Jesuits in the Low Countries
Sent to serve Saint Ignatius left no doubt about it from the start. The Order he founded has no other specialty than “helping souls”. It respond to the needs of the Church and society, that has been the aim of the Jesuits throughout the centuries. Work was and is often done where others are absent or at the borders. The privileged bond with the one whom Ignatius liked to call “the Vicar of Christ on earth” means that the Pope, to this day, regularly gives special missions to the Society.
Jesuit Nicholas Sintobin is church assistant regarding the Dutch and Flemish GCL groups. GCL, abbreviation for ‘Community of Christian Living’, a worldwide community of Christians who want to follow Jesus Christ more closely. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola are the source of their spirituality.
The members of GCL reflect on their faith and how they can realize this in their daily lives, as individuals or as a family. GCL members meet in a group approximately once a month to share their experiences and support each other on their life journey. Together they try to understand daily activities from the perspective of faith and to make decisions and act accordingly in the spirit of Jesus. Inner freedom, serving love and solidarity with people in need are central.
GCL is present in more than sixty countries worldwide, spread across all continents.
Companions of Jesus The Jesuits are a religious Order within the Roman Catholic Church, founded byIgnatius of Loyola in 1540. An ‘Order’ is a community of fathers (men who are ordained priests) and brothers (men who are not priests), who live and work according to their own rule and with their own spirituality. The Society of Jesus now counts as ‘ n 17,000 Jesuits, spread over 127 countries. They work as teachers, physicians, journalists, parish priests, astronomers, spiritual counselors, student pastors, etc.
Religious life To be in religious life the vows centrally. The evangelical councils, as they are also called, do not only give an external shape to the life of the Jesuit. Above all, they are a continuous call to graft our apostolic life, down to the smallest detail, onto the person of Jesus Christ. Again and again and more and more. The great texts from our tradition provide a common direction. But in the experience of every Jesuit individually, different accents are placed in the search for this ever-fragile balance, for this ever-unpredictable path to joy…
Spirituality Ad majorem Dei gloriamIgnatius’ motto that everything must be done ‘for the greater glory of God’ indicates his preference for growth, for process-based action: there is always more possible, greater depth, more intense love, more complete surrender to God. You will never reach the highest, but you can progress and become an increasingly better servant of God. This is not about performance through great willpower, but about a way of life that expresses the desire and will to be open to the influence of God’s spirit on human action. Prayer and life touch and nourish each other then continuously. TheSpiritual Exercises are the heart of the spirituality of the Jesuits and of the wider Ignatian family. Seeking, finding and serving God in all things and people, in the middle of a beautiful but broken world. And this together with and for many other people.
As a reflection center, Oude Abdij Drongen is an Ignatian center for Christian spirituality. This means that the abbey wants to contribute to the church and society from the Ignatian perspective in the field of meaning, depth and spirituality. The Ignatian is situated in the methodology based on the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, and other Ignatian sources.