Ignatian Heritage Week, held from March 20 – 24, is a week-long celebration honoring Saint Peter’s Jesuit heritage and tradition, as well as the historic presence of Jesuits around the world. The week includes a collaboration of performances, films, lectures and presentations that focused on Jesuit identity and principles.
The week-long celebration was launched on Monday at noon with an event, Mission and Ministry Lunch: The Ignatian Adventure, where The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola were discussed.
Additional events varied and included Java with the Jesuits, where students enjoyed pastries and coffee with some of the campus’ most well-known and well-loved Jesuits, yoga with a guided meditation focused on Ignatian Spirituality and a 
memorial Mass for Benjamin A. Michalik, Ph.D. Students also participated in the Muslim Student Association Dinner and watched The Mission, a movie about Jesuits in South America in the 1600s. The week concluded on Friday with an Arts on Bergen Concert: Reeds, Rhythm, and All that Brass, held at St. Aedan’s: The Saint Peter’s University Church.
At each event, campus ministry raffled off books by prolific Jesuit speaker, Rev. James Martin, S.J., who will be on campus this evening. His speech, “Meeting the Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History,” is part of The John Tagliabue ’67, H ’05 Lecture Series. Fr. Martin is the editor at large of America magazine and bestselling author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and My Life with the Saints.
“The programming this week, highlighted by The Tagliabue Lecture with Fr. Martin, are all invitations to broaden and deepen our understanding of our Jesuit identity in order to live it out daily. We’re part of a rich history and it’s exciting to celebrate it,” said Jason Downer, S.J., special assistant to the vice president of Mission and Ministry.