Two Standards and Culture

Ignatian Spirituality: A Way of Hope for our Times A special evening of Reflection on the Two Standards and our world today. Thursday, November 8, 2001 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Skutt Student Center Ballroom Creighton University How do the *Spiritual Exercises* of Ignatius of Loyola help us pray about the strategy of Jesus and the strategy of the Enemy of our human nature? How do we dialogue with the stories, symbols and world views of our contemporary American culture? How is the culture we live in a friend, a foe, and both? Marilyn and Peter will help us reflectively explore our world today in light of the Spirituality of Ignatius. Friday, November 9, 2001 11:30 a.m – 12:30 p.m. A Special Spirituality Plus Lunch. SSC Room 104 Creighton University Over a light soup lunch, we will have an opportunity to discuss these issues, surrounding the dialogue between and culture, in greater depth.	Fr. Peter Byrne, S.J. Marilyn Kirvin-Quamme Co-Directors, Ignatian Spirituality Center Portland, Oregon Peter has served as a parish pastor and religious superior of a formation program for Jesuits, while Marilyn has been a campus minister, psychotherapist, and retreat house director. In their ministry they offer retreats to church ministers, parishes, social services agencies and individuals around the Northwest.

Read the Press Release.

Preparing for this Presentation

Read the text of the Meditation on the Two Standards from the Spiritual Exercises.

Pray with the Guide and resources offered in a contemporary version in the Online Retreat's reflections on the Two Standards.
Read "Our Mission and Culture" from G.C. 34.

Our Mission and Culture
The 34th General Congregation
of the Society of Jesus 108 24. We need to recognize that the Gospel of Christ will always provoke resistance; it challenges men and women and requires of them a conversion of mind, heart, and behavior. It is not difficult to see that a modernist, scientific-technological culture, too often one-sidedly rationalistic and secular in tone, can be destructive of human and spiritual values. As Ignatius makes clear in the Meditation on Two Standards, the call of Christ is always radically opposed to values which refuse spiritual transcendence and promote a pattern of selfish life. Sin is social in its expression, as is the counterwitness offered by grace: unless a Christian life distinctly differs from the values of secular modernity, it will have nothing special to offer. One of the most important contributions we can make to critical contemporary culture is to show that the structural injustice in the world is rooted in value systems promoted by a powerful modern culture which is becoming global in its impact.

Sponsored by
The Collaborative Ministry Office