Jesuit Conference of South Asia
Open Your Heart To GodThe missionary enterprise of the Jesuits in Asia is comprehensible only against the background of three foundational principles. The first two are from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the order: Following Jesus as a Jesuit entails missionary outreach, and being a missionary implies cultural adaptation because Jesus adapted himself to the human condition.
Our Vision
To reconcile: with God, one another and creation;
To reorient: mission priorities and governance structures
Our Mission
To re-launch: on the pathway to God, with the marginalized and the young, in our common home – the earth.
Who We Are
Jesuit Conference of South Asia (JCSA) represents the conference and the governing body of the conference.
It is one of six conferences of the Society of Jesus worldwide; one of the two conferences in Asia, the other being the Asia Pacific Conference (JCAP). The presence of the Jesuits in Asia began with the coming of St Francis Xavier, and two young companions, in the year 1542 to Goa.
What We Do
One Mission, Many Ministries: Responding to the Call of Christ the King
Jesuits are motivated by a deep, personal love of Jesus Christ and a “desire to imitate in some manner our Creator and Lord Jesus Christ … since he is the way which leads to life” (St Ignatius of Loyola). We seek to be “contemplatives in action” combining the service of faith with the promotion of justice, following the example of our founder, St Ignatius, who strove to “find God in all things.” We consider ourselves to be sent on mission with Jesus as companions consecrated for service under the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Jesuits are best known in the fields of education (schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, theological faculties), intellectual research, and spiritual renewal. In South Asia ,Jesuits run schools, universities and parishes and engage in missionary work, social justice, inter-religious dialogue, and other ‘frontier’ ministries. Most importantly, we continue the tradition of providing retreats based on The Spiritual Exercises, the foundational work of St Ignatius.
The goal of the Jesuit mission is to be ever available for the greater universal good, desiring always the “magis”, that which is truly better “For the Greater Glory of God.” It is this availability for the Church’s universal mission that marks the Society of Jesus as an apostolic religious order.
a Brief History
of the Society
From the very beginning, the Society served the Church with outstanding men: Doctors of the Church in Europe as well as missionaries in Asia, India, Africa and the Americas. Men like Robert Bellarmine and Peter Canisius spearheaded the Counter Reformation in Europe, courageous men like Edmund Campion assisted the Catholics in England suffering under the terrible Elizabethan persecutions and missionaries like deNobili Claver, González, deBrito, Brebeuf, and Kino brought the Gospel to the ends of the earth. No other order has more martyrs for the Faith.
Calendar
Our Upcoming Curricular Events & Activities
31
May
Presentation - Ignatian Feast Day
Indian Social Institute, New Delhi
Event Info
13-17
August
REAGE - CONSOLIDATION
Indian Social Institute, Bangalore
Event Info
REAGE - CONSOLIDATION
Indian Social Institute, Bangalore
21-29
October
JCSA
Ranchi, Jharkhand