Many people want to know, and it’s not an easy question to answer.  Here are some things that help.  The late David Fleming, SJ, wrote an excellent small book by that title.  We have a whole section of this website devoted to it.  I like this “top ten” list by Paul Campbell, SJ. Jim Martin, SJ, recently published an essay about Ignatian spirituality in Catholic Digest magazine.

The New England Jesuits have published an excellent podcast on using the Examen in Advent.  This is the second of four weekly Advent podcasts with an Ignatian flavor.  Go here for details.

Don’t forget the the daily Advent meditations that rotate through dotMagis and four other blogs sponsored by Loyola Press.  Today’s meditation is by Paul Campbell, SJ,  on his People for Others blog. The full schedule is here.

If this isn’t enough, you can find more Advent resources at Creighton online ministries.

Paul Campbell, SJ, talks about his personal prayer practices. (“The most important thing I do is to see a spiritual director.”)

Jim Martin, SJ, on sexual abuse and the Sacred Heart.

How the St. Louis Jesuits changed liturgical music. (“One person credits them with wrecking the liturgy and the next person credits them with saving it.”)

Jim McDermott, SJ, on why movie sequels often flop.

Lisa Kelly on cleaning the slate.

Aaron Pidel, SJ, on so-called progress in human knowledge (“The most recently founded fields of study. . . often show a peculiar and youthful zeal for proving the obvious.”)

Fr. Robert Barron on the sci-fi movie “District 9.” (“It explores, with great perceptiveness, a problem that has preoccupied modern philosophers from Hegel to Levinas: how to relate to ‘the other.’”)

Paul Campbell, SJ, on funny movies.

At his People for Others blog, my friend Paul Campbell has trouble coming up with “five fun facts” about Ignatius Loyola.  One of them is the fact that Ignatius was hauled up several times before the Spanish Inquisition.

This got me thinking about the personalities of saints.  There aren’t many  “fun” facts about Ignatius because Ignatius was probably not much of a fun guy.  I think he was pretty intense.  He seems to have had a charismatic personality and a wonderful gift for friendship.  But he was probably more at home in intense one-on-one conversation than circulating at a cocktail party.

One of Ignatius’ great friends was Philip Neri, a fun-loving Italian who loved practical jokes and wisecracks.  Philip was a great evangelist in Rome who founded the Oratory congregation.  He often did outrageous things.  He would dress as a clown, tell jokes to somber visitors, and walk in the streets with a bouquet of flowers and a cushion on his head.  He would shave half his beard off and enjoy watching people’s reactions. Ignatius said that he wanted Philip in the Society of Jesus.  It seems that Philip did apply.  But for some reason it never happened.  Maybe the Jesuits weren’t enough fun.

A blogger named Chris Hoyt has drawn a couple of comic strips about Philip. View them here.