MAGIS quoted by James Martin SJ

"... One of the few important characteristics of Jesuit spirituality that we haven't yes discussed is the elusive idea of the magis, from the Latin word for the "more" or the "greater." This complex notion is probably best addressed in this book after having discussed humility and spiritual poverty. The magis means doing the more, the greater, for God. When you work, give you all. When you make plans, plan boldly. And when you dream, dream big. But as David Flemming recently wrote to me, the magis is comparative. The more, not the most. The greater, not the greatest. "Ignatius never works with superlatives," said Flemming. "When we want to do the best, we may get frozen. If we want to do what might be better, we are able to choose."

   The magis does not mean you act foolishly or unrealistically. Nor do you do these great things for yourself or even for the glory of the Society of Jesus. Rather, you strive to do great things for God. Thus the phrase used by Ignatius as a criterion for choosing, which has become an unofficial Jesuit motto: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. For the greater glory of God.

   Build into the Ignatian way, then, is the desire for the magis. Ultimately, "eliciting great desires" and inviting people to think big is the seed for accomplishing great things for God.

   One historical example of the magis in action served as the inspiration for the 1986 movie The Mission. Perhaps the most well-known film based on the Society of Jesus, The Mission starred Jeremy Irons, Robert de Niro, and Liam Neeson as priest and brothers working in the Jesuit Reduction of seventeen-century South America. During that time, Jesuit priests and brothers began to gather the native peoples, often the target of ruthless slave traders, into organized villages. The term "reductions", reducciones, comes from the desire to "reduce" the sprawl of the local settlements into a smaller area as a way to protect them from slave traders and more easily introduce them to Christianity.

"We have worked hard to arrange all this," wrote the real-life Roque Gonzalez, S.J., in 1613, of his work with Guaraní peoples, "but with en greater zest and energy--in fact with all our strength--we have worked to build temples to Our Lord, not only those made by hands but spiritual temples as well, namely the souls of these Indians."

   ... Here is a clear legacy of the magis: people who were, in difficult circumstances, trying to do the more, the greater, the better for God and for God's people.

   The magis  also lies behind more unsung achievements: the high-school teacher who spend hours painstakingly grading exams; the college campus minister driving a bus filled with boisterous students on a service trip to Appalachia; the priest who carefully guides a couple through the preparation for their wedding. This way of fulfilling the magis maybe less dramatic than say, the Jesuit Reductions, but no less important.

But by no means is the magis confined to the accomplishment of Jesuits or members of religious orders or priests. Anyone who dreams of doing great things for God can live out the magis--whether you are a father caring for your young child, a middle-aged woman nursing your aging parent, or an inner-city teacher working overtime to tutor a needy student. Great works are often quiet works."

(from "The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything", James Martin S.J.)