On March 13, 2021, The Beijing Center held an online webinar discussing a prevalent global issue at the moment – mental health. Continue reading “Ancient Practices to Improve Mental Wellness: Insights from Daoism, Spiritual Discernment, & Taichi”
Ancient Practices to Improve Mental Wellness: Insights from Daoism, Spiritual Discernment, & Taichi
Traveling the long road to peace and reconciliation
“The past,” Faulkner warned “is never dead”, nor is it really past. Until we break down the barrier of division and fear that goes back many generations, no new bridges of hope can be built. Ever since General Congregations 35 and 36, the Society of Jesus has made reconciliation a key message. It is the theme that brought Fr General Arturo Sosa to Asia in the summer of 2019.
Continue reading “Traveling the long road to peace and reconciliation”
Day retreats for young people in Hong Kong
All of a sudden, 2019 became a very difficult year for people in Hong Kong. Shocked by the unexpected political and social crisis, many were concerned for the welfare of young people. Xavier House Ignatian Spirituality Centre, a Jesuit retreat house located on the small island of Cheung Chau, reached out to the city and organised day retreats for young people. Continue reading “Day retreats for young people in Hong Kong”
Lent 2019: Praying with Jesuit Fr. Pedro Arrupe
“Grant me, O Lord, to see everything now with new eyes…”
So begins a personal prayer of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, who served as the Jesuit superior general from 1965 to 1983 and whose cause for sainthood was opened earlier this year.
It’s a perfect prayer for Lent, this time of spiritual renewal and preparation for Easter. How easy it is to forget that God is always with us, here and now, reaching out with love and inviting us to grow closer to him. How often we put our own selves at the center of the universe, failing to respond to or even notice the needs of the human family. How natural to get burnt-out, cynical or just plain tired.
We need a new way of seeing.
What if we could see other people, the planet and ourselves the way God does? How much more joy and peace would there be on earth?
Holy men and women like Pedro Arrupe are essential guides for us disciples, pointing the way to Jesus and encouraging us to come along. This Lenten season, as the Jesuit community continues to pray for the canonization of Pedro Arrupe, we invite you to spend some prayerful time with the words and prayers of this revered Servant of God.
Each Sunday of Lent, we will use a line or two from the day’s Scripture passages to uncover a theme, and then connect that theme to words of Arrupe’s. We’ll use videos, images and written reflections to enter into just a bit into his deep spiritual life. Because while you can learn plenty of facts about Pedro Arrupe by readings biographies or scholarly articles, you can learn something else entirely by praying with him.
Read more at http://jesuits.org/lent.
Chinese Jesuit Province launches prayer podcast
People praying in Chinese now have a new prayer resource with the launch of a daily prayer podcast by the Chinese Jesuit Province. The audio podcasts are based on Sacred Space, which was begun by the Irish Jesuits and is today the world’s leading interactive guided prayer site with the daily prayers available in more than 20 languages. The Chinese language version of Sacred Space has been available since 2014.
On May 2, the Chinese Jesuit Province launched the podcast service, which combines narration of the daily Sacred Space prayer in Mandarin with soothing music to draw the person into contemplative stillness. Each episode or prayer session has six stages and each stage is designed as a meditation on God’s presence in our lives. Since it was launched, the podcasts have been played more than 4,600 times.
“Although this kind of service is not a first in the Chinese area, it is a new attempt by the Society of Jesus,” said Zoe Hsieh, an editor in the communication office of the Chinese Province, which comprises China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Chinese Jesuit Province launches prayer podcast[/caption]
“People strain their eyes by staring at the computer or mobile phone too much. Our eyes tend to get hurt by the blue light of the screen,” Hsieh explained. It is also easy to get distracted while looking at our computer or mobile phone, she added. “We need to quiet down to fully immerse ourselves in the spiritual experience.”
An elderly follower of the Chinese Province Facebook page said that she likes the prayer podcasts because she can enjoy a quiet moment of contact with the Lord Jesus every day. In addition to the daily scripture and reflection, she also appreciates the professional narration, music and accompanying pictures.
Another user likes that she can make use of commuter time to pray and isolate the noisy environment by using her earphones. By just listening to the recording, she also gets a moment to rest her tired eyes. Even if she is busy in the office, she can still listen to the podcast and do other things with both hands.
Fr John Chih-cheng Jao SJ, Province Communication Office Director, described the venture into podcasting as “a new attempt for evangelical mission, as well as to respond to the needs of the readers”.
“The traditional way of evangelisation combined with new web technology is able to reach not only the young Internet generation, but also wider audiences around the world,” he said
Ignatius of Loyola
St. Ignatius came from a family of minor nobility in Spain’s northern Basque region. One thing to know about Ignatius is that he was far from saintly during much of his young adult life. He was vain, with dreams of personal honor and fame. He gambled and was not above sword fighting. As some have noted, he might have been the only saint with a notarized police record: for taking part in a nighttime brawl. Continue reading “Ignatius of Loyola”
Ignatian Spirituality
Finding God in All Things
Throughout much of the world, the Jesuits are best known for their colleges, universities, and high schools. But in a time when many are searching for greater meaning, another aspect of Jesuit life is attracting wide interest. And that is the unique spirituality introduced nearly 500 years ago by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.
Ignatius was a Spanish soldier and aristocrat who discerned his calling after suffering nearly fatal wounds on the battlefield. He established the Society of Jesus in 1540, instructing the early Jesuits — to go out and “find God in all things.” That is the signature spirituality of the Jesuits.
Ignatian spirituality is grounded in the conviction that God is active in our world. As the great Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote: “God is not remote from us. He is at the point of my pen, my pick, my paintbrush, my needle — and my heart and my thoughts.” The spiritual path laid out by Ignatius is a way of discerning God’s presence in our everyday lives. And doing something about it.
The Jesuits have a handbook for this search. It is The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, composed by the saint before he was even a priest. Often described as Ignatius’s greatest gift to the world, these exercises unfold a dynamic process of prayer, meditation, and self-awareness. The basic thrust is to make us more attentive to God’s activity in our world, more responsive to what God is calling us to do. Ignatian spiritual directors accompany or guide people through the exercises in retreat houses, parishes, and other settings.
One of the most popular Ignatian exercises is the Daily Examen. It’s a spiritual self-review that involves prayerfully recollecting moments during the day and reflecting on how God was present at those times, followed by a decision to act in some way. The Examen is concrete: It focuses your mind on segments of time (no more than a day, preferably), and the feelings that stirred within you, at those specific moments. Walk through the five steps of the Examen here.
There are a number of outstanding resources devoted to Ignatian spirituality. Sacred Space is a popular prayer site run by the Irish Jesuits, and Jesuitprayer.org was created by the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus to provide daily online prayers and facilitate prayer requests. In addition, The Jesuit Post, founded by a group of Jesuit scholastics (those in the process of religious formation), provides a contemporary look at Jesus, politics, and pop-culture in our secular age.
Ignatian spirituality is not merely an inward journey, much less a self-absorbed one. It aims to bring people closer to God and more deeply into the world — with gratitude, passion, and humility — not away from it. Ignatius called on the Jesuits to be “contemplatives in action.” Today, Jesuits and their lay collaborators work with people in many walks of life, such as education and business. They help nurture “men and women for others.”