Ignatius was a mystic, and strongly believed in the spirit world, in the presence of the devil (the ‘evil one’ as he calls it.) What is your view? Do you believe in an evil spirit?

Thinking of an evil spirit that temps us is something that I don’t really believe in. I believe there is a devil and a hell, but I refuse the idea of an evil spirit that temps us., and that he lives in the fiery pits of hell. God gave us free will to do what we want. In addition to this, he gave us the Ten Commandments as a guide on how to live to achieve the kingdom of God.

But in a more philosophical view, I don’t believe in evil, just absence of good. This means that the people that are considered “bad” are not, they just lack good in their actions. This applies to the evil spirit, or hell. It is just absence of God. So, my idea of hell is a place where there is absence of God, our soul will not reach the kingdom of God and lose touch with God.

Fiery pits of hell and endless suffering are things us humans use to describe hell because we don’t know how it’s like. The same applies to heaven when we describe it as a peaceful place in the clouds. Heaven and Hell are not places; they are ideas that we use to picture what it would be like to live in endless happiness or suffering. Everyone has a different idea.

Is there an event that changed your faith and way you look at the world?

The summer of 2004 my parents decided to send me to a Christian camp in Canada, Ontario Pioneer Camp. This trip was going to be my first time traveling somewhere other than the United States alone for an extended period of time. My dad went to this camp when he was young and thought my brother and I would like it just as he did. My dad wanted us to have a good spiritual personality and the opportunity to experience life in another country. As years passed, my brother and I kept going to this camp. I saw it more as a retreat rather than a summer camp. OPC was Protestant, making it different for me since I have been raised Catholic. I looked passed this and went with an open mind. I saw that they all had a different way of viewing God and the Bible. There was Worship and Bible Study every day and in addition to this, Chapel on Sundays. At first it was a lot to do with God for it being a camp, but after all the Bible studies, not having any of the distractions I have back home (electronics especially), and being in the woods for a month and a half experiencing God’s creation made me feel like I developed a good relationship with God.

When I was old enough to become a counselor there, I didn’t think twice about going through with it. This was a lot better than being a camper because I had to apply everything I learned in the previous years. I began to see OPC as me giving something to a community. Giving them my time, and energy to be there, in a different Country, because I loved it. I have to thank OPC because it showed me how important giving to the community really is.

Why am I enrolled in the Ignatius Loyola Class?

I studied in a Catholic school with Piarist priests in Ponce, Puerto Rico and I thought this was the only way priests could be involved in a school setting. Piarists have Saint Joseph Calasanz like Jesuits have Saint Ignatius of Loyola. It was for my sophomore year of high school that I moved to San Juan and changed from a school with Piarists priests to a school with Jesuit priests, the school was San Ignacio de Loyola (Saint Ignatius of Loyola). I noticed quite a difference after being in this new school in terms of the philosophy of the teachers and what it was to be a good person in this world. They kept mentioning these traits a person had to have over and over and they got engraved in my mind, be a man of faith, to be intellectually competent, to be able to discern, and to be a man of service. I found out how to apply these traits in my years in this school, but unlike my classmates, it took me a little longer to understand these traits.

I first went to Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola my sophomore year of high school. The school starts from seventh grade to senior year. My friends that have been in the school since seventh grade have had classes teaching them who is Ignatius, who are the Jesuits, and what do they stand for. It makes me feel like I really missed out because I graduated from this Jesuit school and I don’t have much knowledge of who Ignatius was or what he did. I am enrolled in this class because I feel that it is my responsibility to know who Ignatius was. I’m sure that how Piarists priests taught us how to live our life and be good people to society, Jesuits can do the same and I can grow in my faith and become a better person that can offer something to the world.