An Ignatian Year - A call to conversion
Starting from May 2021 until the end of July 2022, the Society of Jesus, collaborators, and all those who embrace the Ignatian Spirituality begin the Ignatian Year’s celebration. May 20, 2021, the starting date for the year, marks the 500th anniversary of St. Ignatius Loyola’s injury during the Battle of Pamplona, which ultimately led to his conversion from soldier to saint. During this Ignatian Year, we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the canonization of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier on March 12, 2022. The Ignatian Year concludes on the Feast of St. Ignatius, July 31, 2022.
Seeing all things new – A call to conversion
The theme for the Ignatian Year is “To see all things new in Christ”. Guided by this wonderful invitation, each of us – Jesuits, collaborators, alumni, and followers of Ignatian spirituality is called to a personal, communal, and institutional conversion. The whole year will be guided by the Universal Apostolic Preferences, which was announced in 2019 and continued till 2029.
This opportunity of commemorating our founder St. Ignatius “is a call to allow the Lord to work on our conversion,” said Fr. Arturo Sosa SJ, Superior General of the Jesuits. “We ask for the grace to be renewed by the Lord. We wish to discover a new apostolic enthusiasm inside ourselves, a new life, new ways to follow the Lord. That is why we have chosen as our theme for the year: to see all things new in Christ.”
May 23: Global Online Prayer Initiative
As part of the activities lined up to start the Ignatian year, the curia of the Society of Jesus in Rome is organizing a tri-lingual live-streamed prayer initiative on May 23 at 7: 00 pm (Lagos time). The theme for this live prayer broadcast is “Pilgrims with Ignatius.”
While the global solemn opening Mass for the Ignatian year takes in Pamplona, Spain, on Thursday, May 20 2021 (Click here to watch ), the Jesuits in the North-West Africa Province begins the year with an opening Mass at Christ the King Catholic Church Ilasamaja, Lagos (Click here to watch )