Before everything else, I must say a big thank you for your invitation to participate in your World Assembly at Itaici. I am still sorry today that I was not able to be present at the Hong Kong Assembly. There is scarcely any doubt that these high points of the CLC world community mark its daily life almost everywhere for a long time. Since this assembly is turned towards the future through an important process of discernment, I would like to contribute by reflecting with you on the origins of the apostolic solidarity of CLC with the Society of Jesus. It is a story without ruptures: the story of two communities which, moved by the same Spirit, are looking in the same direction and exchanging their own experiences from time to time, in order to enrich each other in their journey on the way of the Lord.

It was not St Ignatius who started this link, but a young Jesuit, a professor of ancient languages at the Roman College, who, in 1563, gathered together some students in a first community of Christian life. A year later, when he drew up the statutes for this community, he did not make any reference to Ignatius or his spirituality, even though Ignatius knew him well and had admitted him to the Society. For this young Jesuit, Johannes Leunis, what we now call Ignatian spirituality came from oneself. Many of his confreres founded associations, communities of Christian life with lay people. These students from the Roman College were united in devotion to Our Lady, and, thanks to Johannes Leunis, Ignatius' personality was close to them. In fact, if we rely on the statutes drawn up by Father Leunis, the Marian congregations were already emphasising proper lay responsibility in the Church and the world. The Ignatian ideal of integrating faith and daily life was clearly the point of view of these young companions. They were discovering how to live fully the Gospel in their professional lives, without having to enter a monastery. We can guess, too, that they discovered fellowship and community in serving the Lord together, in the image of that first small ecclesial cell of apostles which came into existence after Pentecost. Even though this perspective is clearly Ignatian, it is Our Lady, not explicitly Ignatius, who leaves her mark on the statutes.

This implicit, rather than explicit, Ignatian spirituality, will be providential when Pope Clement XIV suppresses the Society of Jesus. So, without the Jesuits, the Marian congregations continued as an apostolic work of the universal Church, and even flourished, but it is true that the Ignatian character was lost, slowly but surely. It is not surprising, then, that the restoration of the Society in 1814 does not immediately lead to the Jesuits taking charge of the congregations. Little by little, after Pope Leo XII had reestablished the link between the first congregations and the Society in 1824, the congregations and the rank and file Jesuits remember their common origin so well that in 1922 Father General Wladimir Ledochowski, together with the Jesuit guides, can consider the Society's responsibility towards the congregations. Pius XII's 1948 apostolic constitution, Bis saeculari, confirmed that the Society of Jesus was taking the congregations seriously. Strongly supported by the Jesuits, the congregations organised themselves into a world federation with ecclesial assistants appointed by the Holy Father: Archbishop Joseph Garolisia (1954-1965), and Bishop René Audet (1965-1984). Since 1967 CLC has been meeting on a world-wide scale, from Rome to Newark, Bombay to Rome, Saint-Domingue to Augsburg, Manila to Rome and Providence, and every assembly increases with creative fidelity the gift that the Spirit gave the Church by inspiring the foundation in 1563.

When we look at the rules and statutes which have marked the secular history of CLC, it is not difficult to note how the founding text of 1967, by returning freely to Ignatian spirituality, has changed completely the view points of 1567 or 1584, when Gregory XIII approved the statutes of the Marian congregations, and of 1855 and 1910 as well. This return coincides with the rediscovery of the sources of this spirituality within the Society. CLC and the Society are retracing the road to the sources together and enriching one another on the journey. It seems unbelievable to us today, but scarcely forty years ago Ignatius' spiritual journal was gathering dust in the archives: it was considered that this mystical experience concerned only Ignatius and his private life, and was not for sharing or imitating. Historians knew and studied the deeds of the knight Ignatius, as he recounted them in his autobiography, but no one had the idea that his experience could be relived personally, in a spirit of prayerful discernment, in the way that so many men and women do today, and as you are doing here at Itaici.

It would be an exaggeration to reduce the story of CLC and the Society to a tension or indeed a struggle between those who are looking for the fullness of the Ignatian mystery and those who are happy with some, no doubt essential, elements of his spirituality. The Lord was very well-known to Ignatius, and enlightened him in an uncommon manner on the events of his own life and that of the Church and the world. Ignatius was extremely sensitive to the Lord's presence; his heart was on fire and he wept tears of joy and consolation on the slightest provocation. His mystical life was not lived for itself, but for a greater service to the Lord and his Church.

It is true that, even in St Ignatius' own time and increasingly after his death, some Jesuits were afraid of the exacting freedom and complete trust in the Lord that Ignatius wanted to find in his companions. The successors of St Ignatius, knowing our limits and weaknesses, judged it more prudent to found the Society and CLC on regulations and obligatory practices, doubtless also to protect Ignatian spirituality. The most significant example is Ignatius' wish not to stipulate when and how to pray, because he was certain that anyone living in familiarity with God would know himself how to behave towards the Lord; he would know how to be contemplative in action, in the midst of activity. The successors of Ignatius will not repudiate him, but they were to impose an hour of daily prayer and introduce some practices, such as the daily recitation of the litanies of the saints, into the life of the Society.

CLC is part of this evolution, because its founder, young Leunis, shares the concern of his superior general, Francis Borgia, when he draws up the first statutes of the very first Marian congregation. He remains Ignatian but we must wait until 1967, in the texts of CLC and of the Society, to return to the fullness of the Ignatian experience that does not exclude its mystical dimension or disregard its radical approach, one that is not reserved solely for Jesuits.

I wish wholeheartedly that CLC and the Society of Jesus will continue on their road together, as did the much missed Fr Pedro Arrupe and all the presidents of CLC who worked with him, but it is important to raise several practical questions in consequence of this. First of all, do we hope that many people want to follow us on this journey, or are able to? Is it truly reasonable to let ourselves be guided by a mystical Ignatius in mission, in prayer, in daily life where the preoccupations of earning a living are so important, where one must devote oneself completely to one's profession and work, where many social relationships with family, colleagues, neighbours must be taken into account?

It would not be wrong to offer Ignatian spirituality as a simple and practical spirituality, suitable for any kind of life. Ignatius said himself that he wanted to be 'useful'. In fact, business people use some techniques and methods like the daily Examen or the election. Many people owe their personal way of praying, and their taste for reading the Scriptures to the Spiritual Exercises. It is a fact that on the psychological level, too, a great number of men and women have found balance and hope, enthusiasm and peace for their life there. Why don't all these people become members of CLC or Jesuits? If Ignatius were among us, he would say: 'they do not have the desire.' We feel it, too, when making the Spiritual Exercises with Ignatius: for him, the human being is a being of desire, sometimes integrated and peaceful because he/she has made a right choice among many desires, sometimes torn apart and confused by discordant desires.

Ignatius could not work with passive people, those without an ideal or plans. It matters little whether the plans be crazy and the desires excessive; the important thing is to have a yearning to become like our Creator and Lord Jesus Christ in some way. If we do not feel such a burning desire, because of our weakness and human wretchedness, at least, says Ignatius, may we feel desire for the desire through which the human person desires to acknowledge their origin by praising our Creator, and is zealous for our Saviour by serving him in his mission to save the world today. (Cf. Const. 101-102). Ignatius could do nothing with an apathetic person, who is not inflamed by extreme desires. For CLC as for the Society, people must have a 'wide and generous heart' and desire profoundly to share in Christ's mission. That means that everyone is not called upon to join us; but, in return, CLC and the Society need to live their vocation and their mission openly so they can be recognizable by those men and women who have the desire for the desire to live Ignatian spirituality fully. We will be guided only by this desire and not by an obsession with numbers or impressive statistics. It is very Ignatian to prefer spiritual quality to numbers of members, but it would not be Ignatian either to be content with an elite and not to open our groups and communities generously to all those who want to come. To be shut in on ourselves, to withdraw, is not the longing for mission engraved on Ignatius' heart. A man of desire, Ignatius understands mission as a call to bring it about through choices, through elections. In this sense, our meeting at Itaici is exactly on track for this essential part of Ignatian spirituality.

It happens that we may be grateful to Ignatius for the technique of decision-making that he developed, but we may not use it as a guide for making an election. I will put that more clearly: we must not detach the election from the spirit of the Spiritual Exercises, but keep it within the mystical experience that governed Ignatius' choices. We need not be afraid of the word mystical: it is not synonymous with extraordinary or spectacular manifestations. Nor must we believe that the Lord has reserved the mystical life for religious only. When he lives his mystical experience, Ignatius is a layman, not at all tempted to found a religious order, or become a priest or father general. When we undertake discernment to reach a choice, we are faithful to Ignatius.

Since the last General Congregation, the Jesuits speak now of prayerful discernment. It was happening too often, in fact, that discernment was kept on the level of a discussion, an exchange of views on whether or not an institution should be closed. For Ignatius, a decision was never a neutral matter. He believed with fervent faith that the Lord writes the history of the world with us, guiding it with us, if necessary against us, towards the holy city where he will be all in all. As on the road to Emmaus, the Lord wants to go personally with each and every one of us on our daily journey in order to transform it - He with us and us with Him - in love leading always to more love. But this plan of God's presupposes a positive response on our part to the divine advances, a choice always made in harmony with God's plan. Ignatius believed deeply that his mysticism lay less in contemplating God in his essence than in discerning what God wants and then making choices in his Spirit. He was astounded to discover that the adherence of humankind to God's plan was completely decisive for God in lovingly respecting our free will. For this reason, Ignatius ends his numerous letters with the prayer: 'may it please God that we may know His most holy will and fulfill it perfectly'.

Our life is made up of choices: even in our practical decisions we reveal what we want to be and do. From experience, we know how difficult and painful some choices can be. Ignatius, too, knew doubts, hesitation, uncertainty, especially on his return from Jerusalem. The man who questioned every little detail of his prayer and way of life, had never doubted that his future lay in Jerusalem, where Jesus had been, in order to continue his mission among the pagans. That is why Ignatius was profoundly upset in his deepest convictions, when the Father Guardian of the Franciscans told him of a papal bull forbidding anyone to put into action what was the aim, the dream of his life.

It was then that the question which was always with Ignatius rang out: quid agendum, what ought I to be doing. So he began a process of discernment with competent people and some friends, with his benefactress, Isabelle Roser, and with a professor of grammar, Master Ardevol. Asking advice from people around him before making a choice is a practice that Ignatius continued in his governance of the Society. For him, preparing for a decision with others was as important as taking a decision for which he alone had the responsibility. This Ignatian practice had disappeared somewhat in the Society. The Superior of the Society, like the Director of the Marian congregation, was rather on his own and alone in the governance. Today, faithful to Ignatian practice, the Superior needs to discern with others, seek for advice, as the Assistant to CLC does. The change from director to assistant has not been easy, and is not yet finished.

Ignatius prays because it is only in prayerful discernment that the other person can speak to me in the name of God, who also makes known his holy will. It is very significant that Ignatius invites us, in the contemplation on the Incarnation, to look at the holy Trinity in the process of discernment leading to an election: the Incarnation of the Word of God. There is the dialogue in the Trinity, the communication of the Divine Persons 'up there', but the deliberations, the discernment continues 'down here' in Our Lady's house until she makes her own choice: Behold the handmaid of the Lord. It is from this background 'up there' that our discernment 'down here' must unfold. Each prayerful - or mystical - discernment must include the acknowledgment that in the end everything begins up there and ends 'down here' with love.

For St Ignatius says himself: the love which moves me and makes me choose something has to descend from above, from the love of God; so the person who makes the choice must,first of all, feel interiorly that the love, greater or lesser, felt for the object chosen is solely for the sake of one's creator and Lord. (Ex. 184). A commentator on this Ignatian text has written: ' Only this mystical point of view of the election orients it towards the praise and service of Our Lord and makes Ignatian spirituality a mysticism of service'. CLC and the Jesuits can both become enriched by exchanging their experiences of discernment for the greater glory of God in the work of salvation, for the true life of the world, our world.

Ignatius' experience at Jerusalem seems to place discernment within certain limits. His apostolic project to work in Palestine seemed to him a desire from 'up there', made actual in his plan 'down here'. Ignatius believed his free will untainted by any selfish ulterior motives, yet in spite of this, the Church put an end to this choice, fruit of a long discernment. This experience of Ignatius has not remained in the past. In such and such a country, one hesitates or does not dare at all to teach the rules in order to be more united with the Church on its journey. There seems to be a sort of abyss between the contemplation to gain love and what appears to be blind obedience to the Church and the things of the Church. We run the risk of forgetting that Ignatius, in the extension of the fourth week, had to propose a disposition of the heart to serve the Church, because all the appearances of the Risen Christ were made to enlighten the Church of the Apostles.

It is enough to go over the mysteries chosen and set out by Ignatius for our contemplation: the Risen Lord endows his Church with everything needed to be the light of the nations. With his customary seriousness, Ignatius shows us that we need the language of love to live the mystery of an institution which, with its weaknesses and limits, remains the Spouse of Christ, who consoles her unceasingly, as friends console each other in increasing their faith, their hope and their love. In the extension on the Risen Christ's love for his infant Church, Ignatius sees no contradiction between the rules of 'sentire cum ecclesia' and the contemplation to gain love. It is not at all by chance that the whole of the fourth week is inspired by the encounter of the Risen Christ with his Mother. As the General Principles emphasize, Our Lady is the model of our own cooperation in Christ's mission, exactly because the love that expresses her 'yes' is not kept locked up in her heart, but is realized by her 'feeling' with the young church of the Apostles, where she passes on her love from up there for the Church, even if she is down here. It is a question of the same love from up there that comes down to the Church here, right into our authentic commitment to the service of the local Church - into our essential vigilance at the heart of the ecclesial community.

Later on, when Ignatius remembers that the Church has refused to let him work in the Holy Land, he can only praise God's love, because by that painful disciplinary measure a greater service was made possible. Without that refusal, neither CLC nor the Society of Jesus would be at work in the heart of the Church. In consequence, if our discernment, our apostolic dreams and desires clash with the reality of the Church, with pastoral orientations of the local churches, or are in competition with new church movements, or lead to dissension that may damage the ecclesial community, or a scandal among Church people, Ignatius urges us to use a language of love, for this involves our mother. All of which does not in any way rule out the truth, the whole truth. In any case through love for the Church - a Church so different from the one Ignatius knew - CLC and the Society of Jesus have to discern what is the actual service that the Lord has entrusted them with. I am happy that CLC and the Jesuits have taken up the challenge of mission again, in discerning how to be servants of Christ's mission here and now.

In this full sense, the Society is a being desiring only that the Lord make use of it. In this sense, CLC is a letter from Christ, written by the Spirit, sent to today's world.