Superior General of the Society of Jesus Fr Arturo Sosa SJ has officially announced the celebration of the Ignatian year to commemorate 500 years since the conversion of St Ignatius in 2021 and 400 years since the canonisation of St Ignatius and St Francis Xavier in 2022.
The Ignatian year will open on May 20, 2021, the anniversary of Ignatius’ injury at Pamplona and conclude on July 31, 2022, the feast of St Ignatius. The peak of the celebration will fall on March 12, 2022, the fourth centenary of the canonisation of St Ignatius with St Francis Xavier, St Teresa of Jesus, St Isidore Labrador and St Philip Neri.
“It is my desire that at the heart of this Ignatian year we would hear the Lord calling us, and we would allow him to work our conversion inspired by the personal experience of Ignatius,” wrote Fr General Sosa in his letter to the whole Society on September 27.
“The Universal Apostolic Preferences (2019-2029) have confirmed the call to our personal, community, and institutional conversion, which is necessary for our greater spiritual and apostolic freedom and adaptability. Let us take this opportunity to let God transform our life-mission, according to his will.”
The celebration is themed, “To see all things new in Christ” and is an invitation to the whole Society to “‘be renewed’ by the Lord himself” and “an opportunity to know, to love and to follow the Lord of all things,” wrote Fr Sosa.
Click here to read Fr General Arturo Sosa’s full letter.