{"id":26600,"date":"2011-08-20T12:28:50","date_gmt":"2011-08-20T16:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/08\/the-magis-according-to-st-igna\/"},"modified":"2014-07-17T10:00:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T14:00:55","slug":"the-magis-according-to-st-igna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/08\/the-magis-according-to-st-igna\/","title":{"rendered":"The Magis according to St Ignatius of Loyola"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<o:documentproperties>\n<o:template>Normal<\/o:template>\n<o:revision>0<\/o:revision>\n<o:totaltime>0<\/o:totaltime>\n<o:pages>1<\/o:pages>\n<o:words>125<\/o:words>\n<o:characters>713<\/o:characters>\n<o:company>Liturgy Traing Publ.<\/o:company>\n<o:lines>5<\/o:lines>\n<o:paragraphs>1<\/o:paragraphs>\n<o:characterswithspaces>875<\/o:characterswithspaces>\n<o:version>10.260<\/o:version>\n<\/o:documentproperties>\n<\/xml>< ![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>\n<w:worddocument>\n<w:zoom>0<\/w:zoom>\n<w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0<\/w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>\n<w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0<\/w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>\n<w:usemarginsfordrawinggridorigin><\/w:usemarginsfordrawinggridorigin>\n<\/w:worddocument>\n<\/xml>< ![endif]--><br \/>\n<!--StartFragment--><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; &lt;br \/&gt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/San%20Ignacio%20de%20Loyola.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;\" alt=\"San Ignacio de Loyola.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/assets_c\/2011\/08\/San Ignacio de Loyola-thumb-285x333-9906.jpg\" width=\"285\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a><\/span>An often confused issue in Ignatian spirituality as it\u00a0is formulated by Saint Ignatius of Loyola is the concept of the\u00a0<i><b>magis<\/b>.<\/i>\u00a0It can be an elusive but central Ignatian\u00a0idea. But it doesn&#8217;t have to be such. Many writers on Ignatian spirituality say that the\u00a0<i><b>magis<\/b><\/i>\u00a0means\u00a0<i>the best, the\u00a0highest, the most<\/i>\u00a0that we can do for God. But these writers miss the point because Ignatius doesn&#8217;t speak in superlative terms.<\/p>\n<p>The recently departed Jesuit Father\u00a0Dave Fleming contests this understanding. According to Fleming, the\u00a0<i><b>magis\u00a0<\/b><\/i>is comparative not superlative.\u00a0 That is, it is\u00a0<i><b>the more<\/b><\/i>,\u00a0not\u00a0the most.\u00a0 Holy Father Saint Ignatius meant the magis to be\u00a0interpreted and thus lived in view of\u00a0<i><b>the greater\u00a0<\/b><\/i><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">not\u00a0the greatest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Father Dave wrote: &#8220;Ignatius never works with\u00a0superlatives.&#8221; Fleming explains, &#8220;When we want to do the best, we may get frozen. If we want to do what might be better, we might be able to\u00a0choose.&#8221; Thus, there is an emphasis on freedom in this more authentic interpretation of Ignatius than what one gets with using superlative language. Hence,\u00a0<b>t<\/b><b>he\u00a0<i>magis<\/i><\/b>\u00a0as a comparative applies to everything, not just a select point or two of one&#8217;s life. Everything. A complete and sincere gift of self to God, and then to neighbor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An often confused issue in Ignatian spirituality as it\u00a0is formulated by Saint Ignatius of Loyola is the concept of the\u00a0magis.\u00a0It can be an elusive but central Ignatian\u00a0idea. But it doesn&#8217;t have to be such. Many writers on Ignatian spirituality say that the\u00a0magis\u00a0means\u00a0the best, the\u00a0highest, the most\u00a0that we can do for God. But these writers miss &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/08\/the-magis-according-to-st-igna\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Magis according to St Ignatius of Loyola<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2718,32084,2838,2496],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31246,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26600\/revisions\/31246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}