“Cannonballs are unavoidable. It’s what we do next that matters. Do we allow the cannonballs in our lives to change us?”  -Eric Clayton, With Ignatius at Montserrat

This past year all of our lives have been disrupted by the collective “cannonball” of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Like St. Ignatius after his injury, our normal routines were fractured and we faced new questions about the future. Inspired by the Ignatian Year our school community at Loyola High School, Los Angeles, is using the example of St. Ignatius’s discernment as a framework for what it means for us to go forward after this major disruption.

We began at our colleagues day in April when our faculty and staff gathered for a hybrid experience of shared prayer and reflection. Fr. Sosa’s speech on “The opportunity of the Ignatian Year” guided our approach. We used St. Ignatius’s discernment as our model of seeing everything new in Christ. Fr. Sosa’s energetic vision grounded us in the possibilities of this time as he said “Yes, change is possible. Yes, our hearts can be softened. Yes, our world can find new ways forward.”

Following the spirit of Father General’s words we watched the animated retelling of the story of St. Ignatius in the video Celebrate Ignatius: 500 Years After The Cannonball Struck from Jesuits.org. We also prayed an Examen of the Year led by our Principal, Mr. Frank Kozakowski. These two resources rooted our time together in the specific details of St. Ignatius’s personal journey and spiritual practice.

With this foundation each person had time to quietly reflect on what were three significant experiences for them the past year and share them in small groups either in-person or online. We moved from the group sharing to an invitation to post on an online platform and our colleagues filled seven pages with memories of important moments from the year. Our time together concluded with an outdoor Mass that was also live-streamed and an optional meal in our recently re-landscaped front garden. The day provided a first step in processing all that has occurred over this past year. Our hope is that this time of collective reflection provides the groundwork for the next steps of discernment as we explore our shared story of the pandemic and imagine its impact on our community’s future.

Just as St. Ignatius spent his time in recovery recalling his past and imagining a different future, the Ignatian Year challenges us to imagine all things anew. After this “cannonball” of a year, what are we called to “take up” and what things are we called to “set down”? How do we go forward together from this “cannonball” experience? Our day with colleagues provided us a chance to acknowledge the challenges and suffering of the pandemic, while at the same time pointing to the possibilities ahead. As Fr. Sosa said in his 2019 Letter on the Iganatian Year, “May we be inspired to have the openness of heart that we need to receive the Holy Spirit who wants to gift us the audacity of the impossible.”