As Loreto Sisters we follow the spirituality of St.Ignatius of Loyola who founded the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits. The essence of this spirituality is finding God in all things. Through reflection, awareness and discernment we search for God in our lives. Ignatian spirituality is rooted in our awareness that God can be found in everyone, in every place and in everything. Irish Poet Patrick Kavanagh brings God into our every day world in the following words:
“God is in the bits and pieces of Everyday –
a kiss here and a laugh again, and sometimes tears,
A pearl necklace round the neck of poverty”
Ignatian spirituality is a spirituality for everyday life. It is a pathway to deeper prayer, to discernment and to wise decision making. It is grounded in the belief that God is active in our world. The well-known Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote :
“God is not remote from us. He is at the point of my pen, my pick, my paintbrush, my needle – and my heart and my thoughts”
The spiritual path laid out by St.Ignatius is a way of discerning God’s presence in our everyday lives, and acting upon that presence. The challenge is to respond to God’s call in an active way, thus the term “contemplatives in action”.