Webinar on the upcoming Ignatian Year

On 20 May 2021, the Society of Jesus and the Ignatian family will start the worldwide celebration of an Ignatian Year. We will be celebrating the 500^th anniversary of the cannonball injury St. Ignatius experienced while defending Pamplona. It was an important failure for him in the way he was imagining his future, full of courtly riches and worldly exploits. However, this failure turned out to be only apparent. It started a process of conversion, which led Ignatius to have bigger dreams, no longer centred on himself, but rather on God. It helped St. Ignatius to see all things new in Christ (the motto of the Ignatian Year), which is why the theme of this year is ‘conversion’.

Today, the General Curia in Rome organised a webinar where Fr. General shared his hopes and dreams for this upcoming year. Over 120 participants from all over the globe were present: Ignatian Year coordinators of the different Jesuit Provinces, representatives of Jesuit Conferences, representatives of several female Ignatian congregations, and of CVX-CLC (Christian Life Community). Fr. General expressed his joy about the participation of the entire Ignatian family: “It is my hope and desire that we can work together among the entire Ignatian family to celebrate this year, rediscover our roots and thus renew ourselves and our outlook to the world.”

He invited all to live this Ignatian Year looking more at the present and towards the future, rather than to the past. It should first and above all be an opportunity for an experience, an opportunity for each and every one of us to experience conversion every day again, to be renewed and transformed.

Although the reason for this celebration is the 500^th anniversary of St. Ignatius’ conversion, Fr. General warned us against the temptation of solely focusing on St. Ignatius: “He is not the centre of this Ignatian Year. He is the means by which we need to go to Christ. Christ should always be in the centre of this Ignatian Year. If we do not fix our eyes on Him during this year, then this anniversary does not make sense for us.”

After Father Sosa’s introduction, some projects under development at the Curia were shared with the participants and some tools for better collaboration were proposed. The participants then had the opportunity to listen to some examples of projects from different Provinces, and, before ending the webinar in a prayerful way, they could ask their questions.

With this webinar, the preparations for the Ignatian Year, which had already started, have gotten a boost. Hopefully, many people will get involved in this Ignatian adventure which is all about new opportunities, new dreams which are even bigger and more joyful than those we might have had before.