Each year, the Loyola Institute for Spirituality recognizes Catholic leaders with a trio of special honors. The Hearts on Fire Award, the Writer’s Award in Spirituality, and the Rosita Diaz Amor en Acción (Love in Action) Award recognize outstanding Christians whose contributions to spirituality, community service, and Christian leadership have been inspired by their formation in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
The three awardees will be recognized at the LIS annual fundraiser scheduled for Saturday, April 25, at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, at 10am PT. This year, two of the three honors will go to Black Catholics.
The Hearts on Fire Award will recognize the work of the Jesuit priest Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, who serves as dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. Orobator grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, practicing traditional African religion. After visiting the local Jesuit parish as a teen for Easter vigil Mass, Orobator became enamored with Catholicism and the Jesuits. He saw the works of the American Jesuits as fully devoted to the service of others, resonant of an African anthropology of Ubuntu that teaches “a person is a person through other persons.”
Orobator was one of the over 350 voting delegates to the October 2023 and October 2024 meetings of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality. This process produced an influential final report intended to enhance the mission of the global Church. Additionally, Orobator has been an advocate for women’s empowerment, spiritual development, and social ministry. He is also author of “Theology Brewed in an African Pot,” and editor of “African Synodal Theology: A Tall Tree Is as Strong as Its Roots.”
The California-based author Daryl Grigsby will be honored with the Writer’s Award in Spirituality. Past recipients of this award have included Jesuit priests Mike Kennedy and James Martin; Dr. Nancy Pineda-Madrid, and many others. Grigsby will receive the award for his most recent book, “Catholics for the Common Good: An Eternal Offering,” which profiles 36 contemporary Catholics who have worked for justice and human dignity around the world. The religious sisters, laywomen and laymen, priests and bishops include Servant of God Thea Bowman, Dr. Paul Farmer, Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, Marguerite Barankitse, Blessed Rutilio Grande, Dr. Diana Hayes, and many others.
Grigsby’s work shines a crucial light on 18 women and 18 men who engaged their Catholic faith to stand with the poor, serve refugees, inspire students, give hope to the incarcerated; and work for peace, justice and human dignity.
LIS associate and spiritual director Maryanne Russell will be honored with the Love in Action Award. She has been in parish ministry for over 35 years and currently serves as the director of evangelization and stewardship at St. Brigid Catholic Church in San Diego. She has also served as a spiritual companion and mentor to many engaged in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
This week’s fundraiser will support the mission of LIS, a sponsored ministry of Jesuits’ West Province, to offer “a dynamic approach to Ignatian spirituality.”
“We invite, accompany, and empower individuals and communities to deepen their awareness of and response to God’s active, loving presence in their lives, in the lives of others, and in the world.”
Lori Stanley is executive director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality in Orange, California. She has been a practitioner of Ignatian spirituality for over 20 years and uses its tools to address social injustices and to answer the call to accompany, educate, and empower others to discover God’s deep personal love for them. She has a Master's in Pastoral Theology with a concentration in Spiritual Direction from Loyola Marymount University. She and her husband are facilitators in the Catholic Engaged Encounter ministry and have one adult daughter.
