Seeing my own Reflection in Ignatius's Life

What makes Ignatius of Loyola such a compelling figure and role model to this day is his deep humanity and vast array of experiences. He was a man who played just about every role one can play in life: noble, courtier, knight, soldier, "partier"/philanderer, ascetic nomad, spiritual guide, religious leader; and he carried out all of occupations with the same unwavering dedication. As someone who, as a young man, was sure what he wanted in life, and had was world turned upside down by an unforeseeable catastrophe that forced him to reconsider his entire direction, Ignatius can be related with by us all at some point in our lives. For me, his most inspiring quality, amongst many, was his ability to pull himself out of utter confusion and desolation and have the strength to carry on and climb the  intimidating mountain to find his true vocation.

When I reflect on Ignatius's life, what I relate to the most is his desire, in the midst of his own confusion, to search for his higher calling, not simply to go through life comfortably and blindly without discerning where our passions and skills intersect. Throughout my college years, I have had a lot of difficulty deciding what I should do with my life; I switched majors three times in my first two years, and I have gone through a long list of career ideas. I do not feel regret over this "lost" time, because, like Ignatius (though admittedly in a significantly different capacity), I was exploring different areas and identities, and seeing if my current place in life brought me consolation or desolation.

                                    (Loyola Univeristy, period of indecision and confusion...)
                       
 Although this formative period (which, to be sure, is still happening, just in a more advanced stage) had its place in my life, I see now that I was not going about the problem of pursuing my life's direction in the right way; what I needed was actual discernment and self-reflection, and not adolescent whims and delusions. Through Ignatius's example, I now understand that I should not have been looking for a set career to pursue for the rest of my life, but a goal that passionately burns inside me, that will guide me on a journey to finding my purpose.

                                    (Trying to reach the distant illuminating sun...)

While I have a clearer vision of the path I will take now, compared to my first three years of college, I still do not pretend to have found all of the answers. I still see myself as the young Ignatius, trying to discern how my piece fits into the larger puzzle. The main difference between myself and Ignatius at this stage in our lives is that I have not yet endured a true "cannonball" experience in my young adult life, and so perhaps the path that I feel I am currently on will shift drastically in two years, or five years. For the time being, I will continue moving forward with "one leg in the air" (or however the Ignatian saying goes), open to opportunities that may manifest themselves along the sprawling path that is the rest of my life.

What to take out of a Liberal Arts, Jesuit Education

Although all twelve ideals of Jesuit education apply, in various degrees, to the education I have received at Loyola over the last three and a half years, I will dedicate this blog to the essential virtues of critical thinking and effective communication. In a way, I think that the other eleven ideals stem out of these.

The combination of common curriculum courses, which have included the disciplines of religious studies, philosophy, psychology, literature, international relations, and Spanish (amongst others), and my sociology major courses, have taught me to critically view the world through many different lenses and appreciate how all of these disciplines come together to form a whole. I have learned to question everything, and always look deeply into a given subject to begin to understand the structures at work that create social reality.

Paired with critical thinking are the communication skills I have acquired (or at least approved upon since high school...), as I believe the second component of learning is to be able to share what one learns with others, rather than hoarding all of this knowledge for oneself. My end of the semester presentations used to petrify me freshmen year,  but as of last year, this fear has largely passed.

When I write that the other Jesuit educational ideals flow out of critical thinking and effective communication, I mean that by learning to think critically,  I have been able to start moving past my "default setting," as the late American writer David Foster Wallace spoke about in his famous 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, the bubble that forms around us that makes us indifferent or unaware of what is happening around us. His speech was called, "This is Water," which got its name from a short parable he tells at the beginning, in which one older fish swims by two young fish one morning, and asks them how the water is. Both of the young fish look confused, and after the old fish swims away, one asks the other, "what the hell is water?" Wallace's point is that we can become so oblivious to what is most apparent  around us, and that the most valuable skill we learn in attending a liberal arts university is the ability to think critically about what happens around us, which to him means adjusting our innate self-centered way of viewing the world into a compassionate one. To paraphrase Wallace, we cannot control what happens around us, but we can, with great effort, control how we think about and construct meaning from these events.

As I have learned to think critically at Loyola, I have opened my eyes to the structural inequality in our world and the continuous cycle of poverty that is causes, particularly for minority populations, and I have an urge to deeply engage in this inequality on an international scale. So in short, the critical thinking skills I have learned at Loyola have taught me to always be aware of the "water" surrounding me, and not become desensitized and oblivious to the processes and events happening everyday around me. I hope to keep this open and compassionate worldview with me throughout the rest of my life after graduation, a life which is rapidly approaching...

The Spiritual Exercises in the Photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson

Week I:

 

This photograph captures the difficult process of introspection that marks the first week of the exercises, a time where retreatants must come to terms with their past failures and missed opportunities in loving God and the people closest to them, and forgive themselves in order to proceed with the freedom to pursue a higher calling with love.

Suggested musical accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AWIqXzvX-U

Week II:

 

This photograph reminds me of the Bay of Parables story Father Martin talked about, with Jesus giving his sermon from the water so that his message could reach everyone. The striking nature of this image seems to capture the Call of the King; of a powerful earthly leader calling us to join him in his radical, noble path.

Suggested musical accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n9F0m0RY8U

Weel III:

Here the sorrow and difficulty retreatants during the third week is evoked, as they follow Jesus in his Passion. Some in this photograph have given in and lost all hope. The man in the foreground is suffering as he emphasizes with Jesus in his pain and sacrifice, but he seems to me to still have the drive somewhere inside to continue down the harsh path and find hope and love at the end.

Suggested musical accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeMwi5-eofs

Week IV:

For me, this image beautifully captures resurrection, hope, gratitude, and love, the key virtues explored in the final week of the Spiritual Exercises. The photograph is at once grand and simple, which is how I would imagine Jesus's resurrection, as it doesn't seem to me that He would want to make a show; it evokes hope subtly, because after the exercises there is a lifetime (symbolized by the vast landscape) of continued struggle that follows, but the image of the exalted child symbolizes that there is hope in this journey.

Suggested musical accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiBM7-8vqZ8&index=1&list=PLNHuGMVvDhp0FNk8ki2l90oPkDNEflVwj