From 31st July until 20th August, 24 Jesuits in formation from 17 different European countries (and beyond) met in Paris for the annual EJIF meeting (European Jesuits in Formation). The meeting began with Holy Mass, celebrating the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola at ‘Eglise Saint Ignace’. Afterwards there were welcoming addresses from Fr Franck Janin SJ (President of the Conference of European Provincials) and Fr. Xavier Nucci SJ (Provincial’s delegate for formation for the EOF province). The participating scholastics were reminded that, for Jesuits,  « the world is our house » (Jeronimo Nadal SJ, 1507-1580), that the challenge for Jesuits is to be locally involved but, at the same time, to keep our hearts and minds on the universal. Building a spirit of universality among Jesuits is, therefore, one of the main reasons behind the annual EJIF meeting.

With this in mind, the meeting began with participants enjoying two days of orientation – exploring Paris by bike tour, visiting famous sites such as the Louvre or the Versailles Palace and celebrating a ‘festival of nations’ together – in order to better know the cultural surroundings, as well as each other.

After these moments of fraternity, the meeting moved into it’s second phase – a week-long session on the subject of Ignatian Leadership led by Fr. John Dardis SJ (General Counsellor for Discernment and Apostolic Planning of the Society of Jesus). Far from being an arid, business-like series of conferences, this was a deep, personal experience infused with the dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. We began by considering our personal experiences of leadership, imagining our dreams and desires for ourselves and our respective provinces, and then considering the traditions of leadership in the Society of Jesus (including the example of Pope Francis). As the week progressed we moved towards a consideration of leadership in our contemporary context, the challenges of our world today and, finally, the experience of leadership at the frontiers of society (inspired by a visit to the vibrant yet troubled city of Saint Denis).

In terms of method and pedagogy, there were daily morning ‘inputs’ from a variety of different guest speakers, followed by a time for personal prayer to ‘taste and feel’ how the presentation resonated with us individually. We then met in small sharing groups to engage in a spiritual conversation on the topic, attempting to distill the movements of the Spirit we each experienced in order to understand how the Holy Spirit was communicating to us and through us through these experiences. In a final step, we returned to the larger group to share and appreciate each group’s contribution to our communal search for the message God was trying to communicate to us, this synodal process being inspired by Karl Rahner SJ’s idea that « each of us is a letter of God and together we spell out something great, a great word to the glory of God ». With participants engaging generously and the various speakers inspiring us with their insights, we left with a strong shared sense of gratitude and consolation for the session, an invitation to once more root ourselves in Christ and prepare to serve him in the mission ahead. May we, in the words of Ignatius on formation, continue to « make progress towards » Our Lord so that we can be ready to lead others in whatever situation we find ourselves.

The third phase of EJIF 2019 took place at the Carmelite retreat centre in Avon, nearby the forest of Fontainebleau, where participants embarked on their annual 8-day individual guided retreat. Retreat director José de Pablo SJ (Socius to the President of the Conference of European Provincials) lead participants through the Spiritual Exercises, with a particular accent placed on the Society’s new Universal Apostolic Preferences. Upon leaving the retreat we visited the nearby Campus for Ecological Transition before returning to Paris in order to bring our time together to a close with an appreciation of « Ignatian Paris ». Jesuit students ourselves, we visited the key sites of Ignatius’ own studies in Paris (alongside early companions St Pierre Favre and St Francis Xavier). The meeting then came to a fitting culmination as participants renewed their own religious vows together in the same chapel of Montmartre where the original companions had done the same some 485 years before us. We give thanks to God for such a formative, grace-filled and fruitful time together, with particular gratitude for the ‘Coco’ (Co-ordinating Commitee) who organised the meeting and the various people who contributed to making this meeting such a memorable and transformative experience.

Look at the EJIF 2019 Paris video