�The ultimate goal of all Catholic education is salvation in Jesus Christ.�
�Christian education does not only strive to foster in the human person the maturity already described, but it aims above all at ensuring that the baptized, as they are gradually introduced to the mystery of salvation, may grow ever more conscious of the gift of faith which they have received; that they may learn to adore God the Father in spirit and truth, especially through liturgical worship; and that they may be prepared to lead their personal lives according to a new nature, in justice and holiness of truth; so that they may reach perfect maturity, the fullness of Christ and make their contribution to the increase of the mystical body.�
...Jesuit schools must go beyond the criteria of academic excellence, important as that is, to the far more challenging task of bringing about a true metanoia* in their students, that Jesuit schools must move vigorously toward participation in community affairs, that they must more honestly evaluate their efforts according to the criteria of both Christian reform in social structures and renewal of the Church. *This word, coined from the Greek, refers to a radical conversion and change of heart, by which a person turns from selfish concerns to complete and unreserved generosity of God and His Kingdom.
Father Arrupe described the purpose of a Jesuit school. It is, he said, to assist in the formation of �New Persons,� transformed by the message of Christ, who will be witnesses to His death and Resurrection in their own lives. Those who graduate from our schools should have acquired, in ways proportional to their age and maturity, a way of life that is in itself a proclamation of the charity of Christ, of the faith that comes from him and leads back to Him, and the justice which He announced. More recently the present General of the Society of Jesus, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, expressed the same purpose in very similar words: �Our ideal is the well rounded person who is intellectually competent, open to growth, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice in generous service to the people of God.�
The ultimate goal of Jesuit education is the full growth of the person which leads to action that is filled with the presence of Jesus Christ, a person for others.
During this crucial period of his life, Ignatius began to sketch the lines of a little book by which others could attain the insights and freedom he had achieved without repeating his near-fatal mistakes. He envisioned a retreatant and his directors working step-by-step through four weeks of meditations and contemplations in order to bring the retreatant to a freedom of vision where he could see God�s will without his own fears or selfishness getting in he way.
Its basic premise, repeated over and over, is that growth in aliveness of the spirit is made only in proportion to the surrender of self-centeredness; there is only one Center.
...no matter how different their lives were on the surface, each Jesuit based his life and work on the same principle and foundation: man was created to praise and serve God and by this means save his soul, and in serving God man uses all other things on the face of the earth, sickness or health, wealth or poverty, honor or dishonor, insofar as they help toward the goal and he avoids them insofar as they hinder it. with serene freedom he is to follow the paradoxical King, poor, generous, and loving, out into the world to spread the good news of the kingdom that has come.
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