Author says his new book is effort to 'bottle pontificate' in familiar retreat format

By Michael Kelly

(OSV News) -- A well-known papal biographer has said that he hopes a new book exploring Pope Francis and the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola will help parish communities deepen a sense of belonging.

British-based writer Austen Ivereigh has pulled together ideas from retreats given by Father Jorge Bergoglio before his election as pope in 2013, as well as key themes from the papacy over the last 11 years.

"First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis," published Feb. 13, is modeled around Ignatian spirituality, popularized by the Society of Jesus.

Ivereigh told OSV News the book is an attempt to "bottle the pontificate in the format of an eight-day Ignatian retreat, which is a format that many people are familiar with."

It also is aimed at meeting a felt need expressed by many Catholics to enter more deeply into the pontificate of Francis, according to Ivereigh.

"A lot of people say to me, 'Oh, we want to know more about the pontificate, we want to know more about Francis, but we don't know where to start,'" he explained. "So, what this retreat does is it gives you -- in bite-sized chunks -- essential key teachings from the pontificate. … I think the spiritual fruits of it could be immense for the future for the reinvigoration of parishes and other organizations."

While the book is organized around the eight-day format, Ivereigh wrote it with parish groups in mind who might want to explore the themes over a longer period.

"I have this image that a parish or an organization or a school could decide to say, 'Yeah, let's do this over eight weeks,'" he said. "So, each week, read the relevant day on our own, reflect individually, use the prayers, then come together over Zoom or in person each week to share the fruits of what's come up for us in prayer."

At the heart of the book, Ivereigh said, is the challenge to embrace Pope Francis' vision of triple belonging: to God, to creation and to one another.

In a foreword to the book, the pontiff writes: "All the life-threatening crises that beset us around the world, from the ecological crisis to the wars, the injustices against the poor and vulnerable, have their roots in this rejection of our belonging to God and to each other."

Ivereigh told OSV News, as well as being a spiritual retreat, the book also aims to offer "insights into the priorities and teachings of the pope, while exploring the wisdom of St. Ignatius on which the pope has drawn throughout his entire life."

Ivereigh most recently collaborated with Pope Francis on the acclaimed book "Let Us Dream" (2020), in which the pontiff set out a vision for a post-pandemic world, and he also is author of two well-received books on Pope Francis, "The Great Reformer" (2014) and "Wounded Shepherd" (2019). He told OSV News "First Belong to God" grew out of an eight-day virtual retreat that he led in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.

"Our current crisis of non-belonging is well documented," Ivereigh writes, "leaving us restless, anxious and insecure. This can lead to the temptation to distrust God and to close in on ourselves.

"In contrast, coming out of ourselves is a way to recover our deeper longings, and to open ourselves up to new possibilities, new life and a better future."

The book draws upon pre-pontificate public speeches and writings by Pope Francis, as well as retreat talks he gave as a Jesuit in Argentina that have not been published in English until now.

Topics include migration, the climate crisis, war and peace, synodality, suffering, evangelizing, the power of mercy, loneliness and isolation.

According to Ivereigh, "Francis is the greatest voice on the world stage telling the truth about the human condition: We belong to each other."

Ivereigh, who serves Pope Francis as an expert adviser to the ongoing synod process, said he hopes the book also can contribute to expanding Catholics' understanding of synodality.

"The Spiritual Exercises (of St Ignatius) are all about choosing, choosing what way to go -- and I think that could become a source of tremendous missionary vigor in a parish," he told OSV news.

Ivereigh said that he increasingly believes that the central theme of this pontificate is belonging. "But the big spiritual question beneath the belonging is our capacity to open ourselves out to receive the gift that is God and the gift that is life," he said.

"In a way, our sinfulness is what prevents us from doing that. Our sinfulness leads us to try to believe that we are masters of our own destiny," he said. "So that's why the book begins, as the Spiritual Exercises begin, with accepting our creatureliness and inviting us in humility then to see that we have sought to flee our creatureliness. But in coming back to God, in opening ourselves to his mercy, we are then able to receive that gift and then grow."

"First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis" was published by Loyola Press in the U.S. and in the U.K. and European Union by Messenger Publications.