February marks five years since the Holy Father gave the Society four special orientations for mission – our Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs).

Fr. General Arturo Sosa is releasing a special video message to mark the occasion.

“What is special about these UAPs and what distinguishes them from the preceding ones is that they colour the Society’s whole apostolic direction. They point out how we are to achieve and move forward the mission of reconciliation and justice”, said Fr Sosa. “The previous UAPs highlighted areas that were in danger of being neglected or that we wanted to give particular attention to. The emphasis in 2019 was different.”

“It was challenging to come up with these orientations because the Society operates in so many diverse areas of the world. Argentina is not Algeria and Syria is not Spain nor is Tanzania the same as Turkey”, said Fr Sosa. “But with careful listening and discernment, we learned a lot and we humbly arrived at these new Preferences. Now we are moving into another phase of the UAPs. We want to make them ever more concrete, ever more a unified whole. We want them to have impact so that we play our part in helping to bring about God’s kingdom.”

The Jesuit Curia also provides prayers that help people go deeper and see how rich the journey has been and what it promises on the road ahead.

« Praying with the Preferences » is a series of short guides designed for those who wish to enter more deeply into the journey of renewal offered by our new Universal Apostolic Preferences. Each guide offers brief selections taken from one section of Fr. General’s letter on the Preferences. The hope is that these guides can serve as first step to inspire individuals and communities to listen to the Spirit in their local context, and to begin to imagine how they might respond in their own unique way as they embody the preferences in their own lives and communities. Read more and access the guides here