Jesuit Spirituality

OLH Parish is a Jesuit Ministry. As such our life and work is inspired by what we often call the “Jesuit (or Ignatian) Vision”. This vision is the fruit of St. Ignatius of Loyola’s reflection on his own experience of being called to a deeper experience of God and a companionship with Christ in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation. That experience, and the next 500 years, have brought us to today’s expression of that Vision.  We hope you find what’s written below to be food for thought and prayer.

Six Characteristics of Jesuit/Ignatian Spirituality:
It sees life and the whole universe as a gift calling forth wonder and gratefulness.
It gives ample scope to imagination and emotion as well as intellect.
It seeks to find the divine in all things – in all peoples and cultures, in all areas of study and learning, in every human experience, and (for the Christian) especially in the person of Jesus.
It cultivates critical awareness of personal and social evil, but points to God’s love as more powerful than any evil.
It stresses freedom, need for discernment, and responsible actions.
It empowers people to become leaders in service, men and women for others, whole persons of solidarity, building a more just, humane world.
from Ignatian Spirituality Reader

Our Way of Proceeding
“Lord, meditating on “our way of proceeding,” I have discovered that the ideal of our way of acting is your way of acting.
Give me that sensus Christi that I may feel with your feeling, with the sentiments of your heart, which basically are love for your Father and love for all men and women.
Teach me how to be compassionate to the suffering, to the poor, the blind, the lame, and the lepers.
Teach us your way so that it becomes our way today, so that we may come closer to the great idea of St. Ignatius: to be companions of Jesus, collaborators in the work of redemption.”

Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Servant of God