The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
My (very) personal review on the book written by Fr. James Martin SJ
12 years of Catholic school, including 3 years of Jesuit high school on top of that, has made me into a somewhat reluctant believer of God’s grace.
Maybe it’s the numerous dogmas being forced down my throat for at least once a week, 12 years straight, maybe it’s the way my parents never skipped mass every week, maybe it’s my own religious trauma from experiencing painful conflicts in the Church itself, or maybe it’s a little bit of all of them. As a result, and as what usually happens with children who went to catholic school and comes from religious family, you either find God in all things, or you don’t find Him, at all. And for a while — a very long while — I was a part of the latter.
It wasn’t until I experienced crippling depression that I realized that I probably do need some sort of omnipresent higher being that will have my back, even if I myself don’t. That terrible downturn of events was what eventually lead me to my encounter with the book, that carries the title of this very essay that you’re reading, which is “The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything” by Fr. James Martin SJ. As you can tell from the Fr in front and SJ behind his name, he’s in fact a Jesuit priest, so you can bet the guide is pretty valid.
I have to admit, I initially underestimated this book. I thought I would know everything there is to Ignatian Spirituality, and I hated self help books in general. But as I am now writing this long — the longest — book review I’ve ever written, we all know my first impression was debunked. So if you’re still reading this right now, here is me trying to persuade you to pick up this book.
1. Don’t worry if you’re not religious. Just pick up the book!
If you’re worried that this book will be another gospel or a religious doctrine, don’t worry, I was also worried. But it honestly wasn’t necessary!
Father Martin explains almost immediately in the second chapter of the book, of what he calls The Six Paths to God. In these six categories, he explains the spirituality of every human possible. Starting from the devout believer, the believer who turned away and eventually came back, the believer who never came back, the atheist, and everything in between.
He explains and understands each point of view, and from that understanding, tries to help them find God. Or at least, give them something that God and spirituality can offer for them. If you’re willing to understand more on how religion can help lives of some people, this book is worth the shot.
Here’s a quote that I highlighted, one that persuaded me a great deal to give this book a chance:
Ignatian spirituality considers everything an important element of your life. That includes religious services, scared Scriptures, prayer, and charitable works, to be sure. But it also includes friends, family, work, relationships, sex, suffering, and joy, as well as nature, music, and pop culture.
2. Being Friends with God
God the almighty, our God in heaven, fear of God, so on and so on..
We’ve all heard the phrases above more often than we like. While it gives all the glory that our loving God deserves, it also puts God on a throne far far away from us.
We can barely open ourselves to our closest friends and family, how are we then supposed to open our deepest and darkest secrets to God, and ask Him for help, if we’re already categorizing Him as someone unachievable? Quoting the summary of the recent continental stage of the Digital Synod:
The testimony of a young person mentions: ‘If the Church is like a father… Young people prefer to talk to friends..”
In this book, Father Martin invites us to see God not only as an ever-great-being, but simply as a good friend. The way we instinctively go to a best friend in difficult times, in anger, sadness, confusion, without thinking of what your friend will give you, but you go to them anyway. The way that you feel better after going to your friend in distress, and feel happier after sharing your successes, I hope you find the same comfort in sharing both your misfortunes and happiness to God.
3. Find your prayer comfort zone
Here Father Martin offers us several methods of prayer to choose them, and while these methods of prayer are not made by Jesuits, some of them are popularized by Ignatius of Loyola
1.) Ignatian Contemplation
We’re first going to start with my personal favorite. Another name for this method is “imaginative prayer”, and the way of this prayer is by imagining your communication with God
In Ignatian contemplation you “compose the place” by imagining yourself in a scene from the Bible, or in God’s presence, and then taking part in it. It’s a way of allowing God to speak to you through your imagination
in the book, Father Martin gives us an in depth tutorial on how to pray using this method, be it by the Bible or creating your own scene. He also said to not be discouraged if the imaginations do not come easily. But to make this short, you should refer directly to the book to know for yourself!
2.) Lectio Divina
Lectio divina is a method that probably suits best people who are have an interest in literature and bible study. With this method, one reads the bible, considers the historical and spiritual setting within, and contemplates what God is conveying through the text. You are also encouraged to relate the story and the message with your day to day life conditions.
If you’re confused as in how you can know which bible verse to contemplate on, you can follow St. Augustine’s way! He randomly opened the Bible and trusts that God chose that verse for him. Brilliant man in my opinion.
3.) Centering Prayer
The basis of centering prayer, is that you can find God within yourself. It is similar to the concept of Zen Buddhism or yoga, where you’re being mindful of your body, your mind, your surroundings and somewhat aligning your body and mind together to create a sense of peace within yourself. But whereas in yoga (as far as i know) you’re creating that sense of peace by being mindful, here we are being mindful to find God within ourselves.
Centering prayer is a move toward your center, where you encounter God. But it’s not simple navel-gazing, nor is it simply about God and you alone. For any encounter with God will lead you to the rest of creation
But as before, don’t worry if it doesn’t really make any sense when I say it, Father Martin excellently explains everything, including the step-by-step tutorial. So if you want to hit two birds with one stone by doing yoga and praying, this might be your chance to learn how!
4. Making Sense of Reality
From work, to love, to family and even sex, Father Martin did not miss any topic that might be relevant to your day-to-day life. One topic that touched me a lot was the topic on obedience. As most of us know (or not, no problem if you don’t), priests take on three vows; chastity, poverty and obedience. While the book covers all of the aforementioned topics, interestingly, what happened to be captivate me the most is the topic on obedience.
Most of us (including me) might think that obedience is a stupid vow, a vow that is limiting to the human creativity and will never relate to us, I mean who even would want to be blindly obedient to their boss, right? That is very understandable, and I also would not wish to be blindly obedient to a corporate boss. However, obedience in a layman’s life is not being obedient to other people’s commands, instead it is acceptance to the reality that is in front of us.
When it comes to daily life, God’s will is not some abstract idea to be figured out or puzzled over or even discerned. Rather, God’s will is what is presented before us every day.
But, again Father Martin amazes me for as much he was romanticizing everything through all this talk on how God works through our daily obstacle and finding God in all things, he was not insensitive to suffering
Not that you need to look at every difficulty as God’s will. Some suffering should be avoided, lessened, or combated: treatable illnesses, abusive marriages, unhealthy work situations, dysfunctional sexual relationships.
This part of the book helped me immensely in making sense of the life I am facing day to day, the confusion and anxiety that we all experience, happiness, sadness, and constantly questioning “What should I do next?”. Well sometimes, you don’t have to ask, you just have to look, and this book made me realize that.
A closing note; pick up the book.
If you’re still reading this, I take it that you’re pretty intrigued in what I had to say and what the book is all about. And if the lists above was enough to start thinking of looking up the book or Father Martin on the internet, it’s a sign that there is a big chance that you’ll enjoy the book. So, pick up the book!