Patronage, Politics, and Devotion: The Habsburgs of Central Europe and Jesuit Saints

The main components of the Habsburgs’ dynastical piety—worship of the Crucified, of the Eucharist, of the Blessed Mary and her spouse St. Joseph—are already well-known. They were common to both branches of the House of Austria, the Spanish as well as the Austrian one. However, they are far from exhausting the variety of manifestations with which they fostered the cult of the saints. More than other sovereigns, Austrian Habsburgs intervened on behalf of patron saints with the popes and the Roman Congregation of Sacred Rites. During the seventeenth century and still in the eighteenth century, they promulgated public feasts in the Austrian hereditary lands as well as in the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia. This paper focuses mainly on the veneration they addressed to the Jesuit saints: Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Luigi Gonzaga, Stanisław Kostka, and Peter Canisius using archive and printed materials from Rome, Vienna, Prague, and Budapest.

Editorial: Current Challenges of Ignatian Pedagogy

The Jubilee Ignatian Year began on 20 May 2021 and it will last until 31 July 2022. In the jubilee year of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) celebrates the 500th anniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius Loyola and the 400th anniversary of his canonization. The starting date of the jubilee is related to the anniversary of the event that took place in Pamplona on 20 May 1521, when a cannonball injured Ignatius during a battle. It altered the course of his life, marking the beginning of his conversion, and leading to the founding of the Society of Jesus. The date of the end of the jubilee coincides with the liturgical commemoration of St. Ignatius of Loyola, that commemorates the day of his death. The conversion of Ignatius was associated primarily with a change in his lifestyle. Once a vain nobleman focused on world success, he has turned into an ascetic and inner-motivated man. Under the influence of these experiences, Ignatius and his Companions founded an order and initiated the creation of a “new” spirituality.

EMBRACING THE SPIRIT: THE IGNATIAN PNEUMATOLOGY OF LOUIS LALLEMANT

The Pneumatology of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola is famously discreet. However, other Ignatian authors give the Holy Spirit a central place in their spirituality. This article analyzes the Pneumatological contribution of Louis Lallemant’s Spiritual Doctrine to Ignatian spirituality, in dialogue with the Spiritual Exercises. Anchored in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this spiritual teaching advocates a docility to the Spirit nurtured by the “guard over the heart” and an on-going responsiveness to the Spirit’s promptings. The “second conversion” promoted by Lallemant to his hearers is revealed as a Pneumatological event. It nonetheless conforms the believer to Christ, acknowledging the Christological focus of Ignatian Spirituality, while expanding its Pneumatological dimension. KEYWORDS: Spiritual Exercises. Pneumatological. Louis Lallemant. Spiritual Doctrine.

The Bhagavad Gita and the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

The Bhagavad Gita like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola leading to spiritual enrichment points out of a meeting of heart and mind between two texts. The essence of the spirituality of the Bhagavad Gita, like the spirituality of Ignatius is the vision of God. Its spirituality is oriented towards God above the world as well as within it. Both texts offer a parallel insight for deep and authentic happiness building up a life towards God and in God. Even though the Bhagavad Gita and the Spiritual Exercises play different qualitative rolls in its own traditions, both agree that only those who have God above the visible world are able to experience God vice-versa. The quest to have God experience is an exercise involving conscious effort and constant attentiveness.

From the IJssel Valley to Paris and Rome via Montserrat

This essay aims to analyze the hitherto neglected (or deliberately avoided?) link between De spiritualibus ascentionibus (On spiritual ascents) by Zerbolt of Zutphen (1367–1398) and the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491–1556). Indeed, there is a more direct relationship between these two texts than between Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises and the Exercitatorio spiritual by Abbot García Jiménez de Cisneros (1455–1510) and the Imitatio Christi (Imitation of Christ) by Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1441), which has received much more attention in the existing literature. A careful synoptic reading of these works reveals not only an intriguing congruence between Zerbolt and Loyola in terms of the scope and definition of their works; the general structure and vocabulary; humanistic soteriology and optimistic anthropology of human will; the role of introspection in reforming inordinate affections and affective devotion; the role of examen of conscience (both daily and general); frequent sacramental confession and Communion; the role of spiritual guide; the use of the five senses and composition of place as meditative techniques and importance of methodical mental prayer; and the centrality of imitation of Christ’s humanity, but also direct textual reciprocity. Zerbolt’s Spiritual Ascents appears to be a blueprint for Loyola’s Exercises.

Innovating Vocational Resilience: Getting a Second Start at Work through the Ignatian Examen

The Ignatian Examen is a tool that can build vocational resilience for social workers. It has five components: 1) praying for light or becoming aware of the presence of God, 2) gratefully reviewing the events of the day, 3) reviewing the feelings and emotions that surface when events are brought to mind, 4) choosing one of those feelings, either positive or negative, and praying from it, and 5) looking toward the future. Although it is often used as a bedtime prayer, St. Ignatius of Loyola designed the Examen to occur twice, at noon and after supper, with an additional remembrance of the evening Examen upon rising. The noon Examen may actually be the most important practice to build vocational resilience for social workers because the noon Examen allows for calming the workday and for making course corrections and attitude adjustments as needed.