IVC's Roots
IVC accepts and encourages Ignatian volunteers of all Christian faiths. The program itself is rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. While members of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, are members of a religious order, IVC is one way among many for lay people to experience Ignatian spirituality. Ignatian spirituality is the practice of taking time to reflect and pray, to imitate Jesus and to discern God’s calling. IVC borrows much from St. Ignatius of Loyola - his compassion; his commitment to people who are poor, marginalized, and abandoned; his desire to serve and bring about reconciliation in the world through love. IVC encourages its Volunteers to proceed in such a way of pilgrimage and labor in Christ.
The concepts of mission and reflection surface frequently in the Spiritual Reflection component of IVC. To a follower of Ignatian spirituality, service and reflection reinforce each other and seek to unite the volunteer with a very real notion of charity and, therefore, mission to live as “men and women for others”. Ignatius writes in The Spiritual Exercises, "Consider the address which Christ our Lord makes to all his servants and friends whom He sends on this enterprise, recommending to them to seek to help all, first by attracting them to the highest spiritual poverty, and should it please the Divine Majesty, and should he deign to choose them for it, even to actual poverty." IVC promotes in mature adults the expression of divine love through service of and in the world.
Read more about this topic: Ignatian Volunteer Corps
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