The strum of the guitars greeted me as I walked in Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Vancouver on July 31 2009. At the invitation of GG Francisco, whom I recently met, Jesuit-trained alumni gathered to celebrate the Feast of St. Ignatius. He and a number of his friends from Ateneo de Manila,  a Filipino Jesuit university, were rehearsing the hymns for the celebration.

The fact that it was 5 PM on a Friday before a long weekend did not deter the attendees. Mass would start soon enough, with a room filled with the parishioners and a number of alumni from many Jesuit schools around the world.

St. Ignatius was born in 1491 at the Castle of Loyola whose brief military career ended when a cannonball injured his legs. It was during his convalescence that he converted, punctuated by his vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. For some of us Xavier School alumni in the Philippines, who were fortunate enough to have had Fr. Cornelius Pineau, SJ, one of the many French-Canadian Jesuit priests who started Xavier School, tell the story more than once, St. Ignatius’ somewhat abbreviated life notwithstanding, he managed to form the Society of Jesus and to write his magnum opus “Spiritual Exercises”.

Fr. Robert Wong, SJ, who used to be the assistant pastor in St. Paul’s Parish in Richmond and is a good friend of Xavier School’s Fr. Ismael Zuloaga, SJ and Fr. Johnny Go, SJ and recently appointed as the parish priest to Holy Nameof Jesus Parish, welcomed all of us.

As Fr. Robert began his homily, he surveyed the room and warmed us with his generous smile. He welcomed and acknowledged that this was the first diverse group of who come to celebrate St. Ignatius, some of who have come from the Philippines, China, Nicaragua, Mauritius and the United States.

And while the family of Jesuits is clearly confined to their order, Fr. Robert asked how non-Jesuits can fit in as collaborators to help keep faith with the tenets of St. Ignatius. For there are many of us who have benefited from the education and training from the Jesuits.

The answer, he recounted, came to him one day when he realized that non-Jesuits are part of the greater Ignatian family, as every member of this broad family has received the gift of Ignatian spirituality. The richness of this family makes it diverse. I could not help but think that it was so remarkable for this idea to bear fruit in Canada. For Canada espouses and embraces cultural diversity.

Fr. Robert ended by planting a seed by encouraging us: “to light the chrism of the Society and to embrace and share Ignatian values with our family and friends. We can do great things for others.” 

Last January 2013, his remarks bore fruit with the start of the Vancouver Jesuit Alumni Group (JAG).  JAG blogs can be read in Chinese and in French at jagvancouver.wordpress.com