Fr Steve Curtin is currently in
Korea at a meeting of Provincials from the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
In place of an editorial, and in
honour of the upcoming Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola on 31 July, we print the
following guidelines ‘On Maturing Spiritually', written by St Ignatius for the
scholastics of Alcalá. These counsels were meant to shape a youthful scholastic
into a mature Jesuit, and would eventually evolve into the ‘Rules for
Scholastics'.
1.
We should be careful to preserve great purity of heart in the love of God,
loving nothing but Him, and desiring to converse with Him alone, and with the
neighbour for love of Him and not for our own pleasure and delight.
2.
We should speak only with necessity, and for the edification of ourselves or
others, and leave aside those things which do not profit the soul, such as the
desire for news and worldly affairs. We should try always to treat of matters
connected with humility and mortification of the will, and not of things that
give occasion for laughter or murmuring.
3.
Let no one seek to be considered a wit, or to affect elegance or prudence or
eloquence, but look upon Christ, who made nothing at all of these things and
chose to be humbled and despised by men for our sake rather than to be honoured
and respected.
4.
We should not wish to see or do anything which could not be done in the
presence of God and His creatures, and we shall thus imagine that we are always
in His presence.
5.
We should not dispute stubbornly with anyone; rather we should patiently give
our reasons with the purpose of declaring the truth lest our neighbour remain
in error, and not that we should have the upper hand.
6.
One of the things which we must be very firm about, if we are to please our
Lord, is to cast far from us everything that could remove us from the love of
our brethren. We should make every effort to love them with a tender charity,
for Supreme Truth has said: This is how all will know you are my disciples,
etc. [John 13:35].
7.
Should anyone do anything that is disedifying, and it seems that as a result he
should be held in less esteem than he was held before, let him not be so
discouraged as to wish to give up, but let him humble himself and ask
forgiveness of those who might have been scandalised by his bad example and a
penance from his superior. He should thank God, who has permitted him to be
humbled, so that he can be known by all for what he is. He should not wish to
appear better in the eyes of men than he is in the eyes of God. The brethren
who behold him should think that they could fall into even greater weakness,
and should ask God to strengthen them.
8.
In our superiors we should always behold the person of Christ, whom they
represent, and have recourse to them in our doubts and hold it as certain that
our Lord will direct us through them.
9.
We should not conceal our temptations, nor even our good thoughts, but make
them known to our confessor or superior, for even Satan disguises himself as an
angel of light [2 Cor. 11:14]. We should always act according to the judgment
and counsel of our spiritual father rather than our own, which we should always
regard rather with suspicion.
10.
In dealing with others we should bear ourselves modestly, and try not to appear
sad or too serious, nor, on the other hand, overcheerful and gay, but as the
Apostle says: Everyone should see how modest you are [Phil. 4:5].
11.
We should never postpone a good work, no matter how small it may be, with the
thought of later doing something greater. It is a very common temptation of the
enemy to be always placing before us the perfection of things to come and bring
us to make little of the present.
12.
Let us all persevere in the vocation to which God calls us, and not make our
first loyalty an empty word. For the enemy is wont to tempt those in the desert
with thoughts of dealing with the neighbor and improving him, and to those who
are helping the neighbor he will propose the great perfection of the desert and
solitary life. Thus he lays hold of what is far off to prevent us from taking
advantage of what is at hand.
Source: http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/ignatius/letters.htm