What Does A.M.D.G. Mean?

AMDG, the motto of the Society of Jesus, is a Latin acronym for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For the Greater Glory of God). You will find it written above student essays, on football helmets and on every page of this website. Why? Because SI teaches that if we are true to our best selves, if we (as the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins writes) "act in God's eye what in God's eye" we are, then we shine. Those who see us at our best see God's glory. That's the way we glorify God – by being true to who we are, by being loving and generous and by living out the words of the Prayer of St. Ignatius:

Lord, teach me to be generous,
teach me to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to seek reward,
save that of knowing I do your will, O Lord.

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