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The Conference of the EUM CIS Network.

The conference of 11 to13 March organised for guides of the Spiritual Exercise and Ignatian workers, will take place simultaneously with the main event of the Ignatian Year. In fact, on March 12 Pope Francis will commemorate the 450th anniversary of the canonization of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, Philip Neri and Isidore the Farmer, during a celebration where Jesuits, Carmelites and Oratorians will be present.

The theme chosen - "Spiritual Exercises and Holiness, the Ignatian way to God, both on a personal and communal level" - will highlight how the Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian spirituality, are acknowledged by the Church through the canonization of Ignatius and Francis Xavier,  as a means of personal and communal holiness, given by the Holy Spirit to St. Ignatius and through him to all humanity.

This holiness is the fruit of friendship: "We always lived together, sharing our rooms, our meals, our money; but he was my teacher in the spiritual life, giving me the possibility of ascending to the knowledge of the divine will and of my own. And this is how we became one in our desires, in our will and in our firm resolution to choose the life which all of us who are or will be part of this Society, of which I am not worthy, will now lead" (Memoriale, n. 8), This is how Pietro Favre describes the period he spent together with Ignatius and Francis Xavier in Paris. It is in this context, in this network of fraternity and friendship in the Lord that the Spiritual Exercises are experienced, discovered and offered to all!

And what about the spiritual friendship between Ignatius and Philip Neri? Recently, thanks to the Ignatian pilgrimages, two plaques were discovered in the place where the Roman saint confessed: "Here St. Ignatius of Loiola... and other holy men, spent long hours with him talking about God, and while kneeling they asked him for a blessing"; "St. Ignatius of Loiola while imploring God to give him a sign of the Spirit’s presence, saw a globe of fire above this house, where Fr. Philip Neri lived". 

"Paolo Monaco, CIS Director explains: "In this Conference, we wish to revive the spiritual friendship between the guides of the Ignatian Exercises and the Ignatian workers of the CIS network, and thus in this atmosphere deepen our knowledge. As we meet together in freedom, we intend to emphasize that the "normal" holiness of Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises, are a process of sanctification that can be experienced in the normality of life. We want to place ourselves on the road of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, according to the three verbs proposed by Pope Francis in his homily of October 10: meet, listen, discern. After all, what are the Exercises and how do they help us on the path to holiness? By offering us an experience of encountering, listening and discerning.

There will be two significant meetings: during the first meeting where Fr. Arturo Sosa SJ, Father General of the Society of Jesus will be present, an extensive dialogue on the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises in the Church and in the Society will take place; during the second meeting with Fr. Roberto Del Riccio SJ, Provincial of the Euro-Mediterranean Province, the prospects of the Spiritual Exercises and the CIS network in Italy, Albania, Malta and Romania will be addressed".

Jesuits EUM

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