THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUITS

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Trinitarian Inspiration

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33/3

MAY

2001

THE SEMINAR ON JESUIT SPIRITUALITY

The Seminar

composed

is

number

of a

of Jesuits appointed

from their provinces

in

the United States.

with topics pertaining to the spiritual doctrine and practice of Jesuits, especially United States Jesuits, and communicates the results to the
members of the provinces through its publication, STUDIES IN THE SPIRITUALITY OF
JESUITS. This is done in the spirit of Vatican II's recommendation that religious
institutes recapture the original inspiration of their founders and adapt it to the
circumstances of modern times. The Seminar welcomes reactions or comments in
concerns

It

itself

regard to the material that

The Seminar

it

publishes.

focuses

The

of the United States.

regions, to other priests, religious,

journal, while

meant

who may

Others

find

on the

direct attention

its

may

issues treated

and

laity,

life

and work of the

to

American Jesuits, is not exclusively

cordially welcome to make use of it.

for

them.

a writer at

Cam-

especially for

helpful are

it

Jesuits

common also to Jesuits of other

both men and women. Hence, the

be

CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE SEMINAR

William A. Barry, S.J., directs the tertianship program and
pion Renewal Center, Weston,
(1999).

is

MA

Richard A. Blake,

MA

Philip

J.

teaches film studies

S.J.,

Boston College, Chestnut Hill,

at

(1998).

Chmielewski,

S.J.,

teaches religious social ethics at Loyola University,

Chicago, LL (1998).

Richard

Hauser,

J.

teaches theology and directs the graduate programs in

S.J.,

and

theology, ministry,

spirituality

at

Creighton University, Omaha,

NE

(1998).

James

F.

Keenan,

Thomas M.

teaches moral theology at

S.J.,

ogy, Cambridge,

Lucas,

MA (2000).

S.J.,

chairs the

Weston

Department of Fine and Performing Arts and

teaches therein at the University of San Francisco,

Douglas W. Marcouiller,
Hill,

Thomas

MA

P.

O'Malley,

W Padberg,

tor

and editor

William R. Rehg,

MO

CA

(1998).

teaches economics at Boston College, Chestnut

(2000).
S.J.,

the honors program

John

S.J.,

Jesuit School of Theol-

S.J.,

at

is

at

is

associate

dean of

arts

and sciences and teaches in

Boston College, Chestnut Hill,

MA

(2000).

chairman of the Seminar, editor of STUDIES, and

the Institute of Jesuit Sources (1986).

S.J.,

teaches philosophy at

St.

Louis University,

St.

Louis,

(2000).

The opinions expressed

in

STUDIES

are those of the individual authors thereof.

Parentheses designate year of entry as a Seminar member.

Copyright

2001 and published by

3601 Lindell Blvd.,

(Tel.

direc-

St.

Louis,

MO

the Seminar

63108

314-977-7257; Fax 314-977-7263)

on

Jesuit Spirituality

The Trinitarian Inspiration

of the ignatian charism

Pedro Arrupe, SJ.

STUDIES IN THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUITS

33/3 MAY 2001

 .....

bottom of page 7 of the March 2001

issue of STUDIES, "Unexpected Consequences" by James F.
Keenan, S.J., some lines and a footnote did not print out
properly. Surrounded by some of the context, printed in
italics, these lines, printed in roman, should have read as
Inexplicably, at the

follows:

... to the

Gregory

Church of England. As the noted historian Brad

writes, "Persons' s strategy seriously backfired."

19

The success of Bunny's Puritanizing Persons 's Directory was remarkable. Bunny found in Persons' s work, which
spoke to Puritans more than did any other, the first foundational text for the spiritual literature of the Puritans.

1585

(after
19

having

"True and Zealous Service of God," 267.

In

Of all

things

About twenty

years ago

entertained a delegation of academics

from the

They were professors of philosophy at one of the

institutions of higher education in Communist China who were on a research visit
United States universities and schools of theology. While in Boston and in Cam-

People's Republic of China.

to

bridge, they visited several of the consortium schools in the

Boston Theological
Harvard Divinity School and Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
I received them in my office at Weston. That the building a century before had been
the home of Charles Sanders Peirce, the great American philosopher of pragmatism
Institute, including

and semiotics, was of great interest to them. But they were even more interested in
what Catholics thought religion was, how it differed from theology, how the
theology was taught, and how the Catholic Church interacted with the American
state. On the latter subject I tried to get in at least several strong comments on a
universal Church not necessarily conflicting with a particular nation's independence.
All of this came to

mind

as I recently

Spirituality at the University of Peking"

read a fascinating

by Andre Cnockaert,

published in the Belgian journal of spirituality Vie consacree

2000).

The

article dealt

article,

"Christian

a Belgian Jesuit,

(September-October

with interchanges among Chinese philosophers from the

University of Peking, the most important and prestigious of Chinese universities, and

from the Catholic University of Louvain and the Jesuit University

Faculty of Philosophy in Antwerp. Especially interesting was the account of the
great interest in and serious work done by one of the Chinese researchers on Jan
Ruysbroeck, the great Flemish mystic. The Devotio Moderna, Thomas a Kempis, and
The Imitation of Christ, which Ignatius so appreciated, count Ruysbroeck among their
direct influences. As Father Cnockaert remarked, from the seventeenth century on,
Jesuits with expertise in many fields lived and worked at the imperial court of China,
and the history of the relations of China and the West has recorded many a tragic
phase; but who would have thought that research professors from an officially atheist
China would be doing original research and publication on Christian mystics at a
Jesuit faculty? Maybe the remark by Andre Malraux, the great French novelist,
essayist, and French minister of culture, was right: "The twenty-first century will be
Belgian professors

spiritual or

it

won't be

at all."

Recently the scholastics and brothers in formation in the Jesuit Assistancy

of East Asia and Oceania

met

in

Yogyakarta, Indonesia; stories by and about them

appeared in the assistancy magazine. Simply seeing the photos of that group of young
Jesuits

from

Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Micronesia, Philippines,

Korea, Singapore, and Thailand and reading about them should bring

The

a smile

of joy.

from the novitiate to the

caught up in the details of our own

articles take in all the years of a Jesuit's training

threshold of the priesthood.

province and our

own

Too

often

we

get

assistancy alone and forget about the vibrant

Society of Jesus elsewhere.

It is

surely a vibrant

life

fife

of the

there in East Asia and Oceania,

in

and

it

reaches across province boundaries,

if

one

is

from the

to judge

include, for example, the story of a novice in Australia; a

stories.

They

Thai studying philosophy

in the Philippines; an Indonesian with a youth-music ministry in public high schools;

a

Batak from North Sumatra spending

his

regency in small village schools; a Japanese

who

with a master's degree, specializing in plant physiology,

another theologian,

doing work in

this

one of Chinese ancestry

with refugees and

who

hopes to serve

who

as a Jesuit in

So much for the present.

Now

China.

been

and an Indonesian

worked in East Timor

makes one want to say

to the past

and

It

gifts to

the Society.

may

a story that

inspire the

in our schools or at least will stimulate "producers with a

budget and a lively imagination." Franz Lang (1654-1725),

wrote those words

in theology;

who had

as a regent

prayer of thanks for the generosity and variety of God's

drama departments

now

in the Philippines,

electrical engineering before entering the Jesuits;

deacon soon to be ordained to the priesthood

a

is

famous German

low
Jesuit,

book published in Munich, Imagines symbolical, a

ranges from a (acedia) to z (zephyr). The following are among

in a 1727

wardrobe catalog that

the suggestions for clothing the symbolic characters in Jesuit plays of his era.

Concupiscence

is

to ride

partridge. Sloth should

stringless

bow

on

the back of a crocodile while sensuously stroking a

mount

the stage leading a tortoise, carrying a slack or

over his shoulder, and languidly cooling himself with a

fan.

Meekness

has a lamb in his arms and leads along an elephant. Curiosity comes on in a long

cloak embroidered with ears and frogs. Detraction sports a trumpet and a sword.

Gossip has crickets chirping in his hair and plays an out-of-tune bagpipe. Miserliness
carries scales

and

a fat wallet labeled "for a rainy day."

of Father Time, gray-bearded and with a scythe,

all

History rides in on the back

the while looking over his

shoulder, holding a quill in one hand and writing paper in the other.
guess
at

what these characters

times

if

represent,

Lang

people can't

If

suggests, as a last resort, that

it

may

help

the characters carry signs with "large-lettered ID's." Stage props were

another item of

interest.

At Munich

in 1647, for a production of a play called Judas

Macchabeus, the following were listed as "necessary for the action": a lightning storm,

two comets, a large animated eagle with a scepter in one claw and a sword in the
other, a tawny lion, a seven-headed monster, a triumphal chariot with twelve small
eagles designed so that they can dance to the

music of the play, and, for

impression, three altars constructed in such a

way

Ignatius surely could not have imagined

letter to

Franz Coster,

Austria, he told

him

Dutch

Jesuit

whom

that

a lasting

on cue they could

all this

when

in

he sent to found a

May

new

collapse.

1556, in a

college in Graz,

to invite the populace to attend the college theater because

open to the public will encourage the actors, and bring some credit to
But then, Ignatius probably also could not have imagined another one
of Lang's works, a 1717 book entitled Theater of Ascetical Solitude: Moral Doctrines
"plays that are

their teachers."

Put

to

Music according

to the Spiritual Exercises.

John W. Padberg,
Editor

IV

S.J.

CONTENTS
Foreword: John W. Padberg,

S.J.,

"The Legacy of Father Arrupe"

Letter of V. Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach,

The

vii

ix

S.J.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian

Charism

Introduction
I.

II.

The Start of

It All:

The Call at the Cardoner

Between the Cardoner and La Storta

(1522-1537)

III.

Acceptance and Confirmation: La Storta

IV.

The Trinitarian Peak: The

Spiritual

(1522)

(1537)

VI.

13
18

Journal

(February 1544-February 1545)

V.

24

The Ignatian Charism Seen in the Trinitarian Light

30

The Continuing Search

37

An Invocation to the Trinity

Reflections

on Fr.

47

Arrupe's Address

Richard A. Blake,

S.J.,

William A. Barry,

S.J, "Getting

"Perception of
It

Man

and Mission"

Right"

50
51

Philip

J.

Chmielewski, S.J, "Portrait and Landscape"

53

James

F.

Keenan, S.J, "A Model of Intimacy"

56

NEW BOOK!
The Road from
La Storta
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach,

on Ignatian

S.J.,

Spirituality

"The vision of La Storta has not been given to us

so that we might stop to gaze at it. No, it is the
light in which the Jesuit regards the whole world."

These words are from a homily on the anniversary of

St.

Ignatius's vision at

La

Storta.

Father

Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the

Society of Jesus, challenges Jesuits and their
associates to consider their mission as they follow
Ignatius along the road from La Storta into the
wide world. In this collection of twenty essays,
Father Kolvenbach proposes ways of understanding this mission from spiritual, analytical, and
socio-pastoral perspectives.

xv

+ 300 pages

ISBN 1-880810-40-9

$28.95
plus postage

Foreword

The Legacy of Father Arrupe

by John W. Padberg,
Jt_/arlier this year, Fr.

S.J.

General wrote to the whole Society to

recall the tenth

anniversary of the death of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, twenty-eighth general of the

Society of Jesus. That letter
after these

is

reprinted in this issue of STUDIES immediately

remarks of mine. Soon

after writing the letter. Fr.

Kolvenbach

on the occasion of that

anniversary. In the interview he noted that "the personage of Fr. Arrupe is
still so present to all of us that it was only natural that on the tenth anniversary of his death the Society of Jesus would want to thank the Lord for his
witness of fidelity and the authenticity of his consecrated life." Fr. General
has invited us all to commemorate Fr. Arrupe's apostolic life and to give
thanks to God for that life and for the Ignatian vision that it incarnated.
participated in an interview with Vatican Radio

The members

of the Seminar

on

Jesuit

Spirituality thought

they might best respond to that invitation by making available to

readers of STUDIES one of the last and

Hence

writings.

this

issue,

most important of

all

all

that

the

Fr. Arrupe's

"The Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian

Charism."

May

when

Arrupe met with the United States

provincials, he told them in an informal session that there were five documents that he thought might constitute a kind of spiritual legacy, a statement of his best hopes and prayers for the Society of Jesus. Two of those
documents were letters and three of them were addresses. The first of those
letters, "The Genuine Integration of Spiritual Life and Apostolate," he wrote
on November 1, 1976, the year after the Thirty-second General Congregation ended. Almost a year later, on October 19, 1977, he wrote another
letter, this one entitled "On Apostolic Availability." Next, in his concluding
address to the congregation of procurators that took place from September
27 to October 5, 1978, he spoke of the challenges facing the Society in
implementing the Thirty-second General Congregation, the Ignatian criteria
that would help thereunto, and some concrete means for carrying out that
implementation. This address, as did the two following talks, concluded with
a prayer in this instance to the Holy Spirit. On January 18, 1979, he spoke
at the conclusion of the course on Ignatian Spirituality at CIS, the Centrum
Ignatianum Spiritualitatis in Rome, taking as his subject "Our Way of
Proceeding." In that address he gave specific examples of what the phrase
meant for Ignatius and the First Companions, how it was expressed in the
Constitutions and by Nadal. He went on to describe what our way of
proceeding might mean for the Society today, as it seeks to put into effect
the teachings of Vatican II, and what specific means might help us achieve a
In

way

of 1980,

Fr.

of proceeding appropriate to the Society.

It

is

interesting to note that

vu

<e

who seem

this letter contains brief, blunt descriptions of "certain types

have the basic elements of the Society's way of proceeding.

clearly to

Arrupe

less

calls

these

types

the

full-time

protestor,

the professionalist,

the

irresponsible, the purely political activist,

Fr.

and the fanatically traditionalist.

Arrupe could well describe them; he had at times to suffer them and

their activities.

"Our Way

of Proceeding" concludes with "a prayer to Christ

our model." Both that prayer and the previous one and the subsequent
prayer in the last of those addresses are all rich in citations from Sacfed
Scripture.

The

of those five legacies, the one here presented,

last

the longest, the

is

most wide-ranging, and the most profound of them. It too was given at the
at CIS, on February 8, 1980. It begins by ranging from
the personal experiences of the Trinity with which Ignatius was gifted,
especially at the Cardoner, to the years and activities after the Cardoner, to
La Storta, and to the experiences detailed in the fragments of his Spiritual
Journal that escaped destruction. Then Fr. Arrupe goes on to talk about the
Ignatian charism seen in the vfrinitarian light and asks that "basing ourselves
on the data of revelation elaborated by theology, [we] try to see other
aspects that he saw but of which he has told us nothing,
[because] in
this way, we will be able to clarify and round out other important elements
in his charism. For we can hardly doubt that the Ignatian charism, or at
least our understanding and application of it, admits of development." At the
end of such a "continuing search," Fr. Arrupe places a quotation from
Nadal, who, as he quite rightly says, was best informed about the Ignatian
charism and in his commentaries of more than four centuries ago extended it
to the whole Society.
conclusion of a course

hold

for certain that this privilege granted to our father Ignatius

it

to the Society also,

prepared for

all

and that

his

is

given

grace of prayer and contemplation

of us in the Society, since

it

is

is

linked with our vocation.

Let us place the perfection of our prayer and the contemplation of the
Trinity, then, in love and in the union of charity,

which includes our

neighbors too by the ministries of our vocation.

Fr.

Arrupe follows

the Trinity that

is

his address again

with a prayer, an invocation to

again redolent of Scripture, the Exercises, the Spiritual

Journal, Nadal's commentaries, and the Formula of the Institute.

on February

A year

later,

Arrupe gave his last major address before a stroke

on August 7, 1981. It was entitled "Rooted and Grounded
himself was surely an example of such rooting and grounding

6,

1981, Fr.

silenced his voice

in Love."

He

in love.

brief

Four members of the seminar follow the text of the address with
commentaries. They and the other members can think of no better

way to commemorate the

make widely available to

anniversary of Fr. Arrupe's death than again to

the readers of STUDIES this very important and

deeply moving part of his legacy.

vui

Whole

Letter of Father General to the

Society

Dear Fathers and Brothers, P.C.

Ten

years ago, on the eve of the feast of the Japanese martyrs, the

Lord of the vine

called to himself his

Arrupe. This letter

is

meant

commemorate

to

death and to invite

all

sixth of February, in

community

We

recall

companion on the

Jesuits to celebrate a

more than

if

fifty

road, Fr. Pedro

briefly his apostolic life

and

Mass of thanksgiving on the

possible.

years of intense missionary activity under

more than ten years of increasingly incapacithe same Spirit with the same apostolic intent.

the guidance of the Spirit and

tated existence, borne also in

Like any prophetic witness, Fr. Arrupe was a sign of contradiction, not
always understood or understood wrongly, within the Society and outside.

no one indifferent, especially when he spoke of the

renews the Church and works, for the benefit of the Church, at

His forthright speech

Spirit that

left

the renewal of consecrated

He

life

and of

in the Society.

life

did not hesitate, especially as superior general, to send to various

world his friends in the Lord with the mission, in word and in
promote justice with and for the poor as expression of the Gospel: to

parts of the
act, to

inculturate that Gospel, in encounters with

all

can

states of life

we

and

religions, including

men and women

modern

of goodwill, in

unbelief. In response,

forget his pressing appeal to the needs of the poor, the refugees,

the displaced, in a world

more and more

how
and

inhospitable?

For us and with us, Fr. Arrupe discerned the signs of the Kingdom
and of its coming among us. He knew how difficult it is to prophecy,
especially about the future, as the Chinese proverb says. He was consumed
with a passion for the future of the Church, of consecrated life and directly

Union

of the Society of Jesus. In an address to the

the end of
last

May

September

We

words that find an echo

1974, he spoke

at

in

our encounter of

Loyola:

can have no doubt that the service

Church and

of General Superiors at

to the people of our time

the guarantee of our survival.

What

is

is

we

are called to render to the

the reason for our existence and

useless has lost

its

reason to be. This

must lead us to study the charism of our founders, to know

intentions, and to find their appropriate expressions now and in the

desire to serve

their

future.

We should not worry about opposition and resistance that can come
from unexpected directions. The Spirit follows ways difficult to discern for
those who do not possess or do not know how to recognize the fundamental

or religious charism

when

applied to

new

situations.

On

the other hand,

any reform or change must be made by people of deep spirituality and

God and the service of the
Church. Humility, obedience, and a firm grasp of the Gospel are necessary.

possessed by a strong zeal for the glory of

If

our religious congregations have people of

The

difficulties indicate that

we

are

on the

this

stamp,

we need not

fear.

right path.

IX

This was Fr. Arrupe's grasp of the future, as much during his years
of missionary activity as during the long period of his illness when, along
with so many of his Jesuit companions, he continued his mission to pray

and suffer for the Church and for the Society. Knowing that he "was placed
with the Son" carrying his Cross, he was able to bear the burden of his
responsibilities and to face the challenges of his time. He referred to this in
his final homily at the chapel of La Storta: "True, I have had my difficulties,
both big and small; but never has God failed to stand by me. And now
more than ever I find myself in the hands of this God who has taken hold

c
or me.

He

shared the prayer of St. Ignatius that in health or in sickness, in

a long or a short life, the mission to God's glory continues to be accomplished.

When, on

the evening of February

nounced that the Lord had

5,

1991, Brother Bandera an-

called his faithful servant to himself,

just

we

spontaneously intoned a "Salve Regina" of thanksgiving. May our Eucharist

of February 6 renew this fervent thanks to the Father for the life of Pedro
Arrupe and for the Ignatian vision that he incarnated. Each of us can then
what he ought to offer to his Divine
"reflect in himself and consider
Majesty" [SpEx 234).
.

offer

prayer for

all

you

my very

best wishes with the assurance of

my

continued

of you.

Peter-Hans Kolvenbach,

S.J.

Superior General

Rome, January

18,

2001

NOTE
In this issue of STUDIES, the following abbreviations are used.
explained in greater detail as they occur in the text.

Commentlnst:

Commentarii de

ConsNorms:

Constitutions of the Society of Jesus

FN:

Fontes narrativi

MHSI:

Monumenta

MN:

Monumenta Nadal
1:

and

historica Societatis Iesu

Monumenta Constitutionum

prcevia

PilgTest:

Pilgrim's Testament ("autobiography")

SpEx:

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

Spjr:

Spiritual Journal (Diary) of St. Ignatius

will be

Instituto Societatis Iesu

Norms

MonCons

They

Their Complementary

The Trinitarian Inspiration

of the ignatian charism

Introduction
1

Last year, in 1979,

when

accepted the invitation of the Ignatian Center

of Spirituality to give the closing talk in

its

Ignatian course,

topic the phrase that synthesized for Ignatius and his

practical application of the Society's charism:

The

thesis that I

tion of "our

propounded was

way

"Our

first

Way

took

companions the
of Proceeding."

that a proper understanding

"This Institute or

way

double objective that Vatican

II

of proceeding, as Father Ignatius calls

Nadal, "Exhortationes Complutenses

monumenta

Societatis Iesu, ed.

be cited

work

as

and applicahas set for

and

religious institutes: a return to the sources of their particular charism

et

my

of proceeding" enables the Society today, in a line of

historical continuity, to attain the

of Epistolce

as

P.

Commentarii de

Hieronymi Nadal,

Michael Nicolau,

Commentlnst,

3," in

S.J.

(Rome,

MN, and MHSI.

vol.

at

Qeronimo

it"

Institute Societatis Iesu, vol. 5

Monumenta

90 of the

historica

1962), 304. Hereafter, these sources will

All translations in this address seem to be the

of Fr. Arrupe, so the texts are not necessarily identical to those found in the English

versions cited below.

Born of Basque ancestry on Nov.

14, 1907, in Bilbao, Spain, Fr.

studied medicine before entering the Society of Jesus in 1927.

from

Spain, he pursued his studies in Belgium,

When

the Netherlands,

and

the

Sent as a missionary to Japan in 1939, he served as master of novices

provincial of that land.

The

Thirty-first

Pedro Arrupe

the Society

General Congregation elected

was exiled

United

States.

and eventually
him general in

1965, in which capacity he actively served until he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1981.

After resigning from the generalate, he spent the

the Jesuit Curia until his death

on February

5,

last

ten years of his

1991.

Many

of

life

in retirement in

his writings

have been

published by the Institute of Jesuit Sources.

This address,
Spirituality in

by the

New

Center of
Arrupe published in 1980

originally delivered during a course at the Ignatian

Rome, was among

Orleans Province.

several

documents from

Fr.

Pedro Arrupe,

4*

SJ.

the same time an adaptation to the changed conditions of the times. 2

happy to say

by the news

that, judging

receive

from everywhere

am

in the

Society, those reflections have helped not a few Jesuits to advance in the

renewal which the council, and later the Thirty-second General Congrega-

urged us to pursue.

tion, invited us, indeed,

That

"Our Way

talk,

of Proceeding," began from the Ignatian charism,

descending then through various levels of application to the "changed

conditions of the times." Today, starting once again from the charism of
Ignatius,

propose to proceed in the reverse direction, moving backward, up

to the heights,

all

the

way

to the

supreme and

initial starting point:

those

experiences of Ignatius from which everything flows and which are the only

ones that explain, in their ultimate meaning, both his spiritual

basic intuition. In a word, his Trinitarian inner
3

With

this in view, then,

and

his

life.

propose to briefly analyze Ignatius's three most

important spiritual experiences

and in the chapel of La Storta

Journal-to bring
out the relationship between
the Trinitarian context of
ji
!
+
those experiences and theA mathis Spiritual

at

those

at

the river Cardoner near Manresa

Rome, and those described

the gates of

in

.^^_^___^.^__^_

self

I propose

to briefly

analyze Ignatius

of the

three most important spiritual experi-

germinal idea of the Society.

ences-tbose at the river Cardoner,

uration

Next,

in

his

mind

those in the chapel of La Storta,

will pause over certain

of his ideas that were

those described in his Spiritual Jour-

more

nal to bring out

formally explicitated in those

between the Trinitarian context of

will point out certain

tjy 0Se

other elements of the Ignatian

charism that,

as

shows, can receive

of the Society.

clari-

This mental process

fication.

and the maturation in

mind Qj the germinal idea

experiences
hi$

theology
from the

Trinity their most vivid

the relationship

Trinitarian illuminations, and

finally

we see him as he seeks

"coming down to the letter" or

has a clear Ignatian precedent. In his Journal

light, alternately

the middle,"

Documents,
3

"looking upward," or

that

is,

feeling himself

"Perfects caritatis," in
ed.

Vatican

S. P.

N.

(Rome,

Council

II:

1934), 86-158. This

^^
for
"in

in the Trinitarian light, or

The Conciliar and Post Conciliar

(p.

637

f.).

Monumenta Constitutionum prcevia, vol. 1

Societatis Iesu, from Monumenta Ignatiana, vol. 63

Ignatii," in

Sancti Ignatii de Loyola Constitutiones

MHSI

immersed

Austin Flannery, O.P. (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1975), no. 2

"Ephemeris

and

work, usually

of

of

cited as the Spiritual Journal or Spiritual

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

seizing the earthly reality of things, or "rather in the middle," with Jesus the

Mediator
4

who

brought the extremes together and joined them.

Not everything
and the

tius

in these pages will be

new. The biographers of

some more and some

specialists in his spirituality,

St.

Igna-

less

and

from varying angles of approach, have repeatedly dealt with this topic. But
do not know

if

Jesuits of

today see

charism with sufficient clarity and force, and

morally compelled to make

Society's

way

more

it

nor

of proceeding

this Trinitarian origin of the Ignatian

them.

real to

believe that neither the

charism can be adequately

radical

its

inclined and almost

feel

understood and appreciated unless we mount up to the very top, to the

Trinity. In the return to the sources that Vatican

cannot stop without going

we

Trinitarian intimacy can

that distance.

all

II

Only

called for, the Society

in the light of Ignatius's

Jesuits understand, accept,

and

live the Society's

coming down from the

intuition, reflection, lawmaking and leadership of a man, however endowed with genius he was, but because, as we know, by a design of Provicharism, not because

it

dence that should

us simultaneously with humility and loyalty,

fill

is

the

historical

legacy

vocation inspired by Ignatius's contemplation of the

I.

The

Start of It All:

Here we must make an

tive,

God

initial

is

loftiest mysteries.

Call at the Cardoner (1522)

observation. Ignatius's entire mystical and

imposed on him; it is a divine initiaa "mystical invasion that overpowered his soul at his very conversion to
and never again left him." 4 Nothing we know enables us to foretell the

Trinitarian adventure
I

The

it

is

practically

mystical turn that his spiritual

eight

months

Life of Christ.

after

He

will take

He

being wounded.

has a devotion to

Francis of Assisi and

dreams; he

life

St.

Dominic.

visits the sanctuaries of

St.

when he

leaves Loyola, a scant

has read the Legenda aurea and the

Peter and feels a desire to emulate

He

is

new

convert

still

St.

living chivalric

our Lady, wants to outstrip the saints in

ances,

sorrow for sin by the harshness of his penand plans to go to Jerusalem "barefoot, eating nothing but herbs, and

Diary,

is

their holy feats, measures his

not readily available in English translation, although the Institute of Jesuit

Sources has an English translation of

it

in preparation.

followed by the date. Here the reference

Monumenta Constitutionum

is

We

will refer to this source as Spjr,

to Ignatius's entry for

prcevia will be cited as

MonCons

1,

March

followed by

7,

1544.

The

colon and

page number.

and

Practice, trans.

George E. Ganss, S.J. (St. Louis: Institute of

La Spiritualite de la Compagnie de Jesus [Rome,

Jesuit Sources,

Joseph de Guibert,

William

J.

Young,

S.J., ed.

1964; originally published as

S.J.,

The

Jesuits:

Their Spiritual Doctrine

1964]), 55.

Pedro Arrupe,

undergoing

all

SJ.

the other rigors that he saw the saints had endured" 5

not only because of his devotion to Christ but

this

of a sheer desire for penance.

Lady, whose sanctuaries dot

The same can be

also,

and

all

and principally, out

said of his devotion to our

new life. Before

Montserrat he leaves "his sword and dagger" the
supreme gesture of the worldly soldier and spends the night in vigil over

the altar of the Virgin

his

new

spiritual arms.

When

Manresa, he brings

change of

a radical

not to be recognized,"

as

as his spiritual
life,

nature of his austerities,

book

consoled"

withdraws to isolated

baggage only the firm decision to

a determination to expiate

new

life.

He

will also "note

sins

such

down

is

the

certain things

him and by which he was

that he carefully carried with

(ibid., [11]): this is

his

make

and enervating hours of prayer and the

vigils,

desire for light to guide his

in a

path of his passage toward a

at

"so

Ignatius,

trie

the Ignatius

who

greatly

and methodical

reflective

is

and take on new forms and

expressions: absolute coherence between his thinking and his life, a will of
iron, and a singular capacity for introspection and analysis.

by

His natural

nature.

The

first

qualities

crystallize

four months of the eleven he will stay

Manresa

at

are a desert

which blows a fire that purifies his past: penances, vigils, a deliberTately slovenly and repulsive exterior, and above all a surrender to prayer. He
across

maceration "in a

lives this spiritual

and constant happiness,

state of great

without having any knowledge of the inward things of the

[20]). It is

the destruction of the carnal and

speak in the

Exercises.

mundane

What

is

the value of

Luis Gon^alves da Camara,

Fontes narrativi de
73,

and 85 of

S.J.,

MHSI

which he

it

if

spirit

reach a

the obsession with his past

from the Monumenta

patris," in

Ignatiana, vols. 66,

(Rome, 1943-60), 1:355-507. Available in English

is

Pilgrim's

Testament: The Memoirs of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, trans.

Parmananda R. Divarkar,

Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1995). Although this

work

we

is

S.J. (St.

often and less accurately

PilgTest, followed by the

from the Fontes narrativi will
FN, followed by the volume number and the page number, e.g., in this

referred to

as

Ignatius's

traditional paragraph

be cited

as

instance,

FN
6

will

crisis. Is this

"Acta P. Ignatii ... ex ore ipsius

Ignatio de Loyola, 3 vols.,

S.

of

There follows a second period of inner turbulence,

during which the resistance of his body and his

sort of life bearable?

self

spirit" (PilgTest

Autobiography,

numbers, in

will

cite

it

as

this instance, 8. Citations

1:355-507.

few paragraphs further on ([21]), Ignatius refers to himself

"el nuevo soldado de Cristo," which shows that he saw his conversion against
background of chivalry and warfare.
PilgTest [17

St.

Ignatius

George E. Ganss,

f.].

of Loyola,

S.J. (St.

this source as SpEx,

The Spiritual

Exercises,

trans,

with commentary by

Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1992), 82-89.

followed by the traditional marginal numbers.

as

We

will refer to

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

and present

sins continues? It

time of scruples and temptations, even of

is

But it is also the beginning of "great changes in his soul

that he
had never experienced before" (PilgTest [2]). His capacity for introspection,

suicide.

"From

for discernment, will save him:

now had some

desolation
8

Then

experience of the diversity of spirits"

come upon him, one

had given him, he

Consolation and

([25]).

after the other.

the third phase of his stay

at

Manresa

starts.

God

begins to

make

with elemental, pictorial representations, acting with

his presence felt,

him

God

the lessons

([27]). These representations have

dominant all the rest of his life: the creation
of the world, the Eucharist, the humanity of Christ, and, in the shape of

to

"as a schoolteacher deals

do with subjects that

with a child"

will be

very concrete images, the Trinity. The earlier references to saints in his

autobiography

now

disappear. In their place, he bursts into a surprising

paragraph about "his great devotion to the Most Holy Trinity," which

is

dominant theme in his spiritual life, to the point that "he could
not stop talking about the Most Holy Trinity, with many different comparisons and great joy and consolation" ([28]).

becoming

Ignatius has survived the testing of penances and desolation, and this third

Manresa

and serenity and an

apostolic thrust. "After God began to comfort him, seeing the fruit he was
obtaining when dealing with souls, he gave up those extremes he had
phase of his stay

at

reveals a greater maturity

now

formerly observed, and he

cut his nails and his hair"

([29]).

So

far,

he

has done what lay in his power: an unreserved surrender, a merciless purification, a spiritually discerned acceptance of

God's

apostolic conversations and activity.

humanly

was,

It

needed to ready him for the definitive

And

sign.

it

lights,

an availability for

speaking,

was not long

was

all

that

in

coming.

"That so great illumination. " It was in August or September of 1522,

barely fifteen months after his wound at Pamplona and seven after his
coming to Manresa. In that brief time he has gone through a very long
spiritual journey. He goes out of Manresa one day to make a devotional visit
10

to an outlying church.

foot of

The road follows

the edge of a steep hillside, at the

which flows the Cardoner.

As he went along occupied with

his

while with his face toward the river.

devotions, he sat
.

down

for a

little

the eyes of his understanding

began to be opened. Not that he saw any vision; rather, understanding and

knowing many

things,

both

spiritual

and matters of

things

learning, with so intense an enlightenment that everything

him.

Though

there were

many, he cannot

understood then, except that he experienced

standing. So
years,

even

much
if

so that in the

he gathered up

all

forth the details that

set

many

he

great clarity in his under-

whole course of
the

faith and
seemed new to

his

life,

through sixty-two

helps he has had

from God and

all

Pedro Arrupe,
many

the

S J.

them together, he does not

he received on that one occasion.

things he has learned and added

think they would amount to

as

much

as

After this had lasted for a good while, he went to kneel before

God.

cross to give thanks to

11

Ignatius's

nearby

(PilgTest [30f.])

mention of "that so

cant. It has

great illumination" is extremely signifibeen for him a sort of Pentecost that marks an end of his

and kindles the light of a different future. When he dictates his autobiography in 1555, the year before his death, the effulgence of that mystical

past

experience, of a loftiness that his Journal reveals to us,

liantly in his

memory.

is

still

believe that there are three angles

shining

bril-

from which we

can view that enlightenment:

12

1.

The nature

of the grace received. Let us

He

Ignatius uses are not casual.

of exactitude has

him with

remember

the end of his

is at

grown very strong and

his mystical

life,

that the

when

words

his sense

encounters have

left

unparalleled experience. 8 After his initial mention of "that so great

on a distinction: "not that he saw

rather, understanding and knowing." That is to say, there is a radical,
qualitative change with regard to his earlier illuminations, which were only
in his imagination and apt only for rudimentary manifestations. These are
now "intellectual lights, directly infused by God into his intelligence. At
Manresa, Ignatius moves into the highest infused contemplation." 9 He also
stresses a quantitative aspect, saying that he received more help and knowledge on that occasion than in all the rest of his life. That may have been an
overstatement, though hyperbole was not a habitual defect in Ignatius. But
even if it were an overstatement, the fact of falling into it here would not be
illumination," Ignatius puts great emphasis
.

without significance.
13

2.

Content of the illumination. The terms

exact, but very generic too.

that Ignatius used are very

Polanco says that "Father Ignatius explained

was so hard to commu10

nicate his experiences. But he did mention the fact to them."
And he had
is
the most
good reason to do so. The enlightenment of the Cardoner
influential spiritual fact in Ignatius's life previous to La Storta, and that gives
in detail to

no one the

"He
that

secret of this vision, since

has so clear a

of things, and even of the

he recounts something that happened ten,

happened, he puts

it

99., in

FN 1:585
De

more important words,

or more times; exactly

as

it

it

word

for

word"

(Luis

Gonalves da Camara, "Memoriale," no.

{.).

Guibert,

Jesuits, 13f

Juan de Polanco,
[16], in

fifteen,

before his hearers' eyes; and any long statement about things of

importance, he repeats

no.

memory

it

FN 2:527.

S.J.,

"De

vita Patris Ignatii et de Societatis Iesu initiis" (1574),

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

importance

a transcendental

it

when he was

up

in that pre-foundation period

until

1538,

gathering his friends from Paris and mulling over the germinal

ideas of the Society. While he was winning them over, one by one, "they
were resolute in following Father Ignatius and his way of proceeding." 11 In
those long years of intimacy and confidences, Ignatius no doubt informed
them about what had happened by the Cardoner without going into

Polanco notes, but

details, as

14

It

still

telling

them

in general

what

it

had meant.

easy to glean in the volumes of the Pontes narrativi of the

is

menta

Monu-

dozen descriptions and references, veiled or explicit,

about the enlightenment at the Cardoner, with superlative adjectives:
historica a

"unusual," "exceptional," ^extraordinary." 12

becomes

why

them each time

clearer to

something that happened to

Manresa." 13 They

at

ways accepte

wQr

is

al-

mitted the force or his reasonj

at

Ignatius

-i

the same time they

replies:

"The

^^^^~^^^

The enlightenment of the Cardoner is

t^ e most i nfl uen tial spiritual fact in

ing and respected his silence.

But

significance of the incident

he includes this or that point in the Constitutions, always

explanation will be found in

me

The

that Ignatius, answering questions about

,. r

s lite
J

rprevious to

r
La

n
Storta.

._,_________-___-___-_-__^____

all

admit, in their words and

soon came
to be described, the very foundation of the Ignatian charism; and they draw
similar conclusions from his other confidences and remarks. Lainez, in the
biographical letter on St. Ignatius that he sent to Polanco soon after the
latter had been made secretary, seven years before Ignatius was to dictate his
writings, that they see in that "extraordinary illumination," as

autobiography;

14

it

Nadal, in his conferences and dialogues; 15 Polanco, in his

biography of the founder 16

in

word,

all

of

them

assert in those earliest

sources, without deformation or overstatement, the Trinitarian content of

Juan de Polanco,
in

S.J.,

"Informatio de Instituto Societatis Iesu" (1564), no.

12

Polanco,

"Vita

P.

"Exhortationes Conimbricenses

Ignatii,"

no.

[16],

3," no. [11], in

FN

facultatis theologicae Parisiensis" (1577), no. [40], in

Jeronimo Nadal,
[8],

3";

[9],

FN 2:309.

in

FN

S.J.,

in

FN

2:152;

Jeronimo Nadal, S.J.,

"Apologia contra censuram

2:526;

id.,

FN 2:66.

"Dialogi pro Societate contra hsereticos" 2 (1563), no.

2:240. See also "Exhortationes Colonienses 1"; "Exhortationes

and "Exhortationes Complutenses

14

Diego Lainez,

S.J.,

See n. 15 above.
See n. 12 above.

2,"

and similar exhortations,

in

"Epistola P. Lainn" (1547), no. 12, in

FN
FN

Conimbricenses

2:406, 152-93.
1:82.

Pedro Arrupe,

the vision by the Cardoner,

Ignatius,

15

and

its

SJ.

the

change

radicality of the

worked

it

in

founding of the Society.

virtual

Let us see the testimony of each of the two biographical lines:

Lainez

is

brief in describing the content

and clear

in

enumerating

the effects of the Cardoner. "Ignatius was particularly helped, informed, and

... he began to see everything with

interiorly illumined.

new

eyes,

to

discern and test the good and evil spirits, to relish the things of the Lord and

communicate them

17

Three fundamental things are here

affirmed: the transformation Ignatius underwent in his spirituality, the
discernment he learned as a method, and the openness he acquired to the
to

to his neighbor."

apostolate. In as early a

document

as this letter (1547),

Polanco more. But when Polanco writes

no longer limited by

in 1574,

with

confidentiality and restraint, he

is

Lainez could not

full

tell

information and

much more

Ignatius had "admirable illuminations about the mystery of the

explicit.

Most Holy

Trinity, the creation of the world, and other mysteries of the faith." 18 So

were those illuminations about the Trinity that "though a simple man
and able to read and write only Spanish, he started writing a book about it." 19
great

16

Nadal, the confidant of Ignatius during the founder's mature years,

who overcame Ignatius's resistance against writing his autobiogwho in the words of Polanco "understood his spirit and penetrated,
20
who went all around
as much as anyone I know, the Society's Institute,"
Europe explaining how the genesis of the Society paralleled the development
of Ignatius's own spiritual life this Nadal has left in his conferences and
the one

raphy,

writings essential explanations of the content of the "extraordinary illumination":

"His intellectual eyes were opened with such an abundance and

intensity of light that he understood and contemplated the mysteries of

shown

new

most exalted
intelligence";
"the principles underlying everything were opened up for
22
him." In his Dialogues, he is even more explicit: "Then God began to teach
him as a schoolteacher teaches a child. There the illuminations of his
understanding were multiplied, his ease in prayer and contemplation was
increased, a higher intelligence of spiritual and heavenly things was infused

faith.

... he was

truth about everything,

21

17

Lainez, "Epistola," no. 10, in

FN

1:80.

See n. 12 above.
See n. 16 above.
20

Juan de Polanco, Sancti Ignatii de Loyola epistolce

the Monumenta Ignatiana, vol. 31 of the MHSI (Rome, 1965),
21

22

Nadal, "Dialogi," no.

[8], in

Nadal, "Exhort. Colon.

1,"

FN 2:239.
no.

[8],

in

FN 2:406.

et instructiones, vol. 5,

109.

from

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

into him. There he received a penetrating

knowledge (prceclaram cognitionem)

of the Persons of the Trinity and of the divine Essence. Even more, he
received not only a clear intelligence but an interior vision of
created the world, of

who

honest witness

testimony

In any event,

17

the

Word became

for long years

beyond

is

how

doubt

we

if

flesh."

23

Nadal

is

how God
a serious,

had access to Ignatius's confidences. His

a source of great value.

consider the enlightenment of the Cardoner as the

extraordinary climax in a series of such illuminations that really had

and

started

way:

this

less

up

built
It

we can

in preceding weeks,

describe

Ignatius

is

its

content more or

an infused intellectual illumination about the divine

is

way

Essence and the Trinity of Persons in a generic

about two of

its

and,

more

concretely,

operations ad extra: the Creation and the Incarnation.

brought

into

the

intimacy and finds

Trinitarian

himself an

illumined spectator of the Creation and Incarnation in a Trinitarian context.

"The descent of creatures from God and

reintegration into their ultimate end,

God

experiences of the great enlightenment."

an eminently Pauline theological

clearly detectable in the Exercises.

himself, are

24

line.

necessary

their

Ignatius

is,

among

Not only

the most vivid

without realizing

This Trinitarian

and

re-ascent

context

it,

will

in

be

in Ignatius's presentation of the

which
which the

mystery of the Incarnation, but in the Principle and Foundation too,

he will write
pilgrim
18

3.

later, if

we

judge by the philosophical elements in

Manresa was not yet educated enough

at

Meaning and consequences of the

it,

compose.

to

illumination. Manresa was for

what Damascus was for St. Paul and the burning bush for
Moses: a mysterious theophany that inaugurates and synthesizes his mission,
a call to set out on an obscure road that will keep opening up before him as
Ignatius

he follows
ginal

it.

25

On

the spot, Ignatius

is

transformed. Lainez writes a mar-

note in Camara's Pilgrims Testament:

"And

man and had

a different intellect

left

him with his

him he was a

seemed to
26
than he had before."

understanding so profoundly enlightened that

different

this

it

The transformation of Ignatius is manifest. The least important change

is that now he makes himself presentable and becomes more sociable,
softens down his harshness, and takes on a more ordered, human rhythm of
19

life.

Chiefly,

it

is

inner self that changes:

his

his

spirituality,

until

then

See n. 24 above.
4

de

la

Pedro Leturia,

S.J.,

"Genesis de los Ejercicios

Compafiia de Jesus," Archivum historicum

25

Nadal, "Dialogi," no.

[7], in

y su influjo en

Societatis lesu 10 (1941): 32.

FN 2:252.

Lainez, marginal note in Spjr 30.

la

fundacion

10

Pedro Arrupe,

SJ.

and introspective, is turned completely around, becoming more

and more community-directed and apostolic. His pilgrimage to Jerusalem
loses its penitential motivation and becomes a meeting with Christ in the
places where he lived and died, and where Ignatius will want to stay to
continue the Lord's work.
individualist

The

20

all

methodology for
further progress, the supreme lesson with which the Lord, who
had been guiding him like a child, brings
the Manresa period of his schooling to its

greatest transformation, though,

his

t~ *+:.,. passes
^^cr^r. -*. i~~i
Ignatius
very logi.1
jj
r
wr
j *i
cally from the Word, the
_

/
,
Trinitarian Person,' to the
,

historical Christ

whose

the end of time.

highest
point. Let us state this in Nadal's
**

flhere

words:
.

its.

27

_>

he learned to discern

urn
follows

who

rolanco,

or testimony, says the

concretely
i

is all

the

Lainez
,.

thing:

-^^^^^^^^^^

Society as he

spir,

line

TL
I hat

the Cardoner] had to

(in particulari)

ng good and

edge

at

same

evil

spirits."

28

That knowl-

more necessary and

too for him and
still

do

with distinguish-

so in the future

will be

for the

perceives his apostolic

vocation in only an extremely vague way,

and he will constantly need some techYears later, Nadal will say that the grace of the

nique for clarifying

it.

Society's Institute

that

is

that he finds a

Hght [received

land he yearns to visit,

and the perennial Christ
who acts in the world until

is

we should

29

give ourselves, "sed indefinite/*

to the

apostolate.

21

The

skill

he acquired in discerning

of confidence.

Now

spirits gives Ignatius a salutary feeling

he can reject spiritual consolations

the scant hours he allows himself for sleep (PilgTest

of his

morbid need

him with

for confessors

and

[26]);

spiritual guides,

if

they come in

and he

who

rids himself

previously had

That capacity for reflecting in

order to seek and find what most leads to cooperation with the divine plan
for leading everything back to the Creator is the great conquest of the
Cardoner; it is the point where the experiences of Manresa crystallize,
only

left

ultimately

making

it

anxieties

and

scruples.

possible for the Society to

come

into existence.

See n. 23 above.
28

Polanco, "Vita P. Ignatii," no.

29

[16], in

FN 2:526.

Jeronimo Nadal, "Orationis observationes," in Epistolce P. Hieronymi Nadal,

vol. 4, from the Natalis monumenta, vol. 47 of MHSI (Madrid, 1905), 696, no. 145.
Hereafter this source will be cited as MN, followed by the volume number and the page;
in this instance,

MN 4:696.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Cbarism

22

The Copernican
enlightenments

about-face that the

at

months

Manresa and the

at

11

series of

the Cardoner spell for Ignatius (and ultimately for the

birth and the charism of the Society)

evident above

is

all

in the

new

slant

on
Cardoner belongs between
the end of the First Week and the beginning of the Second, and that it has a
decisive influence on the theme that the Second Week presents and in the
that the Exercises take. Specialists have established, basing themselves
irrefutable witnesses, that the illumination of the

direction

it

gets.

We may

consider this the crucial turning point in the

Exercises and a reflection of his

own

experience: the temporal King, the

introduction to the consideration of Different States of Life, the Three

Degrees of Humility.

If

the Society of Jesus

only an institutionalized

is

version of the Exercises, and specifically of that part of the -Exercises, then

we must

see the Trinitarian light of

Manresa

as

the

first

the Society's existence. Nadal, in his 1554 conference

sober of

all

the conferences he wrote,

30

at

glimmer that heralds

Salamanca, the most

points out the close relationship

between the Cardoner, the Exercises, and the Society:

Here our Lord gave him the Exercises thus guiding him

would
He showed

so that he

be used entirely for his service and for the salvation of souls.

amid devotion especially in two exercises: the Kingdom and the

Two Standards. Here he understood his goal and what he should apply
himself to and have as his objective in everything he did, which is the goal

him

this

that the Society

now

has.

31

Nadal repeats the same idea at

Alcala with more profusion but with no less firmness on the essential point:
"After having exercised himself for some time on the points that we call
those of the First Week, he was brought further by the Lord, and he began
to meditate on the life of Christ our Lord and to find devotion in it and a
desire to imitate it; and then, at that very point, he had the desire to help
32
his neighbor."
That Ignatius repeatedly, all through his life, appealed to
"something that happened to me at Manresa" whenever others were trying
to clarify how we in the Society serve our neighbor is a confirmation of the
close connection existing between the illuminations (markedly Trinitarian, as
we have seen) that he received there, conversion to an apostolic life through
Years

later,

in 1561, after Ignatius's death,

the central ideas of the Exercises, and the shift from an

initial

individual

apostolate to an apostolate institutionalized in the Society.

23

King calls everywhole world" and

In these meditations and exercises, in fact, the eternal

one to "go with him" to extend

30

See

FN

"to the

1:303.

Jeronimo Nadal,
32

his

kingdom

S.J.,

"Exhortationes Salmanticenses" (1554), no.

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut.

2," nos. [8

f.],

in

FN 2:190.

[6], in

FN

1:307.

12

Pedro Arrupe,

SJ.

"thus to enter into the glory of

my

And what

Father."

is

this, if

not to put

rhythm of the descent of creatures and their reintegration

into their ultimate end through Christ which Ignatius understood in "that so
great illumination"? Ignatius passes very logically from the Word, the
Trinitarian Person, to the historical Christ whose land he yearns to visit,
and the perennial Christ who acts in the world until the end of time. The
Trinitarian framework of the contemplation of the Incarnation is based on
oneself into that

this

approach.

Christ

the

And

the fact that so charming a mystery as the Birth of

second contemplation ends with

cross enters, follows the

same

logic.

There

colloquy into which the

no

is

phrase of Nadal's: "Nativitas Christi, egressus

better

gratiae

oratio Societatis, ex qua extensio ad ministerial

above

all

33

comment than

this

ad operationem: unde

For

Ignatius,

Christ

is

the one sent by the Father, whose will he seeks and wants to

accomplish in an indifference that extends even to the

cross. Ignatius accepts

the call implicit in the illumination and will reply with "offerings of greater

value and of

more importance

and praise" (SpEx

and in

provided only

new

it is

for thy greater service

most perfect humility,"

as long as there be "equal praise and glory" with poverty, humiliation, and
the cross. It is a sharing in the kenosis of Christ who comes down from the
Father to lead all things back to him.
24

The

98)

gesture, in "the

ancient tradition of the prcenotio Instituti finds

its

justification in

which others have sought to carry much further. 34

To find in the illumination of the Cardoner the initial germ of the Society,
all we need do is appreciate the difference between the Ignatius of before and
after Manresa, the coherence between what started there and what, in a very
straight line, his whole life thereafter will be, precisely in virtue of the
mysteries he contemplated and the discretion he acquired there. Isn't the
request he makes to our Lady and recommends that we too make in the
colloquy of the meditation on the Two Standards written at Manresa that
she "obtain for me from her Son and Lord the grace to be received under his
standard" a perfectly clear anticipation of the plea he will make to her at La
Storta: "to be good enough to place him with her Son" (PilgTest [96])?
this interpretation,

33

[The birth of Christ

is

grace

moving out

prayer of the Society, from which proceeds

its

into activity; this

is

the source of the

going out to undertake ministries.] Nadal,

"Orationis observationes," 61; see n. 31 above.

34

See Antonio Astrain,

Espana, vol.

1,

Cardoner y

el

2nd

ed.

instituto

S.J.,

Historia de la

Compania de

(Madrid, 1912), 102; also Jose Calveras,

de

la

Compania de

historicum Societatis Iesu 25 (1956): 27-54.

Jesus

segun

el

Jesus en la Assistencia
S.J.,

P.

de

"La ilustracion del

Nadal," in Archivum


Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

II.

25

13

"fc

Between the Cardoner and La Storta (1522-1537)

In Ignatius's years of maturing, between his return from Jerusalem in

Rome, he

from the experience at the

Cardoner. Not just from the memory of it, but from a use of its principles.
The apostolic vector of his spirituality develops rapidly and becomes the
dominant one. Because the apostolate requires preparation and knowledge,
he sits on school benches and
begins studies as serious and
long drawn out as his characThe genesis of the Society is, accord35
And because
ter demands.
j ng t0 Nadal, the group reproduction
one cannot get into the aposof Ignatius's own spiritual itinerary.
1524 and his leaving Paris for

tolate

without giving

fully

decides to

adherence to Christ, he

full

lives

enter the priest-

hood. Because the imitation and following of Christ brings humility, pov-

and the

erty,

cross, his life

is

humble, poor, lived among the poor, challeng-

ing the forces of this world. Moreover, since the King with

whom

Ignatius

and every man" to help him "conquer the whole

world," Ignatius opens himself to the apostolic community as a form of the
will collaborate calls "each

plenitude of his vocation of service.

and downs at Alcala, Salamanca, and

Paris, gathering and losing friends. At first, he accepts those who come;
then he goes deliberately looking for them, even tenaciously hounding
them, 36 sometimes with immediate success, at other times succeeding only
after a long and eventful siege, even after despairing of winning them. At
26

still

Ignatius has his inevitable ups

other times he

Why

that fever to

fails.

form

desire for an apostolic

What
a

is

he after with that systematic proselytizing?

group? Simply, to communicate to others his

own

following Christ in poverty and humility.

They

life,

"remained firm in following Father Ignatius and

his

way

3
of proceeding."

Favre uses that phrase "following Ignatius" about himself. Following Ignatius

means acknowledging him

as a leader in the

following of Christ; accepting

Juan de Polanco, "Summarium Hispanum de origine

Iesu," no. 33, in

FN

et

progressu Societatis

1:169.

Pierre Favre says, "Coduri

et

Broet

nondum

erant capti" [Codure and Broet

were not yet snared] ("Memoriale," no. 15, in /TV 1:39). For an English translation of this
work, see The Spiritual Writings of Pierre Favre: The Memoriale and Selected Letters and
Instructions,

trans.

Edmond

C.

Murphy,

Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996), 68

37

Polanco, "Informatio de

S.J.,

and Martin

E.

Palmer,

f.

Instit.,"

no.

[9], in

FN 2:309

f.

S.J.

(St.

Louis:

14

way

Pedro Arrupe,

S.J.

means assimilating

of proceeding

and operational
principles. The Society's way of proceeding is simply Ignatius's way: "God
took Ignatius as a means for communicating this grace, and he wanted him
to be the minister of this vocation, and in him he gave us a vivid example of
our way of proceeding." 38 The genesis of the Society is, according to Nadal,
his

the group reproduction of Ignatius's

group's

that the

first

own

concrete project

ideological

his

spiritual itinerary.

39

It

is

logical

to reproduce the pilgrimage to

is

Jerusalem, not with the penitential approach that the pre-Manresa Ignatius
had, however, but with the same devotion to the person of Christ and the

same apostolic objective

27

The maturing

that

of Ignatius

was born

at

the Cardoner.

one of
way of proceeding: discernment

a fruit of the constant application of

is

the most fundamental principles of his

done according to the method that he himself codified at Manresa in the

Exercises, in order to know God's will. With the same method he helps his
companions seek and find their way. The first of them, Favre, gives us in a
few lines a graphic description of the scene: "By God's providence, I had to
give him lessons, and thus I began to deal with him about exterior things,
and then about interior things too. We shared the same house and room, the
same table and pocketbook. He was my director in things of the spirit,
showing me the way to progress in knowledge of God's will and of my own." 40

The vows

Montmartre (1534) mark the group's first moral commitment, as each member made his personal oblation. This whole episode of
Montmartre is made up of surprising and seemingly unmotivated elements,
whose sensus plenior will be seen only later. This is so, we must remember,
because they were discussing only vows for the future. The vow of poverty
will begin to bind them only after they have finished their studies. They do
28

not take a

them

is

of

vow

of chastity (unless they did so privately); but then, none of

the moral one that Ignatius has,

only authority

is

them

and

his ideal

his

way

vow of obedience: the

who has communicated to

They do not make

a priest except Favre.

of proceeding.

On

the other hand, they

make an

apparently odd vow: to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem "to spend their lives

good of souls" there. What makes them think of Jerusalem? Where

did that idea come from? The answer is clear: It is the Ignatian experience

for the

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut.

the Italian manuscript. See
grace, Institute
3

FN

1:177

2," no.

f.,

in

FN

no. 46. See also

2:168. This

id.,

"This

and way of proceeding" (Commentlnst 262, no.

Ibid.;

also

see

no. [52a],

p.

parallelism, going so far as to say that the

the Lord gave the Society. See also

40

1,

FN

Favre, "Memonale," no.

8,

is

is

of Ignatius

is

[our] religious Order,

the prima

Nadal explains

this

forma

that

1:11; 2:2, 5, 6, 43, 143, 165, 227, etc.

in

FN

1:32-33.

from

[33].)

287. In a long paragraph,

life

a translation

et gratia

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

that

is

corporately reproduced

another clause, apparently no

now

less

in the birth of the Society.

odd and unmotivated:

If

15

But they add

they cannot go to

remain there, they will "come

and offer themselves to the Vicar of Christ so that he may
use them in whatever he deems to be most for the glory of God and the
good of souls" (PilgTest [85]). This is the "papal clause," whose importance
will prove enormous. Here we may and should ask ourselves, Why did they

Jerusalem in the space of a year or cannot

Rome

back to

introduce this
service

new

element, the Vicar of Christ,

and following of Christ, which

group relationship, only

is

as a

determinant of their

personal relationship, or,

if it is

one? This must have been the subject of

a private

one of Ignatius's elections. And it is not hard to see in that clause a reflection of what Ignatius saw at the Cardoner: the mystical Christ, which is the
Church, entrusted to a vicar in whom resides the supreme power and
responsibility for teaching, sanctifying, and ruling. Ignatius's military past

prompts him to look for

a leader:

he knows that snipers do not win the big

battles.

We may

wonder, But why Montmartre? For what purpose? Certainly,

for the moment nothing changes in the group, since none of the two

29

vows has any immediate application. In Ignatius's mind, though, that was
momentous step: their separate followings of Christ now take on a new,
group dimension under the guidance of Ignatius. Each one,

and with the others,

sis,

is

individually

bound

a
a

like the others

to Christ and, in a given hypothe-

to the Vicar of Christ. Ignatius has been the catalyzer, the provoker of

that sudden cohesion.

Can we imagine

the ebullition of ideas and feelings, of

motions and reasons for and against, that must have preceded, in
Ignatius and in the others, the birth of that step, its preparation, and its
realization? It meant staking their lives on a single throw of the dice. And
the decisive motivation was simply an irrevocable decision to live a life and a
state chosen in the Exercises. The individuals had crystallized into a group as
spiritual

they made their

common

apostolic ideal the end and

We

must say

30

Studies.

word about

way

Ignatius's studies

of their lives.

and

his intellectual

preparation. This can help us not only because these will

development of

his personality, but also because

the trustworthiness
Spiritual Journal,

of his

whose

statements

affect

the

they can help us to gauge

about himself, particularly in

his

subject matter and terminology are so delicate, and

to appreciate the sort of scientific preparation he chooses for the apostolate

as

31

he conceives

it

will be in the Society.

Ignatius began his studies,

Lord,"

41

41

as

Lainez puts

it,

"for the service of our

or as the Pilgrim's Testament says, for two purposes: "to be able

Lainez, "Epistola P. Lainn," no. 22, in

FN

1:91

f.

16

Pedro Arrupe,

to give himself
is

is,

more

in this phrase a

will enable

SJ.

him,

readily to the spirit and also to help souls" ([54]). There

profound meaning: Ignatius believes that the priesthood

to give himself to spiritual things

first,

in conditions to obtain greater fruit,

for his spiritual

life,

and to be

more

by acquiring

more

"easily," that

a solid intellectual basis

intense sharer in the saving intimacy

with Christ; and second, "to help souls" more, because he is convinced he
can do that effectively only with the priesthood, in the manner of the first
apostles.

32

Ignatius,

who

at

Manresa was

"simple man," without "other letters

than to read and write in Romance [Spanish]," 42 discerns with surprising

clarity the need for studies. He draws that conclusion during his discernment
at

Manresa:
Here our Lord gave him the

him

Exercises, thus guiding

be used entirely for his service and for the salvation of

him

this

Two

amid devotion, especially in two exercises, the Kingdom and the

Here he understood his goal and what he should fully

goal that the Society

now

as his objective in

has.

And

temperament

characteristic of his

everything he did, which

realizing that he

end, he did so in Spain and later in Paris.

but actually starting

all

over again

is

the

ought to study for that

43

that despite his age he

when he

wanted

only without rushing to

his studies in all seriousness, to the hilt, not

fast to

would

He showed

Standards.

apply himself to and have

It is

so that he
souls.

sees that

master the material. Those studies are to

last

to

do

finish,

he has been going too

ten years, a "time of

which he is supported by "what he had at Manresa, which he

was accustomed to praise and to call his primitive Church." 44 We know
certain facts from this period that show how far the discernment and caritas
discreta he had learned at the Cardoner had become second nature to him:
"When he was studying, the divine office (which he attended, putting all his
zeal into it), together with hearing Mass and some praying, since they
45
delighted him, he abandoned them."
distraction" in

33

Ignatius

when

is

not a professional theologian, and

reading his Journal, which in no

way

we must

bear this in

mind

pretends to give a doctrinal

illumination of the mystery of the Trinity. But he had done theological

Lainez, "Epistola P. Lainii," no. 12, in

Polanco, "Summar.," no. 21, in

43

Jeronimo Nadal,

FN

S.J.,

Pedro Ribadeneira,

S.J.,

1:82, reflected also, naturally, in

1:162.

"Exhortationes Salmanticenses," no.

Lainez, "Epistola P. Lainii," no. 59, in

45

FN

FN

1:139

[6],

in

FN

1:307.

f.

"Dichos y hechos de N. P. Ignacio," no.

[10], in

FN 2:474.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

and despite

studies;

his

poverty, his apostolic activities, and the

his

age,

17

"fr

done them well and could justify

them with one of the most prestigious degrees of those days, the Master of
Arts of the University of Paris. It is not insignificant that he ranked thirtieth
in a class of about one hundred who earned the licentiate, especially if we
reflect that three years earlier the studious Favre and the brilliant Xavier had
finished twenty-fourth and twenty-second. The theology that Ignatius
studied at Paris was already based on the Summa tbeologica, which had by
then replaced Peter Lombard's Sentences.
frustration of being misunderstood, he had

The

34

three years of studies in Spain and the seven at Paris are a period of

which

assimilation in

than to spiritual

education

his

tempered
sion he

at

caritas discreta

or

makes him

apostolic

more

give

activities.

attention to

His personality,

Manresa, suffers no alteration, except for the constant progres-

made

"He

in perfecting his self-identity.

phy and theology with

dedicated himself to philoso-

and with outstanding fruit," Nadal will

tell us,
who had witnessed in those same halls what he was reporting. "He
studied his matter so thoroughly that we were astonished when we dealt
with any difficulty in his presence." 47 Lainez, who was in a position to
great energy

46

know, mentions the surprising "mastery and majesty" with which he

expressed himself in "theological matters" and the "great understanding of
the things of God, great attraction to them, especially to the

and recondite matters,"

a hint at

some
for

that Ignatius revealed.

along with
reliving in

Cardoner, he found theology

had not

failed to give

and studies had

earlier

ter in

it

him

memory

a field of

of

there in Lainez's words

was enough to

devotion,

being

But,

inclinations.

that experience in the city

already

by the

absorbing interest; and his studies of

the necessary verbal and intellectual articulate-

brought

down on him no

Ordination. In April 1537, the

the priesthood.

all

abstract

Speaking of theological topics without requisite academic qualifications

ness.

35

personal

his

competence and

Ignatius's

marked by constantly
it

Was

more

preternaturally received learning? Being a master of arts of the

University of Paris,

account

48

They

Pope

are ordained in

small difficulties.

them permission to
Venice. Then they spend a
grants

contemplation and penance to get ready for their

them except

off for a year

to seal there,

Ignatius celebrate that September.

and

a half in the

by the reproduction of

the Lord there during his

46
47
48

hope of celebrating

first

Nadal, "Dialogi," no.

S.J.,

it

will

[17], in

trimes-

Masses, which

continue to put

in Jerusalem, in

order

Christ's sacrifice, his encounter with

pilgrimage fourteen years earlier.

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut.

Diego Lainez,

He

first

receive

FN 2:25-53.
FN 2:198.
no. 56, in FN

2," no. [15], in

"Epistola P. Lainii,"

1:136.

When

this

18

Pedro Arrupe,

SJ.

proves impossible, he selects the altar associated with a

Holy Crib

that of the

which

many

are so

the Society, there

the Cardoner.
to his

whole

Mary

St.

Major's in Rome. In

steps leading logically

is

It is

at

harmony

that

relic

we

from

all

Palestine,

these events,

and inexorably to the founding of

instantly recognize: the plashing of

a sort of constant base beat underlying

and giving depth

punctuating and rhythmically marking the beat, accentuat-

life,

ing and structuring the key passages.

III.

36

Acceptance and Confirmation: La Storta (1537)

Ignatius,
sets

brings with
at

the time,

lifestyle

now

ordained a priest but not yet having offered his

out from Venice to

Rome

him two members

"my

toward

the'

first

Mass,

He

end of October 1537.

of the group that he

calls, in a letter

written

nine friends in the Lord." 49 All of them share the ideal and

(we can't yet speak of a charism) that Ignatius gave them:

it

is

same experience
that made Ignatius what he is; consequently, they are so like him now, and
the group is so close-knit a unit. The instrument that produced the change
was the Exercises. They are going to Rome without any great motivation,
because only six months have passed of the ye'ar's wait they have bound
themselves to, and Venice would be the ideal place for realizing the unlikely
possibility of making the voyage. But quite apart from the papal clause in
their vow, Rome the Church, the pope exercises on them an increasing
and mysterious fascination. It is an element of the Ignatian vision that will
grow powerfully in the period now opening up for them. In fact, Ignatius
will very soon draft certain rules for thinking with the Church that will be
inserted into the Exercises. He may not realize it, but he is about to meet his
destiny. The intuition of Manresa will reach its full expansion and its
certainly his vision of things. All have gone through the

fulfillment.

37

He

heads southward toward

Rome

along the Via Cassia with Favre and

Lainez, being "very especially visited

himself remarks.

With the

by the Lord"

(PilgTest [96]), as

he

fervor of his recent priesthood and the intense

preparation for celebrating his

first

Mass he who would

find his sublimest

illuminations occurring at the very time and place of his

Masses it

is

"many

spiritual visions

Letter to

John de Verdolay, Venice, July 24, 1537, in Sancti Ignatii de Loyola

Monumenta Ignatiana, vol. 42 of MHSI (Rome, 1966), 321.

and many, almost frequent consolations.

The opposite of when he was in Paris" (PilgTest [95]). There is the triple
division of time that all the sources mention. With the central period of the

period of

49

EpistoLe et instructions, vol. 12, in

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

19

"time of distraction" behind him, Manresa comes alive again in him with
'

new
trips

"When

force:

he was preparing to say

[his first]

Mass, during

all

those

he had great supernatural visitations of the sort he used to have

Manresa." The testimony, which

is

own

Ignatius's

(PilgTest [95]),

at

could not

be more explicit.
38

He had

decided to spend a year "preparing himself and asking the Virgin

good enough to place him with her Son" (PilgTest [96]). He put it
if being prepared and being placed with her Son were
synonyms. In fact, they are synonyms for Ignatius. His search for acceptance
and confirmation become intense now that he is conscious of being the
nucleus of a group that is groping for the definitive start on its spiritual
path, and he sees himself about to complete his priesthood by going up to
the altar. Ignatius, so favored with special gifts during those days, begs for
that favor of being "placed with the Son," which will be for him a final
to be

precisely that way, as

element in his discernment, an assurance that since the generic

call

at

the

Cardoner he has been following the straight road, and a guiding light for the
tasks that lie before him. If the Cardoner meant both a point of arrival and
a starting point, the same and even more can be said of what is about to
happen at La Storta.
39

At La

Storta, seventeen kilometers

the intersection of the ancient

coming and
village

a lateral road.

Ignatius,

"and making a prayer,

God

felt

from Rome,

Roman

a small chapel stands at

road along which they were

with Lainez and Favre, entered the

such a change coming over his soul and

him with Christ his Son that

he could not doubt that God the Father was indeed placing him with his
Son" (PilgTest [96]). This is the sum total of what we know about the event
saw so

clearly that

the Father was placing

that Ignatius will recount eighteen years later.

40 But Lainez,

who was

present and no doubt received immediate and

detailed confidences, has spelled out for us the content of that illumina-

which could not have had more far-reaching consequences. And

was true" (PilgTest [96]). What
Lainez said and later wrote was this: Ignatius was singularly favored by
spiritual feelings all during the trip from Vicenza to La Storta, especially
when he would receive Communion from the hand of Favre or Lainez
himself. He had the sensation at La Storta that the Father was impressing
these words on his heart: "I will be propitious to you in Rome." On the
tion,

Ignatius has stated that "all that Lainez said

occasion

we

are referring to, Ignatius felt he could "see Christ

with his cross

on his shoulder, and together with him the Father, who was telling him, 'I
want you to serve us.' For this reason, Ignatius, taking great devotion from

20

Pedro Arrupe,

4*

S J.

:8&8::::::::^

most holy name, wanted the congregation

that

to be called the Society of

esus.
J50

The profound meaning

41

of this enlightenment

Persons accept him into their service.

It

very

is

clear: the divine

the divine confirmation that

is

wanted at that crucial moment of his life. The generic call of the
Cardoner is now explicitly and formally restated. Just as had happened at

Ignatius

the time of "that so great illumination," the habitual low-key Ignatian prose

"He felt such a change coming over his soul and saw
vividly." So vividly, we today would add, that seven years later, writing
his Spiritual Journal on February 23, 1544, the peak moment of the

style bursts into flame:

so
in

Trinitarian acceptance and confirmation of his election of absolute poverty

how

for the houses of the Society, he feels compelled to recall

like this

to

is

confirmation of his acceptance at La Storta: "With these thoughts

growing in intensity and seeming to be a confirmation, even though I
received no consolations about this matter, and Jesus' showing himself, or
letting himself be felt, seeming to me to be somehow the work of the Most
Holy Trinity, and remembering when the Father placed me with his Son"
(Spjr February 23, 1544). A passage, let us remark in passing, that he outlined with a box, like all the more important passages of his Journal.
the

The Person who dominates

42

who accepts
who promises to

Father

Father

this apostolic

existence

is

to the Son, just as

the

is

the

it

be propitious to them in Rome. Ignatius, creator of

assured at that very

i
y**7
*/
*7
little, though, the
by

,
road was opening
up ber

r -**r

or

'

him

It is

group and bearer of the virtual charism of the Society whose

Little

the Father, not the Son.

is

Ignatius and gives

^^^^^^^^^

j.

the scene

moment,

received as the servant of Jesus,

is

and of the Father in

the grace that

Two

of the
,

He

has attained

asked for in the colloquy

is

Standards: "to be received un-

der his standard

,

Jesus.

.,.

anci humility,

complete poverty

into
,

which

is

r
the meaning or the
.

Son's appearing to him, not in his infancy

or preaching or resurrection, but carrying

same Ignatian
through Mary to her Son, through the Son to the
his cross.

line

of intercessors:

Father.

The Christology underlying

There

is

also the

these illuminations

fits

into the purest

Pauline and Johannine tradition of leading everything back to the Father

(see

43

Eph. 3:18; Heb. 7:25; John

14:6,

and similar

With such enlightenments from the divine

by the hand toward what the Society will

passages).

Persons, Ignatius

is

as if led

No

one has synthesized

better than Nadal the meaning of that prefoundational period: Ignatius, he

50

Diego Lainez,

S.J.,

be.

"Adhortationes in librum examinis," no.

[7],

in

FN 2:133.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

writes, "spiritum sequebatur,

non

praeibat. Itaque

21

deducebatur quo nesciebat

enim de Ordinis institutione tunc cogitabat; et tamen, pedetentim ad ilium et viam muniebat et iter faciebat, quasi sapienter imprudens, in
simplicitate cordis sui in Christo." The complete promise of the future
Society is given in those lines. "Ignatius was following the spirit, he was not
suaviter, nee

running ahead of

know.
little,
it,

44

He was

it.

And

yet he was being led gently, whither he did not

found the Order. Little by

though, the road was opening up before him and he was moving along
not intending

that time to

at

51
wisely ignorant, with his heart placed very simply in Christ."

The destiny

of the Society was determined

been compatible even with the

at

La

trip to Jerusalem,

Storta.

It

might have

although that would

whole series of futuribles about which we can only guess. But

the confirmation at La Storta pointed to Rome as the privileged point of
reference for the Society, and the papal clause in the vow at Montmartre,
which was only a possible alternative, was to determine its destiny. Only six
months remained of the year they were to wait, after which the vow of
going to Jerusalem would yield to the alternate obligation of "presenting
themselves to the Vicar of Christ, so that he might use them wherever he
judged would be for the greater glory of God and the good of souls" (PilgTest [85]). All that terminology "he might use them," "the Vicar of Christ,"
"the greater glory of God," "the good of souls" is already typically Jesuit.
The special bond to the Vicar of Christ is becoming clearer and clearer. If
even at the Cardoner his "feelings about the divine mysteries" were extended
52
after Montmartre and now at La Storta
to include those of the Church,
before the gates of Rome, he sees that service of the Church involves
have implied

availability to the Vicar of Christ.

45

There are two fundamental points made very clearly

rary accounts we have of what happened at La Storta.
1.

The group overtone

Even during
at

Ignatius's

Salamanca:

told him:

Deum

When

life,

in the

in the Son's acceptance of Ignatius

in 1554,

Nadal pointed

this out in his

contempo-

is

the

first.

conference

Christ appeared to Ignatius with the cross, the Father

you

will be propitious to

in

Rome, "quo manifeste

significabat

nos in socios Iesu elegisse" [thereby clearly indicating that

God had

companions of Jesus'] (PilgTest [85]). Nadal added in his own

handwriting those three words (which the copyist had omitted) that we have
emphasized, because he wanted to be very explicit. The founder's most
chosen us

51

as

Nadal, "Dialogi," no.

FN 2:251-53.
no. [5], FN 1:306

[17], in

"Nadal, "Exhort. Salmant.,"

f.

22

Pedro Arrupe,

SJ.

trustworthy contemporaries were unshakably sure that the Society was born
at

46

La

Storta.

2.

53

The name

"J esus

"

the second fundamental point.

is

The companions

had agreed on that name at Vicenza, before setting out by different roads
toward Rome. The proposal had come from Ignatius's "personal initiative,
asking his companions very insistently, before having constitutions or
anything

liked the idea"

Storta.

our Society be called the Society of Jesus. And they all

no. [25]). His initiative was fully confirmed at La

else, that

(ibid.,

Immediately

after his

the Son, Nadal .continues:

our Society

is

how adamant

In this matter of the

say he

would

doubt that

one

since

is

it

54

This

name was

can change

it."

55

follows that

it

so important for

Polanco, obviously,

Ignatius was:

many visitations
that I heard him
against God and offending him, were he to

name he had

so

and that even

if

those in the

all

should be changed, he alone would never agree to

our Constitutions that no decision

in

disagrees, that

Our

God

"only

was accepted there by

Ignatius

that origin, Christ Jesus,

was the proper name

this

it

it,

he was acting

feel

Society thought

And

"From

called the Society of Jesus."

Ignatius that, as he put

mentions

how

account of

name would

is

to be taken

if

that.

even

therefore never be changed in his lifetime.

father Master Ignatius always has this unshakable certainty in things

that he has learned

brook arguments

by some higher-than-human way, and hence

to the contrary.

will not

56

The acceptance of Ignatius's oblation and the shaping of the Society's

being are only two facets of the same thing. One cannot be imagined
without the other. The presence of the divine Persons presides over both.

We may

say, in a

word, that

at

La Storta the following points were

estab-

lished:

Ignatius's spiritual

intuition of the
is

to carry

The

it

and psychological

Cardoner reaches

solidity.

its full

He

is

maturity:

accepted and his

all

that remains

out;

institutionalization of the group of

companions

is

accepted as

part of the plan;

The name "Society

of Jesus";

Service in humility and with the cross;

53

54
55

56

See Jeronimo Nadal,

Ibid. See also

S.J.,

Adbortatio in Collegio Romano, no.

Jeronimo Nadal,

S.J.,

"In

Nadal, "Exhort. Salmant.," no.

[17], in

Polanco, "Suramar," no. 86, in

FN

[24], in

examen annotationes,"

FN

1:203

f.

1:314.

in

FN 2:10.

MN 4:650.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

The

ecclesial link in the

person of the Vicar of Christ

23

<

as the giver of

mission.

48

The dizzying speed

has matured and

companions.

Montmartre

(it

year

that events

how

now assume shows how

powerful an
in

later,

November

far the project

La Storta has had on the

effect

vow

1538, they carry out the

of

vow, not of obedience, but of availability) and offer

themselves to the Pope. The imminence of an inevitable dispersion raises the
supreme question: how to make the personal link that each one has with the
Roman Pontiff compatible with the link of affectivity and shared ideals that
57
they have with one another. The unanimous answer is to "form a body,"
to institutionalize their Society of Jesus. There follow the Deliberations and
Determinations.

is

It

not

is

at all

strange that the

ence to the Supreme Pontiff."

If I
it

because

feel

doorway

for

necessary to complete and illuminate the very

it

information that Ignatius gives us

stating the fact without going into

worthy

of obedi-

have dwelt on this analysis and have referred so often to the sources,

is

discreet

the

is

"Who-

is

vow

explicit

Obedience to the pope

entering the Society.

49

decision taken

make an

ever wants to enter the Society will have to

58

first

details supplied

by

his

usually

doing no more than

contents with the absolutely

its

immediate collaborators.

God

has blessed the

Society of Jesus with an unequaled documentation concerning

now

of which has

been published.

From

its

origins,

we

study of these sources,

trust-

all

get the

profound conviction that Ignatius's call at the Cardoner and the confirmation at La Storta took place amid the most sublime communications from
the divine Persons to our founder.
50

was apparently unable to

event, is his tendency to

Ignatius

carry things to the very

ulti-

The former gentleman

court and captain on the

mate.
at

battlefield always

spurned me-

diocrity and compromises: he

aspired for the

noblest lady,

settle for

anything

less.

Such, in any

^
Gad

n
,
T7
j i
.
r T
has blessed the Society of Jesus

wlth an

equaled

documentation

concerning

its

origins.

he wanted to outstrip the

saints, later

"Our

he would refuse to leave a court

trial

without getting

a verdict.

father Ignatius had a great character, a great soul; and with the further

See
58

MonCons

1:3,

no.

[1].

'Determinationes Societatis," no.

[1],

in

MonCons

1:10.

24

Pedro Arrupe,

4*

S.J.

help of our Lord's grace, he always strove to undertake great things." 59

who

will be the

one

before

Trinity,

the

pursues the magis, the greater glory of God. Kneeling

that

fontal

mystery of the divine Essence, Ignatius

follows his wildest ambitions and accepts his

how

He

own "measure" the mystery

of

and unworthiness are called to collaborate in the divine

the sentiment he had in the days of the Cardoner: "to consider

his puniness

action. It

is

God's attributes, contrasting them with his contraries in me his wisdom

and my ignorance, his goodness and my wickedness" (SpEx 9). Now, admitted to the intimacy of the Trinity and with his vocation of service confirmed, he considers anew and purifies the limitations of his cooperation:
"Thus, my limited power comes from the supreme and infinite power
above" (SpEx 237), or as the Journal puts it, "measuring my 'measure' against
the divine wisdom and greatness" (February 18, 1544).

The

IV.

Trinitarian Peak:

The

Spiritual Journal

(February 1544-February 1545)

51

What we have

said about the Trinitarian source of Ignatius's vocation at

the Cardoner and his acceptance and confirmation

at

La

Storta impinges

on the Ignatian charism at its loftiest level as an exemplary image in which

only the key elements, still without their ulterior determinations and
complements, are present. Such essential elements are the divine service by
following Christ in poverty and the cross, out of love, without conditions or
restrictions, as

companions of

Jesus, in close association

with the Vicar of

Christ.

52

year after La Storta, in

selves to the

November

Pope and take the

companions

1538, the

offer

them-

foundation process. In a

final steps of the

from those days, Ignatius himself tells us what is running through his
mind: they do not venture to accept new companions lest they be accused of
making themselves an institution before the papal approbation. But their
unity grows: "And so now, even if we are not one in our way of proceed60
There is no
ing, we are all one in spirit, so as to plan our future together."
unanimity yet, but they continue working at the Deliberations and Determiletter

nations through the

Formula

is

pontifical

59

spring of 1539; that

the

draft

of the

prepared, which the Pope approves orally on September

document comes only

a year later, in 1540:

it

is

the

first

3.

first

The

organic

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut. 3," no. 60, in Commentlnst 296. See also his

Apologia contra censuram, no.

60

summer

[30], in

Letter to Isabel Roser,

FN 2:62

December

f.

19, 1538, in

FN

1:13.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Cbarism

25

*fr

statement of the Society's charism. The following April, Ignatius

elected

is

work on the Constiand finishes the first draft in 1545. The Journal, which we will look
into now, covers precisely those final days: February 1544 to February 1545.
general and the professions are made. Ignatius begins to

tutions

shows how much the process of converting the

original intuitions of the Cardoner and La Storta into institutional
principles which are nothing but the Constitutionsalso proceeds in a
Trinitarian light. Without this exceptional document, we could never guess
what lies behind that modest phrase in Ignatius's autobiography: "All his life
long he had this sense of feeling a great devotion when praying to the Most
Holy Trinity" (PilgTest [28]). Certainly, Goncalves da Camara ends the
manuscript of the autobiography with his own observations and not with
any words of Ignatius: "The practice the Father observed when writing the
Constitutions was to say Mass each day and to represent to God the point he
was dealing with and to pray over that" ([PilgTest [101]).
53

The

Spiritual Journal

When he
And thus

was writing the Constitutions too he frequently had [visions].

he showed rue a very fat bundle of writings, of which he read me
a part. Most of it was visions that he had seen in confirmation of some
point of the Constitutions, some times seeing God the Father, at other times
the three Persons of the Trinity, at other times the Virgin who was interceding, at other times when she was confirrning. (ibid., [100])

Who

God by

had been "led by

Cross"?

the ways of an infused contemplation,

not in the same way,

61

Who

as a St.

could have suspected that this

election, analyzes the

What we
book

still

motions that

justify

it,

and

gives thanks for

of fourteen sheets corresponding to the forty days

is

no doubt

bundle of writings, of which he read

Camara. "Most of

it

of the Constitutions.

want to"

offers

it,

are

let

[100

f.]).

me

note-

when he was

minimal part of that "very fat

a pan" that he showed to da

have them for

Those

epilogue to the autobiography.

made him keep

me

first

it?

was visions he had seen in confirmation of some point

... I wanted to see all those papers about the Constitu-

asked him to
(PilgTest

the same

St.

possess of the Journal (twenty-five sheets, the

deliberating over poverty)

and

we

is

at

John of the
the context by which
referring to, makes his

Francis of Assisi or a

Ignatius, at least at this concrete point that

tions

could have guessed on the evidence of such generic words that Ignatius

level, if

54

are

the

Not even

a little while; but

closing lines

of da

he did not

Camara's

for a little while. Several factors

which he had been acting: a

feeling of modesty and humility, of loyalty to the Lord who had admitted
him to his confidences, and possibly, too, a chivalrous solicitude for the

61

De

to himself the lights under

Guibert,

Jesuits, 27.

26

Pedro Arrupe,

freedom of those

S.J.

who would

have to read and approve his work without the

inspired helps for decision that he had enjoyed.
55

The Journal

is

notes written exclusively for himself with the spontaneity

and absolute lack of inhibition, even a literary one, of someone who is

sure they will not be violated by others' eyes. In it, we see the interior of
Ignatius's soul unveiled: his Trinitarian and Eucharistic spirituality, the lofty
levels of infused understanding and love at which he moved, his fidelity to
the Exercises'

method

of election and of discernment of spirits, the total

consistency between his ascetical spirituality and his mysticism, the connec-

model and

tion between the Trinitarian

also the reflection of not a

56

few

traits

certain elements of his charism, and

human psychology and

of his

Someone who reads the Journal for

two things about it. The first is

the

first

personality.

time cannot help but notice

the rigor of self-analysis to which

Ignatius subjects himself, in keeping with a basic trait of his character. That

"stopping to think, reasoning within himself," which he mentions

teristic
[7]),

about himself

as early as in his readings as a

and which reappears no

grammatically incorrect

but

less

as charac-

convalescent (PilgTest

than thirteen times in the Exercises in

extremely expressive

phrase:

"reflecting

in

myself" (SpEx 106-8, 114, 116), reaches in the Journal the perfection of a

masterwork of introspection. The second observation is Ignatius's care for

exactitude in noting down the kind, duration, amount, and intensity of the
grace received. That desire for precision explains the pentimenti that change
the text over and over again: "the crossing out of words, which tells us
something, which shows us in the words added in the margin of the page, in
words begun and not finished, the varying moments of composition and the
62
Ignatius
reactions that various motions kept producing in his spirit."
outlines the more important passages in a box and adds mysterious marginal
references. And as if that were not enough, he copies on three separate
sheets (one of which is still extant in Madrid) those special paragraphs, all
referring to the Trinity or to Jesus Christ as Mediator with the Trinity.
57

We

all

know

about that particular problem in the Constitutions over

which he made an
Journal.

And

that, in

from the destruction

writings." It was not

election during the forty

my

view, explains

why

most important days of

his

those pages have been saved

that befell the other pages of that "very fat bundle of

problem of minor importance, as has been hypothesized at times when guessing at the magnitude and intensity of yet other
graces that he might have received when presenting even more important
points to the Trinity. For Ignatius, few matters were more important or

62

completas de

Ignacio Iparraguirre,
S.

S.J.,

"Introduction to the Spiritual Journal," in

Ignacio de Loyola, 3rd ed. (Madrid: 1977), 338.

Obras

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Cbarism

more deserving

of so decisive an approval before

27

making the decision which

was urging upon him. Three years before, in the Deliberations of

1541 (the so-called Constitutions of 1541), the six companions who had stayed
in Rome with full powers had decided that the poverty of the professed
houses should be absolute, without any possibility of having income. But
they had permitted income for the upkeep of the churches annexed to such
houses: "The sacristy may have income for all matters of necessity that will
63
This seemed to Ignatius, at the moment of
not be for the professed."
his heart

drafting the Constitutions, to

whom

fall

short of the absolute poverty of Christ

he wanted to follow, and to renege on his "offerings of greater value

and of more importance ... to imitate you in bearing ...

actual and spiritual" (SpEx 98).
58

Ignatius

is

torn between his loyalty to the poor Christ,

all

poverty, both

whom

he wants

to follow in the line of the magis, and his respect for the decision of his

companions.

How

can he forbid the churches to have an income, thereby

imposing on the Society

poverty more

rigorous contemplative orders? (Even

total

St.

than that of the

strictest,

most

Teresa of Avila would to a certain

degree permit such income for her reformed convents.) Ignatius

felt

that

one

on which rest the Society's apostolic freedom and

following Christ was at stake here. There might be more

of the fundamental pillars

its

perfection in

important problems; but since they were

confirmation from on high

as

much

less

disputed, they did not need

as this one.

This was the crucial prob-

lem. For that reason, and not only because they were the report of graces
received (which were no doubt

"very

fat

many

all

through the other pages of that

bundle of writings"), Ignatius spared those pages from the destruc-

tion that was the fate of the rest: because should the case ever arise (for he

never dreamed of refusing the dialog to which his companions had

before they

would approve the

Constitutions he

was

drafting),

a right

he could

appeal to the seriousness of his procedure and the divine confirmation that

had brought him to such

59

What

interests

a stand.

now,
which we find most

us directly, here and

Ignatius's mystical

life,

is

not a general study of

clearly

documented

in the

Journal, but the fact of the Trinitarian confirmation given to Ignatius

on

concrete point that he judges essential in his charism and wants to convert
into one of the Society's constitutional "ways of proceeding."

We

appreciate that Trinitarian confirmation, though, without looking,

a

panoramic overview,

at

the inner spiritual world of Ignatius.

Constitutiones anni 1541, in

MonCons

1:35.

can hardly
at least in

One compe-

28

Pedro Arrupe,

SJ.

resume of the ascensional rhythm of the Journal, among many

that have been proposed, could be the following. 64
tent writer's

From

the divine Persons, contemplated separately, to the unity of their

circumincession [sometimes spelled "circuminsession] (February 2-21).

From

man

the

i/l

From

who

Jesus,

experiences and inner

life,

become the center of

has

God

to the

Ignatius's

Jesus (February 21-28).

the second Person to the unifying plenitude of the divine

Essence in

itself.

It

his tentative

is

unity (February 29-March

discovery of the transcendent

6).

Gratitude in a loving respect and reverence.

60

Here

sampling of quotations from Ignatius that inform us in a

particular way about the Trinitarian communications connected with his
is

decision for total poverty:

"The
y/~

intelligences

had to do with the operations and productions of

the divine Persons,

(February

21).

The content of

*y

this

illumination

under the formal

Son (February 19, 1544).

That same February

there was practically nothing

Trinity. ...

knew

the procession of the

Holy

21:

Feeling spiritual intelligences, so

Holy

is

aspect of the operation of the Father and

Spirit,

y/

more than understanding"

or seeing

feeling

much

more

or

felt,

to

so that

know

Dominus

Father, in seeing that he was a Person of the

seemed to understand that

in

this

scit,

matter of the Most

that in speaking to the

Most Blessed

Trinity,

was

moved to love the entire Trinity, especially since the other Persons were in
him essentially. I had the same experience in the prayer to the Son. The
same too in that to the Holy Spirit, rejoicing in one after the other as I felt
consolations, attributing this to

and

rejoicing that

it

came from all three

(February 21, 1544).

Ignatius

is

again speaking about circumincession here.

The adverb

"essen-

by the unity of their Essence, in each of the three

Divine Persons the other two are present. This illumination is so extraordinary that Ignatius's account of it, normally as objective as a mere listing of
facts, evokes from him an "exclamation of admiration with heightened
tially"

indicates that

and an application of "his own measure" in contrast to

the divine condescension: "In untying this knot or whatever, the fact seemed
affection" (SpEx 60)

so great to

64

me

that

never stopped saying, speaking to myself:

Iparraguirre, Obras completas, 331 n. 24.

Who

are

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

you?

How

can this be?

etc.

How

did you deserve this? or,

29

4*

Whence

did

it

come? and so on."

Two

days

later:

seeming to be
about

tions

"With these thoughts growing in intensity and

even though I received no consolamatter and Jesus' showing himself or letting

a confirmation,

this

Most Holy

Trinity,

me

somehow the work of the

and remembering when the Father placed me

himself be felt seeming to

to be

with his Son" (February 23, 1544). Ignatius here remembers Jesus
laden with his cross, to whom the Father gave him as a servant:
"Later, the time that

day when

recalled or

remembered

Jesus, a

certain feeling or seeing with the understanding in constant devo-

tion and confirmation."

"A

more properly a seeing, apart from the natural forces,

Holy
Trinity and Jesus, who was presenting me or placing
Most
me or being my intermediary with the Most Holy Trinity so that
that intellectual vision would be communicated to me. With this
feeling, or

the

and seeing, I was deluged with tears and love, but directed to
and a deferential respect for the Most Holy Trinity, more like

feeling
Jesus;

a reverential love than anything else" (February 27, 1544).

61

All this situates Ignatius's deliberation at truly sublime heights. But

is,

the

concretely,

reason that

moves him

to

what

consider imposing so

on the Society? He will explain this to us in the first part

deliberation when, following the method that he himself gave in the

singular a poverty

of his

Exercises,
to

he turns

reflect

and

get

into

and that done, having picked up the

elections,

had written out [the autograph manuscript of the Deliberation on

which we still have] 65 to reflect on them, praying to our Lady, then
to the Son and to the Father that he would give me his Spirit to reflect and
discern [third and second time of the Spiritual Exercises], although I was
reasons

Poverty,

talking of something already done, feeling deep devotion and certain lights

with some clearness of vision,

whether

down, considering,

as

were

it

should have complete or partial income, or none

lost all desire to see

any reasons. Other thoughts came to

how the Son

and afterward the Holy
for example,

65

I sat

first

confirmed them,

Meaning

that both houses and churches should have

income), that only churches should have

(i.e.,

me

giving

1:78.

it

at all,

66

and

at that point:

sent out the apostles in poverty to preach,

Spirit

MonCons

churches should have

in general,

no income).

it

(i.e.,

his

spirit

income

(i.e.,

and

complete

partial income), or that neither houses

nor

30

Pedro Arrupe,

4*

SJ.

tongues; and thus the Father and

Son sending the Holy

Persons confirmed that mission. (Spjr February

62

This

is

Spirit,

all

11, 1544)

the key. In those illuminations, Ignatius sees that the

Trinity has confirmed an apostolic poverty that

believe that the Society can vary

from

three

that model.

is

Most Holy

absolute and does not

The

rest of the

Journal

is

a search for an identical confirmation of a similar poverty for the Society.

When

he has finished that process with the complete divine confirmation,

by an act of the will into which

he puts his whole personality, indents as if
for * who e new P a S ra P h * nd writes

Ignatius,

'With

this feeling
r

and
j

seeing, I

word,

single

a
was deluded with

tears and love.

r

as

only he can do, erammatij

and redolent or genius, but

-j

a.
worth more than a painting: t:
rinido.
cally imperfect

When

he

starts

new

page, although he

had written no more than ten lines on the

preceding page, he begins with a marginal note: "I took these four days off,
looking at nothing of the Constitutions" (March 12, 1544). It is his welldeserved rest after a task carefully done. Those pages of the Journal deserved
indeed to be saved!

The outcome

known. In the revised version of the

Formula presented to Julius III in 1550, the following words will be
added to the prior version approved by Paul III: "professi, vel ulla eorum
domus aut ecclesia." Those two words, "aut ecclesia," are the scant remnant
67
in the Constitutions of that long drawn out spiritual effort.
63

of the episode

is

well

V. The Ignatian Charism Seen in the Trinitarian Light

64

When we

finish reading the twenty-five pages of the Journal,

pondering

on them in the blinding Trinitarian light that radiates from them, and
wondering what that "very fat bundle" of which most was "visions he had
seen in confirmation of some point of the Constitutions" must have been, we
have to be puzzled by this simple fact: Ignatius does not mention the Most
Holy Trinity a single time in the Constitutions^. This bare fact shows us how
great was his discretion, his humility, and his judiciousness. And yet, now
that we have his secret, we must illuminate the various elements of the

67

Society

Formula

and

Inst. Julii III,

no.

7,

conveniently found in The Constitutions of the

Their Complementary

of Jesus
1996), 10. This latter source will be cited

as

Norms

(St.

ConsNorms.

Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources,

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

Ignatian charism with this Trinitarian light

point of reference.

We

65

know, by

own

Ignatius's

we want

if

to grasp

ultimate

its

^
we have

testimony, that

common

certain concrete decisions about our

life

the

31

to understand

absence of choir

no importance") and the use of pilgrimages as

"trials" are examples of this in the light of "something that happened to me
68
at Manresa."
Nadal explains this more fully, referring to his confidences
with the founder: "When asked why he had done this or that, he was wont
and habit

is

refer

all

to answer:

'I

Manresa.'"

to

way

of

("the habit

69

it

Even

back

in

^^~~~

his

of proceeding in govern'

XT j

Nadal goes
j

elude that*
i

tius

had

rar

as

as

Igna-

71

[an exceedingly clear understanding of the future Institute],

I

mentioned above.

have no desire to give

interpretation to these generic statements of Nadal, about

abundant bibliography.

do believe, though, that

to underline the Trinitarian

Ignatian charism, as

66

Service

it

is

the "praenotio

maximalist

which there

is

an

extremely important

source of certain fundamental

we can conclude from

and La Storta and from

.^^^^

"praeclarissimam

that

the Ignatian
charism.
d

futuri Instituti intelligentiam"

Instituti"

extreme ly im .

fa

to con-

La c.
Storta

'+^
j t
*.l
portant to underline
the Trinitarian
r
j
r
i
r
source of
certain fundamental traits of
J
J
.

at

j do fcrffcw

what he saw
ment as general,
&
_ ,
70
at Manresa is his criterion.

^~^~

the experiences

at

traits

the

of the

Cardoner

his Spiritual Journal.

and mission. Immersion

in the Trinitarian light,

with

its gifts

of

infused understanding and love, does not bring Ignatius to the mysticism

of marriage or of a transforming union to

which other contemplatives

the Cardoner might have led

His conversion and transformation at

him to an eremitical, penitential, and contemplative
arrived.

spirituality.

The

fact

do not must be attributed, at least in part, to his natural predispoarduous tasks and to his courtly and military formation; but above
all, to the divine plan and to the message conveyed by the illuminations
with which he is favored.
that they

sition for

68

69

no. [11], in
70
71

Da Camara,

Memoriale, no. 137, in

Nadal, "Exhort. Colon.," no.

FN 2:152;

[8],

and "Exhort. Complut.

Nadal, Adhort. in

Coll.

Nadal, "Dialogi," no.

FN

in

FN

f.

2:406. See also "Exhort.

2," no. [10], in

Romano, no.

[24], in

1:609

[12], in

FN 2:259

f.

FN

FN
2:6.

2:193.

Conimbr.

3,'

32

67

Pedro Arrupe,

The enlightenment

at

S J.

Cardoner

the

a virtual

is

from contemplation of the Trinity

pass

summons.

Ignatius will

works

to contemplation of the

of the Trinity, in order finally to aspire to be admitted to collaboration with

that action of the Trinity.

what

It is

mysticism that leads him to action. Because

revealed to him, with contours that are imprecise but will

is

be

progressively enriched and sharpened from the Cardoner (1522) to La Storta

to the period of the Spiritual Journal (1544) and

(1537),
(1556),

is

up to

death

his

an

bosom

understanding, in the
Paul, of

how

all

things issue

of the Trinity, of the mystery announced

from God and return

the mysteries of creation, of man's

up

are caught

mystery of Christ
Christ

is

not the model of

is

this

humility, poverty, patience, zeal,

One who,

fall,

movement of
revealed to him

in that

by

to him. Ignatius sees that

Church
Above all, the
What he sees in

of redemption, and of the

descent and ascent.

in that perspective.

or that virtue, however perfect, such as

For

etc.

Ignatius, Christ

is

above

all

the

being always conscious of issuing from the Father and of return-

ing to him, continuously contemplates the Father's designs in order to

and openness of spirit,

what the Father wants from him for the

discern, so to speak, in a perfect indifference of heart

without preconceived
realization of his
It

is

limits,

work and

his greater glory.

72

not a Platonic contemplation, but one that

The work

Ignatius's heart.

commands

a reply

from

of Christ has to be furthered, and furthered with

the same modalities with which Christ did

an unconditional, universal

as

it:

mission, and with a kenosis which means poverty, humility, and the cross

and in constant union with the Father.

68

Ignatius feels interiorly compelled to

discernment and an election of a

Kingdom and
tion,"

the

Two

he replies to the

Standards,
call.

At the Cardoner, the group

priestly aspect.

But are we

He

all

make

that his

state of life,

on the

will be a

destiny.

life's

By

by the meditation on the

basis of "that so great illumina-

man

of the greater divine service.

aspect of that service

is still

absent,

and even the

not perhaps talking already of things that are the

Society?

69

We

have seen the advance that La Storta marked in that service:

Trinitarian acceptance,

the name.
its

Ours

is

its

group overtones, the

cross, its focus

The

on Rome,

not an effort here to write a monograph on service (and

equivalent, glory) in the Ignatian charism, but to highlight

inspiration.

its

Spiritual Journal brings out

how

its

Trinitarian

Ignatius conceives every-

thing as issuing from and going back to the Trinity, as an external reflection

72

1955), 54.

R. Cantin, "L'lllumination du Cardoner," in Sciences

ecclesiastiques

(Montreal,

Char ism

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian

of circumincession.

He

feels called to associate

33

himself with that work, to

serve.

70

Ignatius looks to find the initial and final point of his discernment in the
Trinity, with an attitude of respect and reverence like that of a servant

before his king, aware that he has a mission to carry out. All discernment

is

and the unlimit-

a function of service, because the unlimitedness of the task

means for carrying it out impose a criterion of reduction

and application. Ignatius comes to the Trinity after making his offering, "not

edness, too, of the

Most Holy Trinity a

decision may be made regarding me concerning his greater service, etc., by
the most expedient way" (Spjr February 27, 1544). "The most expedient
way": that means complete availability. Like the branches of a trunk, all the
characteristics of Ignatius's apostolic service are derived from this "greater
service" that must be given "by the most expedient way": "Our goal does
not stop at the intention, since we must always look to the greater glory of
God, always go further in charity; the extension is as great as charity goes;
the means are as many as can be used by the humility of a simple priest."
There is no ministry that falls outside the Society's field of apostolate, no
man who can not make a claim on it, no honest means that is excluded, no
advantage that would exempt one from trying to do ever more and more.
at all for a

further confirmation, but so that before the

had other illuminations: "As the Son first sent out the apostles
to preach, and then the Holy Spirit confirmed them, giving his spirit
and tongues, so, the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit, all three
Persons confirm that mission" (Spjr February 11, 1544). This is the entire
theology of mission that Ignatius makes completely his: Christ gives the
mission, the Holy Spirit confirms it with his gifts, for the glory of the
Father. It is the extension ad extra of the "expiration" by which the Father
and the Son eternally "send" the Holy Spirit.
71

Ignatius

72

In an apostolic service conceived

the Trinity,

we

are likely to

make

on so grandiose
little

a scale in the light of

allowance for

human

limitations.

Ignatius frames this service in a strong hierarchical context and gives

meaning of combat "to

fight for

the ultimate point of reference

God," "soldiers of Christ

is still

who

fight"

74

it

but

Trinitarian:

owed primarily

Supreme
Pontiff "in order to be more surely directed by the Holy Spirit."
Discernment is to be asked for from the Holy Spirit at one's very
In the apostolic obedience that

entrance into the Society, for

73

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut.

74

"Formula

is

it is

the Spirit

3," no. [74], in

Inst. Julii III," nos.

1, 3, 4,

in

who

calls (ibid., [4]);

Commmentlnst

ConsNorms,

1-8.

to the

308.

34

Pedro Arrupe,

SJ.

In the discernment of concrete options in both our personal and

our community

norms

In the

life,

which has

roots in the Cardoner;

its

for the selection of ministries that guarantee the

characteristics of the apostolic mission, as

was seen

it

at

the Cardo-

ner.

73

an essential

It is

trait

of the Ignatian charism, and one of clear Trinitar-

ian origin in the vision of

done

in humiliation

and the

La

Storta, that the following of Christ

That

how

is

Ignatius understood

to be

and
this aspect is the topic of his conversation with Favre and Lainez immediately after they leave the chapel and continue on their way to Rome.
cross.

is

it,

Persecutions will be necessary to maintain

the Society's militant temper, and in this

There

is

mav7

* -j
r 11
*
>
+i
o
mils outside the Society s
-

r-

i i

I Snati " s

sense

no ministry that

never be
^^^^^^

P ra^ '}* Persecutions

They

lacking.

^,

^ nM ^

are

also

proor oi hdelity to Christ, a sign that Jesu-

field of apostolate,

h$

of

The

16:14).

life

and

lawsuits

demanded by

world

of Ignatius,

15:lg _

dotted with

sentences sometimes

insis-

end to accusations made him

him experientially that the following of
Christ brings much hostility. With his habitual flair for reflection, he had
seen that persecutions are lacking only when we do not work at our aposto-

tently

Ignatius, since putting an

freer for greater service

late.

74

taught

75

But the cross that the Lord bore on

external persecutions;

it

also,

humility, poverty, self-abnegation.

his

shoulders means not only

and primarily, means following him in

It

means stripping oneself of everything,

including honor and a good name, regarding these as well sacrificed

"greater service"

is

at stake.

abnegation and cross with the appellation

when

this very well by linking that

Nadal explains

"least,"

which

is

a comparative of

"The foundation of the Society is Jesus Christ with his cross for
the salvation of souls, as was made clear to our blessed father when God the
inferiority:

Father placed him with his Son.

Jesus Christ

is

From

this

it

our Foundation and Captain,

follows that the Society, since

whom we

must imitate

spiritu-

meekness and humility, is to be called the 'least'

That
is
what Ignatius always called his Society, particularly
Jesus."
77
matters and missions of greater importance.

Society of

ally, especially in
76

Ribadeneira, "Dichos y hechos," no. 93, in

76

77

/W 2:381.

Jeronimo Nadal, "Exhortatio incerto tempore," no.

Nadal, "Exhort. Salmant," no.

[12], in

FN 1:311

f.

2,

in

Commentlnst 490.

in

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian

Char ism

35

no better synthesis of what the cross taught Ignatius at La

Storta than this paragraph of Nadal's, which would deserve a long
exegesis full of Jesuit, biblical, and theological overtones:
75

There

It

is

helps to exercise oneself and to consider and feel that

Jesus Christ,

who

still

carries his cross in the

eternal Father has given us as servants,

whom

militant, to

follow

the

him with our own

i.e.,

mission for which

perfect souls, with
is

Church

we

are following

and want nothing more from the world than what he wanted and
poverty, opprobrium, toil, pain, even death, exercising the

crosses

took,

if

we

God had
all

our delight too, for

sent

him

into the world,

obedience and perfection in

it

all

which was to save and

virtues. But our cross

already has the splendor and glory of Jesus' victory

over death, his resurrection and his ascension. 78

76

The

trait

of being contemplatives in action

Society's charism.

It

is

is

astonishing to see that

through the mystical experiences recounted in

also Trinitarian in the

when

Ignatius

his Journal,

he

is

is

going

simulta-

neously carrying on his nor-

government of
the Society, numerous letters,
visits made and received, and

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^_^^^__^^_

other apostolic occupations.

its

mal

activities:

In those very days he is

founding the House of St.
Martha for reformed prostitutes, negotiating with the

Pope

to revoke the limitation

of the Society to sixty pro-

fessed Jesuits, founding a

house for catechumens, and so

on.

None

some of

Jt does not

seem

ri8ht t0

me

t0

chat"

actenze Ignatian spirituality by

^^

asceticism, as has been done, con-

sciously or unconsciously,

more

perhaps

in the past than today. This

does not mean, naturally, that there

is

no Ignatian asceticism.

^^^~^^^~

of that distracts Ignatius from his Trinitarian intimacy: he receives

his extraordinary graces right in the waiting

even in the

rooms of

cardinals,

and

street.

Contemplation does not exclude action. When Nadal tells how Ignatius's
spiritual life was centered on the Trinity, especially in his final years, he
ends thus: "This sort of prayer that our father Ignatius obtained so exceptionally, by a great privilege of God, used to make him also feel the presence
of God and a relish for spiritual things in all things, in all his actions, in all
77

his conversations, being

by saying

that

we must

Jeronimo Nadal,

contemplative in action (which he used to explain

find

S.J.,

God

in

all

things)."

79

Ignatius endeavored "to

"Orationis ratio in Societate," in

Nadal, "In examen annotationes," in

MN 4:651.

MN 4:678.

36

Pedro Arrupe,

teach the Society that

its

SJ.

prayer should not be speculative, but practical." 80

So did Nadal too, when he crisscrossed Europe explaining the Constitutions

and transmitting to the new communities the Society's authentic way of
proceeding.

He

said at Alcala:

Prayer and solitude, without external means for helping

souls, are

proper to

monastic congregations and those of hermits, but not to our Institute.

Anyone who wants solitude and only prayer, who likes to be off in a
corner and to

our

calling.

flee
.

vocation that
ourselves,

few

helps

men and

for

is.

anyone

Our

them

for his

own

to

do them good,
Carthusians

not for

is
.

whose

vocation demands more of us than just to help

and the grace of our Order helps us

lines further on,

him

contacts with

like that, there are the

in this sense.

81

he adds, "Let no one think that in the Society

sake."

It is

God

precisely the contemplation of the Trini-

tarian mysteries that turns Ignatius

toward apostolic

activity.

As becomes

key passages of his Journal (for March 7, 1544), his spiritual circle
begins by "looking upward" as he seeks in God the light and the primordial
image; he does not stop there, though, but goes on, "coming down to the
letter" in order to keep on finding him in earthly realities. To rise from
creatures to the Creator is a form of prayer certainly not unknown to
Ignatius. But even more typical of him is the subsequent "descent," from on
high down to creatures as the term of the divine action. 82 In his first visit to
Spain, in 1553, Nadal insists that this, in proper measure, is what is proper
for every Jesuit: "The sentiment of prayer and its affection that inclines
toward recollection and a not necessary [freely chosen(?)] solitude do not
seem to be the proper prayer for the Society, but one that inclines toward
clear in

the exercise of

78

its

83
vocation and ministry."

But not only should prayer energize apostolic

activity;

apostolic activity should nourish and foster prayer. This

is

conversely,

Nadal's classic

theory of the circle of action-contemplation:

This

is

the circle that there

is,

as I so often say, in the Society's ministries:

what you did for your neighbors and how you served God in those ministries help you further back at home, in your prayer and in the occupations
you have there; and that greater help enables you later to busy yourself

80

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut. 2," nos.

81

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut. 3," no.

82

(See n.

See

Hugo Rahner,

S.J.,

[8

f.],

in

[83], in

FN 2:190-92.

Commentlnst 324.

quoted by Iparraguirre in Obras completas, 376

64 above).
83

Nadal, "Orationis ratio in Soc," in

MN 4:673.

n. 226.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

more

more

earnestly and

fruitfully

for

37

your neighbor. So that the one

exercise sometimes helps the other, and conversely. 84

79

would

add an observation here that

like to

me

not seem right to

consider necessary.

by

to characterize Ignatian spirituality

cism, as has been done, consciously or unconsciously, perhaps

past than today. Ignatian spirituality

simultaneously to

God and

One

sent

with

all

who

wants to lead

by the Father,

to

men.

is

It is

complex of motive

It

does

its

asceti-

more

in the

forces that lead

participation in the mission of the

in the Spirit, in an ever greater service, in love,

the variants of the cross, in an imitation and following of that Jesus,

all

men and

all

of creation back to the glory of the

Father.

80

This does not mean, naturally, that there

the contrary, so sublime

is

this

is

no Ignatian

asceticism.

vocation that whoever

by destroying

feels

On

this call

by the abnegation and

purification of every disorder, whatever hinders him from living it to the
should dispose himself for

it

in himself,

extent of the grace given him. Ignatius's Pilgrim's Testament gives us an

example of that purification. The Spiritual Exercises shows us the method for
doing the same in ourselves and for helping others in that direction too. An
Ignatian Trinitarian mysticism and an Ignatian asceticism always go together
in perfect harmony. Ignatius's Journal gives us an ideal example of the
election process as proposed in the Exercises for seeking God's will, with the
same spiritual devotion and tears, the same sentiment of respect and reverence, the same use of the mediators that we read of in the pages of the
Exercises.

VI.
81

So

far, I

The Continuing Search

have dealt with elements of the Ignatian charism whose Trini-

tarian inspiration

is

demonstrable. But

is

that

enough

for us?

We know

was favored with the grace of an infused contemplation of the

profoundest mysteries of the Trinity: the mystery of the unity of Essence
and the Trinity of Persons, the mystery of circumincession; the mystery of
the generation of the Word and the procession of the Holy Spirit, the
mystery of the divine operations ad extra. These are only a few of the
explicit assertions about the Trinity that Ignatius makes in his Journal or
that are readily deducible from what he writes there. But he was not writing
theology or mysticism in those spiritual notes, nor did he dwell on the
content of his visions any more than was necessary to describe them with
that Ignatius

84

Nadal, "Exhort. Complut.

3," no. [35*], in

Commentlnst 328

f.

38

Pedro Arrupe,

S J.

the greatest possible precision and to spell out the

he

spirits

felt

in

rhythm

of the

motion of

connection with the election or oblation that he was

making.
82

Now

that the Trinitarian origin of the Ignatian charism

feel that

we may and should

raise

clear to us,

is

our eyes to the Trinity and, basing

on the data of revelation elaborated by theology, try to see other

aspects that he saw, but of which he has told us nothing: "The particulars
that he understood, though many, cannot be determined" (PilgTest [30]). In
this way, we will be able to clarify and round out other important elements
in his charism. For we can hardly doubt that the Ignatian charism, or at
ourselves

our understanding and application of

certain elements in it come out in bolder
least

as

time goes by: they become more

it,

admits of development. Indeed,

and with greater profundity

relief

explicit. In

consequence, just

as Ignatius,

in a descending process, transposed Trinitarian elements into the Society's

charism, so we, in an ascending process, starting from concrete aspects of

that charism, can

lift

our gaze to the Trinity in order to see

realized in the Trinity and thus understand their

Society's charism

way and

enriched in this

is

how

meaning more

its

they are

fully.

The

purity guaranteed.

We

cannot afford to leave the Trinitarian perspective out of the renewal process
of the Society.
83

The person.

Amid

the widespread decay of moral values around us, our

times have the merit of highlighting

person. This revaluing has
gious,

and even

Jesuit. It

is

as

never before the value of the

become manifest

in matters ecclesiastical,

not an ideological or cultural

reli-

humanism such

as

spread in the sixteenth century, but a genuine respect and reverence for

every concrete

man

or

woman

as a

unique individual, regardless of

creed, social class, or country of origin. This

issues of the present pontificate, just as

in his final encyclical,

rights,

84

Pacem

and duties of the person

But

it is

in

terris,

(no. 9

is

race,

one of the key doctrinal

John XXIII had previously given us,

a luminous synthesis of the nature,

ff.).

in the Trinity that the concept of person finds

its

most perfect

and mysterious realization. It is not only a fascinating and unsurpassable

model but the ultimate exemplar; and by imitating this at an infinite disI
Itance, man can find a stimulus toward perfection not only in himself but in
his relations with his fellow men too. After all, man as person was created in
the image and likeness of God, who is one in Essence and triune in Persons.

We

Mass each day with a Pauline formulation of this Trinity of

Persons: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the
Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit" (2 Cor. 13:13). This confes85

start the

New

Testament concept of the saving function of each

of the three divine Persons and, at the same time, of the immanent Trinity,

sion epitomizes the

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

that

the Trinitarian mystery seen in

is,

much

as

he

itself.

The Father

is

Source of the Son and, through the Son, of the

is

39

Person

inas-

Spirit; that

is,

inasmuch as he gives himself, in a communion of their common divine life,

Son and the Spirit. His personal Being is a giving of his divine Being
to the Son and, through the Son, to the Spirit. The Son too is a Person,
inasmuch as he receives his divine life from the Father and communicates it
to the Spirit. And the Spirit too is a Person, inasmuch as he receives from
the Father, through the Son, a communion of that divine life.
to the

86

Each of the persons is not "in itself," nor does

inasmuch as it is simultaneously related to and

the other two.

The being

it

belong to

except

itself

gives itself completely to

is a pure and comtoward the other two.

the mystery in virtue of which, by

of each of the three Persons

plete extasis, a going-out, a self-giving, a vital impulse

In this

way

circumincession takes place,

the unity of essence, in each of the three divine Persons the other

two

are

The interiority of their relations is wrapped in a mystery of intimacy. The Persons are three, and without being confused they compenetrate

present.

one another to the most intimate depths of themselves, since their Person is
"ecstatic," with a total gift of self and a total and complete openness to the
other two.
87

From

that incomparable model, the divine Person,

the

human

person

must take inspiration for his perfection and, analogically, for his fulfillment and consummation. The human person is, according to one of its most
classical definitions, a subsistent, incommunicable, and rational being.
Analogically, this definition applies to both divine Persons and created
persons, although the subsistence, incommunicability, and rationality have to
be understood in ways not identical. What constitutes the divine Person is
the subsistent relation proper to each one precisely as that relation, that ad.

The consummate

perfection of the divine personality in

exemplar of what a human personality should

itself,

but perfect

itself in its

be:

it

its

otherness

is

the

should not close in on

relationships and otherness, renouncing

centeredness. In the divine Persons

is

all

ego-

found the ultimate model of the "man

for others."

88

The

Jesuit's total availability, not

only to his superior in

of obedience and receptivity of any mission but to

all

a relationship

his brothers,

is

based on that supreme Trinitarian ideal by which the divine Persons com-

and enrich one another fully. A mysterious circumincession in the Trinity, which is to be duplicated analogically in
us humans as a total giving, a total mutual acceptance, a total sharing.
Feeling myself in the other, feeling the other in myself, accepting him and
municate themselves

fully, accept,

being accepted are an ideal of supreme perfection, especially since

that he

is

God's dwelling, that Christ

is

in

know

him, suffers and loves in him,

is

40

Pedro Arrupe,
me

waiting for

him.

in

An

S.J.

way

apostolate conceived that

without limits, of an absolute generosity.

It

of a purity

is

the plenitude of baptismal

is

power communicated to us by the grace that binds us to the Trinity and to

the community of all men, equally created and redeemed by God and
destined to share in his divine

life.

Poverty and donation. The Trinitarian mystery is ultimately, then, a

mystery of love and interpersonal communion among the divine Persons. But the diversity of this giving and receiving of the divine life is what
makes for the distinction and perichoresis of the divine Persons within the
89

Trinitarian mystery.

each Person reserves absolutely nothing for himself;

intertwined with their entire being.
precisely

what

supreme

greatness.

communion,

are

indissolubly

At the ultimate reaches of so mysterious

Communion

is

all

effected

among them by

most incommunicable. It is a marvelous paradox. Because

the Person is incommunicable, indeed precisely as incommunicable, he can
communicate himself to the others without being alienated from himself.
There is no contradiction between the absolute autonomy of each divine
Person and their mutual relations, which consist in a total giving of themselves, inasmuch as both aspects coexist in the simplest, most perfect subjects
imaginable; those aspects are not opposed, but complementary. Since the
three Persons have the same nature and perfections, each is as great in
receiving from the others all he has as in giving them all he has: in the
coexistence of the two perfections of giving and receiving everything is his
his analogical

90

is

analogy, the perfection of the

overcoming of

The person
nature.

By

To

is,

as

human person

in

that opposition.

such, social and

open to relationships by

the extent that these relationships are a

only a communication, the

lies

human person
ness:

affirms

its

its

very

communion and

not

autonomy and unique-

giving oneself to others

the best

is

possible use of the capacity of self-determination. Conscious affirmation of our being

and the deliberate donation of ourselves

are the closest we can co e to makl

Promoting justice means

also restoring in ourselves

the

model of the

ourselves a perfect image of the

Trinitar-

Most Holy

tan relation.

Trinity. Certainly, the concept or person is

;
,.
j ,.
j
j
r
realized differently in God and in man, tor

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

in

God

it

has to do with a Being totally

and for

subsistent in itself
too, in

man

God

it

whereas

is

the unity of nature

only

man

is

specific.

And

is

not only specific

certainly also, in

limited even in what

is

good

itself.

Certainly

but numeric, whereas in

God

everything

is

perfect,

in him. But isn't the analogy to

be found in the totalness of our giving to others

all

we

have?

Many

of the

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

made by

decisions

GC

32 in the matter of poverty

The

donation, sharing, and solidarity.

works, done in

41

into this line of

fit

Society's giving of

personnel and

its

and at times extending even outside the

Society (as in FACSI, the ongoing aid exchanged between the Society's older
and newer units, and similar activities, if I may mention things so concrete
and

still

a spirit of solidarity

susceptible of betterment)

is

an instance of our desire to improve in

that direction.

91

At the same time,

if

we

consider in a Trinitarian light

selfishness: his exploitation, his violations of

whatever

is

human

all

of man's

rights, his injustice,

an undue appropriation of the material or moral possessions of

which would be the complete antithesis of self-giving are these not

clearly the sin of atheism, inasmuch as they deny what God is in us and
what we are for God? Are they not the impious (in the technical meaning of
others,

that word)

negation of the concept that

God

has of the

human person

conceived according to the divine model, and of the relationships founded

on giving and sharing

that should exist

among

us?

Promoting

model of the Trinitarian

also restoring in ourselves the

justice

means

Freeing the

relation.

oppressed means also perceiving once again the sense of equality in which

our condition

persons formed in the divine image places

as

peace means also rediscovering our equality

brothers in Jesus Christ

by the work of the

without true donation.

And

whatever

is

as

us.

Fighting for

sons of the Father and

There is no true person

opposed to donation selfishness,
Spirit.

withholding, exploitation, oppression depersonalizes us in the Trinitarian

sense of that word.
to devote

itself,

92

Two

the Ignatian intuition

to continue to exist and be

us.

its

plenitude in donation: that of poverty and that of

In the Trinity the interchange

Persons everything

is

common.

It is

but what constitutes each Person

two. Thus, the Father has

nature to the Son, that

and Son have

is,

when he

said,

"All

is

is

so total that

a total self-donation,

among

commu-

the divine

with no limitation

as a subsistent relation vis-a-vis the

specifically his

as

own

other

only the giving of his

the personal relation of paternity; and the Father

as specifically their

in the infinite love that

life

is

extremely important concepts follow from this idea of the person

finding
nity.

Society of Jesus must clearly grasp the need to give

itself, if

among

operative

The

the

own

Holy

have

is

only their relationship to one another

was referring to this divine

yours and all you have is mine" (John
Spirit. Jesus

17:10).

93

In his

human

life,

Jesus

is

the infinite potentiation of the capacity for

was divine, yet he did not cling to his

God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even
self-stripping,

equality with

for "his

state

42

Pedro Arrupe,

on

to accepting death, death

whose unique Person

human

his

is

S J.

a cross"

(Phil.

2:7-8).

On

that cross, Jesus,

divine and eternally generated by the Father, feels

nature rent asunder and calls on the Father by

abandoned. His poverty

is

whom

he

feels

so complete that he needs his Father's will in

order to continue subsisting (John 4:34). His only possession

is

his radical

dependence on the Father. His wealth is his poverty, since his subsistence is
his dependence. The poverty of the Son of God consists in that double
attitude: receiving everything from his Father and giving everything back to

him

in thanksgiving.

We

ourselves are the Father's

gift

to the Son:

"They

were yours and you gave them to me" (John 17:6), and he enriches us with
his poverty (2 Cor. 8-9). Jesus is the first poor man, the poor man par
excellence: he receives us from the Father as brothers and gives us back to
the Father as sons. As men, but also as religious, our theological poverty
consists first of

all

in receiving that poverty of Jesus, that

is,

opening our

selves to the gift he gives us.

94

But these reflections on theological poverty must not be a soporific to

distract us from actual poverty. Christ was also materially poor, and to

We

saw above how Ignatius's occasion for meeting the

Trinity was a question he had about poverty. We also saw that his reflection
on the mission of the apostles to preach in poverty was decisive for him: it
confirmed his election beyond all doubt. Later, the Constitutions spell out in
a conclusive way the concrete aspects of that poverty and its connections
with religious and apostolic life. What is more, this is the only matter
regarding which Ignatius insists on a control: the vow not to touch poverty
an eminent degree.

I except

make

to

it

stricter required of those

who

have access to the general

congregation, the one agency that can change the Constitutions.

95

It

is

not surprising that in the Exercises poverty "both spiritual and

actual" (SpEx 98, 146, 147, 157, 167) should be a pivotal point for deter-

mining the process of following Christ. For us Jesuits who have individually
and collectively opted to follow Christ in a total way with "offerings of
greater value and of more importance" (SpEx 97, 98), this theological poverty
must lead us, in fact, to actual poverty. In the light of this Trinitarian
poverty and total disappropriation, many of our religious catchwords in this
area take on their full meaning: frugality, the standard of living of honest
priests, the life like that of the

too,

many

poor, solidarity with the poor. In that light,

of the sufferings of our day appear in

all

their poignant tragedy:

the absolute dereliction of individuals and of whole peoples, the spiritual

anguish of nonbelievers, the moral misery of those

who deny by

The Lord who

poverty and from poverty.

to-day lives what they believe in the depths of their hearts.

redeemed us

in

poverty can be helped only in

their day-

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

96

Community. The community

an element of religious

is

43

that has

life

received in recent times a necessary and proper revaluation. Everything

and riches that lie hidden in commuby no means been fully exploited and that the future will
bring them out more and more clearly. This means not simply a transfer to
leads us to think that the possibilities

nity living have

group tendency that seems to be operative

religious life of the collectivist or

at

every level of life in economic, political,

tional communities.

from

much
97

a religious sublimation of

In a very

loftier.

Christi

amor"

full

sense

man's innate

we

sociability.

can say, "Congregavit nos in

unum

word "community" does not appear even once

in

'

They speak

resembles a theory or spirituality of the community.

houses, of union (and with- what eloquence!) and the
it,

is

nor to we find anything in the Constitutions that

Constitutions,

preserve

origin

Its

[the love of Christ has gathered us together into one].

curious that the

It is

the

community does not arise

or mundane world. Nor does it come primar-

religious

from the secular

ations taken
ily

The

and internafrom consider-

national,

social,

of the precautions with which

we must

means

protect

rather of

that can help

it

and, in the

most vigorous terms, the measures we must take against those who offend it.
Ignatius speaks too of the "body" of the Society: indeed, it is one of his
favorite ideas. It is a kindred concept to that of the mystical or moral body,
with its head and members, its distinction of functions and coordination
toward a purpose, toward a mission.
98

It is

whose

interesting that Ignatius,

brought to contemplate the

Most Holy

Spiritual Journal tells us that he

community

bliss of the

was

of Persons in the

Trinity, has left us in the Constitutions a precious insight into

Trinitarian foundation of every authentic religious community, on

which any further development would have to be built: "The chief bond to
cement the union of the members among themselves and with their head is,
on both sides, the love of God our Lord. For when the superior and the
subjects are closely united to his divine" and supreme Goodness, they will

the

very easily be united among themselves." The paragraph might well have

ended there and

specifies further,

Trinity.

He

all

would have been adequately explained. But

and introduces

goes on,

"They

his idea of the descent of all things

will

very easily be united

Ignatius

from the

among themselves

through that same love that will descend from the divine Goodness and
spread to

all

other men, and particularly into the body of the Society." 85 For

Ignatius, the Society, as a global

into one body, has as

its

divine Persons. This love

community

of

all

who

have been formed

foundation the love that binds together the three

makes possible the continued

Constitutions, 671, conveniently

found

in

ConsNorms,

existence, as

p. 326.

one

44

Pedro Arrupe,

body, of what

SJ.

"community

Only by keeping in high

imprint of what constitutes the community will it be
able to keep performing in the future the primordial role in the renewal of
a

is

for dispersion."

relief this Trinitarian

religious life that Vatican II assigns to

bond can the

love

Only by a strengthening of the

community be dispelled: unity and

it.

built-in tensions of the

good and common good, dialogue and obedience,

cohesion and dispersion, and so forth.

pluralism,

99

individual

how

But

can our communities be inspired by the Trinitarian model of

personal plurality?

given under obedience.

for

God wanted

The answer

easy:

by love and by the mission

Communion among

us reflects the divine koinonia,

is

by

to bind us to himself

under obedience, not only

as

love, for a mission given to us,

individuals

but

as

conspiration

apostolic

together in an

sharers

proceeding from

him. The union that exists

lows

The Jesuit community,

*
r n
t*
following the Trinitarian
-

modeL

by a

m.i

is

\
ates

and

^^
Spirit, so

Spirit, as

....

tInnity. awl
what

St.

Father and Son cooperate:

the Spirit constitutes

mission.

culminates, as a

about in a community
J

r
l
in the heart or the

Holy

received as

unification that

Augustine said of the ecclesial unit is

found in an eminent way in a religious
community; it is the proper work of the

and ad extra by
community ofapOS-

tolic service

Th

us fol-

proceeds trom that very unity which oper-

charity y
the

brines

united ad intra

sincere love

&**?**

the Spirit
r

'

among

somehow

the society

of the Father and Son by being possessed

communitarily by both of them. 86 Just as

the divine unity between Father and Son
society of love, in the relation that both have with the one

the ecclesial community, and concretely the religious community,

and by the Spirit. It is love made a Person that

brings about unity in the Church. It must also be, and is in fact, what
infuses an agglutinating charity into the members of a religious community.
attains its unity in the Spirit

community, as we saw above when treating of persons,

is of a mysterious nature and perfection. By their circumincession and
their perichoresis, the three divine Persons maintain a union that is unlimited
life and communication. Not only is everything common among them, but
they are, just as each one of them is, the divine life that is numerically one:
there is no more life in the three Persons than is found in one of them, since
the three exist by a real identity in the same divine being. In them, and only
100

in

The

Trinitarian

them, the unity of love

86

Sermon

is

the unity of essence.

41, in Patrologue cursus Latince, 38:463

f.

The only

difference

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

among them

is

45

4*

the supreme distinction of their relations, of being Persons,

which ensures the divine intimacy of their koinonia. The three Persons are
coeternal, coequal, and consubstantial, not only by their unity of essence but
by their very intercommunion and union of love.
But that community

101

tions

them

of

This

is

ad

also manifested

is

by

their conspiration in opera-

without the others, because none

acts

No

with no other differences than the attributions.

extra,

one

without the others.

exists

not only a requirement of their unity of essence, but a direct conse-

quence too, and primarily so, of their intimate koinonia. Christ will say, "It
is the Father, living in me, who does this work" (John 14:10). The principle
of

their operations

all

is

common

the essence or nature

to the three Persons:

the Persons are co-agents, just as they are coexistent, because each one
the other

two

communion
102

It

is

indissociably.

There

common

is

is

operation because there

is

in
a

in being.

worthwhile applying

Trinitarian

mission:

all

this to the Incarnation of the

Son

Manresa, already enlightened by the

at

as a

loftiest

contemplation, Ignatius has no other framework than this Trinitarian one

for explaining the decree of the Incarnation. Jesus' mission to the apostles

similarly given under a Trinitarian sign

(Matt. 28-29), as

confirmation (John 14:26 and 15:26). Paul so understands

it

is

his

is

apostolic

too (Eph. 1:3-14

and apostolic community are existentially

united in the Trinitarian communication of La Storta. Hence we may state
that the Jesuit community, following the Trinitarian model, is united ad
and

2:18).

For

Ignatius, mission

and charity, and ad extra by the community of

apostolic service received as mission. Whatever development communities are
to have in the future should be, if we want it to be an organic, noncancer-

by

intra

a sincere love

ous development, in function of love and mission, elements that have in the
Trinity their loftiest expression.

we come with

ous model to which

we must keep
I

is,

then, the supreme, mysteri-

analogies and obscurities, but to

it

will be ever

want to end where

new and

began.

ever Ignatian.
that

realize

there

are

concepts beside those explained here, and that some that

on need

which

returning in order to keep the Society in a permanent state of

inspiration, so that

103

The Trinity

a fuller explanation, for

immense

which

many

other

have touched

the Fontes narrativi of the history of

There is, too, an abundant bibliography on each one of those headings. What I hoped to do here was to project
the Society offer an
a certain

amount of

light

material.

on the connection

that

elements in the Ignatian charism, with Ignatius's

call

many

of

them

have, as

and acceptance into the

intimacy of sublime Trinitarian communications, and to make today's Jesuits

more aware

of

all

that, thus

opening up an avenue toward

a richer under-

standing and a fuller application of the Ignatian charism. But this can only

46

Pedro Arrupe,

S.J.

be a beginning. At this point,

invite

our theologians and

specialists

in

Ignatian spirituality to extend and delve further into these studies.

104

contemplating the mystery of the Trinity enabled Ignatius to reach

certain practical decisions that his day needed, for example, the founda-

If

tion of the Society with

its

specific charism,

then shedding light on that

fact

and its relevance today will enable us to live that charism in all its purity
and to be more adequate to our day's needs. If we can do that, we shall have
managed the aggiornamento that Vatican II asked for, by going back to the
sources of our birth as religious.
105

sometimes wonder

if

the lack of proportion between the generous

efforts that the Society has

made

in recent years

which the hoped-for inner renewal and

and the slowness with

apostolic adaptation to the needs of

today proceed in certain places a topic that often preoccupies me 87 isn't

due in great part to the fact that our zeal for brave new undertakings has

overshadowed our theological-spiritual efforts to discover and live the

dynamic and content of our founder's inner itinerary, which leads directly
to the Trinity and then descends from it to the concrete service of the
Church and the help of souls.
106

Will some of us say that

all

this

is

too arcane an idea, too remote from

the realities of our daily lives? That

very foundations of our

faith, to the

would be to

close our eyes to the

very reason for our existence.

We

have

who is one and triune. Our

same life. And our destiny is to be

been created in the image and likeness of God,

life

of grace

is

a participation in that

assumed into the glory of God the Father, through the Son's redemption
and in the Holy Spirit. Christ, whom and with whom we serve, has that
mission of bringing us to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit to assist in
sanctifying us, that is, in perfecting the divine life in us. These are the great
realities!

107 Just as being "inserted" into the world invigorates our apostolic zeal by

enabling us to

know

at first

hand the

realities

and needs in which the

redemption and sanctification of our brothers is worked out, so knowing the

place of the Trinity in the gestation of our charism gives us a living participation in that divine life which is knowledge and love, and directs our

Even more: practical experience strengthens and deepens our knowledge down on the level of earthly realities; but at
the level of spiritual contemplation, a living knowledge of God is already a
sharing and a bliss, a via ad Ilium, as the Society is called in the Formula of
apostolic zeal along the right road.

87

Romana

See "Allocutions to the Sixty-Sixth Procurators' Congregation, 1978," in Acta

17:423, 519.

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Cbarism

Julius III;
travel; a

it

is

way

the

to the Trinity. That

following the footsteps of Christ

it,

illumined and strengthened by the Spirit

We

108

the road the Society must

is

when we

long road that will end only

arrive at the plenitude of

Kingdom. But the road has been traced out

Christ's
travel

S&

who

who was

hold
the

to

it

best

dwells in us.

ago.

all

and that

His voice comes

down

his

it

even to
is

it

us:

given

grace of prayer and contemplation

of us in the Society, since

to the

is

linked with our vocation.

is

us place the perfection of our prayer in a contemplation of the Trinity,

the ministries of our vocation.

An
109

no novelty. Indeed,

for certain that this privilege granted to our father Ignatius

then, in love and in the union of charity,

by

is

informed about the Ignatian charism, extended

Society also,

prepared for

[Let

and we must

should make this sublime mystery of the Trinity the special object

whole Society more than four centuries

I

for us

he returns to his Father,

as

of our thoughts and prayers. Such an invitation

Nadal,

47

Most Holy

which includes our neighbors too

89

Invocation to the Trinity

Trinity! Primal mystery, source of everything!

ever seen him, to give a description?

Who

can glorify him

"Who
as

has

he de-

you so sublime, so far from me, so profound a

mystery that I must cry out from the bottom of my heart "Holy, holy, holy
Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the
highest!" The more I feel your "inaccessible greatness" (1 Tim. 6:16), the
more I feel my own "puniness and nothingness" (Ps. 38:6). And yet, plunging deeper and deeper into the abyss of that nothingness, I meet you at the
serves?"

(Sir.

43:31).

very depths of
that

me

my

feel

being, intimior intimo rngo,

will not lapse

in a mysterious

90

loving me, sustaining

me

so

back into nothing, working through me, for me, with

communion

of love (SpEx 236).

Kneeling before you, I dare to raise my plea, to ask for your

wisdom, even though realizing that the summit of man's knowledge of you
means knowing that he knows nothing of you. 91 But I also know that the

"Formula

Insti. Julii III,"

no.

1,

in

ConsNorms

f.

Nadal, "In examen annotationes," no. 82, in Commentlnst 163

St.

Augustine, Confessions, trans. Hal

W. Helms

Thomas Aquinas, De potentia (London,

f.

(Orleans [Mass], 1986).

1932-34),

q. 7, a. 5,

ad

14.

48

Pedro Arrupe,

obscurity

SJ.

that "mysterious, hidden

wisdom

began to be for our glory"

(1

As
chosen

me

Cor.

2:3).

and called to

a son of Ignatius
for, I

of God, destined since before the ages

some

ask you for

live his vocation,

charism of Ignatius, accept

moment

and

it,

it

as

see everything

me

the spirits that help

test

live

clarity of understanding that

want you

now

with

way

am

communicate them
you gave Ignatius. 92

Damascus

me, Lord,

eyes, to discern

to others.

as

ready to follow even a

Give

a schoolteacher
little

me

the

does a

dog, in order to go

(PilgTest [23]).

Let your light be for

of

new

read the signs of the times, to relish the

to start treating

child (PilgTest [27]), for

the right

can appreciate the

should be lived in this histori-

it

things that are yours, and to

of your Society.

Grant me, Lord, to

and

which you have

of that "unusual," "exceptional," "extraor-

dinary" light from the depths of the Trinity, so that

cal

me

suffused with the light of the mystery that eludes me. Give

is

for Paul, the

me

like the

burning bush for Moses, the

Cardoner and La Storta for

on a road that may be obscure, but

happened to Ignatius when he was following

call

to set out

me,

as

me

That is, a
open up before

Ignatius.

that will
it.

light

93

which enabled Ignatius to grasp

your mysteries so profoundly that he could write, "There was no more to
Grant

that Trinitarian

lip^hr

know

in this matter of the

21,

him,

want to

3, 1544).

feel that

Most Holy Trinity" (Spjr Feb.

everything ends in you (ibid., March

1544). Like

you too to teach me the meaning, for me and for the Society,
of what you showed Ignatius. Grant that we may learn more and more the
treasures of your mystery, which will help us to advance without going
94
Convince us
astray along the road of the Society, which is via nostra ad te.
that you are the source of our vocation and that we will achieve far more if
I

we
life

ask

try to penetrate your mysteries in contemplation and to live the divine

abundantius, than

We know

activities.

we would by

that our prayer leads us to action

helped by you in the Society

92

turning to merely

just for himself."

Lainez, "Epistola," no. 10, in

FN

95

1:80.

See n. 53 above.
94
5

"Formula

Inst. Julii III," 1, in

See n. 83 above.

ConsNorms

f.

human means and

and that "no one

is

Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism

Like Ignatius,

bend

my

knees to thank you for this so sublime

Trinitarian vocation to the Society;

before the Father,

love and built

on

49

4*

96

like St. Paul too,

who

bent his knees

beg you to grant to the whole Society that "planted in

love,

it

will

with

all

the saints have strength to grasp the

breadth and the length, the height and the depth," and that, knowing the

beyond all knowledge, I too may be filled with the

of you, Most Holy Trinity (see Eph. 3:14-29). Give me your

love of Christ, which

utter fullness
Spirit
(1

who

is

"reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of

God"

Cor. 2:10).

To

attain that fullness,

follow the advice of Nadal to put

my

prayer by preference in "a contemplation of the Trinity, in love and in the

union of charity, which includes our neighbors too by the ministries of our
"97

vocation.

end with the prayer of Ignatius: "Eternal Father, confirm me;

Eternal Son, confirm me; Holy Spirit, confirm me; Holy Trinity, confirm
me; my one only God, confirm me" (Spjr Feb. 18, 1544).
I

96
?7

See n. 52 above.
See n. 90 above.

Reflections

on Fr.

Perception of

Arrupe's Address

Man

and Mission

by Richard A. Blake,

S.J.

Blake teaches film studies at Boston College, Chestnut Hill,

Fr.

Xveading through

Fr.

exchanges with brother

MA.

Arrupe's essay stirred memories of two long-past

Jesuits,

one older and one younger

thgji

I.

The

first

occurred shortly after Fr. Arrupe's death. As two of us were looking over
the obituary notices and documents that started to arrive, I remarked that I

was

through one of the great generalates in

grateful for the privilege of living

the history of the Society.

in disbelief

and gasped,

My

The second involved

formation,

who

senior

companion

heavenward

rolled his eyes

"O God."
a

conversation with

many

spoke about the discomfort

their visits to higher-education communities.

we

man

charge

in

of

thought the age differential

might be the source of the problem. "No," he

higher education] represent everything that

scholastics feel during

replied.

teach

them

"Those guys

[in

wrong with

the

is

Society."

A man

of his time,

my

older friend had for

many

years found

more disconcerted by the instability he saw in his

country after the Vietnam protests, in the Church after Vatican II, and in
the Society after GC 32. For him Fr. Arrupe stood as a symbol, if not the
cause, of the disintegration of all that he had known, loved, and served
himself growing ever

( throughout his Jesuit life.

The younger man had done

his

own

formation during the Arrupe

means

years. In his enthusiastic dedication to social service as a

faith in the service of justice,

from the
of comfort and

real

world, where

privilege.

He

promote

he had concluded that Jesuit institutions of

higher education had become obstacles to the true

refuge

to

work

of the Society, a

Jesuits could retreat into an ivory tower

could, and did, support his perception

by

quoting, extensively and selectively, from documents of the congregations

and from

Fr. Arrupe,

From
drawn

whom

he idolized.

the distance of several years,

a simple stick cartoon of Fr.

it

men had
man to a

seems clear that both

Arrupe and reduced the

both were absolutely right in their perception that the

impulse toward commitment to justice, so clearly identified with the man,
held extraordinary consequences for the Society as a whole and for each
caricature.

Still,

individual Jesuit as well. Both, however, were absolutely

interpret his importance in terms of their

50

own

wrong

in trying to

limited perspective. Pedro

4*

Reflections

Arrupe was

far

more complex,

51

than their two-dimensional portrait

far bigger

of him.
I

wonder

many

if

other Jesuits, myself included, don't often try to

him onto a single page of their sketch pad. His extraordinarily complex
mind and heart, once reduced to a few straight lines, become less challengfit

ing, less upsetting, less exhilarating.

Now,

ten years after his death, Pedro Arrupe deserves a serious

reconsideration from
Ignatian Charism,"

provides a

all

of us. His essay "The Trinitarian Inspiration of the

coming not too

summary

far

from the end of

own

statement in his

active

his

life,

hand. Recalling the spiritual

journey of Ignatius from the Cardoner to Rome, Fr. Arrupe grounds the
outward, ministerial mission of the Society of Jesus in the relation between
Persons that Ignatius perceived in the Trinity. Each Person
Others. Faith in the service of justice
that fundamental illumination in the

When

set

in

its

is

life

"is"

for the

but a contemporary expression of

of Ignatius.

Trinitarian context,

the mission of the Society

all modes of expression, from serving

on the edge of the jungle to editing manuscripts in the Vatican
library, from directing cloistered religious to dialoging with leaders of the
business world or entertainment industry. As Fr. Arrupe reminds us, since
"Ignatius conceives everything as issuing from and going back to the Trinity" (para. 69), "there is no ministry that falls outside the Society's field of

envisioned by Ignatius encompasses

lepers

apostolate" (para. 70).

Reading

wrong

this essay

confirms

my judgment

that both

my

friends

were

both Pedro Arrupe and the mission of the

Society. This thoughtful essay helped me gain a better sense of him and of
in their perception of

that mission.

Getting

It

Right

by William A. Barry, SJ.

Fr.

Barry directs the tertianship program and

at

in

his

Campion Renewal

Center, Weston,

years as superior general, Pedro Arrupe

is

a writer

MA.

took very seriously the

injunction of the Second Vatican Council that religious orders needed to

return to the sources of their charism and

at

the

same time

to adapt the

expressions of the charism to the changed circumstances of our time.

considered this address one of his legacies to the Society.

both to return to the sources and to adapt to our

own

He

He

has assisted us

times.

As we read

52

Pedro Arrupe,

these pages,

S J.

we become aware

of a central aspect of Ignatian and Jesuit

on the God revealed through the life, death, and

resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Even as a novice in the spiritual life,
untutored in theology, Ignatius was granted extraordinary revelations of the
inner life of our triune God. Arrupe shows us how the revelation at the
Cardoner transformed Ignatius from a rather eccentric, ascetic loner into the
spirituality,

discerning

focus

its

man who

the Cardoner,

it

eventually was led to found the Society of Jesus. Before

appears, he could have ended

up

as a solitary,

somewhat

peculiar beggar in Jerusalem or someplace else; the experience at the Cardo-

ner led
souls.

him

to discern the

way he needed

to live in order to be able to help

This transformation was the result of the intervention of God, not of

on Ignatius's part. From this experience Ignatius embarked on a

journey marked at every stage by a constant desire to know where God
wanted to lead him personally and through him the nascent Society of Jesus.
Arrupe shows us how intensely Ignatius prayed that the Trinity would
any

efforts

mode

confirm his inspirations regarding his and his companions'

of

life.

came to believe that he had a call from God to do something

momentous for the Church and the world. He wanted to get it right.
Arrupe uses the entries of the Spiritual Journal to show how insistent
Ignatius was that the Trinity should confirm his discernment about the
Ignatius

poverty of the Society, since his discernment ran counter to the original
discernment of his ten companions.
In addition, Arrupe's analysis of the Ignatian sources gives us a
clearer picture of the interior

He knew

life

of Ignatius, the superior general of this

was breaking new ground in the

Church as a religious order. He wanted to make sure that he and the Society
were getting it right. No blueprints had come down to him from the past
that he could ultimately rely on. He had to put his trust in the experience of
the companions and especially in his own experience. We have the pages of
his notes for the year during which he was working on the issue of the
poverty of the Society. But we know that many more pages existed at one
time. It can safely be assumed that Ignatius took the same care to ask for
confirmation on many other occasions when faced with difficult decisions.
Here we have an example of the ideal not only of how superiors should
conduct themselves but also of how all of us need to act as we engage in our
growing order.

that the Society

various apostolates. Like Ignatius,

we

are engaged in important tasks for the

Lord, or better, in union with the Lord.

better

way than

We,

too,

want to

it

right.

What

to follow the example of Ignatius in our daily lives?

In the final section, Arrupe takes

it

upon himself

implications of his findings for the contemporary Society.

state:

get

"The Society was not

instituted

to

The

draw out the

Constitutions

by human means; and

it

is

not

Reflections

through them that

4*

53

can be preserved and increased, but through the grace

it

God and

of the omnipotent hand of Christ our

Lord"

(no. 812).

Arrupe uses

by the Society
theology to bear on the

Trinitarian theology to illuminate central challenges faced

today. In a brilliant tour de force, he brings this

combat atheism, to promote justice, to live in actual poverty, and to sustain communities for mission. It is very appropriate that
STUDIES IN JESUIT SPIRITUALITY publish this timely and inspiring monograph. Let us hope that we will make the final prayer to the Trinity our
own. Pedro Arrupe did the Society a great service with these pages. His
urgent plea that Jesuits follow the injunction of Nadal needs to touch all of
Society's call to

us.

"Let us place the perfection of our prayer in a contemplation of the

Trinity, then,

in

love and in the union of charity, which includes our

neighbors too by the ministries of our vocation."

Portrait

by Philip
Fr.

Chmielewski teaches religious

J.

and Landscape
Chmielewski, S J.

social ethics at

he computer printer sometimes confronts

scape or portrait?"

Even

not want to decorate

actually wants to

Loyola University, Chicago, IL.

me

with the question, "Land-

late at night, I realize that the eager

my

office.

know what

Then

remember

microchip does

that the friendly silicon

will be the orientation of the text that

it

is

about to reproduce. For us in the Society, Fr. Arrupe has generated a text
that offers both an Ignatian portrait and a Jesuit landscape.

Arrupe comments on Ignatius 's habit of exactitude in his Spiritual

Journal (para. 56). I suppose readers have sometimes been put off by this
carefulness. Perhaps they can more easily move through this material if they
think of
gaps,

it

as similar to the log of

and wonders of

an early seafarer noting the repetitions,

a coastline or,

detailed journal of wines

more

generally, of an eager traveler's

consumed, persons met, and wide spaces traversed.

Arrupe sketches out two routes of travel (para. 107): (a) across and
through everyday realities and (b) into the vitality of the Trinity. Practical
experience travels the road of our needs and duties. Prayer moves us along
the via ad Ilium. Schedules and sickness, committees and conferences constitute the former landscape. The second route covers a different terrain. We
can track the moments when a new source of hope springs up in us or when
we are able to lead someone to survey a fresh lode of compassion within
ourselves. Still traveling along this second route, we might log those spots
where we have engaged another person as a brother or sister, so that we
become heartened to travel the Way once again. Or, conversely, we experi-

54

Pedro Arrupe,

S.J.

ence a sense of being sent, for example, through an

again,

our travels

may

or to the JVC.

Then

lead us to recognize those places in the course of the

week when imaginatively

when our

MBA

solving a problem leads to parish peace or even

surprising gesture brings joy in a halfway house. In such instances,

Ignatius himself or his followers find the landscape crossed

by the road to

the Trinity.
All Jesuit landscapes are pilgrim paths.

pilgrim

life,

as

To

be a Jesuit

is

to live the

did Ignatius. Pedro Arrupe speaks of the development of the

personality of Ignatius (para. 30). In paragraph 26, he had just used the
phrase taken from Favre and Polanco "to follow Ignatius." How is it then
that to follow Ignatius means taking up the task of allowing the Trinity to
shape one's personality? Each Jesuit is to receive his proper portrait. How?

Arrupe speaks of the second route of travel into the full life of
the Trinity as bringing "a bliss." Those times when I am inclined with a
certain devout cynicism to think of such deep delight as a tinsel throwaway,
a hood ornament above the engine of real work, I am helped by the many
stories of Pedro Arrupe's verve and gladness. I am helped when I think that
Fr.

he sought to be engaged with this joy across the varied, indeed, sharply
troubled, landscapes of his

life.

What if we map Jesuit living as a daily pursuit of "delight"? That is,

we hunt the Lord in our days or we merely pound the pavement.

either

Arrupe's "rejoicing" (para. 60) and his "relishing" (para. 109.4) remind us of
this coloration in the Ignatian portrait.

notes, the cross

is

our delight

To

(para. 75).

be sure, for a Jesuit, as Nadal

Yet Fr. Arrupe

offers this Jesuit

means

to highlight the

sense of penance and abnegation and suffering, a

is not superficial "feeling good." Joy and

delight shape the soul. Jesuit delight in the cross is a path of making a

constructing of personalities. Joy

signals:

movement and

with those

who

The

what

delight frequently

intimacy. Finally, the Jesuit focus

on the cross and

friendship with the Lord.

carry crosses

the individual into the

This joy

is

life

cross then represents

is

a source of delight because the cross takes

of the Trinity. Via cruris: each

divine in

its

origin, articulation,

imparts a perduring, personal joy. This joy

offers

Deeper

joy,

major

what

service

is

counts.

vitality.

The Trinity

the affective signal of glory.

each individual the means for grasping what glory

the internal landscape

69).

is

and

word

may

be.

Glory

is

It

to

for the global, actual landscape (para.

gloria, greater service.

Another potential annoyance in Ignatius's Spiritual Journey, in

addition to what appears to be major-league detailing of minute, internal
motions, is his habit of omitting key information about his experiences and

Reflections

illuminations. Fr. Arrupe takes this

humble, and judicious

as

is

55

the founder's desire to be discrete,

(para. 64), as Ignatius's

This discretion

ence.

up

urgency in respect and rever-

not only a reverence before the wonder of his

experience but also a respect for us

who

are to follow Ignatius.

The journey

of a Jesuit requires the shaping of a personality a portrayal of the self for

others.

The Trinity

brings about this shaping.

of the Persons of the Trinity

just

our peers, not

just

makes the

our family

The experience

disciple.

histories,

engages each of us differently in prayer still

of the vitality

Intimacy individuates. Not

not just the

way

more than do those

the Trinity molds each Jesuit into a particular image and likeness
if

you

the Lord
influences,

portrait,

will.

when Arrupe is sharing Ignatius's concern for an ardent, effective union among the far-flung and rambunctious brethren (para. 97), he has
prepared the way for this in his reflections on Trinitarian dynamics (para.
89). Jesuits will flourish together when each achieves and acknowledges
diversity and when each man recognizes his and his brother's mystery that
So,

is,

those features of our personal geography that are sensed yet resisting

articulation,

given to others but ungrasped. Arrupe also implies that the

abandon in travel because each became

receiving from the others." Mutual receptiveness established vital

early Jesuits manifested an eager

"great in

community

for a

mad

dispersion.

At the wayside chapel of La

Storta, Ignatius,

encountering Jesus

carrying the cross, receives the final shaping of his self (para. 47). Subse-

Mass as a priest at St. Mary Major's (para.

35). After the loss of the Holy Land to Moslem control, relics, particularly
those connected with Bethlehem, were treasured at this basilica. So, just as
its mosaics recall the topography of Paradise, the church recalls a distant
New Testament landscape. The gold that gilds the ceiling beams of the nave
was the first gold brought back from the Western Hemisphere, gold given
by the Spanish king to the center of his Church in Rome. Thus, the basilica
recalls the New World. St. Mary Major's also enshrines a picture of the
Virgin and Child from the hand of St. Luke. The evangelist who depicts the
Man of the Way and who pens St. Paul's travels provides for Ignatius's
prayer this icon of mission. Within the framework of these landscapes and
carried by the rhythm of these movements, Ignatius, the new priest, brings
the Son to the table; he enacts a Eucharistic theology that takes up the
whole world.
quently, Ignatius offered his

first

Ignatius, created in the

what the Trinity longs

image and likeness, desires the Trinity and

for. Ignatius,

open to the world,

is

drawn

into the

Trinity. Ignatius, attentive to the Persons of the Trinity, longs for poverty,
in order to step swiftly

and ever nearer to the world. Justice

(para.

91)

56

Pedro Arrupe,

becomes each one's receiving

further.

He

SJ.

wishes to give himself fully a

order to bring

all

own and

his or her distinctive

back to the Father

bestowing

the Trinity has

self

it still

shaped in

(para. 93).

Arrupe makes use of key Ignatian texts to urge each of us to a

both Spirited particularity and to a Trinitarian comprehensive reach. He
Fr.

would

like us to traverse together the long road to the Trinity across the

deeply troubled landscape of our worlds.

Model of Intimacy

by James
Fr.

Keenan

teaches

Keenan,

F.

moral theology

at

Weston

S.J.
Jesuit School

of Theology,

Cambridge, MA.

-Decause of
ity,

my

became

who we

between

spirituality

and moral-

Imago Dei. It's a great

that whenever we want to

interested in a primary insight: the

concept because
ask

interest in the relationship

are,

When

prompts us to

basically

it

we need

to

first

ask

realize

who God

is.

Weston Jesuit School of Theology, I

remember taking courses with Brian McDermott and Leo O'Donovan. It
I

was

a student here at

was the mid-1970s and we were

two

of

God

studying Karl Rahner. I've never been a

from those courses about the nature

and humanity have always remained with me. (Fr. Rahner may turn
his grave at what I think I remember, and both McDermott and

systematic theologian, but

over in

all

O'Donovan may

at least,

insights

to continue the metaphor, roll their eyes.) But

remember. First, God had to be triune: if the nature of God is

love, then God had to be three persons in one being. God had to be able to
be, if you will, more than one, and two would not be enough. Second,
humanity was created because God (being LOVE) needed to love more than
God's self.
here's

what

love the truth of the Trinity.

God's image.

It's

not, after

within me! Rather,

all,

that

realize that we,

love that

we

(not

I)

are created in

try to find a multiplicity of persons

humanity, are made in God's image.

one another in order to be persons (such a great

Trinitarian word!). That is the Trinitarian claim, if I understand it rightly:
Each of the persons of the Trinity needs one another to be God. Thus,
realize that each of us needs

being in the image of God,

ing to see

how

how

Fr.

significant an

Arrupe

we need one another

retrieved this rich

to be

human.

charism from

St.

It is

impact this dimension of our charism can have on

essay provides a great occasion for reflecting

refresh-

Ignatius,
us.

and
His

on how and why we can

Reflections

57

develop exercises of intimacy with one another. The model that he proposes
is

incredibly intimate: nothing short of God, in

God who

is

whose image we

are

made,

intrinsically interrelational.

Are not my vows your

vows? Is not my charism a share in yours? Do we not need one another?
Did we not enter to be with one another? And are we not called to love one

Are we not

intrinsically interrelational?

another?
In
individual,

promotes the autonomy of the

are invited to discover in one another the possibility of

our wonderful

we

Jesuits

culture

that

becoming the glory of God by being in relationship. Can we not reflect

more on how, through our own apostolic and communal activities, we are
called to become, with and through one another, human persons?

We Jesuits

known for our apostolates, for our mission. Would it

not be remarkable if we Jesuits were known not only for the excellence of
our institutions but also for the deeply personal way we treat one another?
are

%
Marian Cowan, C.S.J., and
John Carroll Futrell, S.J.

Companions

in Grace

A Handbook for Directors

Exercises of St.

of the Spiritual
Ignatius of Loyola

guide and companion for those who direct others in

making the Spiritual Exercises. A new edition of a 1980
classic, by two outstanding experts in the field. Each of
the four Weeks of the Exercises is treated in detail, and
the book includes sections on Ignatius's rule for dis-

cernment, directing an eight-day retreat, the

nineteenth-annotation retreat, annotation eighteen, and
more.
Paper ISBN 1-880810-38-7
pp. vii

249: $18.95

Roberto de Nobili,
(Trans.

Anand Amaladass,

S.J.,

S.J.

and Francis X. Clooney,

S.J.)

Preaching Wisdom to the Wise

Three Treatises by Roberto de Nobili, S.J.

How
1

should the Christian faith be communicated to a

non-European culture? Roberto de Nobili was one of
the earliest Jesuit missionaries to address this question.
This book gives three of de Nobili's treatises, classic
early examples of a move toward what would now be
called "inculturation," as well as an introduction by the
translators that both critiques de Nobili's approach and
appreciates his greatness.

'-:<

Paper ISBN 1-880810-37-9

pp. xxii

Both books
I

"%
*zmsm

will

be available in

345: $29.95

May 2000.

Past Issues: Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits

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Contemporary

1/1

Sheets* Profile of the

1/2

Ganss, Authentic Spiritual Exercises: History and Terminology (Nov. 1969)

Jesuit (Sept. 1969)

2/1

Burke, Institution and Person (Feb. 1970)

2/2

Futrell, Ignatian

2/3
3/1

Lonergan, Response of the Jesuit as Priest and Apostle (Sept. 1970)

Wright, Grace of Our Founder and the Grace of Our Vocation (Feb. 1971)

3/2

O'Flaherty, Some Reflections on Jesuit

Toner,
Sheets,

4/2

4/4

Commitment

(Apr. 1971)

Method for Communal Discernment of God's. Will (Sept. 1971)

Toward a Theology of the Religious Life (Nov. 1971)
Two Discussions: I. Spiritual Direction, II. Leadership and Authority (Mar. 1972)
Orsy, Some Questions about the Purpose and Scope of the General Congregation (June 1972)
Ganss, Wright, O'Malley, O'Donovan, Dulles, On Continuity and Change: A Symposium

3/4

3/5
4/3

Discernment (Apr. 1970)

(Oct. 1972)

5/1-2
5/3

5/4

O'Flaherty, Renewal: Call and Response (Jan.-Mar. 1973)

Arrupe, McNaspy, The Place of Art in Jesuit Life (Apr. 1973)

Haughey, The Pentecostal Thing and Jesuits (June 1973)

5/5

Orsy, Toward a Theological Evaluation of Communal Discernment (Oct. 1973)

6/3

Knight, Joy and Judgment in Religious Obedience (Apr. 1974)

On

Thinking with the Church Today

7/1

Wright, Ganss, Orsy,

7/2

Ganss, Christian Life Communities from the Sodalities (Mar. 1975)

7/3

Connolly, Contemporary Spiritual Direction: Scope and Principles (June 1975)

7/5

Buckley, The Confirmation of a Promise; Padberg, Continuity and Change in General

8/1

O'Neill, Acatamiento: Ignatian Reverence (Jan. 1976)

Congregation

8/2-3
8/4

9/1-2

De

la

XXXII (Nov.

(Jan. 1975)

1975)

Costa, Sheridan, and others,

On

Becoming Poor:

(Mar.-May 1976)
Community: Community of Prayer

Faricy, Jesuit

Symposium on Evangelical Poverty

(Oct. 1976)

Becker, Changes in U.S. Jesuit Membership, 1958-73; Others, Reactions and Explanations

Qan.-Mar. 1977)

9/4

9/5

Connolly, Land,
Gill,

Jesuit's

Jesuit Spiritualities

and

the Struggle for Social Justice (Sept. 1977).

Account of Conscience (Nov. 1977)

10/1

Kammer, "Burn-Out" Dilemma

10/4

Harvanek, Status of Obedience

for the Jesuit Social Activist (Jan. 1978)

in the Society of Jesus; Others, Reactions to

Connolly-Land

(Sept. 1978)

11/1

Clancy, Feeling Bad about Feeling Good

(Jan. 1979)

11/2

Maruca, Our Personal Witness

to

11/3

Klein,

11/5
12/2
12/3

12/4-5

as

Power

Evangelize Culture (Mar. 1979)

and the Liturgy (May 1979)

Conwell, The Kamikaze Factor: Choosing Jesuit Ministries (Nov. 1979)
Henriot, Appleyard, Klein, Living Together in Mission: A Symposium on Small
Communities (Mar. 1980)
American

Jesuits

Conwell, Living and Dying in the Society of Jesus (May 1980)

Schineller,

Newer Approaches

to Christology

and Their Use

in the Spiritual Exercises (Sept. -Nov.

1980)

13/1

Peter, Alcoholism in Jesuit Life (Jan. 1981)

13/3

Ganss, Towards Understanding the Jesuit Brothers' Vocation (May 1981)

13/4

Reites,

14/1

Apostolic

St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Jews (Sept. 1981)

O'Malley, The Jesuits, St. Ignatius, and the Counter Reformation

(Jan. 1982)

and

14/2

Dulles,

14/4

Gray,

14/5

Ivern, The Future of Faith

Ignatius

St.

An

Jesuit Theological Tradition (Mar. 1982)

Experience in Ignatian Government (Sept. 1982)

and Justice: Review of Decree Four (Nov. 1982)

Vow in Its Ignatian Context (Jan. 1983)

On Making the Spiritual Exercises for Renewal

15/1

O'Malley, The Fourth

15/2

Sullivan and Faricy,

ofJesuit Chansms (Mar.

1983)

15/3-4

Padberg, The Society True

16/2

Tetlow,

Brief History of the

32nd General Congregation of the

(May-Sept. 1983)

Society ofJesus

15/5-16/1

to Itself:

Jesuits'

Mission in Higher Education (Nov. 1983-Jan. 1984)

O'Malley, To Travel

Any

to

Part of the World: Jeronimo Nadal and the Jesuit Vocation (Mar.

1984)

16/3

O'Hanlon,

16/4

Carlson, "A Faith Lived Out of Doors": Ongoing Formation (Sept. 1984)

16/5
17/1

Kinerk, Eliciting Great Desires: Their Place in the Spirituality of the Society ofJesus (Nov. 1984)
Spohn, St. Paul on Apostolic Celibacy and the Body of Christ (Jan. 1985)

17/2

Daley, "In Ten Thousand Places": Christian Universality and the Jesuit Mission (Mar. 1985)

17/3

17/4

Tetlow, Dialogue on the Sexual Maturing of Celibates (May 1985)

Spohn, Coleman, Clarke, Henriot, Jesuits and Peacemaking (Sept. 1985)

17/5

Kinerk,

Integration of Christian Practices:

When

Jesuits Pray:

Western Christian Looks East

Gelpi, The Converting Jesuit (Jan. 1986).

18/2

Beirne, Compass

18/3

McCormick,

18/5
19/1

Tetlow, The Transformation of Jesuit Poverty (Nov. 1986).

Staudenmaier, United States Technology and Adult Commitment

19/2

Appleyard, Languages

Catalyst: The Ministry of Administration.

Bishops as Teachers

We

1984)

Perspective on the Prayer of Apostolic Persons (Nov. 1985)

18/1

and

(May

and

Jesuits as Listeners

(May

(Mar. 1986)

1986)

(Jan. 1987)

Use: Talking about Religious Experience (Mar. 1987)

Who Do You Say Ignatius Is? Jesuit Fundamentalism and Beyond (Nov. 1987)
Downward Mobility: Social Implications of St. Ignatius's Two Standards (Jan.
20/2 Padberg, How We Live Where We Live (Mar. 1988)
19/5

Endean,

20/1

Brackley,

(May

20/3

Hayes, Padberg, Staudenmaier, Symbols, Devotions, and

20/4

McGovern,

20/5

Barry, Jesuit Formation Today:

21/1

Wilson, Where

21/2

Demoustier, Calvez,

21/3

Soukup,

22/1

Carroll, The Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life (Jan. 1990)

22/2

Bracken, Jesuit Spirituality from a Process Prospective (March 1990)

Jesuit

Jesuit

Jesuits

1988)

Education and Jesuit Spirituality (Sept. 1988)

Do We

An

Invitation to Dialogue

and Involvement (Nov. 1988)

Belong? United States Jesuits and Their Memberships (Jan. 1989)

et al.,

Response

The Disturbing Subject: The Option for the Poor (Mar. 1989)

to the

Communication Revolution (May 1989)

An

(May

22/3

Shepherd, Fire for a Weekend:

22/4

O'Sullivan, Trust Your Feelings, but Use Your

22/5

23/3

Coleman, A Company of Critics: Jesuits and the Intellectual Life (Nov. 1990)
Houdek, The Road Too Often Traveled (Jan. 1991)
DiGiacomo, Ministering to the Young (March 1991)
Begheyn and Bogart, A Bibliography on St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises (May

23/4

Shelton, Reflections on the Mental Health ofJesuits (Sept. 1991)

23/5

Toolan, "Nature

24/1

Houdek,

24/2

Smolich, Testing the Water:

24/3

Hassel, Jesus Christ Changing Yesterday, Today,

24/4

Toward Healthy Jesuit Community Living (Sept. 1992)

Cook, Jesus' Parables and the Faith That Does Justice (Nov. 1992)
Donahue, What Does the Lord Require? (March 1993) ONCE AGAIN AVAILABLE
Padberg, Ignatius, the Popes, and Realistic Reverence (May 1993)

23/1

23/2

24/5
25/2
25/3

Shelton,

1988)

Is

Experience of the Exercises

Head

1990)

(Sept. 1990)

1991)

a Heraclitean Fire" (Nov. 1991)

Jesuit Prayer and Jesuit Ministry: Context and

Jesuits

Accompanying

the

Possibilities (Jan. 1992)

Poor (March 1992)

and Forever (May 1992)

Toward General Congregation 34

25/4

Stahel,

25/5

Baldovin, Christian Liturgy:

26/1

Tetlow, The Most Postmodern Prayer 0an. 1994)

26/2

Murphy, The Many Ways of Justice (March

26/3

Staudenmaier, To Fall in Love with the World (May 1994)

26/4

Foley, Stepping into the River (Sept. 1994)

26/5

Landy, Myths That Shape Us (Nov. 1994)

27/1

Daley, "To Be More like Christ" (Jan. 1995)

27/2

Schmidt, Portraits and Landscapes (March 1995)

An

(Sept. 1993)

Annotated Bibliography (Nov. 1993)

Have

1994)

Time (May 1995)

27/3

Stockhausen, I'd Love

27/4

Anderson,

27/5

Shelton, Friendship in Jesuit Life (Nov. 1995)

28/1

Begheyn, Bibliography on the History of the Jesuits

28/2

Veale, Saint Ignatius Speaks about "Ignatian Prayer" (March 1996)

to,

hut I Don't

the

Jesuits in Jail, Ignatius to the Present (Sept. 1995)

28/3

Clooney, In Ten Thousand

28/4

Starkloff, "As Different

Places, in

Every Blade of Grass (May 1996)

As Night and Day"

Our

(Jan. 1996)

(Sept. 1996)

History (Nov. 1996)

28/5

Beckett, Listening to

29/1

Hamm,

29/2

Padberg, The Three Forgotten Founders (March 1997)

29/3

Byrne,

29/4

Keenan, Are Informationes Ethical?

29/5

Ferlita,

30/1

Shore, The Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and

Preaching Biblical Justice (Jan. 1997)

Jesuits

and Parish Ministry (May 1997)

The Road

to

Bethlehem-Is

(Sept. 1997)

It

Level or Winding? (Nov. 1997)

Influence on the Spiritual Exercises of

Its

Ignatius of Loyola (Jan. 1998)

30/2

Starkloff, "I'm

30/3

Torrens, The

No

Theologian, but

(or So

Word That Clamors (May

)?"

(March 1998)

1998)

30/4

Petrik, "Being Sent" (Sept. 1998)

30/5

Jackson, "One and the

31/1

Clifford, Scripture

31/2

Toohig, Physics Research, a Search for God (March 1999)

31/3

Fagin, Fidelity in the

31/4

Schineller, Pilgrim Journey of Ignatius (Sept. 1999)

31/5

Fullam, Juana,

and

Same Vocation" (Nov.

1998)

the Exercises (Jan. 1999)

Church Then and

Now (May

1999)

32/1

S.J.: Status of Women in the Society (Nov. 1999)

Langan, The Good of Obedience in a Culture of Autonomy (Jan. 2000)

32/2

Blake, Listen with Your Eyes (March 2000)

When a Jesuit

(May 2000)

32/3

Shelton,

32/4

Barry, Past, Present, and Future (Sept. 2000)

Counsels Others

(Nov. 2000)

32/5

Starkloff, Pilgrimage Re-envisioned

33/1

Kolvenbach

33/2

Keenan, Unexpected Consequences: Parsons's Christian Directory (March 2001)

33/3

Arrupe, Trinitarian Inspiration of the Ignatian Charism (May 2001)

et al., Faith, Justice,

and American

Jesuit

Higher Education

(Jan.

2001)

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