Ignatian Spirituality and Re-enchanting Medicine
David de la Fuente, MTS, Doctoral Student, Department of Theology, Fordham University
Laura Veras, M.D., Clinical Research Fellow, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
For Christians, the world is inherently enchanted because it is filled with the presence of God. If we wish to identify resources that can help a practitioner “re-enchant” medicine, we will find a remarkable and malleable resource in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius’s spirituality focused especially on the world as the arena in which we hear and respond to God’s call to transform the world, and on the reality that each person has a vocation, and that the created world is the means through which one responds to that calling.
In the proposed workshop, we wish to offer two components of Ignatian spirituality as key resources for re-enchanting medicine: the “First Principle and Foundation” of the Spiritual Exercises, and the Examen of Consciousness. We believe that appropriation of the First Principle and Foundation and utilization of the Examen are indispensable tools for becoming aware of and retaining an “enchanted” worldview that sees God palpably at work in our work, in the patients we care for, in the people we work with, and in the tools available to us, especially the most mundane. We represent multiple perspectives and backgrounds: one is a resident physician in surgery, the other is a doctoral student in theology who recently worked as a patient navigator for a surgical oncology practice in the outpatient setting. We have a shared background as lay members of the Ignatian family, and we can attest to the effect that Ignatian spirituality has both for Christians and for agnostic or atheists, particularly if they substitute their “ultimate concern” (to borrow from Paul Tillich's definition of faith) for faith in God. We both share extensive experience applying Ignatian spirituality in both religious and secular contexts in higher education and beyond.
We see in the First Principle and Foundation a sort of mantra that can inform the work of healthcare practitioners and workers alike. To summarize, Ignatius states that the purpose of human life is to love and serve God, and that everything that exists can either help or hinder us in achieving our purpose. They therefore ought to be used or avoided insofar as they are conducive to the end for which we are created, and we must become “indifferent” or available so that we can choose correctly. When applied to medicine, we believe that the First Principle and Foundation treats the vocation of the healthcare practitioner and worker: to heal and comfort those who are sick. This may be one’s “ultimate concern” broadly considered or a tenet of faith derived from a religious commitment. Whatever one’s commitment may be, the rest of the Principle and Foundation can help to illuminate how something so mundane as completing a reservation form to schedule a surgery or conducting a review of systems is in fact a tool that helps us achieve our purpose. This invites us to see all such tools with renewed sensitivity to God’s presence, so that everything can be a road to God (for the believer). Ultimately, this lays the groundwork for re-enchanting medicine.
The Examen becomes the essential practice for living according to the First Principle and Foundation. During the examen, which is typically done at the end of the day, a person reflects on the events of the past day by using a few basic steps. Briefly, this exercise first and foremost asks us to mindfully place ourselves in God’s presence and be open to where the Spirit may want to lead us in prayer. The day’s events are then reviewed, and we are asked to pay particular attention to our emotions as we recall them. The remainder of the prayer is focused on the general themes of gratitude and opportunities for growth and/or healing. If one specific event from the day stands out, we take the time to pray with and around this event, asking God to help us understand it better.
One of the most powerful attributes of the Examen is its flexibility. It can be modified to suit virtually every human experience, place and time. In the case of healthcare workers, the Examen can be adjusted to provide a space for prayerful reflection for anyone from nurses, physical therapists, and patient advocates to social workers, medical assistants, and physicians. By adapting this Ignatian form of prayer, we can perhaps learn to see God’s hand in the tasks which appear mundane, and begin to see them in a new light. For those who are not religious, the Examen can be used to reflect on “faith” as “ultimate concern.” One maintains the same steps of reviewing the dynamics of the day, but with an eye towards considering, “Am I living according to the values I hold dear? Am I being a compassionate practitioner of medicine?”
We propose in this workshop to provide some of the theoretical background of Ignatian spirituality, but above all to spend dedicated time offering an experience of these two treasures of Ignatian spirituality. We will offer a spiritual reading of the First Principle and Foundation that is designed to make participants more aware of their calling. After an initial attentive reading, participants will be invited to listen attentively to a second and third reading of the First Principle, but after each iteration they will identify a key word or phrase, and then journal or dialogue in small groups with how that applies to their vocation as a physician, nurse practitioner, professional coder, etc. We will then lead an Examen to model its basic steps and how it can be fruitfully adapted to our work in medicine. We will conclude with a debrief of the exercise. Ideally the workshop will have a maximum of thirty people.
With our varied experiences within healthcare and our combined 10+ years of experience leading others in retreats and spiritual exercises, we are uniquely prepared to lead this workshop. It is our hope to showcase how Ignatian spirituality can serve as a key resource that awakens in us an appreciation of our calling as practitioners of healthcare. It is easy to be numbed by repetition and lulled by routine. Ignatian spirituality, however, has proven to be a remarkable resource for breaking through routine, precisely because it insists that God is at work in all things, in things as small as a brief but meaningful encounter with a grateful patient, and in matters as large as an innovative application of transoral robotic surgery to excise a cancer while maximizing recovery time or in matters as mundane as taking down a patient’s medical history or completing surgical reservation forms. Recognizing God, or ultimate concern, at work in these areas is what will help us re-enchant medicine.
Laura Veras, M.D., Clinical Research Fellow, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
For Christians, the world is inherently enchanted because it is filled with the presence of God. If we wish to identify resources that can help a practitioner “re-enchant” medicine, we will find a remarkable and malleable resource in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius’s spirituality focused especially on the world as the arena in which we hear and respond to God’s call to transform the world, and on the reality that each person has a vocation, and that the created world is the means through which one responds to that calling.
In the proposed workshop, we wish to offer two components of Ignatian spirituality as key resources for re-enchanting medicine: the “First Principle and Foundation” of the Spiritual Exercises, and the Examen of Consciousness. We believe that appropriation of the First Principle and Foundation and utilization of the Examen are indispensable tools for becoming aware of and retaining an “enchanted” worldview that sees God palpably at work in our work, in the patients we care for, in the people we work with, and in the tools available to us, especially the most mundane. We represent multiple perspectives and backgrounds: one is a resident physician in surgery, the other is a doctoral student in theology who recently worked as a patient navigator for a surgical oncology practice in the outpatient setting. We have a shared background as lay members of the Ignatian family, and we can attest to the effect that Ignatian spirituality has both for Christians and for agnostic or atheists, particularly if they substitute their “ultimate concern” (to borrow from Paul Tillich's definition of faith) for faith in God. We both share extensive experience applying Ignatian spirituality in both religious and secular contexts in higher education and beyond.
We see in the First Principle and Foundation a sort of mantra that can inform the work of healthcare practitioners and workers alike. To summarize, Ignatius states that the purpose of human life is to love and serve God, and that everything that exists can either help or hinder us in achieving our purpose. They therefore ought to be used or avoided insofar as they are conducive to the end for which we are created, and we must become “indifferent” or available so that we can choose correctly. When applied to medicine, we believe that the First Principle and Foundation treats the vocation of the healthcare practitioner and worker: to heal and comfort those who are sick. This may be one’s “ultimate concern” broadly considered or a tenet of faith derived from a religious commitment. Whatever one’s commitment may be, the rest of the Principle and Foundation can help to illuminate how something so mundane as completing a reservation form to schedule a surgery or conducting a review of systems is in fact a tool that helps us achieve our purpose. This invites us to see all such tools with renewed sensitivity to God’s presence, so that everything can be a road to God (for the believer). Ultimately, this lays the groundwork for re-enchanting medicine.
The Examen becomes the essential practice for living according to the First Principle and Foundation. During the examen, which is typically done at the end of the day, a person reflects on the events of the past day by using a few basic steps. Briefly, this exercise first and foremost asks us to mindfully place ourselves in God’s presence and be open to where the Spirit may want to lead us in prayer. The day’s events are then reviewed, and we are asked to pay particular attention to our emotions as we recall them. The remainder of the prayer is focused on the general themes of gratitude and opportunities for growth and/or healing. If one specific event from the day stands out, we take the time to pray with and around this event, asking God to help us understand it better.
One of the most powerful attributes of the Examen is its flexibility. It can be modified to suit virtually every human experience, place and time. In the case of healthcare workers, the Examen can be adjusted to provide a space for prayerful reflection for anyone from nurses, physical therapists, and patient advocates to social workers, medical assistants, and physicians. By adapting this Ignatian form of prayer, we can perhaps learn to see God’s hand in the tasks which appear mundane, and begin to see them in a new light. For those who are not religious, the Examen can be used to reflect on “faith” as “ultimate concern.” One maintains the same steps of reviewing the dynamics of the day, but with an eye towards considering, “Am I living according to the values I hold dear? Am I being a compassionate practitioner of medicine?”
We propose in this workshop to provide some of the theoretical background of Ignatian spirituality, but above all to spend dedicated time offering an experience of these two treasures of Ignatian spirituality. We will offer a spiritual reading of the First Principle and Foundation that is designed to make participants more aware of their calling. After an initial attentive reading, participants will be invited to listen attentively to a second and third reading of the First Principle, but after each iteration they will identify a key word or phrase, and then journal or dialogue in small groups with how that applies to their vocation as a physician, nurse practitioner, professional coder, etc. We will then lead an Examen to model its basic steps and how it can be fruitfully adapted to our work in medicine. We will conclude with a debrief of the exercise. Ideally the workshop will have a maximum of thirty people.
With our varied experiences within healthcare and our combined 10+ years of experience leading others in retreats and spiritual exercises, we are uniquely prepared to lead this workshop. It is our hope to showcase how Ignatian spirituality can serve as a key resource that awakens in us an appreciation of our calling as practitioners of healthcare. It is easy to be numbed by repetition and lulled by routine. Ignatian spirituality, however, has proven to be a remarkable resource for breaking through routine, precisely because it insists that God is at work in all things, in things as small as a brief but meaningful encounter with a grateful patient, and in matters as large as an innovative application of transoral robotic surgery to excise a cancer while maximizing recovery time or in matters as mundane as taking down a patient’s medical history or completing surgical reservation forms. Recognizing God, or ultimate concern, at work in these areas is what will help us re-enchant medicine.