common Home. As well, with the opening of the Ignatian Year to commemorate 500 years of the conversion of St Ignatius Loyola, Fr Koko invited us to reflect on Ignatius’ experience and ask ourselves: “What can we do to transform our lives for the better?”
We invited Fr Petrus Sunu Hardiyanta SJ as resource person. Fr Sunu is active in the ecological movement, particularly in organic farming. He has both master’s and doctoral degrees in ecological studies from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In the last eight months, Fr Sunu has been directly involved in KPTT Agricultural Training Center run by the Indonesian Jesuits.
Fr Sunu opened his presentation with the words, “Embracing the Earth, the presence of God”. He said that we are an extension of God’s hand, and each of us is called to take care of the Earth. He made the participants understand the need for ecological action. He said that caring for the environment should stem from one’s interest or passion. He described it as a spiritual practice and related it to St Ignatius’ mystical experience in La Storta, where he saw a vision of God the Father “placing him [Ignatius] with the Son”.
Everyone expressed concern for the ongoing degradation of the environment. Fr Sunu highlighted the importance of exploring and addressing the root cause of the problem by raising awareness and doing concrete actions as individuals.
“The discussion was very interesting,” shared Magis participant Rooswita Ayu. “It strengthened me even more to care and start doing ecological actions even with simple things, such as processing organic wastes at home into eco-enzymes and compost. I feel more motivated to take care of our plants at home, both fruit and vegetable plants.”
Kristia, a Catholic youth, said she was inspired by the webinar to make more mindful choices given society’s consumerism and throw-away culture. “Those of us who have the habit of using plastic because we find it practical and more hygienic are invited to be more environment-friendly by minimizing our use of single-use plastic. We do not realise that our excessive consumption activities have a lot of impact on the accumulation of wastes that cannot be processed, which eventually end up in the ocean. I think changing one’s behaviour to be more ecological, to be a simple person is the biggest challenge right now,” she said.
After the webinar, Magis participants continued the sharing session in small groups called Magis Circles. We also discussed the ecological practices we decided to do for the next four months as part of our Magis formation. During these months, we will be writing down our reflections in our journals, and sharing routinely in our Magic Circles.
At the end of the activity, Fr Sunu encouraged us by saying that we can test our decision from the feelings that arise within us. It will not always be fun, he cautioned. At times it can be heavy too, but the important thing is to keep going.
“I’m very determined to do ecological actions,” said Fransisca Kiki. “Sometimes we think that only big ecological actions matter, and many times the actions end in our thoughts and discourse. After attending this webinar, I got a new perspective that ecological action can be carried out in simple ways based on our passions. There is no need to be grandiose. We can contribute to the environment and move people around us, but we must start with ourselves. A simple action can become a habit. Other people will begin to see what we are doing and they can be inspired to follow what we do.”
by Brigitta Aisin, Fransisca Kiki, and Geny Pramana of Magis Yogyakarta. Magis is a Jesuit-organised international meeting of young people to accompany them in the way of St Ignatius Loyola, which is marked by cura personalis (personal care), discernment, and magis (more).