Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi, commemorated the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola in its campus on Tuesday. This year is celebrated as the Ignation Year in honour of the 502nd anniversary of St Ignatius. However, 31 July every year is celebrated as Feast Day across all Jesuit organisations.

Dr Joseph Marianus Kujur, Director, XISS, welcomed everyone for the Holy Mass and focused on the theme of the Relevance of St Ignatius for a Business School like XISS. In his homily, he emphasised on the Ignatian Inspiration Paradigm (IIP) and said, “The IIP stresses on five important factors including Content, Experience, Reflection, Action, and Evaluation. I also invite the faculty and students to practice 4 Cs of Ignatian Pedagogy including Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creative Thinking.”

In conformity with the Ignation spirituality, he invited every faculty, staff, and student to be men and women for others.

Earlier, the feast day celebration commenced with an entrance hymn, a Gloria dance, and a Bible procession in the auditorium. The mass was led in prayer by Dr Marianus Kujur SJ, along with Dr Pradeep Kerketta, Fr Claber Minj, and Fr Swarn Tigga.

Ignatius of Loyola, SJ, venerated as St Ignatius of Loyola, founded the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. The Ignation spirituality promotes our human bodies as a source of wisdom, discernment, and revelation and views the world as our space to serve with grace and respect.

The holy festival concluded by blessings amongst the audiences including faculty, staff, guests and students of XISS. The ceremony ended with a cake cutting celebration and feast to conclude the day.