Leadership: Born from the Jesuit Mission

Humility can be misplaced, if it comes from a broken idea of leadership, if we think of leaders as being charge, maintaining the power and celebrity. The idea that leadership is for only people in charge, is not the solution to any problem.

We must think of ourselves as leaders first. Living our values, not status, is our claim to leadership. 

Magis means we are able to attack and establish ways to address the joys and hopes dreams and desires of the poor and afflicted of the present age. This is a leadership mentality to achieve a vision much larger then themselves. First instill the Magis, then get results.  

Company is etymologically a group of people with whom you break bread, a group with whom you are revived and gain energy, a group with whom you share in the sacrifice of Christ at the altar.  In what way are we a true company?

Mr. Lowney  left you with three challenges: Be Christ, Be accountable, and Be innovators.  How will we meet these challenges?

Visual representation

Here is a wordle of the lectures we have heard so far. For those who are unfamiliar with wordles, it is a visual representation of speech. The larger the word appears, the more often it was used. You can make your own at www.wordle.net

Workshops

With a great array of Workshops being offered, we hope you use this space to post your observations!

Healthy Environment for Learning and Growing

It is such an important topic: the reality of the abuse of children and teenagers in the church and schools. Though this panel was in Spanish, it is crucial that we address this topic in all languages and institutions. Our solidarity in the transparent approach to protecting our vulnerable- children, teenagers, the unempowered- needs to be named.

The first speaker brought us to consider how important it is that we talk about the crimes that have been committed in our community. We need to name  them and talk about them.  In solidarity, we need to face this truth. First, we must be sure to be aware of the grave harm to children, to be aware of the crimes in our community while maintaining the dignity of the victims and their suffering at the forefront of our minds and hearts and action.  We must continue to face this situation with reflection and investigation.

Challenge of the gaze: making sure our looking is not contaminated.  Looking, expanding our point of view, needs to be done in this Kairos moment and used  to strengthen our institutional psychology.  We cannot bring acid rain to our institutions, we are tasked with creating environments that are nurturing.  Toxic environments are the dangerous frontiers that we need to address through our leadership. 

Protocol for building a healthy community: we need to make sure we have and respect protocols to protect our children and teenagers. These aren't isolated incidents and should not be treated as such. We need to make sure our protocols aren't too cumbersome or legalistic to be usable. Youth is a treasure, it has to be an integral part of our Jesuit identity to protect youth as we educate them.

This issue is central to the Society. We cannot leave it aside.

Reflections on Jesuit Identity

Fr. Huang poses ten points of reflection from the procurates. It will be useful to discuss these in our schools, provinces and region, as well as right here- on campus or on the blog. What are your insights?

Ten points to ponder from our Procurates:
1. Apostolic instruments
Do we understand ourselves and function as apostolic missions?How?

2. Serving faith
How can we be more successful in bringing our students to the joy of friendship with Christ in His community, the Church? How can we assess our success? In non -Christian contexts, how do we serve faith?

3. Bridges to and in the Church
How are we bridging the gap between youth and church?
Are we reflecting on faith in the schools?

4. Collaboration as Mission
How do you see the role of collaboration in your mission?

5. Animated by an Apostolic Community
Who comprises the Ignatian Apostolic Community in your school?
How is maintained? How does it work?

6. Jesuit Community: Accompaniment and Witness
Community as Mission
How do Jesuit communities understand their mission within the larger Ignatian apostolic community?
What needs to be done to change mindsets and attitudes?

7. Close to the Poor, Concerned about Structural Change and the Environment.
Have we grown farther from the poor? How is closeness to the poor promoted?
How have we created a passion for structural change and for care for the environment?

8. The Dimension of Universality
To what extent is there a sense of universal mission in our schools?
How much sharing of perspectives, capacities and resources beyond our provinces and conferences exists?
How do our schools network with other ministries?

9. The Creativity of the Kingdom
To what extent are our schools inspired by competition? To what extent are we limited by our need to compete with other schools?
To what extent are we motivated  by creativity of the Kingdom of God and how is this creativity promoted in our institutions?

10. Discerning the Future of Institutions
What is the quality of our discernment in our schools? How do we begin to freely discern whether we should think of ourselves more as Ignatian, rather than Jesuit works?

What kinds of structures and programs do we need to retain life-giving connection to our Ignatian heritage and presence?

Balanced, Serene and Constant

Fr. Lombardi began by giving us an awe-inspiring image of the Pope's conversation with the astronauts. What a great analogy for us to consider: a collection of diverse individuals, working together to explore and discover new awes in the universe.

He gave us an incredible number of ideas to consider, frontiers to explore, and tensions to balance. Here are a couple of quotes he gave us regarding the Pope's description of the educational emergency that we face. What do you think of these passages? What in his talk spoke to your school's context?

Benedict XVI notes that, "in reality, it is not only the individual responsibilities of adults and young people that are involved, but also a more widespread mindset: a mentality and a form of culture that lead people to doubt the value of the human person, the meaning of truth and good and, in the final analysis, the goodness of life itself. In such a situation it becomes difficult to transmit any worthwhile and certain values from one generation to another: rules of behaviour and credible goals around which people can build their lives"....


Pope Benedict concluded one of his talks on this subject with a fine definition summarising exactly what education is: "Education means forming new generations so that they know how to relate to the world, strengthened by a significant memory, by a shared inner patrimony of real knowledge which, while recognising the transcendent goal of life, guides thoughts, emotions and judgements " (Address to the Italian Episcopal Conference, 27 May 2010).

Our Shared Feast Day

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the lobstahs at BC High to celebrate our community. This morning, we don't have a police escort to get us to the meetings but it looks to be another good day.


Please post your observations so that we have a richer perspective.

A Classroom as Wide as the World

Vivien Stewart showed us some interesting exemplars of educators pushing the frontiers. Whether it was American schools realizing that multi-language learning better meets the needs of its' students, or technology being used to break down doorways, walls, and stagnation in classrooms and opening up students' experiences of the world. The examples certainly provoked thought, some ideas in tension, some curiosity and feedback. What did you think? Post your comments here to continue the dialogue.

GC 35 and the Mission

Without even a siesta, we continue to reflect on our global network. Beyond our numbers and contexts, what is our mission that we share? In some ways it is simple: At the service of faith for the purpose of justice in collaboration with all. Fr. Da Silva reminds us of the importance of an insistence of collaboration to animate our work.

Fr. Blaszczak asks us: How is it that you have found your way to this mission? To this way of proceeding? Are you ready for the work to reassess and reexamine what we do and how we do it?

Fr. Alvarez gave us some history of Fe y Alegria. It began from the calling to teach the poor. What are the calls today? How are we responding to the call of recent Congregations? To the least advantaged? To the needs of the environment?

Fr. Garanzini gave us a peek into the way that Jesuit Higher Education is grappling with similar issues as those of us in the work of Jesuit Secondary Education.

We have a tool for inviting faculty into the work of faith: The Exercises. Eager social justice collaborators are easier to come by. The deepest roots of faith and hope spring from these exercises.

Network: Not just a trendy word.

What an interesting way that numbers allow us to gain some insight into who we are and how we work. As each region shares some of the numbers of students, schools, Jesuits, languages, and tuition differentials in our respective regions, the picture of our global network is beginning to form more clearly. Once we clarified that women are worth thrice as much, and part-time Jesuits are sometimes only valued as .5 a person, the room's laughter showed that solidarity was shared in that calculus. As we hear each representative describe contexts, it's easy to see how we are here to work together. What do you see as significant commonalities?

A Continued Welcome and Challenge.

Bill Kemeza, President of BC High, continued last night's welcome to a week of blessed companionship.

Fr. Nicholas welcomed us from Rome. The tech-savvy video message described this week as an opportunity to reflect on the potential to work in a new way. He called us to be both creative and effective- a coupling of adjectives that Fr. Mesa also challenges us to practice.

Fr. Mesa took the stage, reminding us that as we feel welcome we should be cautious about feeling too comfortable. Quoting Fathers Arrupe and Kolvenbach, we were warned of the temptation of being so good. This might lead us to miss the opportunities to change. To consider ourselves outside of history or to allow ourselves to succumb to the stagnation of success are pathways to death. As Kolvenbach says, "The Lord is asking us for the courage to follow the path of renewal," not for the sake of change alone, of course. So that leads us to use our own imaginations as we determine our own frontiers through spiritual discernernment: what is the cultural change to which your school is called? And in this discernement and openess to renewel, we should be sure to work in solidarity. Networking is not just a trendy word. We are in a kairos moment that demands imaginiation, generosity and new ways. We are called to connect and act as a global and interdisciplinary body. What does that body look like? Who are we as a whole? Grab a snack and come back for round two!

Let the meetings begin!

We have arrived: let the meetings begin. We have travelled from sixty-one countries and over 250 schools for the first time gathering in one house. Though our events are more collegial than competitive, we come in the spirit of excellence. The tree-lined walkways of Boston College welcomed us, Fr. Mesa welcomed us, we welcomed each other as we shared our first meal together in McElroy.

Blog Launching on Monday

The International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education begins this weekend. Please check this blog often throughout the event for photos, commentary, and updates as this historic summit progresses.

As always, you can visit www.icjse.org for more information.