The Ignatian Year: A Pamplona Moment

Faith at Marquette
2 min readNov 2, 2021

By Jim Pribek, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry

Ignatius repeatedly refused to reveal his life story: he did not want to aid in the creation of an autobiography in the traditional sense. He felt this might feed his greatest and most persistent temptation: vanity. Fortunately for us, one of his trusted assistants, Luis Goncalvez da Camara, won Ignatius over by arguing that his life story could truly help people, especially those who like himself were similarly tempted by vanity. This life story could reflect not the glory of Ignatius, but the glory of God who transformed a faulted and sometimes foolish sinner into a pilgrim who sought to serve humbly, with every dimension of his self. And if this could happen to Ignatius, it could happen to all of us who follow his way of loving and serving.

I hope that these Ignatian year reflections will help us correlate our own lives to that of Ignatius. Jerome Nadal, Ignatius’ personal assistant, believed that God deals with the followers of Ignatius as he did with the founder himself. Our spiritual lives mirror his: not in all ways, but in some significant ones.

Our Ignatian lives usually begin in a Pamplona of some sort. Something shatters our world and our sense of self. For men, this often happens, as it did for Ignatius, with a physical injury or illness. A female colleague of mine told me that for her and many other women, Pamplona arrived when an important relationship was broken. Of course there are plenty of exceptions to these rules; but in all Pamplonas, worlds and selves are shattered, and God reassembles us according to his plan. Pamplonas are always painful, and they are usually personal. And yet they allow room for God to work in our youthful lives, creating space for bigger and better ways of thinking, acting, and relating to others. What was your Pamplona?

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