A.M.D.G. - Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam*
(Latin for "For the greater glory of God.") Motto of the Society
of Jesus.
Cura personalis*
(Latin meaning "care for the [individual]
person.") A hallmark of Ignatian spirituality
(where in one-on-one spiritual guidance, the guide
adapts the Spiritual Exercises to the unique individual
making them) and therefore of Jesuit education
(where the teacher establishes a personal relationship
with students, listens to them in the process of
teaching, and draws them toward personal initiative
and responsibility for learning.
This attitude of respect for the dignity of each
individual derives from the Judeo-Christian vision
of human beings as unique creations of God, of
God's embracing of humanity in the person of Jesus,
and of human destiny as ultimate communion with
God and all the saints in everlasting life.
Finding God in All Things*
Ignatian spirituality is summed up in this phrase.
It invites a person to search for and find God
in every circumstance of life, not just in explicitly
religious situations or activities such as prayer
in church (e.g., the Mass) or in private. It
implies that God is present everywhere and, though
invisible, can be "found" in any and
all of the creatures which God has made. They
reveal at least a little of what their Maker
is like—often by arousing wonder in those
who are able to look with the "eyes of faith." After
a long day of work, Ignatius used to open the
French windows in his room, step out onto a little
balcony, look up at the stars, and be carried
out of himself into the greatness of God.
How does one grow in this ability to find God
everywhere? Howard Gray draws the following
paradigm from what Ignatius wrote about spiritual
development in the Jesuit Constitutions:
(1) practice attentiveness to what is really there. “Let
that person or that poem or that social injustice
or that scientific experiment become (for you)
as genuinely itself as it can be.” (2)
Then reverence what you see and hear and feel;
appreciate it in its uniqueness. “Before
you judge or assess or respond, give yourself time
to esteem and accept what is there in the other.” (3)
If you learn to be attentive and reverent, “then
you will find devotion, the singularly moving way
in which God works in that situation, revealing
goodness and fragility, beauty and truth, pain
and anguish, wisdom and ingenuity.”
Magis*
(Latin for "more.") The "Continuous
Quality Improvement" term traditionally used
by Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits, suggesting
the spirit of generous excellence in which ministry
should be carried on.
Men and Women for Others
In 1973, Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the Superior General
of the Society of Jesus at the time, gave an
address to the International Congress of Jesuit
Alumni at Valencia in Spain. The title of that
address, "Men and Women for Others," has
become the capsule formula for what alumni/ae
of Jesuit schools propose to be. Fr. Arrupe wrote:
Today our prime educational objective must
be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and
women who will live not for themselves but for
God and his Christ—for the God-man who
lived and died for all the world; men and women
who cannot even conceive of love of God which
does not include love for the least of their
neighbors; men and women completely convinced
that love of God which does not issue in justice
for others is a farce. . . .
. . . Just as love of God, in the Christian
view, fuses with love of neighbor, to the point
that they cannot possibly be separated, so, too,
charity and justice meet together and in practice
are identical. How can you love someone
and treat him or her unjustly? Take justice
away from love and you destroy love. You
do not have love if the beloved is not seen as
a person whose dignity must be respected, with
all that that implies. And even if you
take the Roman notion of justice as giving to
each his due, what is owing to him, Christians
must say that we owe love to all people, enemies
not excepted.
Just as we are never sure that we love God
unless we love others, so we are never sure that
we have love at all unless our love issues in
works of justice. . . .
The Service of Faith and
the Promotion of Justice*
In 1975, Jesuits from around the world met in solemn
assembly to assess their present state and to
sketch plans for the future. Following the lead
of a recent international assembly ("synod")
of Catholic bishops, they came to see that the
hallmark of any ministry deserving of the name
Jesuit would be its "service of faith" of
which the "promotion of justice" is
an absolute requirement. In other words, Jesuit
education should be noteworthy for the way it
helps students—and for that matter, faculty,
staff, and administrators—to move, in freedom,
toward a mature and intellectually adult faith.
This includes enabling them to develop a disciplined
sensitivity toward the suffering of our world
and a will to act for the transformation of unjust
social structures that cause that suffering.
The enormous challenge, to which none of us are
entirely equal, nevertheless falls on all of
us, not just on campus ministry and members of
theology and philosophy departments.
*George W. Traub,
S.J. Do You Speak Ignatian?
©2006 by George W. Traub, S.J. All rights reserved
For copies of this glossary contact
Office of Ignatian Programs
Xavier University
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45207-3191
FAX: 513-745-2834
e-mail: ignatianprograms@xavier.edu
Order forms online at
www.xavier.edu?ignatian_programss/downloads/DYSI.pdf
A Spanish translation by Robert Dolan, S.J. is
available electronically. Send an e-mail
to ignatianprograms@xavier.edu.
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