The Jesuit Province of Colombia, Nariño Region, is committed to sharing the richness of Ignatian spirituality with the most vulnerable. The Province accompanies students attending the last grade of high school through Municipal Educational Institutions (IEM). Students searching for the Principle and Foundation are helped to recognise themselves as children loved by God, esteemed, and essential for a society where they can contribute their life project and walk towards a hopeful future.

Thanks to Programa Claver de la CPAL[the Claver Programme of the CPAL], we conducted the second edition of the [Spiritual] Exercises with school youth. Work with some schools we worked with back in 2021 continued, such as La Ciudadela Educational Institution, the Pedagógico IEM and the San Bosco IEM, plus the Artemio Mendoza IEM. In addition, we had the pleasant experience of working with indigenous and peasant populations in La Victoria IEM, in the village of Catambuco, and San Miguel Arcángel IEM,in the municipality of Mallama. A total of 419 youth began their introductory experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The preparation began during the first semester of 2022 with four full-day visits to each school grade; 15 groups were visited in five months. God surprised us each time through the restless young people who attended the first meeting out of pure curiosity (because it was favoured over attending academic classes). Still, as the days went by, they reflected on their own lives, began to find gaps, and realised that they needed a concrete horizon to give direction to their daily lives. Those meetings were moving.

The visits meant getting to know the youth's life contexts, sharing their own space and environment and building trust so they could freely express their feelings and needs. Each was encouraged to live an incarnated spirituality by entering each one's life stories. As a means of an encounter with self, this allowed each to recognise God, who became man and invites everyone to love and follow Him in their lives and others.

In the meetings, the youth worked on their deepest desires; it was nice to discover that they had dreams and that what had happened in their lives was not definitive. There is much to hope for. And it is worth highlighting that a large part of their hope arises from learning about the life of St. Ignatius, which for many, was the realisation that finding new meaning in life is possible.

¡Living The Exercises!

After the great adventure of having 60 visits, receiving the young people at the Retreat House of San Ignacio de Pasto proved beautiful. A place where the spirit dwells, an environment where participants felt loved from the moment they arrived. Every detail was designed to pamper and make them experience love.

Seeing their faces in awe was touching as they looked at the spacious, clean rooms with comfortable beds. Participant Alexis expressed, with mixed emotions, that in his house of 15 square metres, there was room only for a bed where three people slept--he, his mother, and his sister. Then, the retreat began with a journey through one's life history. Blindfolded, they listened to songs from childhood that brought images of personal life experiences to mind. Some memories were happy, others not so blissful, and others full of nostalgia for childhood yearnings, memories which have yet to heal.

Retreat House staff devotedly attended to the participants as the retreat progressed. The youth acknowledged how the team provided for their needs, like the delicious food. Everyone always gave thanks before partaking the food; efforts were sustained for a grateful personal encounter with God in prayer. It was striking to hear their self-affirmation of being good young people and that everyone has a reason for being. But unfortunately, some testimonies were about how they thought of themselves as evil, that they were a mistake and that they had no future. Some had been kicked out of their homes. Some are young mothers and fathers who have not completed their studies, and they tend to think "their life is already fucked up," just as the adults had constantly nagged them. However, they understood that such resentment towards life was where they often began to weave unloving ideas. As a result, they have forgotten their deepest yearnings and have lost courage. Yet these are like latent dreams, awaiting them to confront their wounds and look to the future with hope.

By sharing their life stories, they recognised moments when some people were cruel to them. Also, each admitted that they could be the source of pain for others. They then understood that with love and determination, this cycle could be worked on and healed by Jesus, the best model of life and a faithful companion on a path to sustain the beginning of new life consciously.

With letters from their parents, we ended with a very emotional family moment. They understood that God's love is not distant, that they have always had it and that their parents are the most tangible reality of this love, even if sometimes it does not seem so. Nevertheless, they left happy, as they could unburden themselves without being judged. With new perspectives, they were a little more aware of the impact of their decisions and, above all, of the joy and good taste that forgiveness leaves. We ended by recognising that dreams are longings; our future and hope are born when we accompany young people in their moments of fragility and failed attempts. To show them that they can always try, start, and dream again, but this time, never alone. And this time, we have a significant imprint: to believe that we can dream the impossible together.

Learn more about the Claver and Fabro Programmes of CPAL

Images and information from Jesuitas Colombia

Source: Jesuitas.lat