Margaret ends this blogalogue by asking: Are you looking forward to meeting Inigo in heaven, and what would you want to say to him or ask him?
Dear Margaret,
Yes, of course, I’m looking forward to finally meeting the man who has helped shape my destiny for the last 30-odd years and who will continue to influence me until I draw my last breath.
Having said that, I think I might be quite nervous. Your wonderful book about him, Just Call Me López, humanizes him for me, but I still have to fight against the urge to see him as an unrelenting taskmaster who is impossible to please. Your book helped me to realize that Inigo was, in many ways, as weak and as foolish as I have been. Your narrator, Rachel, is not slow to challenge him and I think now that I will be prepared to do something similar, in the unlikely event that it becomes necessary.
My imagination, however, tells me that Inigo will be surrounded by hordes of Jesuits and other Ignatian friends. I can see myself squeezing between them all to get close to Inigo and stopping to greet people I know by name or by reputation alone. I think it will take me a long time to get next to Inigo. When I get there, I want to begin by thanking him for his life, his ministry and his vision. I’ll tell him about visiting his houses in Loyola and in Rome and how I felt totally at home in both those places.
I’ll ask him to put in a good word with Our Lord and his Mother for all my Jesuit companions, family and friends whom I’ve left behind.
And then I’ll just hang out with the Ignatian crowd and rejoice!
Paul
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with you Paul. The book does humanise him and I felt that was refreshing. Too many of the ‘biographies’ of saints (although I realise that this book wasn’t strictly that) paint pictures of people who most of us (well, me anyway) couldn’t dream of living up to.
Simon,
That’s why I asked Margaret to write the book. I knew that if anyone could pull it off, she could.
Paul
The book completely humanizes Inigo, and in the most remarkable way!
What a beautiful response Paul, I got all teared up reading your words, imagining you squeezing your way past everyone from Francis Xavier, to Matteo Ricci, to Gerald Manley Hopkins, to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, to Pedro Arrupe, to most recently deceased Vincent O’Keefe and so many more.
Then I imagined a different scene altogether, as you made your way towards that great cloud of Ignatian witnesses… When Inigo realized you were on your way, the crowd began to part, and he began to walk towards you, as you approached him.
Thank you Paul, Margaret and the entire community for such an outstanding blogaglogue!!
Fran,
Your imagination was running riot!
Paul
This had indeed been a great blogalogue.
I went to an Ursuline boarding school grades 7-9; my Methodist family has had a century-plus relationship with that particular order of Ursulines. When I was ordained to ministry in the Presbyterian church last year, one of the sisters, whom I consider a great and lifelong friend, wrote that she hoped that they had had some influence on me (for sure they did!) and that she was very grateful for the role that the sons of Ignatius have played in my life. I suspect that I will mention that to him!
Funny thing – I was also incredibly relieved to read, in the Autobiography when I first studied Ignatius, how very human he was. As one of those people who would read the proverbial back of a cereal box if nothing else is available, in those long-ago junior high years I read a lot of those dreadful hagiographies of saints whose youthful days were allegedly examples of perfect (and sometimes gory) self-sacrifice. That was when I concluded that there was no hope for me.
Ignatius always gives me hope.
Robin,
You liked the Autobiography? Maybe I need to go and read it again…
Paul
LOL I think it was the donkey.
I can’t wait to read the book and as it doesn’t seem to want to download onto my laptop or my iPod, I will be holding a real book.
I have to agree that I got teared up with Fran when I read this answer to Margaret’s question. I owe so much to Ignatius and am so very grateful for his gift of Ignatian Spirituality to us. I hope he already knows that – I have asked Jesus to tell Ignatius how grateful I am so I hope he is aware.
Robin is so correct when she writes, “Ignatius always gives me hope.”
Lynda,
I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the download. Is there anything we can do to help?
Paul
Paul, I keep getting the same message that Kristina was getting that the file was not supported or it was damaged. Not to worry, I have emailed a friend with a Kindle to ask her to download it for me. Thanks for your concern. Lynda
I have wondered, if I earn the opportunity to gain entrance into heaven, which of my family members and friends and I would want to reconnect with first. Family members that I knew and those I never met, teachers and business mentors, friends who left at a way too early age. There are so many people that I never had the opportunity to say thank you, some not realizing the impact on my life until much later.
We have all come to realize that the best way to say thank you to those we were unable to say the same, is to pay to it forward.
Tim,
Here’s to paying it forward.
Paul