From the category archives:
Ignatian spirituality calls us to join Christ’s work in the world–now, today. It looks eagerly for the coming of the Kingdom. A song that captures this mood of expectant faith is “People Get Ready” by Curtis Mayfield. Mayfield wrote it in the midst of the social unrest of the 1960s. He was inspired by Martin [...]
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In his autobiography, St. Ignatius Loyola wrote of himself in the third person as “the pilgrim.” As David Fleming, SJ, writes in What Is Ignatian Spirituality?, “Ignatius looked at his entire life as a pilgrimage. His journey seemed for a time to be a meandering one. For many years he pursued a goal indistinctly seen [...]
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You may have already seen this week’s Ignatian song on YouTube. More than 14 million people have. It’s an inventive version of “Stand By Me,” sung by musicians all over the world. It’s a creation of the Playing for Change Project which promotes global solidarity through music. It certainly has the Ignatian spirit–open, fresh, and [...]
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One of the loveliest pieces of sacred music that I know is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rendition of “Pie Jesu.” “Pie Jesu” means “Kind Jesus,” and the Latin text calls on “the Lamb of God” to show mercy to his people. It’s here because mercy is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality. The text has an [...]
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It’s back to Bob Dylan for this week’s Ignatian song. It’s “Every Grain of Sand,” one of Dylan’s many songs with powerful Biblical imagery. The beauty of this song is in the lyrics. They depict a man choked by “the flowers of indulgence,” trying to resist “temptation’s angry flame,” sensing God’s presence Like Cain, I [...]
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Responding to God’s invitation is a core idea of Ignatian spirituality. We give because we have received. The sublime expression of this is Ignatius’ “Suscipe.” Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, [...]
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Our Ignatian song last week was “Gabriel’s Oboe” from the movie “The Mission.” The movie depicts the dramatic story of the Jesuit “reductions” in South America, communities of indigenous people whom the Jesuits protected from the rapacious colonial Spanish. The Jesuits protected the communities, educated the young people, and introduced European culture. If you’ve seen [...]
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Ruth Sherer Leacock is a songwriter and musician who wrote many songs as a way to preserve her experience of the Spiritual Exercises. She says, “Set it to music, I’ll remember it. The emotional power of the melodies coupled with the rhyme and rhythm of descriptive lyrics was an easy way to recall the fundamentals [...]
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One of my favorite movies is “The Mission,” a film inspired by the Jesuit missions in South America in the eighteenth century. One of the many memorable features of this movie is the splendid soundtrack by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone. The scene below shows a Jesuit, played by Jeremy Irons, making contact with Indians [...]
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This week’s Ignatian song is the hard rock classic “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. It’s about a working class couple “livin’ on a prayer” as they struggle to make ends meet. Lyrics here. But it’s this performance rather than the lyrics that makes this song an Ignatian classic. These are Jesuits on the [...]
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