Entering its fourth year of service to the St. Louis Region, IVC St. Louis has more than tripled in size, positioning Ignatian Volunteers in grade schools, ministry to victims of crime, caring for infants, counseling the unemployed, working in legislative advocacy, and in many other venues, all of which minister to those in need.
In 2005, Fr. Kevin Cullen, SJ and an enthusiastic advisory council launched IVC in this region. The program continues to flourish thanks to the generous support and interest from Ignatian Volunteers and partner organizations throughout the St. Louis region.
As with other Ignatian Volunteers throughout the country, St. Louis Ignatian volunteers commit to work two days a week from mid-September through June. The pairing of an Ignatian Volunteer and partner agency is the result of a discernment process with the Regional IVC Director, the volunteer, and in mutuality with the administrator of the service site.
IVC participants meet monthly for a morning of prayer and reflection, sharing their experience of service, and discussing insights gleaned from a book selected for Ignatian Volunteers nationally. This book selection is on a three year cycle of themes: 1) Ignatian spirituality; 2) theology, 3) and social justice.
Additionally, Ignatian Volunteers meet monthly with a spiritual reflector to talk about the meaning of their work, beyond the service experience itself and how it is contributes to growing their faith. Because our members are asked to keep a journal of their service experience, the fruits of this journaling practice and aspects of what may be gleaned from personal prayer are also integral to this monthly experience.
Communal and personal prayer and reflection in the Ignatian tradition opens fresh perspectives on faith, nurtures the hope and aspirations of each IVC participant and thus further empowers each one to make charity a way of being.
This year there are 15 Ignatian Volunteers working at 15 IVC partner organizations in direct service to our brothers and sisters in need, adults and children alike. Our members say over and over again that they receive back so much more than they give.
Current Ignatian Volunteers and Partner Organizations
- Gail Albers Our Lady’s Inn
- Russ Bley St. Cecelia’s Academy
- George Bober Criminal Justice Ministries (Society of St. Vincent de Paul)
- Bernie Giacabazi Catholic Charities of Peoria, IL
- John Hoehn Our Lady of Guadalupe Grade School
- Jerry Holden College Church Outreach, and De La Salle Academy
- Marilyn McGartland St. Louis Chinese Christian Community Center
- Jim Owens Catholic Employment Network
- Jim Wilson St. Cecelia’s Academy, and Catholic Charities Advocacy
- Steve Frank College Church, and The International Institute
- Cynthia Vives St. Cecelia’s Academy
- Judy Nedweck Crime Victim Advocacy Center
- Bill Smith Campus Kitchens
- Mary Haggerty Nurses for Newborns
- Mike Doherty Southside Catholic Charities Outreach Center
If you have a desire to give back, if you are curious about Ignatian spirituality, if you have ever thought about attempting Christian service, or desire to see God in action, we invite you to consider the Ignatian Volunteer Corps. We are a community which supports all of its members in service through prayer, reflection and shared experience.
Want to know more? Please find our quarterly Newsletter on this site. We welcome your feedback and expressed interest in our program. Also, we encourage you to contact Sean Agniel, Regional Director, for more information about how you might join this important endeavor on behalf of those who are in such great need. We also ask for your prayer, for continued courage and grace to live out the spirit of the following prayer from St. Ignatius:
Lord teach us to be generous, teach us to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that we do your will. -St. Ignatius of Loyola
