People love yoga.

People love the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Mash the two together, and you have created a nice, marketable concept that can sweep a bundle of folks into the arms of the Lord and/or the Society of Jesus.

A Jesuit yoga teacher in a cobalt blue T-shirt ("IHS" nestled in the middle of a lotus flower) guides students through Christian spirituality and then mesmerizes them with yoga poses.

They do this in a church sanctuary, rubber mats spread on marble floors.

It seems perfect for a world in which anything can become anything, in which all spiritualities and traditions are completely fluid and can bleed into each other with little self-awareness or sense of fundamental boundaries.

It seems perfect because the Catholic faith is spiritual and yoga is spiritual.

Both have to do with people and people are good and they have souls and a corner of a good person's soul touches Jesus and another corner of the soul brushes against yoga because yoga exists, and thus Jesus and Patanjali, Francis Xavier and Swami Vivekananda, Rome and Delhi, the empty tomb and the emptying of desire are essentially in some broader cosmic sense part of, if not the same thing.

Why make distinctions between the two when to distinguish is to deny, to exclude, to create harsh boundaries?

And so yoga and Christian spirituality can be in some ways two co-equal wings of the same Creator and his entire recommended path of living, and so it all works out.

It all works out. Time for final savasana.

The practice of Ignatian yoga in the United States began in 2013 at Fordham University with a Jesuit scholastic named Bobby Karle.

Karle, a certified yoga instructor, Karle began offering sessions in yoga framed by Jesuit principles before weeknight liturgies at the campus church.

By 2017, Ignatian yoga had taken shape as an established organization.

Karle and his teaching partner, Alan Haras, have held workshops and retreats in Hollywood, Detroit, Milford, Ohio, Worcester, Mass., Boston, New York, Cleveland and even Australia.

Last year, I gave a talk and led a chapel meditation at one of these Ignatian yoga retreats.

It took place at a retreat center about an hour north of Manhattan.

I had never attended an Ignatian yoga event, and I admit, even though I was one of the speakers, I was a bit skeptical of the whole thing.

In contradistinction to the above litany of modern spirituality, it seemed that with "Ignatian yoga" you could end up with either a corruption of yoga or a corruption of Catholic spirituality. Continue reading

The CLC Ignatian way lies in healing historical divisions, a way that blurs distinctions of skin colour, offers a new way of relating, and shows the love of the Lord for all his peoples. In the forefront of these endeavours stand the Jesuits. They often came with the conquerors, but immediately showed a different way of relating with the indigenous peoples. They demonstrated 'love in action'.

Based on formation through the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, CLC offers a process and ways of discernment and evaluation for those individuals who take seriously Christ's call to 'love one another as I have loved you' Coming together in small groups to share their spiritual journey strengthens them to begin healing the terrible wounds inflicted on their neighbours, through the divine gift of forgiveness. as in Rwanda offering to share the treasure of CLC with Burundi, the country which had massacred so many Tutsis. Taking the first step is crucial on this journey.

I find it inspiring, challenging, shaming that people who seem so poverty stricken and disadvantaged compared to those around me in Aotearoa, are able to rise above their circumstances by ministering to others in need.

Here are the brief stories of two women from Burkina-Faso, one of the tiniest and poorest countries in Africa, as examples:

The woman with little education who studies for three relentless years to become a nurse, followed by three years of more advanced medical studies so that she may help HIV/AIDS victims. She has the perspicacity to see that they want most of all to be listened to, treated with dignity, when they are often rejected by their families through shame or fear of infection. Through the CLC process of sharing on personal prayer, of being listened to without comment or judgment, she learns to express herself, to pray, and to find a commitment to 'help souls', as Ignatius has it. She finds that CLC is not for herself, but for her sisters and brothers.

Another woman whose son's failing sight motivates her to train in ophthalmology, in order to help those suffering from eye infections. She emphasises the importance of the quality of the reception of the patient for healing. She continues by detailing how the CLC, by means of silent, interior prayer on the Word of God has helped her to share her Christian experience through the witness of her life. She says that she looks for joy in the patients; their joy becomes her joy, and sustains her in her work.

The Christian Life Community is long established in over 60 countries and now nascent in Aotearoa. Tricia Kane.

• Tricia Kane is a former librarian and a grandmother.