Praying for Freedom: Racism and Ignatian Spirituality in America

by Laurie Cassidy (Editor)

Overview

2025 Catholic Media Association Second Place Award, Inclusion in the Church

Why do the Spiritual Exercises not change us as deeply as we hope? This is the haunting question that was raised at the recent general congregation of the Jesuits about Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises and the question the contributors to this book explore and attempt to answer in the context of ongoing racial injustice in the United States. All of us who love and are engaged in Ignatian spirituality must also ask ourselves this same question. Contributors explore this question by examining how “color-blindness racism” determines our interpretation of the Spiritual Exercises in the United States. Animated by the grace of Ignatius's conversion experience these spiritual directors, theologians, and leaders in Jesuit ministries offer insightful scholarly and creative pastoral engagement of the Spiritual Exercises for the ongoing journey of conversion from racism and white supremacy in the United States.

Contributors include:
Maka Black Elk (Oglala Lakota) — Laurie Cassidy — Matthew J. Cressler — Pauline Delgadillo — Elise Gower
Armando Guerrero Estrada — Jeannine Hill Fletcher — Ken Homan, SJ — Alex Mikulich
Maria Teresa Morgan — Marilyn L. Nash — Maureen H. O’Connell — Hung T. Pham, SJ
Christopher Pramuk — Andrew Prevot — Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ — Justin T. White

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814667910
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	04/01/2024
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Laurie Cassidy, PhD, is a theologian and spiritual director currently teaching in the Christian Spirituality Program at Creighton University. An award-winning author and editor, her books include InterruptingWhite Privilege: Catholic Theologians Break the Silence, edited with Alex Mikulich. Her latest book, The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-Incarceration: A Non-Violent Spirituality of White Resistance, is co-authored Alex Mikulich and Margaret Pfeil. As well as being an anti-racist activist, she has ministered in the area of spirituality for the past thirty years and provided spiritual direction, retreats, and workshops across the United States. Her research and writing explore the political and cultural impact of Christian mysticism in personal and social transformation.

Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments   xi
Introduction: Praying for Freedom   1
     Laurie Cassidy

PART I
Presuppositions
1  Training the Soul: A Black Catholic Journey through the Spiritual Exercises   23
      Andrew Prevot
2  Digging into Jesuit Slaveholding, Digging into the Exercises   39
      Ken Homan, SJ
3  The Composition of Place in Ignatian Spirituality: Repositioning a Historical-Ecological Encounter with Jesus in the Context of Modernity/Coloniality   47
      Alex Mikulich  

PART II
The Spiritual Exercises
4  From Self-Centered to Other-Centered: Ignatian Indifference on Racial Differences   71
      Hung T. Pham, SJ
5  The Sins of White Supremacy: Institutionalized Racism and a Composition of Place   85
      Jeannine Hill Fletcher
6  The Gift of Tears: White Metanoia at the Foot of the Black Cross   105
      Christopher Pramuk
7  Resting Under the Standard of Christ: The Spiritual Exercises and Discerning White Supremacy   127
      Maureen H. O’Connell
8  Recuerda Que Jesús También Fue Niño: An Undocumented Reflection on the Spiritual Exercises   145
      Armando Guerrero Estrada and Paulina Delgadillo
9  Mephibosheth and Me: An Interpretive Ignatian Prayer of Memory and Imagination   153
      María Teresa Morgan 
10  Ignatian Discernment in a Diverse Ecosystem   159
      Marilyn L. Nash
11  Seeing Bodies: Using the Separate Lenses Frantz Fanon and Ignatius of Loyola for Healing   175
      Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ

PART III
Contemplating God’s Laboring and Loving in the World
12  The Making and Unmaking of White Ignatian Formation   195
      Matthew J. Cressler
13  The God of Us All: Praying with Black Spirituality   211
      Justin White
14  The God of Us All: Examen Reflection   217
      Elise Gower
15  Truth, Healing, and the Journey through Indigenous Catholic Boarding School History   221
      Maka Black Elk
List of Contributors   227 

Editorial Reviews

"To answer the question posed by Jesuits and by extension, all who are touched by Ignatian spirituality, 'Why are we not more deeply changed by the Spiritual Exercises?' is also to confront the painful issue of racism in America. What emerges through the poignant and prayerful essays offered in this volume is hope and a broadened perspective. Together, the collection demonstrates that the heritage of racially charged violence, negligence, and human suffering which so often give way to indifference and paralysis do not have the final word in our discourse and imagination. Compassionate solidarity grounded in Christian and Ignatian tradition uncover paths of transformative possibilities."
Joseph Lagan, MDiv, Director, Ignatian Spirituality Program, University Mission, Regis University
 

From the Publisher