The Second Webinar “Our Mission of Love for All Creation” Provided Attendees with an Inspirational and Instructive Experience

Par Catharine Steffens
Juin 17th, 2022

Educators from the Jesuit Global Network of Schools (JGNS) came together in a spirit of collaboration and learning on Thursday, June 9, 2022, to participate in the webinar, “Our Mission of Love for All Creation”.  As part of the Integrated (Holistic) Perspective Webinar Series, an initiative promoted by the Secretariat for Secondary and Pre-Secondary Education of the Society of Jesus in collaboration with ICAJE (the International Commission on Jesuit Education) and Educate Magis, this webinar explored Global Identifier #4, Jesuit Schools are Committed to the Care of all Creation.

The webinar itself was a study in collaboration and community. Catharine Steffens, the Assistant for Global Initiatives, for the Secretariat for Secondary and Pre-secondary Education warmly welcomed the participants and set the context for the webinar series. Fr. Maduabuchi Leo Muoneme, SJ (JASBEAM) prayerfully brought the participants together in a prayer and reflection he adapted from the Spiritual Exercise of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Sharon McLean (JCAP-Education) continued this tone of prayerfully and joyfully connecting the heart and head as she moderated the webinar. We were honored to have Fr. Pedro Walpole SJ as the keynote speaker. Pedro’s focus on engaging youth with a greater culture of heart, hope, and care for the world was inspirational and instructive. With his invitation to consider, “What small steps can be taken to create synergies with each other? We need the individual commitments to come together through association and community; a ‘linked arms’ advancement.” the tone was set for the expert practitioner reflections and offerings to follow.

Jimena Castro (FLACSI), Fr. Francis Macwan SJ (JEASA), and Jennie Kuenz (JSN) each shared inspirational, practical, and tangible ways Care of Creation is being integrated into the culture of the schools in their regions. Links to all of the programming and initiatives shared during the webinar can be accessed from the Educate Magis page for Global Identifier #4, Jesuit Schools are committed to the Care of all Creation. Jennie made special note of the Caring for our Common Home: An Ignatian Perspective framework created by the Secretariat Global Taskforce for Care of Creation. The Integrated (Holistic) Perspective Infographic links together the mission of the Society of Jesus with the major documents that shape Jesuit Education today, the work of this webinar and the supporting Caring for our Common Home Framework and other initiatives offer practical and tangible ways to operationalize this integrating the UAPs, Global Identifiers and other major documents with an approach to care for all creation for and with all of you in the schools. The Jesuit Global Network of Schools (JGNS) is coming together as a universal and collaborative body.

Fr. José Mesa SJ, Secretary for Secondary and Pre-Secondary Education of the Society of Jesus, concluded the webinar by pulling together the points made, and opportunities offered, by the speakers. He celebrated the collaborative opportunities of the Jesuit Global Network of Schools (JGNS) and called on us to see our relationship with the environment as a mission of love, a love for all creation. He invited us to “fall in love with creation”, as Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ asked us to become “Persons for and with others”, today this others also means creation—all human and living beings and creation. Together we can act as a “universal body with a universal mission” (GC35, D.2 #20).

To watch the video recording of this and of previous Webinars on the Integrated (Holistic) Perspective Webinar Series please visit the Integrated (Holistic) Perspective Webinar Series page here.