The Art of Spiritual Direction


Book Description

This is a concrete, practical book about spiritual accompaniment. While there may be no shortage of books on this matter, most of these books remain somewhat abstract in the way they highlight the beauty of this ministry and point out its pitfalls. This book instead resembles a toolbox with a user’s manual. In six chapters, the author presents the following tools: ‘there is no rush’, ‘listening by following’, ‘searching for the soul’, ‘going deeper’, ‘evaluating’, and ‘accompanying towards spiritual maturity’. By means of examples and case studies, he demonstrates how these tools may be used to good effect. Two introductory chapters discuss the choice for a practice-oriented book and the core values of an Ignatian approach to spiritual accompaniment. A final chapter specifically focuses on vocational discernment. New spiritual directors can learn from this book the tricks of the trade and experienced directors can be encouraged to reflect upon their own practice. Although it is written from a Roman Catholic, Jesuit background, this book may be used in a wider variety of Christian contexts.







The Ignatian Tradition


Book Description

The Ignatian tradition sprang up in the sixteenth century, the fruit of graces bestowed on a Basque nobleman, Ignatius of Loyola. Guided by a passion to find God in all things, Ignatius and his first companions founded the Society of Jesus and inspired many other religious orders and lay movements. Their influence spread across the globe even as they embraced various aspects of the cultures, languages, and institutions they encountered. This introduction is a mere sampling of the men and women influenced by Ignatius 'draws on the stories and writings of nineteen exemplary individuals as well as the corporate voice of the Jesuit order. Here we meet missionaries, scholars, artists, advocates, and martyrs. Contemplatives in action, they follow Christ by serving others. They embody the freedom born of a passionate knowledge of God's unending, unconditional love; precisely in this, they show us how to live well today. Eileen Burke-Sullivan, PhD, is a theologian, spiritual director, liturgist, and musician. She currently teaches at Creighton University where she also directs the Master of Arts in Ministry program. A well-known lecturer, she has served as a lay ecclesial minister in both parish and diocesan settings, and as a national and international leader in the Ignatian-inspired Christian Life Community movement. Kevin F. Burke, SJ, is a theologian, poet, and younger brother of Dr. Burke-Sullivan. He currently serves as the acting president and academic dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. He recently edited Pedro Arrupe: Essential Writings and coedited (with Robert Lassalle-Klein) Love that Produces Hope, a collection of essays on the thought of the Jesuit theologian and martyr, Ignacio Ellacura­a.




The Reform of Christian Doctrine in the Catechisms of Peter Canisius


Book Description

The catechisms of Peter Canisius highlight the struggle within the Catholic Church to reframe Christian identity after the Protestant Reformation. In contrast to the defensive catechesis of Rome, Canisius's catechisms proposed to achieve orthodoxy by encouraging Christian piety.




Forbidden


Book Description

Moral theologians, defense analysts, conflict scholars, and nuclear experts imagine a world free from nuclear weapons At a 2017 Vatican conference, Pope Francis condemned nuclear weapons. This volume, issued after the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, presents essays from moral theologians, defense analysts, conflict transformation scholars, and nuclear arms control experts, with testimonies from witnesses. It is a companion volume to A World Free from Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament (Georgetown University Press, 2020). Chapters from the perspectives of missile personnel and the military chain of command, industrialists and legislators, and citizen activists show how we might achieve a nuclear-free world. Key to this transition is the important role of public education and the mobilization of lay movements to raise awareness and effect change. This essential collection prepares military professionals, policymakers, everyday citizens, and the pastoral workers who guide them, to make decisions that will lead us to disarmament.




Saint Ignatius Loyola—The Spiritual Writings


Book Description

This sixteenth-century mystic, whose mission was to ignite a love of Jesus in the hearts of all, can be a companion for your own spiritual journey. Ignatius of Loyola, sixteenth-century mystic, spiritual director, and founder of the Society of Jesus, is considered to be among the greatest educators in the history of western civilization. While the Jesuits went on to establish one of the largest educational networks in the world, Ignatius's initial vision was simply "the help of souls." Even today, his writings continue to inspire Christians in their quest for a meaningful holy life. The Spiritual Exercises alone—Ignatius’s most well-known work—has guided the retreat experience of over a million Christians over nearly five centuries. This fascinating introduction to Ignatian spirituality draws from contemporary translations of original texts focusing on the practical mysticism of Ignatius of Loyola. Excerpts from The Spiritual Exercises, his autobiography, and his collected letters and instructions provide direct insights from Ignatius about the role of humility, obedience, discernment, sin and selfawareness in spiritual life. Substantive facing-page commentary illuminates Ignatius’s perspectives on many key aspects of Christian spirituality, including trusting in God, imitating Jesus and the saints, love and the common good, and much more.







A Church of Passion and Hope


Book Description

Jesuits have contributed to the life and theological development of the Church for many generations - culminating in Pope Francis, the first Jesuit Pope. Ignatius Loyola called his men and all those inspired by the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to a certain ecclesial disposition a way of thinking, judging and feeling with the Church. Gill Goulding discusses the key texts from St Ignatius' life and work to identify the Ignatian ecclesial disposition that is centered on Christ. It is fuelled by a Trinitarian horizon, and with a clear emphasis on the dignity of every human person. Golding introduces and examines key historical figures such as St Pierre Favre and Mary Ward; as well as two of the major 20th century theologians - Henri de Lubac and Avery Dulles. Finally, Goulding highlights the Ignatian ecclesial disposition in the highest authority of the contemporary Roman Catholic Church, in the background to the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, focusing on the centrality of Christ and the work of the New Evangelization. This book raises the key questions of the relationship between Christ and the Church as the body of Christ. It indicates the importance of maintaining a Trinitarian horizon in theological vision and raises the pertinent if difficult question of the meaning of Christian obedience. Goulding also underlines the importance of the integration of spirituality and theology which has ramifications for all Christian denominations and possibilities for ongoing inter-faith dialogue.