The Parish Pastoral Council of Blessed Sacrament Church-Buffalo regrets to announce that the “Women in a Wounded Church” lecture scheduled for Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 4:30 pm is cancelled.
Several minutes into this talk, with the somewhat esoteric theme of “Ignatian Spirituality,” a quote grabbed me by the throat and pulled me in. It was from Pope Francis, a member of the Jesuit religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola:
We in the Church are in a critical moment. We are not in an era of change – we are in a change of eras.
Pope Francis
What the Pope would have us do in response, and the role Ignatian Spirituality could play, would consume much of the rest of the lecture. The key, suggested our lecturer, Rev. Thomas Slon, Rector of the Jesuit community in Buffalo, was discernment.
“Discernment is key to Ignatian Spirituality because it begins to tell us what we are to do in our lives,” Rev. Slon told us. But it affects not just our individual lives, but the life and future of the Church, too. “Pope Francis is calling on our Church to be a discerning church. I think Ignatian Spirituality is a method to guide us.”
You can view the entire lecture here:
What is discernment? Dr. Joe Paprocki of Loyola Press, a Jesuit himself, has a good definition:
Discernment is a time-honored practice in the Christian tradition. In essence, discernment is a decision-making process that honors the place of God's will in our lives. It is an interior search that seeks to align our own will with the will of God in order to learn what God is calling us to. Every choice we make, no matter how small, is an opportunity to align ourselves with God's will.
And what is Ignatian Spirituality? Essentially, a structured process of discernment developed by Ignatius of Loyola and his associates, and used by the Jesuits ever since. Jesuits encounter these methods at least twice, as “novices” considering entering the order and again fifteen years later. Many Jesuits also train and guide others in the methods. Pope Francis, as a Jesuit, not only made the exercises twice himself but has guided novices in making them, as well.
A good overview can be found at the appropriately titled Ignatian Spirituality site (and lest you think this discernment process is only for Jesuits or clergy or men, most of the bloggers at the Ignatian Spirituality site are women of the laity) including short videos such as this featuring Irish Jesuit Father Brian Grogan speaking in a seasonally appropriate brogue:
Rev. Slon didn’t just tell us about the exercises, he showed us. He walked us through a bit of the process with the aid of note cards and pencils we were all given on the way in.
Rev. Slon suggested that, in addition to the way it has always been understood as an individual (though guided) exercise, it could also be a group exercise. And who could doubt that, given the crisis in the Buffalo Diocese of the last half decade (or more, many would argue), our clergy and lay leaders couldn’t use more and more discernment?
The idea of spirituality being essential to the reform and future of the Church is far from a new concept, but in the institutional history of the Church has been too often overlooked in hierarchical struggles over power, influence, and doctrine. That changed dramatically six decades ago in Vatican II, the most important Church council of modern times. According to Rev. Slon, there was a “rediscovery” of Ignatian Spirituality in the Church outside of the Jesuits. And according to Jesuit Historian, Father John W. O’Malley, as quoted here, “the most important message of the council was a spiritual one…”
The council had a spiritual message, as the very form and vocabulary of its decrees betray. For the first time in history, a council insisted on the “universal call to holiness” and made clear that promoting that call was what the church was all about. Moreover, through its vocabulary the council provided a template of holiness. I refer to such characteristic words in the council such as hope, friendship, partnership, collegiality, reconciliation, brotherhood and sisterhood. These are deeply Christian words, but words virtually absent from previous councils.
The council called us to work in the world for the church but also for the world itself. This might sound like a platitude, but no council had ever spoken this way or called upon Christians to expend themselves in this way. Theological disputes are necessary, for, if they go well, they help us stay on track and help us defuse ideological interpretations. But the real fruit of this council is how it taught us how to live. That is incomparably more important that theological niceties and will, I hope, be the lasting legacy of the Council.
So far, this insightful series organized by Blessed Sacrament Church and Parish Council President Michael Pitek, has featured talks and teachings by various religious orders in addition to a deacon and an official of the Diocese of Buffalo. Our next talk – this Sunday – will be by a nun. This seems appropriate to a series on church reform, as each religious order was formed, at least in part, as an attempt to reform the Church from within, and, at least in part, to try to recapture the sense of brotherhood (and sisterhood) and concern for those on the lower rungs of society of the earliest days of Christianity.
While each order offers a different heritage, approach, and path, everyone we’ve heard from so far in the Church on Fire – Stay With Us series has agreed on the need for deep change and reform. Yet none of them, even while discussing the need for structural reform of the Church as an institution, has let parishes, lay leaders, and rank-and-file Catholics off the hook.
To fulfill the promise of Vatican II to keep the Church relevant to the modern era, all Catholics – not just the hierarchy – will need to move forward with discernment and spirituality. While rank-and-file Catholics are justifiably disgusted with the scandals and resistance to reform of the hierarchy, how much more are many Catholics resistant to their own personal reform, and discernment, and spirituality?
Just last year, Catholics commemorated the 500th anniversary of the famous “cannonball moment” of Ignatius Loyola. This vain, militant man began his spiritual quest and transformation while recuperating from having his leg shattered by a cannonball in the Siege of Pamplona. After its vain, combative leadership was brought low, the Buffalo Diocese is recuperating from its own cannonball moment.
A half-millennium on, the life and work of St. Ignatius of Loyola may be as relevant and vital as ever.
The teaching continues this Sunday with the next presentation in the Church on Fire – Stay With Us series.
NEXT UP in the Catherine M. and Paul W. Beltz Lecture Series:
River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey
Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J. Member of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph, Author and Social Advocate, Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Monday, May 9, 2022: 7:00 p.m.
This is a FREE event, but reservations are required: Go to www.BSCBuffalo.org/events; or call Michael Pitek at 716-480-8313; or email him at Michael@thepitekgroup.com
Blessed Sacrament Church, Delaware Avenue at Utica
Free off-street parking is available in the parking lot behind the Catholic Academy of West Buffalo, 1069 Delaware Avenue. The lot can be accessed from two locations: Delaware Avenue and Lexington Avenue; and from Linwood Avenue.
The Parish Pastoral Council of Blessed Sacrament Church-Buffalo regrets to announce that the
“Women in a Wounded Church” lecture scheduled for Sunday, March 20, 2022 has been canceled. Sr. Margaret Carney is unable to give the lecture due to a recent injury. The lecture will be rescheduled at a time to be determined.
