Formation for Mission

Through exposure to materials and reflection on experience personnel new to McQuaid Jesuit will appropriate our Ignatian way of life and mission, enabling full participation in the apostolic work of the Society of Jesus at McQuaid Jesuit. Expert presenters will delve deeply into areas of expertise and personal interaction with materials will inspire living and educating with a heightened sense of awareness and intentionality, leading to personal growth and development. Forming lay collaborators within this matrix will yield more effective Jesuit educators, administrators and support staff imbued with a sense of mission at McQuaid Jesuit.

This year of formation will be guided by Our Way of Proceeding: Standards and Benchmarks for Jesuit Schools in the 21st Century. Beginning in January 2024 each cohort meeting will dedicate thirty minutes to studying and discussing one of the five domains in this document.

At the conclusion of the first year, the cohort will have basic knowledge of the life of Saint Ignatius, Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises, Jesuit History and Mission, the History of McQuaid Jesuit, Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm and Ignatian Service.

Integration of course materials with life experience is central to Ignatian Spirituality. Integration experiences include:

• Participation in monthly cohort gatherings and year end retreat
• Participation in Ignatian Study Day on October 6, 2023
• Participation in the Liturgical Life of McQuaid Jesuit

2023-2024 Course Syllabus

Our Way of Proceeding: Standards and Benchmarks for Jesuit Schools in the 21st Century 

The Second Year Cohort combines a deeper inquiry into Ignatian Spirituality and Christian Service in preparation for the second semester study of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Spiritual Exercises forms a unique identity for Jesuits and Collaborators who together labor with Christ in the Mission of Education.

Integration for transformation experiences include:

• Participation in monthly cohort meetings
• Participation in Ignatian Study Day on October 6, 2023
• Staff one Kairos Retreat (See Mr. Nathan Drahms, Director of Worship and Retreats)
• Participate in a Cohort Day of Service Monday, October 16, 2023 facilitated by Mr. Adam Baber
• Participation in the Liturgical life of McQuaid Jesuit

2023-2024 Course Curriculum Forthcoming

The Third Year of Ignatian Formation is given to the experience and study of the heart of Ignatian Spirituality, discernment. This cohort will study the fundamentals of discernment and distinguish between consolation and desolation, understand the concept and process of Spiritual Conversations and Communal Discernment. The guiding text, God’s Voice Within: An Ignatian Way to Discover God’s Will by Fr. Mark Thibodeaux SJ and a series of videos produced by Fr. Thibodeaux SJ will assist cohort members in appreciating the beauty and complexity of Ignatian Discernment.

• Participation in monthly cohort meetings
• Participation in Ignatian Study Day on October 6, 2023
• Staff one Kairos Retreat in the 2023-2024 Academic Year if you have not staffed one last year
• Participate in a Cohort Day of Service facilitated by the Director of Service, Mr. Adam Baber
• Participation in the Liturgical Life of McQuaid Jesuit

2023-2024 Curriculum Forthcoming

Curriculum Outline

Prepared with a firm foundation in Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit Education, the Spiritual Exercises and Ignatian Discernment, the focus of this year’s formation is Ignatian Leadership. Ignatius formed people to confidently and boldly step into the frontiers of education, the arts and sciences, ecology, politics, economics and religion to influence learning and living with an eye toward developing the whole person, contributing to making the world more humane. Members of this cohort will be formed for leadership, fortified with the necessary tools that distinguish Ignatian Leadership.

At the conclusion of this year members of the cohort will identify, cultivate and appropriate the ethos and principles that distinguish an Ignatian Leader.

Integration for transformation experiences include:

• Participation in Cohort Meetings
• Staff one Kairos Retreat during the 2023-2024 academic year if you have not done so in the past two years
• Participation in Ignatian Study Day on October 6, 2023
• Participate in a Cohort Day of Service facilitated by the Director of Service, Mr. Adam Baber
• Participation in the Liturgical life of McQuaid Jesuit

At the conclusion of the Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius invites us to “take the long look back.” Through this exercise a person more clearly identifies experiences and gifts to help discern future steps. Since this year brings the cohort to the threshold of a deeper commitment to McQuaid Jesuit, formation is in service of the question, “What do you desire?” And, since discernment happens through dialogue initial formation culminates in a conversation between each member of the cohort and principal Adam Baber.

At the conclusion of the year members will appropriate aspects of Ignatian formation and professional development through a year-long discernment process.

Integration for transformation experience includes:

• Half Day Retreat:
  • Thursday, September 28, 2023
  • Mission and Ministry Conference
  • Retreat Staff: Mr. Baber, Coach Bobby Bates and Dr. Zynda
  • Lunch provided
• Participate in a Cohort Day of Service led by Mr. Adam Baber, Director of Service and Justice
• Attend and participate two Cohort Gathering
• Participation in Ignatian Study Day on October 6, 2023
• Participation in the Liturgical life of McQuaid Jesuit
• A final three-page paper, guided by the discoveries made in this year of discernment will be submitted Mr. Serafine or Mrs. Dacey (as appropriate) by March 1, 2024

Ongoing Staff Ignatian Formation

2023 – 2024 Academic Year

Lunch Conversations on “Matters Ignatian”

Tuesday, October 3, 2023: Adam Baber, Director of Service and Justice will present Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ’s address to the “Tenth International Congress of Jesuit Alumni/ae of Europe,” assembled in Valencia, Spain.

This speech encouraging Ignatian educators and leaders to become “persons for others” in imitation of the “Person for Others,” Jesus Christ.

Pedro Arrupe SJ’s speech

A Jesuit school has a governing board which holds the Jesuit and Catholic mission and identity of the school in trust for the Society of Jesus by setting direction, establishing policies, and ensuring programs that build and manifest the school’s Jesuit and Catholic identity.

Standards and Benchmarks (Standard 4)

This formation process introduces new members of the McQuaid Jesuit Board of Trustees to Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit Education, providing necessary information and tools to steward the Mission of McQuaid Jesuit.

St. Ignatius of Loyola: His Story, Spirituality and Legacy Dr. Damian Zynda

The Spiritual Exercises: Intimacy and Mission 

Faith and Justice at the Heart of the Jesuit Mission 

The History and Mission of McQuaid Jesuit High School

Dr. Christopher Parks, Dean of Students and Fr. Jack Podsiadlo SJ’58

Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius

The Spiritual Exercises form an Ignatian identity for the Mission of Christ.  We are proud  that one-third of the current McQuaid Jesuit Board of Trustees have made the Spiritual Exercises.  Following initial formation (Mission Formation for New Board of Trustees) members of the Board are invited and encouraged to share the wealth and legacy of St. Ignatius by making the Spiritual Exercises.  The retreat is given in a 30 week format (modeled upon the original 30 Day Retreat) which begins in early September and ends mid-May.

If interested please contact Dr. Damian Zynda.