Originally published at Ignatian Spirituality
Recently Pope Francis released a papal encyclical called Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us). In this letter, Francis speaks movingly about the need for a return to the heart. The heart, he says, “shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people.” (14) He adds, “In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity.” (20) The heart is the spot in us that unifies us as individuals and that unifies us to God.
In Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis reminds us that St. Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises are all about desire, that deep desire that a retreatant has, in undertaking prayer, to rearrange life to become closer to God and to live in greater love of others. But Ignatius also knew that, during our prayer, God sometimes breaks in and speaks in our hearts, sometimes in unexpected ways, calling into question that which we thought we knew but needed to see differently.
When I think about being challenged to see things differently, I think of Fr. Gregory Boyle’s book, Tattoos on the Heart, in which he talks about compassion in his work in a gang intervention program. He
