The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola

“For more than 150 years, legislation has led the peoples of the United States in a clever and deceitful, serpentine path from genocide to reservations, from enslavement to terrorism, from segregation to discrimination, and back again and again. Legislation may make the healing of our fractured racial-ethnic relations possible, but only love can heal us. Jesuit Patrick Saint-Jean offers us a way to heal our battered souls and bereaved hearts, using reflection, journaling, and reading in openness, humility, and prayer to lead us to concrete acts of love for our neighbors. Saint-Jean coaches us along this road and uncovers the necessity of spirituality in the work of racial justice.”
—M. Shawn Copeland, author of Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being

“Saint-Jean’s book beautifully weaves together several threads: the author’s personal experience as a Jesuit in formation who is both an immigrant and a Black man; poignant reminders of the long history of race-based violence; calls for racial justice; and the perennial wisdom of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, with their focus on examining our sin so that we are free to love God and neighbor. The end result is an invitation to the interior work necessary to deepen our commitment to racial justice.”
—Very Rev. Brian G. Paulson, S.J., Provincial Superior, USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus

Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J., PsyD, currently teaches in the psychology department at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where he is also a psychotherapist. He enjoys jazz, traveling, and learning new languages; and he plays the guitar, harmonica, and drums. He also likes a cup of hot water in the morning.