As part of the journey towards World Youth Day Seoul 2027, participants of the MAGIS formation programme in Malaysia gathered for their ninth session on 21 June. Continuing the path of prayer, discernment, service, and community, the session invited participants to go deeper into the spirituality of St Ignatius of Loyola and to reflect on how faith is lived not only within ourselves but also through our relationship with others.
Fr Paul Dass SJ facilitated a session titled “Helping Souls and the Promotion of Justice”. Participants were given pre-reading materials before the session, allowing them to prepare for a deeper and more meaningful discussion. Although the topic drew from rich Jesuit theology, Fr Paul presented it in a clear, engaging, and relatable way, helping participants connect the teachings of St Ignatius with their own daily lives.
The day began on a lively note with one of the MAGIS community’s signature icebreakers. This time, participants enjoyed a creative blend of charades and the classic broken telephone game. The room was quickly filled with laughter, helping everyone settle into the day’s programme and enter the session with a spirit of openness and community.
As the session unfolded, Fr Dass invited participants to reflect on the meaning of helping souls, not as something separate from social justice but as something deeply connected to it. In the Ignatian tradition, genuine spirituality does not remain only in personal prayer or private devotion. It leads a person outward, towards greater love, service, and concern for the dignity of others.
One of the key ideas shared during the session was the relationship between attraction and attachment. Fr Dass spoke about having hearts inflamed with love for God, where other things begin to find their proper place in comparison. This experience, known as spiritual consolation, can draw a person closer to God and should not be ignored. Participants were invited to reflect on moments when sorrow over sin, or contemplation of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice, may have moved them deeply.
Often, when such feelings arise, people may brush them aside or distract themselves from them. However, Fr Dass reminded participants that these moments may be God’s way of speaking. Instead of dismissing them, we are invited to remain with them prayerfully and discern what God may be revealing.
The session also explored the concerns of daily life and the need to approach them with balance. Drawing from the teachings of St Ignatius, Fr Dass explained that a person must learn to hold life’s concerns in proper perspective in order to grow in interior freedom. When God is placed first, everything else begins to find its proper place. This freedom allows a person to make wiser and more faith-filled choices.
For John Ryan Anak Jackie Gregory, the session became a personal invitation to look again at his own attachments. He reflected that the words “attraction” and “attachment” stayed with him deeply. In prayer, he felt invited by Jesus “to re-examen, re-direct and re-affirm” his attractions and attachments. He shared that when we place God first in our lives, we receive the freedom to be transformed.
Another important part of the session was the practice of spiritual conversation. Fr Dass reminded participants that discernment begins with being in touch with oneself, especially one’s inner movements, feelings, and dispositions. Through these movements, a person can better recognise where God may be leading. Helping souls, therefore, begins not only with looking outward at others, but also with examining one’s own heart.
This was closely connected to the Ignatian ideal of being “contemplatives in action”. For Mavist, this phrase was one of the ideas that stayed with her most. She shared that it reminded her that faith is not meant to remain only in prayer but should also be reflected in how we serve others and recognise God’s presence in daily life.
The session helped participants see social justice in a broader and more personal way. Social justice is not only about large public issues or formal acts of charity. It also begins in the simple ways we notice, listen, accompany, and care for the people around us. Mavist reflected that each person is like a puzzle piece, called to use his or her unique gifts to serve where possible. When these gifts come together in service, they form a fuller image of Christ in the world.
This understanding also reminded participants that charity is not limited to material help. Offering a listening ear, giving sincere advice, being present to someone who is struggling, or responding with patience and kindness can also become meaningful ways of serving others.
For Tabitha, the session brought a gentle but honest challenge. She shared that she sometimes feels so occupied with her own commitments that she becomes less intentional about making time for the underprivileged. During the MAGIS Circle, a friend reminded her that serving others does not always need to happen through big or formal initiatives. It can also be found in small acts of kindness and daily interactions with the people around us. This helped her feel lighter while also encouraging her to be more conscious about making time for others.
Fr Dass also stressed that if we cannot connect our faith to the suffering of others and the justice they deserve, then we are not fully living out our faith. In the Ignatian tradition, the promotion of justice is not an optional addition to spirituality. It flows from an authentic encounter with God. To draw closer to Christ is also to become more attentive to the lives, wounds, hopes, and struggles of others.
The day was made even more meaningful as participants celebrated the Holy Mass alongside four Jesuit priests: Fr Nalerin Erone SJ, Delegate of the Malaysia-Singapore (MAS) Jesuit Region Vocation Promotion and Youth; Fr Francis Lim SJ, MAS Regional Superior; Fr PV Joseph SJ, MAGIS Global Coordinator from the General Curia in Rome; and Fr Jinhyuk Park SJ, a Korean Jesuit serving in the Cambodia Mission who was visiting Kuala Lumpur. Their presence was a beautiful reminder that the MAGIS journey is part of a much larger global Jesuit family.
The session was also held on the Feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga, the Patron Saint of Youth. Celebrating this feast while journeying together as young Catholics preparing for World Youth Day made the occasion especially meaningful and inspiring.
The fellowship continued with a monthly birthday celebration for participants born in June. In anticipation of the upcoming JAYA Gathering on 18 July, the July celebrants were also invited to join the cake-cutting celebration. It was a joyful moment of community, reminding participants that MAGIS is not only a formation programme but also a journey of friendship, shared faith, and mutual support.
As the MAGIS journey continues towards World Youth Day Seoul 2027, this ninth session reminded participants that spiritual growth is never meant for oneself alone. To know God more deeply is also to become more attentive to His presence in the people around us, especially those who are wounded, forgotten, or in need of accompaniment.
As St Ignatius reminds us, “Love ought to be put more in deeds than in words.” And in doing so, we slowly learn to become contemplatives in action, finding God not only in prayer but also in the real lives and struggles of the people we are called to love.
