Archive FM

AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

Why Getting Ignatius' Story Right Matters with Bart Geger, SJ

If you have had any encounter with Jesuits – at a school, a parish, a nonprofit – you probably know a little about St. Ignatius of Loyola. You may know he got hit by a cannonball, that he wrote the Spiritual Exercises and that he ultimately went on to found the Society of Jesus. Good enough, right? Wrong. Fr. Bart Geger, SJ – a research scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and Assistant Professor of the Practice at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College – returns to AMDG to give us a behind-the-scenes look at his new edition of Ignatius’ own autobiography – and tells us why calling it an autobiography isn’t really right. Fr. Bart and Eric get into some more of the common misconceptions around Ignatius – around his understanding of Catholicism – and why setting the record straight matters. Ultimately, Fr. Bart helps us recognize where God was at work in Ignatius’ life – and how spending time to reflect on the saint’s life might better help us discover God at work in our own.
Broadcast on:
31 Mar 2021

If you have had any encounter with Jesuits – at a school, a parish, a nonprofit – you probably know a little about St. Ignatius of Loyola. You may know he got hit by a cannonball, that he wrote the Spiritual Exercises and that he ultimately went on to found the Society of Jesus. Good enough, right? Wrong. Fr. Bart Geger, SJ – a research scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and Assistant Professor of the Practice at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College – returns to AMDG to give us a behind-the-scenes look at his new edition of Ignatius’ own autobiography – and tells us why calling it an autobiography isn’t really right. Fr. Bart and Eric get into some more of the common misconceptions around Ignatius – around his understanding of Catholicism – and why setting the record straight matters. Ultimately, Fr. Bart helps us recognize where God was at work in Ignatius’ life – and how spending time to reflect on the saint’s life might better help us discover God at work in our own.