Are Jesuits into Monastic-type spirituality and contemplation?

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AlbMagno

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Hello. This is another one of my Vocations ramblings lol.

Recently I read and saw videos about the Jesuits and remembered their amazing holistic approach to religious life and ministry, what attracted me in the first place. I also read about Ignatian Spirituality and I liked it.

However, what I didn’t see is the classic catholic style of other religious, with a strong emphasis on Liturgy and Liturgical art, Contemplation, etc. all that things that are more “monastic” but yet other active orders have. In other words, I found Ignatian Spirituality too much “invisible”. This is strange because 1600-1900 jesuits seemed very into these things even while being a evangelizing order.

So, do any of you know about the communal prayer life of the Jesuits? Is it all based on the imagination and emotions as St. Ignatius said, or does it have more “monastic” elements?

I know this question is very technical and weird (blame insomnia and the quarantine for that 🤣 ), but there are very technical and weird catholics here so maybe you can help me.
 
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Weird Catholic reporting for duty here, SIR! 👨‍🏫

Seriously, though… Jesuit spirituality includes, among other things, a spirit of detachment, and viewing all things as to whether they bring the soul closer to God or not.
 
All the Jesuits I’ve known were more active than contemplative. Their day might include an hour of contemplation (like when they do their examen, or some of them would meditate or go to Adoration etc) but most of the time they were out doing tasks in the community, which usually involved teaching and/or some kind of social justice activist work.

Jesuits have historically been missionaries, and they have usually been out in a community doing a lot of work, or working on tasks when they were at home (like learning the language, translating materials etc) not staying in a monastery practicing the monastic life. The ones who helped evangelize the Mid-Atlantic were often more or less alone. I’m sure being all by yourself in a remote part of a strange new country through a frozen winter provided more contemplation opportunity than the poor priest probably wanted to have.
 
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Their thrust is education (Fr. Robert Spitzer), catechesis (Fr, Mitch Pacwa), and even science and medicine. See Fr. Gregor Mendel (the father of genetics) and Fr. Georges Lemaître (has a spacecraft named after him and is the priest/physicist who convinced Einstein that the universe was expanding).

Edited due to stupidity.
 
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po18guy said:
Jesuits were founded, in large part, to oppose the Protestant heresy.
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No ,they weren’t. Their original plan was to sail for the Holy Land. It’s unclear what they hoped to do there, but it was not to combat protestantism.

However, that plan didn’t work out, so they shifted their emphasis to teaching and charitable works, and soon after, missionary work to the ends of the Earth. Only later would the engage Protestantism.

As for contemplation, of course the Jesuits are into contemplation. Very, very much so. What do you think the Spiritual Exercises are besides contemplation on steroids?
 
I understand. The problem is that I love that approach to ministry (I study a science based career) and I have discerned that if I am called to religious life, it is to a evangelizing Order; but I am kind of a contemplative: I love serving in retreats, teaching, srudying, etc. but when I pray, I like to contemplate God and connect to Him through Adoration, music, Lectio Divina, LotH, etc.

So, do you know other order that is also into evangelizing and eclectic ministries but with a “monastic” style? Some say the dominicans or the franciscans but I am not into their spirituality. Something like “Jesuit friars” would be perfect lol
 
You’ll find with some digging that there’s much more diversity in religious institutes than just the contemplative - and at that, those who are primarily one way or another often have their appreciations and expressions of the other (active vs contemplative).

I consider myself a very contemplative type, but I’ve found my spiritual home in an active congregation.
 
Jbrady said:
As for contemplation, of course the Jesuits are into contemplation. Very, very much so. What do you think the Spiritual Exercises are besides contemplation on steroids?
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Well, you have a point. Maybe they are contemplative. They just don’t seem to talk about the Spiritual Exercises too much. In fact, what I know about them is from Wikipedia because the Jesuits Vocation pages don’t go into much detail about them, they mostly talk about Social Justice.
 
Thank you. Maybe God is calling me in such a way, if this is a true Call, of course.
 
There are a lot of active-contemplative orders. Many of them are lesser known or smaller or in some cases newer orders. It seems like there is a trend nowadays for people to start their own small orders that combine aspects of other orders.

@Cloisters, do you have some suggestions for our friend AlbMagno?
 
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(Preferably with Argentinian presence 😅)
 
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Bear in mind, Vatican II called all religious to review their founder’s intentions and mission, the core purpose of the order from Day 1 (so to speak), and examine how they had/hadn’t measured up over the years — and correct course as needed. For many active congregations, the 1800s and early 1900s in particular (and perhaps before) sort of required a contemplative nature and lifestyle of all religious, even if it wasn’t really true to their charism. So for many (like the Jesuits, perhaps), there was a noteworthy shift at that time.
 
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AlbMagno said:
the Jesuits Vocation pages don’t go into much detail about them
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Of course not. The Jesuits presume that if you are interested in them, then you would already have had familiarized yourself with the Spiritual Exercises, and have had participated in at least one of their retreats.

If you are interested in the Jesuits, then don’t even think about contacting them until you have read at least a dozen books about their history and spirituality. They won’t be interested in helping you unless you can show them that you have done your very best to help yourself first. Once you’ve done that, participate in an Ignatian retreat or two, and don’t mention anything about vocation, because they’ll think you’re some sort of screwball. They’ll bring up the topic when they think the time is right.

Also, stop trying to compare the Jesuits with monastic orders. There is nothing monastic about the Jesuits. They weren’t modeled or founded on monastic orders, and a Jesuit community has a completely different purpose and function in the life of a Jesuit than a monastic community does in the life of a monk.

Don’t expect the Jesuits to spoon feed you, mollycoddle you, hold your hand, or come running to save you when you get stuck. Like I said, they won’t lift a finger until they are satisfied that you have already tried your utmost and really are stuck beyond your best abilities. Then they will bend over backwards to help you. Jesuits want their members to be highly independent, self-sufficient and self-directing.
 
That’s harsh. It seems more like trying to enter the Freemasons. They seemed nice in the videos.

And when I say “monastic” I don’t mean literally that but more like “religious life’ elements” like doing Adoration, praying together the LotH, studying the Bible together, etc. There are many active orders that do this but none with the distinctive Ignatian spirituality. Maybe I should have said “contemplative” from the beggining.
 
AlbMagno said:
That’s harsh. It seems more like trying to enter the Freemasons. They seemed nice in the videos.
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Not exactly harsh, but they expect their members to be able to take care of themselves in a harsh world. It seems a bit sink or swim, perhaps, but if they see you are truly motivate to swim, they’ll show you how, or more likely, how to learn on your own. If you’re not motivated, you are somebody else’s problem. They have bigger fish to fry.

Like I said, read a few books on the Jesuits and their spirituality. Then try an Ignatian retreat. A lot of your questions will be answered this way, and you will disabuse yourself of a lot of misconceptions. You might find that the Jesuit life is indeed something you would like to investigate further. Or not. But at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you did your homework and made a decision based on real knowledge.

Do the same for the other orders you might be interested in, too.
 
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AlbMagno said:
So, do you know other order that is also into evangelizing and eclectic ministries but with a “monastic” style?
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The Transalpine Redemptorists work (ha,ha, in the world, I mean) 6 months on, 6 months off. They work evangelically in parishes for 6 months (keeping up their office) and then return to the island for 6 months to tend to their own salvation. They offer retreats for men on the island. This would be so good for every priest; too bad we don’t have the numbers to make this possible.
 
Update: I’ve found that maybe the closest thing to what I want is the Dominicans. As I’ve said, I don’t like that they aren’t Ignatian and they aren’t sooo open to science ministries, but I will let God detrmine if my desires and my life drawn me to them.
 
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