The current issue of The Way, our international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality, is available to those wanting to explore its insights and reflections. This quarter’s theme, “Earthen Vessels”, offers a powerful reflection on how grace works through our human weakness.

In his forward, Phil Harrison SJ sets the tone by drawing on St Paul’s famous image of the gospel as a treasure carried in fragile clay jars. Our vulnerability, he writes, is not a barrier to God’s work but “the very means by which it is to be accomplished.”

This issue explores how that truth plays out across the whole of life — “from the beginning of life right through to its end” — through the insights of teachers, catechists, spiritual directors and others who accompany people in their spiritual growth.

Inside the issue

This edition gathers a wide range of voices reflecting on the role of formation and the surprising strength that emerges from fragility:‍

What Is a Spiritual Education? Graham Ward explores what it means to become fully human in body, mind and spirit, and how Christian formation shapes this process.

Formation in Practice: Jean-Michel Laurent examines the role of spiritual direction in preparing candidates for priesthood and religious life.‍

Spirituality in Schools: Paul Shing Ming Yu offers a rare look into how young people in a Jesuit school understand spirituality beyond religious labels.

Initiation and Belonging: Luz Marina Díaz connects the Spiritual Exercises with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, showing how both guide people into deeper transformation.

Ageing and Prayer: Robert E. Doud reflects on the spiritual grace found in later life, where memory, gratitude and vulnerability shape the life of prayer.

Additional contributions explore liturgical spirituality, ethical formation, and how Jesuit education fosters solidarity in a fractured world.

At a time when many feel stretched thin or unsure of their place, this issue offers a hopeful message: fragility is not failure. It is the condition in which the gospel’s light becomes visible. The authors in this edition show practical ways that this light can be nurtured in everyday life, whatever stage of the journey.

Read the issue

The full October 2025 issue is available on The Way website, with selected articles free to download and subscription options for the full journal.

The next issue of The Way will arrive in January 2026.

Photo by YASER MOHADDESI on Unsplash