By Ivin Tomy SJ

The word “Magis” holds a profound and emotional connection for us Jesuits. Perhaps no other term in Ignatian jargon is as popular as Magis. Also, no other Ignatian term has accumulated as many interpretations over the years. For a student attending a Jesuit school, Magis could mean scoring higher marks or even outsmarting others and becoming a champion in competitions. More recently, Magis has acquired another dimension, thanks to the large-scale youth gatherings held under this name across the world, organized by various Jesuit Provinces.

It has been the desire of the scholastics of the Kerala Jesuit Province to organize a gathering for senior secondary school students, providing them with an opportunity to experience God’s unconditional love through arts, theatre, dance, and music. Consequently, after much deliberation and hectic preparation, the Kerala Jesuit Scholastics organized ‘MAGIS 2024’ at the Loyola College of Social Sciences, Trivandrum, Kerala, from 6 - 8 May. This event witnessed the participation of about 110 Catholic students from across the state of Kerala. Our aim was to create a non-judgmental, non-competitive space for adolescents, where they are appreciated and accepted as they are and are not condemned or compared with one another. It was an occasion for the young people to explore and unleash their talents in arts, music, dance, and drawing.

Fr Sheise Thomas SJ, a veteran in the field of theatre and arts, guided and animated the scholastics in the process of organizing MAGIS 2024. The students were grouped into four ‘spaces’: Salamanca, La Storta, Manresa, and Montserrat. A team of four scholastics guided the students through various fun-filled and enriching sessions and activities in these spaces. In addition to these ‘spaces’, there were also ‘sharing spaces’ and various corners such as an ‘art corner’, a ‘music corner’, and a ‘reading corner’.

At the end of the day, the students gathered in their ‘sharing spaces’ (which were designed like tents) to share their experiences and insights and to offer prayers. They experimented and improvised their artistic skills in the ‘art corner’ with clay and various colors. The music corner resonated with the rhythmic vibrations of drums, while the reading corner saw students deeply engrossed in the world of letters with rapt attention. The daily Eucharistic Celebration in their ‘spaces’ was an enriching experience for the participants. At the end of MAGIS 2024, during the Eucharistic Celebration, the students were given a ‘MAGIS Cross’ as a token of love. It was a pleasant sight to see them bidding goodbye to the scholastics (some with tears rolling down their eyes), proudly sporting the ‘MAGIS Cross’ around their necks. They departed with the expectation of meeting again for ‘MAGIS 2025’.