Walk, don’t run.
Slow down, breathe deeply,
and open your eyes
because there’s a whole world
right here within this one.
The bush doesn’t suddenly catch on fire,
it’s been burning the whole time.
(R. Bell)
With this text as morning prayer, a new edition of the Ignatian Leadership Programme (ILP) kicked off on Monday, 11 March. This is a training organized by JECSE for a group of 18 school headmasters and executives. We gathered in Rodizio near Lisbon at the ‘Casa de Exercícios de Santo Inácio’, a retreat house beautifully located near the Atlantic Ocean. Five days later, we concluded the programme and enthusiastically said to each other ‘See you in Warsaw in October’.
Looking back on this week of formation, for me the reflection text at the start also goes to the core of the programme for this first module: ‘Called as a leader for and with others’.
Participants come from Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Portugal, Albania, Spain, Italy and France. The context in which we work is often very different, but one element we all share is the challenge of leading in a school rooted in Ignatius’ vision. Guidance of the ILP is in the expert hands of Paul Yperman, Bart Van Emmerik s.J., Brian Flannery, Anne-Sophie De Decker and Lourenço Eiro s.J. I see the very diverse composition of our group as a unique opportunity to exchange and find inspiration. In doing so, I experience great gratitude for the fine, enriching conversations, the international contacts and the opportunities in this group to gain a broader view and be challenged in vision and identity.
The programme in Rodizio was well filled, following a predictable pattern. For the bravest (and the Belgian delegation lived up to Caesar’s famous words there), the day started each time with an inspiring walk along the beautiful coast. This morning activity could perhaps not count on enthusiasm because of the less matinal companions; I gladly accepted Bart and Anne-Sophie’s offer for this pleasant morning ritual.
After breakfast, we started the programme with a moment of reflection followed by a number of plenary sessions. In these, we could also exchange among ourselves each time about the content we were offered. From different frames of mind about emotions, relationships, choices, behavior and communication, we were offered valuable input for a week in a very multi-faceted programme on leadership and Ignatian spirituality. The great added value lay in the connection between these two perspectives.
We also held small-group reflection discussions each time. Using the ignatian spiritual conversation methodology, we tried to discover on a personal level the deeper movements we experienced with the insights we were offered each time.
Each day we gathered in the evening in the house chapel where a very simple but deeply symbolic work of art gave the space sacredness. We ended our working day here each time with a celebration of mass: a moment of reflection and singing together, of retrospection and peace.
At lunchtime and in the evening we shared a typical Portuguese meal: at the table we got to know each other better and, as usual, we always ended the day with a “social” for which each brought a speciality from their country.
On Wednesday afternoon, a visit to Sintra was also planned: a relaxing trip during which we happened to meet a group from a Jesuit college from Dallas. By then the group atmosphere was already good, especially after the evening dinner on site with accompanying conviviality.
When CEBECO invited me to participate in this programme, I gratefully and curiously accepted the invitation. On the one hand, the content of the programme is familiar because it takes up a number of familiar frameworks on leadership, but the depth lies in the bridge to the Ignatian perspective. This link was offered in very different ways each time: a presentation on Ignatius’ choices in leadership, an interview with a Jesuit at the head of a youth centre in Lisbon on the challenges he had experienced in his leadership, a session on using the ignatian ‘modo de proceder’ in leading a school, the discussion of spirituality within an ignatian listening conversation, a presentation on the examination, discovering the space for the Spirit’s working in your actions.
With a suitcase full of inspiration, I returned from Portugal. The objective now is to hold on to the insights and inspiration of the ILP. En route to the second training week in October, our facilitators keep the spirit alive and we stay connected through the assignments we were given.
In the hustle and bustle of running a school, it will be a challenge to still walk, not run, thus securing Rodizio’s ideas in word and deed.
Cécile Veraert
