Jesuits and Ignatius

St Ignatius

A visit to the Hurtado Jesuit Refugee Centre was yesterday's destination for our class.  The centre is based in Wapping and is open as a support centre  for refugees from all over the world.  We were met by Fr Damian who was not in robes or anything to define him as a religious.  He offered us tea which was very welcome as we were all cold after visiting a nearby church (I'll come to that shortly).  We were told the history of the Order which was founded by St Ignatius of Loyola who had a conversion while recovering from a accident while fighting (he was a military man) and was hit in the knee by a canon ball.  Eventually he wrote The Spiritual Exercises based on the examination of feelings as a way to become closer to Jesus.

The Spiritual Exercises are widely known now.  The full length of learning is on a 30 day retreat, though they can be done in two or three sections and these days there are day 'tasters' or a week long exercise.  For Jesuits they take the spiritual exercises as a novice and again later in life (it can take up to 15 years to become a Jesuit!).  Fr Damien said he'd done the exercises twice and could see the difference between the first time as a novice (rather naive) and the second time when the experience was far deeper.  We also spoke to a novice about his experience about what he is doing.

It seems that the Order is much looser than others we had visited.  Only six people lived in the building, the Priest and some students.  He said that they didn't meet regularly throughout the day to pray, though they did have a meal together but sometimes one may be out lecturing or something.  They had a Spiritual Director who they met with once a month.  They would not stay in any one place for too long and seven or eight years was the maximum.  The could be moved where the need was at any time to anywhere in the world, though often it would be within their own country as having the language and understanding the culture was a good thing!  Fr Damien joked and said that watching and especially listening to the soundtrack of the film The Mission is what made him become a Jesuit.  Jesuits main mission seems to centre around justice and inter-faith dialogue - glad someones doing it!  Very much on my wavelength.

As I was ill last week I missed out on a visit to the Carmelite Friars but I was told that there were only three of them in Walworth who run a Parish and wear no habit.  The visit was to the Parish Church. All I really know is that their Rule comes from St Albert!

Before we arrived at the Jesuit Refugee Centre we visited St Peter's Anglo-Catholic Church which is in fact part of the Church of England.  This was a real eye-opener.  The church was full of statues of Saints and Mary, there was a confessional and everything was highly painted - very Catholic (yet funnily enough the Roman Catholic Church where I live is not a bit like that, very under dressed!).  I didn't really feel it was homely.  It was freezing cold and there was no information about it inside. There was also a side chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham. See here too.

There are apparently a few of these Anglo-Catholic churches which came out of the Oxford Movement (early 1800's onwards) when certain people wanted the Cof E to get back to it's Catholic roots.  This was the result.  The churches were set in the poorest area and worked with the ordinary people.  It was certainly not what I expected!