What does faith look like in the everyday work of accompanying migrants?

This reflection, first published on Faith Dimensions,  explores how Ignatian spirituality shapes a vocation rooted in education, migration, and justice. Through quiet acts of accompaniment, educators, advocates, and pastoral leaders help communities see reality more clearly and respond with compassion and action. The story reflects a central principle of Jesuit mission: seeking the magis — the greater good — through faithful service to those most vulnerable.

Ignatian spirituality has quietly shaped how I see and move through the world. Early on, I learned that faith is not something to hold but something to live, not just belief, but action.

Over time, I discovered that this action springs from a deeper movement: praising, reverencing, and serving God and neighbour. From that source flows a question that has accompanied me like a whisper since high school: How can I love and serve more?

That question has never let me look at the world the same way. It unsettles me—sometimes radically—until I cannot turn away. Through pastoral groups, volunteer experiences in Africa and Latin America, and the grace of the Spiritual Exercises, that whisper became a certainty: the profound freedom of surrendering to God. From there, I began to let myself be shaped—often impatiently, but always with serene joy. Slowly, untying knots and weaving bonds. Until recently, when I found myself able to put words to who I am and how I want to live: within a vocation that is a continuous call, never resting.

My vocation is education for justice: accompanying others in seeing reality, reflecting deeply, and transforming love into deeds. I walk with those who refuse to close their eyes to injustice, and I strive to be a window for those who have yet to discover. Then, to accompany them as they turn awareness into action, making real for the most vulnerable the words of Jesus in Revelation: “I have loved you.”

From classrooms to courtrooms, from rural communities to renowned universities, from the collective to the individual, I try to bring encounter as the only path to transformation and hospitality as the only response to the unknown. This work is hard. It demands staying connected to the cry of the poor and translating that cry into hope. It means trusting, like a sower, that seeds will grow—even when the soil looks barren. My hope comes from my own story of salvation, from seeing how God transformed me. I rely on the One who alone makes change possible.
In these challenging times, serving migrants and refugees through education, advocacy, and organising—while being an immigrant myself in a country where my mother tongue is often targeted—I feel more “in place” than ever. The reality is harsh, but grace sustains me. God sustains me. My family sustains me.

This is not glamorous work. It is quiet, persistent, and deeply human. And yet, in this hiddenness, I find the Magis. Here, I am home.

About the Author

Clara Sayans serves as Outreach Manager at Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. Her work focuses on education, faith formation, and building communities of solidarity with refugees and migrants worldwide. Through storytelling and engagement, she helps connect people of faith with the realities facing displaced communities today.

Continue the Journey

Faith calls us not only to reflect but to act.

Learn how Jesuit Refugee Service accompanies refugees through education, advocacy, and mental health and psychosocial support  in more than 55 countries.