Five hundred years ago, St Ignatius received the grace of conversion after his defeat at Pamplona in 1521. This conversion was the basis on which he found spiritual interior freedom. The fruit of his conversion was a new horizon: a spiritual vision of life and service. Indeed, instead of being loyal to the King and to the court of Spain, his whole life after conversion focused solely on seeking to glorify God more. This word “more” in English or “magis” in Latin, which was used by St Ignatius, has become a keyword in Ignatian spirituality.
Jesuit spirituality can be summed up in the short expresssion: All for God’s greater glory and honour. Many correspondent phrases in the Constitutions as well as in Ignatian writings, namely the “service of God, the glory of God”, the “greater glory of God”, and the “service and praise of God”, come from the Ignatian conviction that God is actively at work in this world and wants all human beings to act in harmony with God’s will.
Magis is used by Ignatius not merely in the quantitative sense, but also in the sense of spiritual movement. In the words of André Brouillette SJ: “The magis, however, disrupts this state of complacency. It awakens consciousness, enabling us to imagine something else. It broadens the horizon of movement and growth. It does not contradict the satis but invites us to transcend it, using another kind of logic, the logic of growth and even of generosity.”[1] As such, the word “magis” expresses the intensity and destination of the life and apostolic commitment to which every Jesuit must aspire.
From the understandings mentioned above, three important points about Ignatius’ Magis should be emphasised:
Magis is the apostolic dynamic: Deep gratitude to God for the gift of conversion and the desire to follow Christ carrying the cross impelled Ignatius to constantly commit himself to the search for magis to give thanks and honour to the God of salvation. This magis is thus the new spiritual dynamic that God gives Ignatius and the Jesuits as a gift; and at the same time as an invitation to impel them to apostolic commitment to the highest intensity in their life of mission.
Magis is the spiritual ambition: The magis in Ignatian spirituality can also be called the spiritual ambition of those who want to commit themselves to the glory of God. This magis helps them to constantly seek the perfection of themselves and others starting from their own conversion and commitment to service. Magis is the inner force that removes the mediocrity of life and moves the Jesuit to come out of himself to fully realize Jesus’ call to “be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect”. In other words, there is no stopping or resting place for anyone who wants to embark on the path of perfection and service!
Magis is the foundation of apostolic mobility: The Magis of Ignatius is also seen as the foundation of the apostolic availability which springs from spiritual interior freedom. It makes the Jesuits free to commit themselves to the service of God’s glory and human happiness. Nothing and no one can hold them back. “Let the Lord be more glorified” is the sole criterion for all apostolic choices.
The Society of Jesus, during the Ignatian Year, celebrates not only the 500th anniversary of St Ignatius’s conversion, but also the 400th anniversary of his canonisation and that of his great friend, St Francis Xavier. This celebration is very significant. It presents us with the perfect journey our saints took with a beautiful beginning and ending: beginning with radical spiritual conversion and ending with a complete devotion to mission. The magis of Ignatian spirituality is truly in the spiritual dynamic present in the life and service of Jesuits, and enables them to realise that which they think about over and over in the First Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises.
Vincent Pham Van Mam SJ
Provincial, Vietnamese Province
[1] André Brouillete, S.J., The Ignatian Magis: Spirituality and Growth; https://jesuits.ca/stories/the-ignatian-magis-spirituality-and-growth/, 29 June 2022.
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