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Our Vision
In the name of Jesus
in the spirit of Ignatius
companions
for a faith that does justice
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The Australian members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, welcome
the many friends and colleagues who share our life, work, prayer and
decision-making. Together we companions of the Australian Jesuit
Province are discovering a shared Ignatian identity, spirit and
mission. Together we provide an Ignatian presence across Australia,
Asia and Oceania, and wherever Australian and New Zealand Jesuits live
and work.
Our work in a Jesuit organization is more than using our
professional skills in the service of others. We minister in the name
of Jesus and the Gospel in the discerning way of proceeding shaped by
Ignatius, while respecting the dignity of every person, and seeking
that right order or justice in which God’s people can thrive. We
Ignatian companions participate in the mission of the Catholic church,
and celebrate our identity as Catholics through prayer, ritual and
sacrament.
Wherever you live and work you are invited to build communities that
demonstrate the core values of the Province to be welcoming, discerning
and courageous. You are invited, together with others who share a
common call to mission with the Jesuits, to be companions for a faith
that does justice.
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Our Philosophy
Call to Mission
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for the Lord has anointed me.
The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
(Luke 4:18-19)
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The heart of Jesuit ethos or culture is the spirituality promoted by
the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits.
Ignatius Loyola documented his own search for God in the Spiritual
Exercises, a methodology with which he also attracted others to join
together as companions of one another, as “friends in the Lord”.
The Exercises offers a school of prayer and a means of finding that
most precious gift, freedom, through recognition of the fact that God
loves us, despite ourselves. Such prayer urges us to overcome any
preoccupation with self and to give our energies to serve others.
When the early companions gained papal approval for the Society of
Jesus in 1540, a threefold mission was given to the fledgling body, a
vision that remains valid today. The Society’s first mission, and ours
who choose to be companions under this banner, is to make known the
Word of God. Second, our mission is to help people to receive and
interiorise that Word (through teaching, through conversation, through
the Spiritual Exercises). Third, we are to put that word into practice
through service of others, most particularly by our attention to those
in the greatest need. Today we summarise our mission as “companions for
a faith that does justice”. That mission inspires many persons and
ministries within Australia, but also urges us to reach beyond our
shores to the needs of our world.
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