We are delighted to share this interview with Elliott Gualtiere, Dean of Mission and Ministry at Fairfield College Preparatory School in Fairfield, CT (USA), who participated as a facilitator in the Four Key Practices of Ignatian Spirituality course. This course is a facilitator-led global course that offers a new synchronous global learning experience for Ignatian educators. A new course modality that allows members of our global community to learn together in global groups with educators from different Jesuit schools around the world.

Elliott ’s participation as a facilitator not only contributed to delivering on the holistic vision of education offered by Jesuit schools but it has also helped us, as a community, to keep growing as contemporary Jesuit educators. Thank you Elliott!

Without further ado here is Elliott’s facilitation experience.

If you are interested in knowing more about our facilitation opportunities, please contact Géllert Merza at info@educatemagis.org

Q1. What is your full name, current job title, job responsibilities, school name, city and country where you work? 

Elliott Gualtiere, Dean of Mission and Ministry at Fairfield College Preparatory School in Fairfield, CT (USA). In my current position I am primarily responsible for the adult faith formation programming for our school community. This includes: faculty/staff, alumni, parents, coaches, and Board of Governors. I also provide support and mentorship to our Campus Ministry adult team. I am a certified spiritual director through the Murphy Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Fairfield University.

Q2. Where were you born? Can you briefly share with us a special memory from your own biography that relates to your first interest (curiosity) in Christian faith and Jesuit/Ignatian spirituality?  

I was born in the Bronx, NY and grew up in Yonkers, NY. I went to Catholic schools all my life. I remember being an altar server in grammar school and going to early Sunday mass with my family growing up. Being part of parish life was important for me . However, a turning point for mew as when my dad died of cancer when I was a freshman in high school (14 years old). Initially this caused me to question my relationship with God. But I was able to get through this difficult period of my life through my high school’s retreat program. It was my involvement with retreats and peer ministry at my high school that set me on a path to discovering my vocation. I went to Fordham University for my undergraduate degree and at Fordham I began spiritual direction. Through direction, I developed this curiosity in Ignatian Spirituality and made my first 19th annotation retreat and experienced a silent retreat for the first time my senior of college. I mention all of these because they are formative experiences that shaped my future and are a major reason for me being where I am today in my life.

Q3. What is your relationship to the Jesuit/Ignatian spirituality? How important is it for your life, your personal ethos, to work for or be part of the Jesuit/Ignatian global community?  

This is my 19th year at Fairfield Prep. I attended Fordham University for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I served as a youth minister at a Jesuit Parish in Brooklyn, NY. I have been around Jesuit education and spirituality my entire adult life and it has formed me and shaped me into the person I am today. My formation as a Spiritual Director is in the Ignatian Tradition. Much of what I pray with, centers around Ignatian Spirituality. I am a director of the Spiritual Exercises too, so Ignatian Spirituality permeates my work on a daily basis.

Q4. Based on your personal experience, and your participation and facilitation of the Four Key Practices of Ignatian Spirituality course how do you feel it integrates with the global context of the document “Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century”?  

I feel the course and this document go hand in hand with each other. If we focus in on Part 3 of the document “Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century” which speaks to the Global Identifiers of Jesuit Schools, I see the course as bringing forward these identifiers into clear view. When we discuss and reflect on the four key practices of discernment, the Examen, spiritual conversation and being contemplatives in action, these emphasize and highlight the global identifiers named in the document. Being a part of an international group from all over the world helps me to stretch and reach beyond my narrow focus and view. I have learned so much from my colleagues and companions in their sharing through these classes.

Q5. What other examples of global education projects or intercultural initiatives can you share with us from your own past in which you have been involved and what would you like to be involved in in the future? 

The Ignatian Colleagues Gatherings, Colloquiums and Virtual Coffee Shops through JSN that I have participated in have been meaningful and worthwhile experiences. Whether in person or virtual, being able to hear about other perspectives and to network and collaborate with colleagues is energizing and invigorating. I am very much looking forward to our ICG gathering in Puerto Rico this April where we will spend a full day on Global Identifier #1.

I have enjoyed being a part of the planning committee for this gathering and I am excited to be with my colleagues in ministry.

Q6. What has been your experience so far (positive/challenging aspects) in your active participation as a participant and facilitator in the Ignatian Spirituality course cohorts hosted by Educate Magis?  

I would say my experience has been mostly positive. Getting to work with such passionate and dedicated educators has been inspiring. The depth and wealth of experience that our colleagues bring to these sessions has been wonderful and amazing. The opportunity to pray and reflect has enhanced my own ministry. I think the big challenge as a facilitator has been trying to plan a session and not knowing who may show or not show for that specific Zoom session. It is important to be flexible in your approach to presenting the lesson. Fortunately the co-facilitators I have worked with have been excellent collaborators in this work.

Q7. Why do you think (if you do) it is important for Jesuit educators to learn about, practice and model Ignatian practices, such as the Examen, Discernment, Spiritual Conversation and being Contemplatives in Action in Jesuit schools around the world? 

It is important to learn about these aspects and practices because it points to our shared mission and charism. It reminds all of us as educators that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We are companions and that we are not alone in this work.

Q8. What is your favourite quote/phrase related to Ignatian Spirituality, from a historical or a modern figure that you admire?

De Chardin’s prayer Patient Trust is one of my favorites of all time. It is my go to and speaks very clearly to our work in Jesuit education.

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ