Sustaining Psychospiritual and Physical Health, Preventing Burnout - A Lesson from Jesus and St. Ignatius of Loyola

 Upon his own baptism and recruiting his collaborators on mission, Jesus has been busy ministering people in Galilee. Through his ministry, Jesus is also busy training his disciples to become effective “fishers of people”.  

Ever since the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, all Sunday Gospel readings indicate that Jesus has been busy with his ministry work.

The Gospel reading for the 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) – Mark 1:29-39 - was no exception in describing Jesus’ busy work, as he was so also in the Gospel reading for the 4^th Sunday – Mark 1:21-28.

You may have noticed that the ministry works of Jesus are mainly two-fold: teaching and healing. He does his work with the authority, and his works astonish people who are taught and healed. Though nobody yet know that Jesus is not just human but also divine, people were amazed in a way never before because that his authority is divine. To fully understand the nature of Jesus’ unsurpassed divine authority in his works, we need to get to know Trinity.

The busy work life of Jesus in the Gospel readings for the 4^th Sunday and the 5^th Sunday (Mark 1:21-28, 29-39) also remind us of how busy priests, deacons, nuns, and lay ministers are today. These servants of God work around the crock. 

Practicing pastoral psychology, I often meet with ministers, including priests, who have been stressed-out. What I hear from them is how overwhelming stressful their ministry works are and how less remedies they have, because their demanding ministry works leave not sufficient time and space for them to recover from harmful impacts of stress. Many of them feel as if they were slipping further down into a quagmire.

In fact, research studies, such as Francis et al. (2004)* and Rossetti & Rhoades (2014)**, report that burnout among ministers, especially priests, has been a serious concern.  These studies point out that burnout ministers tend to suffer from dissatisfaction of their works before they become burnout. Their busy demanding schedule hardly allow them to seek remedy. This is pretty much the reality of today’s ministry.

Yes, Jesus was busy with all of his ministerial works – teaching Dei Verbum (Word of God) and doing Opus Dei (Works of God) tirelessly and selflessly. In fact, Jesus is the one who priests and all other ministers model in their works.

So, has Jesus ever suffered from the kind of burnout that today’s priests and other ministers are suffering from?

The epidemic of ministers’ dissatisfaction and burnout may lead stressed and unhappy ministers into the psychospiritual state of despair as Job in the 5^th Sunday’s First reading (Job 7:1-4, 6-7) or as Elijah in 1 Kings 19:1-18 had experienced. In fact, St. Ignatius of Loyola also suffered from a similar despair during his discernment process, as he found that his original zeal in serving God only took him into increasing suffering.

Fortunately, one of these figures (Job, Elijah, and St. Ignatius of Loyola) let their despair lead to suicide or to crush their soul. They hanged on and came out of despair.

Among them, St. Ignatius of Loyola described how he overcame this darkest hours of his life, which is pretty much like the burnout that priests and other ministers today are suffering, in a way for anyone to overcome burnout or conditions like that, in his Spiritual Exercises.  Ignatius calls burnout desolation and shows a way for a burnout soul be lifted by grace of God to consolation in his Spiritual Exercises.

From the Fourth Rule on, in the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius addresses desolation and how we can respond to it.  Basically, Ignatius teaches us not to become “freaked out” or not to reactively resist to it.  He sees despair is a work of Satan, his attack against us, our soul, in particular. It is to separate us from God farther and farther – to death of soul – to suicide. If we experience desolation or burnout, we just need to stay rather calm and quiet so that we can see how God’s consolation is working amidst this suffering of us.  This is like these wording in “You are mine”, my favorite Catholic hymn (I am sure yours, too) by David Haas:

I will come to you in the silence
I will lift you from all your fear
You will hear My voice
I claim you as My choice
Be still, and know I am near

I am hope for all who are hopeless
I am eyes for all who long to see
In the shadows of the night,
I will be your light
Come and rest in Me

Yes, this means that we believe in God and trust in His care and grace, which leads us to consolation.

In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius also reminds us that we may experience desolation again – even though we have successfully moved out of this darkness of suffering. This makes the Spiritual Exercises realistic, ensuring that false hope and fantasy will not be generated upon in recovering from desolation.

This also echoes these words of Julian of Norwich:

“God did not say you will not be troubled,

You will not be belaboured,

You will not be disquieted;

But God said, You will not be overcome.”

We just need to be ready for possible future challenges through the Spiritual Exercises, which helped St. Ignatius of Loyola overcome burnout and kept him resilient.

St. Ignatius of Loyola assures that trusting in God’s care for us during our desolation, not only that we can successfully come out of it but also we become more resilient to possible further attacks by Satan to put us into desolation. In this regard, the Spiritual Exercises helps us boost “spiritual immune power” against burnout – despair.

For this, in the Sixth Rule, St. Ignatius of Loyola lists the following remedies:

Prayer

Meditation

Self-Examination

Overcoming Self-Attachment

Penance

In fact, Ignatius lists prayer first.

It means that prayer is the most important factor in our response to burnout – despair. Without prayer, the rest of the remedial factors might not as efficacious as they can.

With this understanding, we can better appreciate the content of the 5^th Sunday Gospel reading – Mark 1:29-39 now.

The reading has two parts: vv. 29-34 and vv. 35-39.

The first part describes Jesus’ busy work of teaching and healing. But, the second part tells that Jesus sure took his time to pray. He kept the boundaries to ensure his sacred time and space for prayer.

Jesus was up very early in the morning, predawn. Others were still asleep. This shows that Jesus exercises his self-discipline. It leads to the boundaries to protect the sacred time and space from busyness.

This suggests that Jesus had already practicing the Spiritual Exercises – not because he had had been burnout but rather to prevent him from becoming burnout.

The above mentioned research studies do not explicitly address prayer as a helpful factor to prevent and to remedy burnout for ministers. But, given how Jesus disciplined himself and prayed though his works were so busy and demanding, prayer, as St. Ignatius of Loyola put in his Spiritual Exercises, is a very important factor to help us prevent burnout and to overcome it, if we have to suffer.

Archbishop of Chicago, Blase Cupich, wrote in his January 11 - 24, 2015 issue of the Catholic New World column:

“In fact, I have discovered in my years of pastoral leadership in the church that there is no better source of stress relief than prayer. Prayer brings us into the experience of resting in the consoling hands of God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, who desires our happiness, and who intends to bring it about.”

Archbishop Cupich of Chicago describes prayer as the best antidote to burnout or desolation, comparable to God’s medicine of grace.

No doubt that Archbishop Cupich is the busiest priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, which is the third largest diocese in the United States. It means that he is always exposed to the danger of burnout or desolation. But, as the pastor of the entire archdiocese and pastor to priests who pastor their respective parishes, he must maintain his spiritual, mental, and physical health, as busy Jesus did with his regular prayer.

These words of Archbishop Cupich, along with St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, deepens our appreciation for Mark 1:29-39, in balancing our busy work for Christ and our regular prayer. Through our prayer, we are always in touch with God, keeping the vital pipeline of the Holy Spirit and the medicine of God’s grace for our sustenance and immune power to keep up with our busy work. It is also to recover form burnout, in case we fall.

Jesus balanced his work and prayer, reflecting this Benedictine motto: Ora et Labora (prayer and work).  This also reflects another aspect of the Ignatian spirituality – dialectically balancing action and contemplation. 

When we shift too much into work, neglecting contemplation, we are more likely to suffer from 

dissatisfaction with our ministry works (teaching and healing). This symptom, unless treated with prayer and the rest of the Spiritual Exercises remedies, then, it can lead to burnout –desolation. But, as with the case of St. Ignatius himself, even we let ourselves become overwhelmed to a point of burnout with our busyness at work, through contemplative prayers, we can recover from it as we will be better recognize the consolation.


* Francis, L. J., Louden, S. H. and Rutledge, C.J.F. (2004). Burnout among Roman Catholic Parochial Clergy in England and Wales: Myth or Reality?, Review of Religious Research. 46 (1),  5-19

** Rossetti, S. J.; Rhoades, C. J. (2013). Burnout in Catholic clergy: A predictive model using psychological and spiritual variables. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality,  5(4), 335-341. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola – A Saint of Gutso, Who Asks, Seeks, and Knocks, as Taught by Jesus

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” (Luke 11: 9-10) said Jesus, as he was teaching the disciples about prayer. This was a part of the Gospel reading on this past Sunday – the 17^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C.  

Of course, these words of Jesus should not be taken out of the context. Otherwise, such an interpretation may lead to a naïve, rather narcissistic interpretation: All we have to do is to ask what we want to God in our prayer – and we should get it.  Such is an interpretation and attitude typical to immature faith of a lukewarm soul.  And, those who are familiar with the Divine Mercy message of Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska sure remember these words of Jesus:

Today bring to Me souls who have become lukewarm, and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: "Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will." For them, the last hope of salvation is to flee to My mercy.”(Diary, 1228).  

Such a lukewarm soul, which hurts Jesus, produces only a narcissistic interpretation of Jesus’ teaching. Because it is not what Jesus intended in his teaching, it really disappoints him. 

If your faith is mature enough, then, you understand that the above words of Jesus in Luke 11:9-10 are not to say that we can get what want just because we pray for. In fact, you understand that these words of Jesus on prayer – asking, seeking, and knocking are to illustrate importance of persistence in our prayers. It means that we must appreciate and interpret these words of Jesus in Luke 11:9-10 to stir up our endurance to live a life of faith so that not only our prayer but also our work for Christ in our life may be persistent. This means spiritual resilience and spiritual gutso. 

With mature faith, which makes our ora et labora persistent, we can appreciate this prayer of anonymous Confederate soldier:

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

As a matter of fact, the above prayer echoes this prayer of Swami Vivekanda, a Hindu monk and a disciple of Hindu saint, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

When I asked God for strength
He gave me difficult situation to face.

When I asked God for Brain & Brawn
He gave me puzzle in life to solve.

When I asked God for Happiness
He showed me some unhappy people.

When I asked God for Wealth
He showed me how to work hard.

When I asked God for Favors
He showed me opportunities to work hard.

When I asked God for Peace
He showed me how to help others.

God gave me nothing I wanted
He gave me everything I needed.

Though we may project what we want to God in our prayer, we understand and accept the fact that our prayers are answered according to what God knows of our needs. But, if our faith were not mature but rather lukewarm, then, we would become angry at God – if we did not receive exactly what we asked.   

We shall note that Jesus did not say that we will receive what we asked for. He simply said that we will receive. It means that every prayer we make is never be left unanswered. However, immature faith of the lukewarm soul, of the narcissistic mind, mistakenly interprets this as receiving what we asked for and answered as we want.  

In thinking of who can be a really good example to show us what it means to pray with persistence, as meant by Jesus in his teaching in the Gospel reading for the 17^th Sunday, Luke 11:1-13, I cannot help but think of St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose feast was this Tuesday, July 31, our of many great Saints.

Why Ignatius? 

Because St. Ignatius of Loyola not only exemplified his spiritual gutso to keep his persistent prayers and work in spite of numerous setbacks – but, as Jesuit psychoanalyst, Fr. William Meissner puts it, he successfully sublimated his narcissism – transformed his fat ego for his self-glorification to his zeal for greater glory of God.  In psychoanalysis, sublimation of pathological desires into a meaningful desire is a sign of maturity. As a pastoral psychologist, I can certainly apply this principle of psychoanalysis in understanding the maturity of faith, as well as psychological maturity. 

As a young man, St. Ignatius live a life quite unimaginable to become a Saint, as he put his hands on quite as many sinful things as he could afford, as during his youth and young adulthood. In a way, this kind of “scenic” early life of Ignatius bear the early lives of St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Francis of Assisi. None of these great Saints were not “nice young men” to begin with. 

According to Fr. Meissner’s “posthumous psychoanalytic autopsy” of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Ignatius sure exhibited attitudes and behaviors typical with significant narcissistic disposition. He craved for self-glorifying attention. It was what motivated him to be a great heroic soldier of Spain. 

Along with his narcissism, Ignatius was a man of gutso – in a physical and emotional sense. His physical and psychological stamina was just astounding. It meets the standards of the honor code of Japanese Samurai, called Bushido, as Ignatius’ gutso made his loyalty to the lord of Spain he served as a soldier second to none. This was exhibited during the Battle of Pamplona in 1521 (not to be confused with the Battle of Pamplona, involved with Napoleon, in 1813), against France. 

Though there was a mood to just surrender to France among the Spanish soldiers, Ignatius refused to give into such a mood and continued to fight for Spain. But, it was when a French canon ball hit his leg and wounded Ignatius near-fatally, Ignatius’ courageous heroic soldier’s spirit kept Spain stand against France. The French was impressed by Ignatius’ fighting spirit – though Spain was defeated in this battle. 

As a Japanese Catholic, whose grandfather was a Japanese Imperial Army soldier during World War II, with samurai ancestry, this military heroism of Ignatius – and most importantly, how his military heroism was transformed into as his spiritual gutso as a “samurai for Christ” into St. Ignatius of Loyola, hits home to me.   

The way Ignatius fought fearlessly for Spain, not letting unfavorable odds stop him, echoes the way the Japanese soldiers fought in all wars that Japan has fought. Of course, this is not to glorify Japan’s past militarism but to appreciate the uncompromising spirit of loyalty to the duty, as such a spirit is what it takes to be a faithful follower of Christ. I elaborated on this in my June 25, 2013, blog on Luke 9:18-24 (Gospel reading for the 12^th Sunday) , with focus on vv. 23-24 in light of the teaching of Bushido (the way of samurai) from the Book of Hagakure. The way Ignatius conducted himself certainly meets the high honor standard of the samurai – and most importantly, what Jesus demands on us to be his follower, as said in Luke 9:23-24. 

Though Ignatius’ life was spared, the canon ball wound also meant the beginning of the dying process of his narcissistic ego. In teaching on a life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, this is where I emphasize. Because of this near-fatal canon ball wound, he met Christ during his long boring recovery process. It was when Ignatius began to realize these words of St. Augustine of Hippo - Deus est intimior intimo meo (God is intimately closer to me than I am to myself), which Pope Francis quoted in his homily to celebrate the feast Mass for St. Ignatius of Loyola. 

As his desires for earthly glorious status as a heroic military officer, women, and other set of material prestige began to give its way to his desire to be a servant for greater glory of God (ad majorem Dei gloriam), Ignatius put himself a quite challenging journey in search for deeper meaning of life, steeped in service for his new lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. For this, he exchanged his military uniform and sword for beggar’s rag, stripping himself to be a penniless wondering beggar, as he began his long difficult yet deeply transforming journey. 

Of course, Ignatius did not ask for a hard life. He asked for an opportunity of ad majorem Dei gloriam in his prayer upon gradually realizing Deus est intimior intimo meo.  Nevertheless, his prayer was answered in a way to take him a long hard path to receive what he asked for and what he sought in his prayer. On this journey, Ignatius encountered many closed doors, which could tempt him to give up on his journey. 

It was the Ignatius long long difficult “exodus”, perhaps invoking the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. As many Jews were mired with temptation to give up that extremely long challenging journey to the Promised Land, they drifted to sinful acts, such as idolatry and dropped out of the journey. Even those who barely hanging on to the journey, they complained of hunger and thirst. That is when God provided the grumbling Jews with manna (Exodus 16:1-36 & Numbers 11:1-9). 

During his “exodus” from a narcissistic life to a humble servant life for the Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder what Ignatius asked God in his prayer. I suppose he was asking for something to sustain his journey. Perhaps Ignatius asked God his daily bread, as taught by Jesus. 

In the 17^th Sunday’s Gospel reading (Luke 11:1-13), Jesus taught, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test”(Luke 11:2-4). 

Now compare this instruction of Jesus on prayer to St. Ignatius’ prayer of suscipe, found in his Spiritual Exercises 234:

'Receive, O Lord, all my liberty. Take my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. Whatsoever I have or hold, You have given me; I give it all back to You and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will. Give me only your love and your grace, and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.'

Ignatius was asking God for what he really needed – God’s grace to sustain his long challenging journey, fighting all sorts of setbacks. Grace, Ignatius asked to suffice his sustenance of the journey, is the daily bread that Jesus has taught us to pray for. 

Note that we do not ask a lot. We do not bargain with God in asking. It is not that we ask God out of our selfish desire. That’s what persons of immature faith and lukewarm soul would do, naively thinking to get it, just because they pray for.  

It is, indeed, a request out of our humility – simply asking for what we need to sustain our journey of searching and seeking, knocking all doors standing in the way, for a day.  We do not ask for sustenance for a week but just one day, trusting that God will provide another batch of daily bread next day – another dose of love and grace we need on the following day. Thus, the prayer that Jesus has taught, as echoed in St. Ignatius’ prayer of suscipe is about humility – not about ego. Again, appreciating this important principle and accepting this teaching as it is requires a certain level of maturity in faith. Certainly, it is not for a person with lukewarm soul, who needs to be showed by the Divine Mercy. 

Now, we also notice that Ignatius became a different man –though keeping the same gutso. This time, with humility, Ignatius was using his gutso to sustain his challenging journey and to serve his new lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Bushido-like valor and loyalty. This is evidence of sublimation of his ego strength from narcissistic direction to God-centered direction.  For this, Ignatius must have had a similar transformation that St. Paul had, finding his new self in Christ upon dying with his old ego-driven self (i.e. Romans 6:5-14; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:2-7; Philippians 3:1-14). The words of Paul in Philippians 3:1-14, in particular, reflects Ignatius’ suscipe prayer as both Paul and Ignatius consider what ego and flesh desire are worthless rubbish. That is why Ignatius asked God to take away all of these because a loss of such earthly privileges also means profound gain in God’s love and grace. 

Now it is evident that both Ignatius and Paul share some similarity. Both of these great Saints are fighters – great samurai soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ with athletic gutso. The way Ignatius endured his difficult journey of transformation, sublimation of his ego, conversion really not only somewhat resembles the way Paul was converted but also embodies these words of Paul:

“..let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”  ( Hebrews 12:1)

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith". (1 Timothy 4:7)

Ignatius certainly has his share in reflecting these inspiring words of Paul, given not only how he has endured and persisted himself throughout difficult journey despite many blows against him but also how he has built the order of the Jesuits on a global scale simply out of 3 men – St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and Bl. Peter Faber – “the three musketeers” of the Jesuits, in 1540.

Speaking of Bl. Peter Faber, who was Ignatius’ college buddy, along with Francis Xavier, at the University of Paris, today, August 2, is the day of memorial for him. Peter Faber was the first to be ordained as a priest among the three and served as the celebrant of the ordination Mass for Ignatius, Francis Xavier and other men who joined in the Ignatius’ group. 

See, how the Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the 17^th Sunday Gospel reading is better understood through the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola. 

What we ask in our persistent prayer is our daily bread, which can be understood as love and grace of God to sustain our journey for a day, in the Ignatian spirituality (suscipe). 

It is indeed persistence, as shown by the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8 and by the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-18, as well as Hanna in 1 Samuel 1:1-11, that we exercise when we pray – so that we can overcome any discouragement – so that we will never give up on our prayer. To teach this, Jesus told a story about a man, who asked for three loaves of bread for his unexpected friends (Luke 11:5-8).  

In order for us not to give up on our searching and seeking, we need a fuel – and it is the daily bread that Jesus has taught to pray for. This is what we ask out of our humility – as exemplified in St. Ignatius’ suscipe prayer (Spiritual Exercises #234). 

We must understand that what we receive is not what our ego asks but what God sees our need. Our mature faith enables us to ask only what we need – because such faith helps our heart’s desire coincide with God’s desire for us. Attaining this spiritual maturity is what the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola focuses on – especially his Spiritual Exercises. 

In order for us to pray truly in light of the way Jesus has taught, it is certainly helpful to explore and apply the Ignatian spirituality – not only in our prayers but ora et labora (prayer and work).

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!