September 20, 2026 Essay: “It’s a Love Story”
“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.
All that I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
That is enough for me.”
– Suscipe, Spiritual Exercises. St. Ignatius of Loyola.
The words of this well-loved prayer echoed through my mind as I knelt inside the Church of the Gesù, directly in front of the tomb of the man who had first uttered them approximately 500 years ago; an outpouring of his heart and soul to our Lord. It was a sweltering day this past July, and I had just completed a summer immersive history course tracing the beginnings of the Society of Jesus from St. Ignatius’ birthplace in the Basque region of Spain to his resting place in Rome. The course was indeed intensive—an in-depth study of the Autobiography of St. Ignatius of Loyola, while journeying through the various cities and places of significance in the lives of Ignatius and his earliest companions. At the end of the course, I found myself in deep gratitude—not only for my personal experience of the past few weeks, but also most especially for the courage of Ignatius and his companions, each of whom chose to freefall into a love of Christ that would change their lives and the lives of countless others.
A few short weeks later in early August, I found myself kneeling in prayer in front of another tomb. This one was in a remote village in South Sudan called Cueibet, and it held the remains of one Fr. Victor-Luke Odhiambo, S.J., a Jesuit of the Eastern Africa Province who had been killed in the nearby Jesuit Community on November 15, 2018, just a few meters from where he was now buried.
I had been invited by the Jesuits in South Sudan to visit their schools across the country and facilitate a series of sessions and workshops on Ignatian Spirituality. Over the span of two weeks, I facilitated nine different sessions and had collectively engaged with over 1200 students, faculty, and teachers at three different schools. It was a lot of grace-filled work overflowing with many beautiful moments, but at the end of my time in the country, my mind couldn’t help but drift back to the grave of Father Odhiambo.
Father Odhiambo had volunteered to serve in South Sudan shortly after the nation had gained its independence in 2011. The Jesuits who were called to this infant country knew that the big picture was a complicated one: poverty, lack of jobs, famine, a crumbling economy, limited education, and various cultural norms to navigate including multiple marriages in families. And underneath it all, the constant threat of civil wars always hovered as a possibility. Yet, Father Odhiambo and the handful of other Jesuits in-country dedicated themselves to the mission: to live in solidarity with the people of South Sudan, and to let the love of Christ lead the way to whatever would come next. It was this very mission that led to Father Odhiambo’s death, and this same mission that would spur on other Jesuits to conquer their fears and to remain. A freefall into the love of Christ.
The story of the Society of Jesus, from the very beginning, was always a spectacular love story. The chapters began with St. Ignatius’ Autobiography, but they continue through the hearts of many, like my Jesuit friends and their collaborators in South Sudan who are allowing the love of Christ to lead their work there—even in the most difficult of circumstances. The story continues as we joyfully celebrate our pastor this weekend as he marks his Golden Jubilee: 50 years in the Society of Jesus! And the story goes on, ever inspired by the Holy Spirit, as you and I are invited to fill it with our own pages of contributions. May God bless this enduring love story and may the words of the Suscipe continue to burn like embers in our hearts as we pray, “Lord, give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.”
– Roxanne De La Torre, Pastoral Associate for Ignatian Spirituality & Faith Formation