Following in the footsteps of Ignatius - Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

National Catholic Reporter, April 13, 2001 by Margot Patterson

The spiritual exercises still accomplish this goal, seeding and strengthening faith.

"[Ignatius] has been able to translate his experience into a format that for lack of a better word evangelizes, that somehow transforms you from a passive Christian to a Christian who is in love with God and committed to the reign of God," Joan Felling said.

Those who have completed the exercises describe their effect in the language of Easter: a renewed sense of God's love, joy and freedom, growth and rebirth.

"Ignatius helps us see that a grateful person is a generous person," Alexander said. "Once I become overwhelmed by God's love for me, I want to share that love. That's what we say is the mystery of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus."

RELATED ARTICLE: Videos extend the Ignatian family

The legacy of St. Ignatius of Loyola, rooted in the Renaissance, is being transmitted in the electronic age via a three-part video series made at St. Louis University.

"Shared Vision: Jesuit Spirit in Education" was developed as an effort to communicate the Jesuit mission to non-Jesuit faculty and staff working at St. Louis University. The videos were conceived as a way of passing on the heritage of the Society of Jesus at a time when the order is experiencing dwindling membership. Now widely used at other Jesuit colleges and high schools across the country, the videos have been translated into French, Spanish and Chinese and have been shown in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

"Shared Vision" got its start in 1994 when Ronald Modras, a professor of theology at St. Louis University, turned to his colleague, Jesuit Fr. J.J. Mueller, to see if there was a better way to discuss Jesuit mission and identity than the one-day BEST program the university then offered. Modras floated the idea of a video; Mueller responded that three would be necessary. Both of them wanted to develop a project that would not only inform an audience but would evoke a response. The result was a project intended as a video-discussion program.

"From the beginning we wanted people to come not just to see the video as spectators but to be participants in sharing the vision," Mueller said.

At St. Louis University, there are 14 sessions each semester in which lay faculty and staff can meet to watch the videos and discuss them. Since the spring of 1996, more than 2,000 people at St. Louis University have seen at least the first of the three videos. "Beginnings" tells the story of St. Ignatius and his spiritual vision while "Transformation" looks at how the vision was camed forward by Jesuit missionaries in different cultural contexts. The final tape, "Transitions," looks at how the Ignatian vision was received and transformed in America. Each video is 20 to 25 minutes long.

In the videos, live interviews with historians and scholars are interspersed with woodcuts, prints, paintings, drawings taken from rare books and videotape of historic locations in Ignatius' life and the lives of his followers. Renaissance music helps impart the flavor of the time. Each video in the PBS-quality series cost roughly $25,000 to make.