Embracing Reverence: St. Ignatius of Loyola's Path to Purposeful Living

Embracing Reverence: St. Ignatius of Loyola's Path to Purposeful Living

We’ve been exploring three attitudes that St. Ignatius of Loyola suggests as ways to live with purpose and direction. In previous posts, we discussed the attitude of Praise towards God. Feel free to revisit those posts. Here, we focus on the attitude of Reverence towards God and others.

Reverence Towards God

Reverence towards God involves recognizing His transcendence, even while knowing He is close to us and cares deeply for us. We cannot control or fully grasp God; He is greater than our problems and our ideas of what He should do.

Reverence Towards Others

Reverence towards our brothers and sisters means acknowledging that we will never fully understand another person—their thoughts, their story, their inner life, and what God is doing with them. Therefore, we should not pretend to fully understand or attempt to change them to fit our expectations. This attitude is the foundation of respect for our differences. It can be challenging, especially with those closest to us, as we often assume we know them well. However, it’s important to remember that we can never fully comprehend another person or what God is doing in their life.

-Fr. Pepe Ruiz, SJ