Moving forward

I thought that I would post a brief proposal I drafted for the continuation of my project with Jesuit parishes here - feel free to post comments or suggestions!

INTRODUCTION

The mission statement of the Ignatian Solidarity Network states that the aim of ISN is to promote “leadership and advocacy” among Jesuit schools, parishes and ministries by facilitating and empowering a national network that unites them all in their common commitment to the “service of faith and the promotion of justice.” This mission arises out of a vision rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the witness of the Salvadoran martyrs, and is made concrete through the community fostered by the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice and other ISN events. Living out the mission of ISN is an ongoing effort and thus we must continually discern how we can better foster solidarity among the institutions we seek to serve in our network. In our discernment, we have determined that there is great opportunity for growth in our networking with Jesuit parishes and have taken some initial steps to explore how this can be accomplished.

FOUNDATIONS

Three salient points form the foundation for this initiative: the parish as a Spirit-filled and engaged social entity, the Jesuits’ identification of collaboration at the heart of mission, and the identified need for more networking at the parish level. Ignacio Ellacuría, one of the Salvadoran martyrs and rector of the Jesuit university in San Salvador, wrote that the university “must transform and enlighten the society in which it lives.”[i] Such a statement applies also, although manifested differently, to Jesuit parishes. With St. Ignatius of Loyola and in the light of the Gospel, each parish community must ask: “What have I done for Christ in this world? What am I doing now? And above all, what should I do?”[ii]

The work of transformation can be strengthened through collaboration. In the most recent General Congregation, the Society of Jesus notes the importance of “explor[ing] . . . ways to promote and support an ‘Ignatian Family’ or ‘Ignatian Community’ which will have a common vision of service, will promote networks of mutual support, and will foster new and closer forms of collaboration locally, regionally, and internationally.”[iii] This recommendation resonates deeply with the mission of ISN and offers us fresh encouragement to facilitate greater collaboration among Jesuit parishes by amplifying and building upon the collaborative work already being accomplished.

Finally, the Jesuit parish network initiative arises from the identified needs of social ministry staff at parishes and ISN’s own discernment of how we can better serve these parishes. Three goals have been pinpointed through ongoing and collaborative discernment: the desire for greater solidarity and communication between parish social ministries, the recognition of the importance of Ignatian identity and Jesuit presence, and the potential for sharing of resources and ‘best practices’. How to make these goals a concrete reality remains a task to be worked out.

ACTION STEPS

Since an initial information gathering meeting at the 2010 Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, ISN has conducted one-on-one interviews with parish social ministry staff members, pastors and provincial staff; identified contacts for social ministry for almost all Jesuit parishes across the country; and developed a survey that has been sent to every Jesuit parish. Building upon this information gathering, further recommendations are: to develop small think tanks for social ministry staff members to brainstorm together; to hold another brainstorming session at the 2011 IFTJ; and to work closely with each province in the development of regional parish networks that would supplement a national network.

CONCLUSION

Although the final shape of ISN’s work with Jesuit parishes is yet to be determined, ISN desires to facilitate among the parishes an organic process of solidarity in the “service of faith and the promotion of justice.” This will be done by providing a space for Jesuit parishes to come together and work alongside one another as well as students and colleagues from other Jesuit institutions in service to their parishes, local communities, the Society of Jesus, the Church and the world – in the spirit of the Gospel.

---

[i] From Ignacio Ellacuría’s lecture at Santa Clara University, June 12, 1982.

[ii] Ibid. A paraphrase of the Spiritual Exercises, §56.

[iii] GC 35, Decree 6, §29b.

Bringing It All Back Home: Suscipe, Magis and Other Assorted Thoughts

This week has been a week of transition here at ISN; our new executive director, Chris Kerr and program director, Kim Miller, are here to get oriented to the organization. Its an exciting time for ISN and as I get set to head out of town next week, I am beginning to reflect a bit on my time here at ISN with gratitude. I am reminded of what I think is one of the greatest prayers of gratitude in our tradition:

Take Lord, and receive
all my liberty,
my memory,
my understanding,
and my entire will --
all that I have and call my own.
You have given it
all to me.
To you, Lord,
I return it.
Everything is yours;
do with it
what you will.
Give me only your love
and your grace.
That is enough
for me.

--St. Ignatius of Loyola

This prayer - sometimes titled "Suscipe" (Latin for 'receive') - comes at the very end of the Spiritual Exercises during the Contemplation to Attain Greater Love. And I have been fascinated with this prayer for awhile. All we have belongs ultimately not to us but to the One who has encompassed us in a loving, giving embrace. What is interesting to consider is that this embrace is ongoing, continuous. I was once on retreat and I told someone that I couldn't 'feel' God loving me. He looked at me and said, well, don't you think that its not something you can really feel if it is always happening? If its all you know, its easy to take it for granted. Certainly, the Christian life is about coming to consciousness of this love and to make it a practice daily to acknowledge that all we have received is gift and that truly receiving it means to use these gifts for God's greater glory. And even more obvious, this is an ongoing task that remains challenging because our example of perfect gratitude is Christ and that is an admittedly difficult act to follow.

All of this is to say that towards the end of my time, I am grateful for my work with ISN and even more so for the work ISN does as an organization. Our work with the Jesuit parishes, although seminal, is an effort to contribute to a great organization with a vision for how to join with one another in the service of faith and the pursuit of justice. To use an Ignatian buzzword - this work has been something that contributes to the Magis - the more. Sometimes, this word is misconceived as an attempt do more, almost for the sake of doing more. However, it is more subtle - it is modelling ourselves after St. Ignatius to always seek the greater glory of God (one finds the Latin translation of this throughout the Jesuit world: ad majorem Dei gloriam). Seeking the magis is responding to the call of the kingdom, to discern continually where God is calling us to name the grace present in the world. For ISN, this occurs in many areas, but our work with parishes is the particular niche in which I have helped with the discernment process.

I think a further insight to be made is that the Magis is a group activity - the kingdom is a collective and collaborative effort. And so with the Jesuit parishes, ISN asks: what should we be doing as an Ignatian family to strengthen parish life and social ministry? How can Ignatian spirituality serve as a guide to our discernment? What have others within the tradition offered that can help us discern the scope and possibilities of parish work? What can we offer together that will be for the greater glory of God? For the greater awareness of God's glory among those within the Church and the world? Finally, what can each parish do locally and globally to participate in this work of the Spirit?

Answering these questions in the concrete will mean collaborating together in pursuit of the Magis. In the words of a respondent to a survey ISN sent out about interest in a stronger Jesuit parish network: "I believe a stronger network with other churches would provide moral support--the sense that we are all in this together, and we're not each a lone voice on the fringe of the establishment. We could provide each other with the courage and resources to address the same issues in a respectful yet challenging manner and feel the weight of our combined forces."

With Ignatius, we pray:

You have given it
all to us.
To you, Lord,
We return it.
Everything is yours;
do with it
what you will.
Give us only your love
and your grace.
That is enough
for us.

Amen.

Resources

I thought that I would share some resources that I have been looking at to gather some ideas; some are more related than others, but I thought they were all worth sharing:

• John W. O'Malley's The First Jesuits: This is a historical text that I have found helpful just getting to know the Society of Jesus in its first 20 or so years of existence during the 16th century. Very thorough and O'Malley is tops.
  
• Jon Sobrino, Ignacio Ellacuría and others, Companions of Jesus: a collection of writings from the Salvadoran martyrs and Jon Sobrino (the 7th Jesuit of the house who was away in November 1989 when the Jesuits were killed) which includes Ignacio Ellacuría's brief speech on "The Task of a Christian University" which I quoted in the first post of this blog (the title of the blog is a quote from this speech). A good resource for getting to know the martyrs.
  
• The documents of the Jesuits' 35th General Congregation held in 2008 - click here for access to the documents. In particular, Decree 6 - "Collaboration at the Heart of Mission" - has been a great resource for looking at how the Jesuits are moving forward in their 'way of proceeding' in collaboration with laity and people of other faiths. It also provided a pretty good description of organizations like ISN, which means we are on the right track here!
• Adolfo Nicolás, SJ, "Depth, Universality, and Learned Ministry:
  Challenges to Jesuit Higher Education Today" - can be found here. The Superior General for the Jesuits, Fr. Nicolás gave a talk for a conference in Mexico on networking and the context of globalization. An interesting read and informative for universities!
• Joseph Owens, SJ "Radical Parish Communities" and John O'Malley "The Future of Jesuit Parishes: Reflections on Past and Present" - can be found here. Here, there are some musings about the parish as an alternative community that is in line with Ellacuría's vision for universities - in a sense, it is a brief apologia for Jesuit involvement with parishes. Also, O'Malley checks in with some historical background on Jesuits and parishes and clarifies some misconceptions as well as pointing forward to some further considerations for the future. Well worth looking into and thinking about.
  
• The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are always in the background of all things Jesuit, so of course, they are an influence here. There are many different published copies of the Exercises.
  

Obstacles or Challenges?

There is a famous dictum from the Talmud that I heard for the first time during a homily a couple months back: "All beginnings are difficult." There is a bit of a 'duh' factor here - of course beginnings are difficult. But the obviousness of the statement does not necessarily mean it is simple or without need of further explanation.

The last 5 weeks of my fellowship and living in San Francisco bear the truth of this statement in many ways. But I would like to emphasize that some of the complexity of this statement is that difficulty should not be seen as a negative thing. Beginnings are difficult in that they do not tend to follow entirely from the ending we just experienced - there is often a leap into something new that we cannot grasp at the beginning. We take time to adjust. All of this is obvious, but it should still be said. If this truth applies to our lives and the flux between beginning, some semblance of stability and ending that we experience so often, then certainly it applies to projects.

Working on my project has been an exercise in this. If we ask deep questions about our own personal identities in times and moments of change (endings, beginnings), then an organization can also experience this introspective tendency in an analogous way. ISN isn't changing drastically, but because we are in a time of transition on many levels (new personnel, a new location in Cleveland in a month, our main conference will be in only its second year in a new location - DC) we too experience identity questions. I've chronicled some of my work with developing one aspect of our identity - our network with Jesuit parishes - and here too, I've found that despite the hope and promise of greater collaboration, obstacles and pitfalls arise. It is in this sense that the beginning of this project is difficult.

During some conversations with people who work in the Jesuit system, reservations have arisen about the impact and/or potential of our network among Jesuit parishes. Some obstacles have been identified: do parishes have time/space for ISN given their involvement with social ministry with other networks and organizations? If parishes are already connected with the diocese they are in, do they need another form of collaboration? How would we integrate the wide variance in structure and life of each parish? What niche are we fulfilling?

These are difficult, but good questions. The difficulty arises from how to address such obstacles while remaining cognizant of the need that has been brought to us for this network's development. Personally, as a somewhat hard-headed personality, such situations lead me to consider these potential obstacles as challenges to address rather than give up. But addressing these concerns at the beginning hopefully puts us on a solid foundation to move forward with our work. This puts even more stress on truly listening to what people want and need at the parish level and trying to meet them where they are. In so doing, some of the challenges can be met with our collective effort.

Deep Listening

In our weekly meetings for the Beatitudes Society, the Bay area fellows gather either in downtown San Francisco, at the Regeneration Project, or at First Congregational Church in Berkeley. For me, these weekly gatherings have been refreshing; the other Fellows and their insights have provided me with new perspectives and ideas with which to approach my own work here at the Ignatian Solidarity Network. In a recent meeting, we spoke about deep listening – how such a practice would aid us in our time with one another. I have to admit that it is a practice that over the past few years I have consciously attempted to inculcate in my life, but still find to be a challenge. I was struck this time around by this practice as I began to consider how the initial work of constructing a network among Jesuit parishes requires this practice.

As I reflect on this practice further, I realize that good organizing, good theology and good leadership find a basis in deep listening. True dialogue and conversation hinge upon it; any form of government or administration becomes more or less representative of the desires of persons and the common good in direct proportion with its ability to listen to the needs of all (as much as this is possible). Particularly in the situation I am dealing with, this network only gains momentum by being a project arising from the needs of the people it serves. And for this to work, deep listening must take in what these folks are saying.

This is all a bit pedantic, but it is a lesson so carelessly ignored by much of the Church these days. I think that lip service (or is it ear service…?) is given to the notion of listening to someone, but listening is an active practice. In fact, I think the initial listening is only the first step; what follows requires attention as well.

During most of my phone interviews, I’ve developed the habit of listening to someone’s idea and then repeating it back, shaped up and packaged so that it is recognizable as the person’s own idea, but maybe put a different way. And I ask for validation of these statements: is this what you mean? A couple of years going to spiritual direction have ingrained such a habit into my own questioning and listening! From this moment of understanding what the person is saying, I take notes and then begin to find parallels with others I’ve talked to, consider new points, and continue to construct an idea of what to propose for a concept of the network. The end goal is to offer something that both mirrors what people desire and presents something new to consider.

And of course, in order for the network to continue past its inception, deep listening must continue from ISN’s perspective – as the facilitator – and among those who are in the network. Solidarity and mutual learning will only arise from this fundamental practice.

Delving Deeper

“Only open your human heart your Christian heart, and ask yourselves the three questions Ignatius of Loyola put to himself as he stood in front of the crucified world: What have I done for Christ in this world? What am I doing now? And above all, what should I do?”

I have been reflecting further on this quote from Ignacio Ellacuría and its implications for a life of Christian discipleship. To add another lens to this quote, what are the implications of a life of Christian discipleship when lived within community – as a Church? If we accept (and I think we must) that our Christian faith is essentially ecclesial and therefore, communal, then the asking of Ignatius’s three questions above becomes a group exercise, carefully discerned, yet courageously engaging. It becomes an ongoing task of the parish community and opens up possibilities for solidarity among parishes in their struggles, challenges and joys of social ministry. It is in this light, that Ignatius's questions can be considered anew.

The opening lines of the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) read as follows: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.” In the Gospels, we find Christ accompanying the poor, the oppressed of society; we also find him ‘proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor’ (Lk. 4:19) following the many ways in which he (in the words of Isaiah) promises the liberation that only God can inaugurate fully. If the Spirit of the Lord which anoints Jesus in the Temple is the same Spirit which founds, enlivens, renews, re-awakens and surprises the Church, then it is in this same Spirit that we identify with the joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties of those who are poor and the bearers of social injustice. Therefore, the first question can be restated: what have we, the church, done for Christ – the Christ we see so clearly in the Gospel – in this world? In what ways have we humbly served the Lord? In what ways have we been lacking – fearful, ignorant or indignant? In what ways might we be driving the nails of crucifixion further into the crucified of this world and thus stifling the Spirit? These questions are just as applicable at the local, parish level as well.

I must admit that the above paragraph is somewhat incomplete – much more could (and should) be said. And to some, it may appear that the first paragraph is obvious – this is the perennial challenge given to the Church. To others, it may appear slightly discomforting or even off-putting or maybe even somewhat difficult to relate to. This is valid when we consider the reality of parish life and the incredibly rich variance in how each parish is established, functions and lives as a community. I want to suggest that the second question of Ignatius can be considered on the local, particular level: what are we doing now for Christ? When we look around at our parish, what are we doing? What are the many gifts of the same Spirit that woven together make up the single thread of our community? What is our social outreach to local and global communities? Do we educate one another on the status of the crucified in the world? Do we run soup kitchens and food pantries, but neglect to ask why it is that these things are necessary? Do we go about our social ministries seeking to ‘put ourselves out of business’? Do we make the connection between the poor persons we encounter and accompany and Christ who reveals himself in them (Mt. 25)? Are we asking the why questions related to those we serve and do we take action to address them when they spell out injustice?

I am reminded at this point in my reflection of an essay written by Karl Rahner, SJ, an important 20th century Catholic theologian (and teacher of Ignacio Ellacuría), on the Church as a critic of society. His main argument is that in order for the Church to exercise a credible and truth-based critique of society, we must be always self-critical in the sense that we are attentive to how our prophetic message is applied and lived in our own ecclesial situation as we seek to hold it as the standard by which society is critiqued. Rahner notes the centrality of the Gospel for this:

This critical perspective as applied to social realities and changes in social politics can, to the extent that it is opened up by the Church, only be the gospel which the Church preaches and lives by, though of course this is not to deny, but rather to maintain, that the Church herself needs to be brought back ever anew by her own Spirit to this gospel as providing the perspective for social criticism. (“The Function of the Church as a Critic of Society,” 235)

Therefore, when we seek to do social justice, a critical self-awareness must accompany the critical look we take to the injustice we see present. To put it another way: if we are to ‘proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor’ in the Spirit of Christ; if we truly seek to become ever more fully a sacrament of the kingdom of God, then we must do so based on the gospel and with humility.

The third question of Ignatius, ‘what should I do?’, is related to that point and is about conversion and hope. It is an acknowledgement that the current reality of worldwide injustice in its many forms and our complicity in it (personally, socially, even ecclesially) is not the full expression of the kingdom of God. Asking ‘What should we do?’ causes us to realize that not only have we not concretized the kingdom fully within history, but we alone do not possess the means for making this happen. Our realization of this and our consideration of the kingdom as an ongoing project of God’s grace acts as the catalyst for conversion. At the same time, this project is one of hope that is truly eschatological; it is rooted in the difficulty of the present and cannot forsake that reality, but looks ahead to through the lens of the gospel to new life, a new creation.

Theologically, all of this is logically sound (I hope!). But practically – realistically – we need to work out what it means concretely. To ask what should we do for Christ in a world of the crucified is a question that certainly requires the theological reflection given above, but it cannot get lost in reflection. Using Ellacuría’s terminology, these concepts of ‘kingdom’, ‘eschatology’, and ‘grace’ must be ‘historicized’ – brought into conversation with historical reality. This is where the rubber hits the road. ‘Historicization’ is the process by which we ascertain if our theology and praxis are mutually informative – in our concrete living out of the gospel.

Given the realities that many folks at parishes face in their social ministries, it is easier to see how conversion works for one whose eyes are opened to the massive injustice surrounding them. For example, when a parish organizes a program to provide shelter, food and clothes to the homeless in the wintertime, conversion occurs on many different levels. First, conversion occurs in the realization that a situation of homelessness exists for people in one’s own community. Second, it occurs when one begins to reflect more deeply on this reality and considers why homelessness exists. Third, conversion to the gospel continues to flourish when one begins to consider the ways in which s/he can begin to change that reality – to transform it. And at a parish, this can occur not only individually, but communally, leading to advocacy work on behalf of the homeless within the city. In this process of conversion, the kingdom finds steadier ground and grace finds a welcoming, yet necessarily ongoing response.

This last point – the ‘necessarily ongoing’ point – is crucial, yet perhaps more difficult. I think this is the crucial lesson of parish ministry from my observer’s standpoint: the ongoing willingness to be converted. And it is this willingness that arises from Christian hope. Looking ahead to the fullness of the kingdom in prayer and in praxis means openness to conversion to new possibilities, new ways of ministering, new ideas of advocacy work, new ways in which God might be communicating to us about how best to serve others. This is particularly true in the mundane work that goes on or in the troubling reality of budget shortages, lack of resources and burnout.

Therefore, a part of the answer to ‘what should I do for Christ?’ is: be open to the voice of Christ in history – in the reality of the crucified of history. For the parish: what is the particular reality of the community and what is the greater global reality? How must we engage it? How must we continue to engage it when it is difficult and when we might even be persecuted?

This is theological reflection that thus provides a buttress for a solidarity network among Jesuit parishes – to seek one another in the strength that comes from community in Christ. The openness to doing for Christ, for being open to conversion is a task for an individual certainly, but even more importantly, for a group in solidarity with one another and with the poor.

Disclaimer

Part of my blogging naivete is realizing that perhaps I should make clear that this blog is a space for speculative reflection and thus does not necessarily represent the views of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, although in many cases it clearly resonates with their principles. This blog acts as a blank canvas for me to experiment with ideas and thus also can be regarded as a work in progress where I might stretch and bounce around ideas, speak favorably for some and then disregard them later, or introduce random ideas to see how they match and interact with one another.

Alright, I feel better now.