During the application process, Georgetown’s Jesuit reputation turned me off. As a relatively liberal person, I wanted college to offer me an environment and numerous platforms to delineate my ideas. Once I came to Georgetown, I realized that the school’s ideology did not necessarily prevent me from expressing my own. However, during the Fall semester, I still did not know what Jesuit meant. My dad went to a Jesuit Austrian high school in Turkey and he talked to me briefly about the academic work ethic of Jesuit institutions during Move-In Week; but information regarding the true religious and spiritual aspects of the Society of Jesus was offered to me in Flourishing: College and Community.
All of the chapters I have read in the Jesuit Guide offered me new information that I did not have much interest in or access to before. Of course I could have gone to a Chaplain or picked up a book from the library; yet the way that James Martin, SJ talks about Jesuits is so down-to earth and non-academic that I do not think that there would be many other texts on Jesuits that could achieve the same accessibility and appeal to the average college student.
Firstly, the Examen is one topic in the book that really drew my attention because it is a practice that combines some practices of PERMA. For example, the first step is “Gratitude”, which is something that I am keeping a journal on and that aids people flourish in well-being. Secondly, there is the “Review”, which reminds me of the “What Went Well” practice. Obviously these practices are not identical and the Examen’s further steps are done under the light of religious values. However, this parallelism reminded me religion’s power in mental health and well-being.
Furthermore, the Gratitude Journal is not only applicable to the first step of the Examen, but is also in close relation to the Composition, which is a type of Ignatian Contemplation. The reason why gratitude fits into the Composition is because this prayer utilizes all 5 senses in the human body. While reading about the steps of the Composition, I instantly became grateful for my ability to use all of my senses. This is something we take for granted everyday. But the Composition reminds even the most average and basic human being that she should be grateful solely because she can reach God through her senses. When I am thinking of factors in my life that I am grateful for, I always think of health but never about my specific senses. From now on I will focus less on my gratitude for my general health and more on all of the healthy attributes in my body that assist my overall physical well-being. It sounds like a small change, but I think that focusing on my sight and maybe even considering the possibility that I could have been blind is a liberating and grateful perspective when practiced in healthy measures.
