If there is one phrase that sums up the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola, it is "finding God in all things." A helpful image from the Saint’s own story is his lifelong tendency to gaze up at the stars at night. One can guess that he pondered the words of Psalm 8 as he looked up at the heavens: “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

In a desire to find God in everything, many Jesuits over the centuries have been committed to scientific pursuits.

Take a look at Wikipedia’s list of Jesuit scientists from the 16th century to the present century.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jesuit_scientists.

Wikipedia lists some, but certainly not all, of the Jesuits who have made significant contributions to the world of science: anthropology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, lichens research, botany, zoology, meteorology, ornithology, paleontology, and so on. Jesuits have species of, flora, fauna, comets and stars named after them. Even Pope Francis has a background in chemistry.

According to Jonathan Wright in his book God's Soldiers, by the eighteenth century the Jesuits had "contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter’s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn's rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood, the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light." Those contributions have only increased in the centuries since then.

This month’s universal prayer intention, entrusted to the Apostleship of Prayer by the Pope is for scientists: “That those involved in scientific research may serve the well-being of the whole human person.” We can presume that the Jesuits involved in scientific research, being men rooted in faith, have aimed to advance the well-being of the human person.

However, we all know of more sinister and selfish scientists who have had other motives in their work. There are the fictional and humorous mad scientists. Unfortunately, there are also real-life scientists who have sometimes created suspicion of scientists. Think of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and his work on the Manhattan Project or Dr. Joseph Mengele, the infamous Angel of Death in Nazi concentration camps.

From the beginning, Jesuits who have ventured out to so-called missionary territories wrote back to Rome with detailed accounts of the flora and fauna, the weather, the social and cultural traditions, linguistics, economics, and so on. Ignatius wanted those letters to be as detailed as possible. The data collected unintentionally advanced the knowledge of numerous areas of science. It continues to happen. Just look up Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J. and discover why he was just awarded the Carl Sagan Medal.

A Jesuit friend, with a doctorate in boreal forest ecology, is a researcher in new species of lichens. He sent me this link to a blog posting in Scientific American. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2013/03/13/jesuits-science-and-a-pope-with-a-chemistry-degree-a-productive-pairing/.  

I would encourage readers to check it out. It starts with the boyhood story of Enrico Fermi, the famous physicist, and how it was a Jesuit’s book that oriented him for life. The blog writer’s basic point is that “it is very much possible for science and religion to co-exist in harmony and for one to inspire the other.” He includes a wonderful quote from Br. Guy Consolmagno: “Doing science is like playing a game with God, playing a puzzle with God. God sets the puzzles and after I can solve one, I can hear him cheering, ‘Great, that was wonderful, now here’s the next one.’ It’s the way I can interact with the Creator.”

Many people think that finding God in all things is restricted to more obviously religious and spiritual areas. However, Ignatius and his followers show us that God can be found in mundane and secular matters as well. Let’s pray this month for scientists and their important work.