Spiritual notes, homilies, writings: witnesses to Ignatian spirituality
The Word communicated through words: speeches, homilies and notes for spiritual exercises are the legacy of the work of many Jesuit fathers, appreciated preachers.
Several linear metres of spiritual documentation are preserved in our historical archives.
In fact, in each of the provincial funds, Veneto-Milan, Turin, Rome, Naples, the series of personal writings of the Jesuits who were members of that province are preserved.
Although not for all the Jesuits who lived in the Society from 1814 onwards have all the writings been preserved, we have several small personal fonds that collect such writings.
The homilies, the spiritual notes for guided exercises, the personal writings containing reflections elaborated during the exercises, constitute a very valuable source not only for historians but for the Fathers of the Province themselves.
This material is still little studied but could help not only to reconstruct a history of spirituality but also to know the thought, apostolate, deep faith of many Jesuits who are often less known, or known for other services rendered to the Church.
Some fathers like Giuseppe Massaruti faithfully preserved their homilies, today there are more than a hundred of them. Fr Massaruti was a professor of literature at the Maximilian Maximus Institute, highly regarded for his teaching but also with a great charisma that was expressed in Marian congregations and in the liturgy of the word.
Other fathers kept spiritual diaries that today can offer Jesuits unprecedented insights into various topics from theology to the Gospel: the figure of Our Lady, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, chastity, faith.
The oldest spiritual writings preserved in our historical archive are those of St Francis de Geronimo, about 125 papers. These also include instructions for the spiritual exercises, which our column already dealt with last year.
There are not only notes on spirituality collected in numerous diaries, sometimes the essence of Jesuit thought is collected in simple poems and essays, such as the one by Fr. Giovanni Bigazzi, which we quote below:
My penance is a little golden key, small, but which opens to me a great treasure. It is a cross, but it is the cross of Jesus: when I embrace it I no longer feel it. I have not counted the days of pain, I know that Jesus has written them all in his heart. I live moment by moment, and then the day passes like an hour. I have been told that, looked at from beyond, life will seem a moment. Life passes, feast eve, Death dies… Paradise remains. Two more drops of the bitter weeping, and then the eternal song of victory.
Maria Macchi
