A contemporary reflection on Christ’s  way versus the values of power, prestige, wealth and self-interest.

Every human life is shaped by the values we learn and embrace. These values shape the choices we make and the ideals we pursue. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we all live under a particular banner. In his profound meditation on The Two Standards in the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola presents two opposing leaders: Jesus Christ and Lucifer. Each represents a different vision of life, a different set of values, and a different path. The two standards are not merely historical or symbolic images of good and evil. They represent the conflicting forces that operate within our hearts. 

How Ignatian spirituality helps us remain prayerful while working, serving and engaging with the world

I fondly remember my days at Mithibai College in the late 1970s. It was an era when reading The Economic Times meant standing before the library clipboard. Though I was then pursuing a graduate program in Statistics and Mathematics, I found myself constantly drawn to the stock tables simply fascinated by the quantitative movements of prices. In those pre-internet, pre-Google days, the concept of live-streaming financial data was unimaginable. 

The word Magis gets tossed around, and I have wondered many times what it actually means. In Jesuit schools, youth groups, and institutions, people use it constantly as a rallying cry. But too often, we turn it into a buzzword without fully understanding its true heart. I think it is high time we step back, clear up the confusion, and unpack what living out the magis really looks like in our daily lives.

Every day we make small choices and big ones, and we almost always ask the same two questions: what should I do? What should I choose? Saint Ignatius of Loyola asks a different question underneath both — one most of us never think to ask: is this leading me toward God? He arrived at it during his own period of recovery, when he noticed that daydreams of chivalry left him restless, while thoughts of following Christ left him at peace even after the excitement of imagining them had passed. That difference in what remained, not what first excited him, became the seed of his method.

The default mode of human consciousness is spiritual consolation. Circumstances and dispositions often steer us away from this basic grace. The daily Examen is a helpful spiritual exercise to create better conditions for the gift of integral wellness—and by extension, the wellbeing of our larger world of engagement and influence.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Few phrases in Christian spirituality have travelled as far, or been quoted as often, as Ignatius of Loyola's invitation to find God “in all things.” It sounds simple, even obvious. But behind that simplicity lies a genuinely radical idea about where the sacred actually lives.

We make many decisions every day. But how do we choose? 

While some are instinctive, based on our likes or dislikes, others are carefully thought of. But every choice is influenced by desire. In most cases, our heart is inclined towards that which is most satisfying or easy to achieve. In a way, we can become bound by our self-serving desires. We are delighted when our desires are fulfilled – but what happens when they are not?? 

The word ‘hagiography’ comes from two Greek words meaning "holy" and "writing." A hagiography is the life of a saint. The problem is that sometimes we read the lives of saints as though they were born perfect. But if we read Ignatius carefully, we discover something very different. Before he became St. Ignatius, he was Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola. And who was this Íñigo?