Living Bread

Retooling

2007-08-19T11:50:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone,

I am writing to say I have completed two years of novitiate (seminary) at Grand Coteau, Louisiana. I took perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as a Jesuit scholastic on Wednesday, August 15, feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Due to the demands of my fall seminary studies, I will not be reviving this website in the immediate future. But please keep an eye on the links and feel free to look for me on Facebook.

Immediately following vow day, I'll be pursuing an MA in philosophy at Loyola University of Chicago, where I will be stationed for the next three years. Please keep me in your prayers and feel free to drop me a line at my new address:

Sean Salai, S.J.
Loyola University Chicago
Gonzaga House Jesuit Community
6235 N. Kenmore Avenue
Chicago, IL 60660-2101

E-mail: sean@jesuits.net

One last thing... At the vow Mass I took Ignatius of Loyola as my vow name, making this my full name:

Sean Michael Joseph Ignatius Salai, Society of Jesus.

Quite a mouthful, isn't it?

Sean

Vow day

2007-08-19T11:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some photographs from my vow Mass on Wednesday, August 15, feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

Outdoor vow day photos

2007-08-19T11:47:00.000-05:00

St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church is the Jesuit parish serving Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Here the parish is seen from the Jesuit cemetary in the rear.

Grand Coteau is home to several Jesuit communities: 1. The parish; 2. St. Charles College, which houses the novitiate and Jesuit Spirituality Center that offers directed retreats; and 3. Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House, which specializes in preached and couples' retreats.

Matthew Rarey, Wabash class of 2000, says a prayer in the Jesuit cemetary beside the tombstone of Fr. Tom Sherman, SJ, son of General William Tecumsah Sherman. The Yankee general's wife was a Catholic; Father Sherman is buried next to another Jesuit priest whose uncle was the Confederate Secretary of State during the US Civil War.

The front of St. Charles College and a statue of its patron, Cardinal Charles Borromeo, who was not a Jesuit although he was connected with many Jesuits. The cardinal gave first communion to St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit seminarian and patron of youths who died ministering to plague victims in Rome.

Our Lady of the Way shrine, Grand Coteau. The Society administers the titular church of Our Lady of the Way in Rome; "the Way" is how the early Christians referred to themselves. Jesuits refer to Our Lady of the Way more often than to Saint Christopher when traveling.

Sacred Heart statue, Grand Coteau novitiate.

These are all shots of the grounds and other environs of St. Charles College, the Jesuit novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana.

Official photos of this year's actual vow day ceremony can be viewed on the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) website: http://www.norprov.org/news/novicestakevows.htm

Additional vow photos

2007-08-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

Communion.

Incense.
Dinner at Prejeans Restaurant.

A photo in front of St. Charles College, with the main drive to the street behind us.

A portrait of Ignatius sending Francis Xavier on his mission to India. Ignatius hands the mission crucifix to Xavier with one hand and points to the door with the other, an image of Jesuit life.

These are all photographs from our vow day, August 15, 2007.

More vow day photos

2007-08-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

More of the same.

Grand Coteau photos

2007-08-19T11:43:00.000-05:00

Some images of Jesuit sites in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, vow day 2007.

Interior of St. Charles Borromeo Jesuit parish, Grand Coteau, LA.

Our Lady of the Oaks Jesuit Retreat House, with a partial view of the courtyard and chapel, Grand Coteau, LA.

Entering the grounds of St. Charles College, home to the Jesuit novitiate and spirituality center. The New Orleans Province Jesuits ran a boys' high school here prior to converting the College into a novitiate in the early 1920s.

The old Jesuit cemetery is located in the back of the City of Grand Coteau cemetery. The graves here date to French missionaries who died in the 1800s.

Perpetual Vows in the St. Charles College Domestic Chapel, August 15, 2007.

Vow day video

2007-08-19T11:42:00.001-05:00

Chris Broomall, Wabash College class of 1998, has posted a video of my profession of first vows on You Tube:

Jesuit seminarians of the South

2007-08-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

Here's a photograph of every Jesuit seminarian (novice and scholastic) and priest without final vows in the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus.

We took this photograph in December 2006 during our annual formation gathering at St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana. The background is Our Lady of Lourdes grotto on the novitiate grounds.

More photos of Jesuit novitiate/seminary life can be found here: www.norprov.org/vocation

Postponement

2005-08-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

This website is closed until if and when I begin my Jesuit philosophy studies in August 2007.

Beginning Sunday, our New Orleans Province novice class will spend two years at the Jesuit novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. For those who wish to contact any or all of us, here is the novitiate address and phone number:

St. Charles College
P.O. Drawer C
Grand Coteau, LA 70541

Tel: 337-662-5251.

My e-mail address is sean@jesuits.net

By the way, Grand Coteau is home to the only Vatican-documented miracle on U.S. soil.

In 1866, ailing Sacred Heart novice Mary Wilson rose from her deathbed and attributed a miraculous cure to the prayers of Bl. John Berchmans, a Jesuit seminarian who died 250 years earlier. That miracle led to the canonization of Berchmans, now the patron saint of seminarians.

Beautiful old St. Charles College is right next to the St. John Berchmans shrine at Sacred Heart Academy, where Jesuit priests have served as chaplains to the nuns and their students for a long time.

Men considering the priesthood or religious life can see the shrine for themselves by visiting St. Charles College for a discernment retreat. The novices host two retreats every year.

For more information on discernment retreats or Jesuit life in general, contact our vocation director:

Fr. Marvin Kitten, S.J.
Jesuit Vocation Director
504.571.1055 (Work)
504.865.3935 (Home)

E-mail: mkitten@norprov.org
www.norprov.org/vocations

No and yes

2005-07-14T13:37:00.000-05:00

People are asking if I will continue "blogging" after Entrance Day, which is one month from today. The answer is no and yes.

Jason Brauninger and I will be shutting down our websites for the two years of novitiate. Our superiors may let us resume after first vows. Please check back in August 2007.

In the meantime, there are several Jesuit blogs linked here, including Mark Mossa S.J. from our New Orleans Province.

And there are many online resources for prayer and faith. Check out the Sacred Space link to the right.

Thanks and God bless.

Sean

Passion play photos

2005-07-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

In April, we did a living Stations of the Cross on Good Friday for the Sunday School kids at our Florida parish (Our Lady of Mercy).

The adults were watching the violent "Passion of the Christ" film inside the church during our production, so I was tapped to play Jesus Christ. Fortunately, the children went easier on me than the actors in the movie.

Ignatius

2005-07-13T15:00:00.000-05:00

Just testing the computer. Here's a photograph of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

Extreme Freud

2005-06-28T21:09:00.000-05:00

A quiz on all five stages of Freudian pyschological development. My own results:

Freudian Inventory Results

Oral (60%) you appear to have a good balance of independence and interdependence knowing when to accept help and when to do things on your own.
Anal (40%) you appear to have a good balance of self control and spontaneity, order and chaos, variety and selectivity.
Phallic (56%) you appear to have a good balance of sexual awareness and sexual composure.
Latency (30%) you appear to be overly practical; don't undervalue abstract learning, abstract learning increases your ability to make good decisions (and predictions) in the real world so it would be 'impractical' to shun it.
Genital (53%) you appear to be somewhere between a progressive/openminded and regressive/closeminded outlook on life.

Take Free Freudian Inventory Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Also from the quiz:

Freud theorized that there are 5 stages of psychological development. At the oral stage the main issue is dependency, at the anal stage the main issue is self control, at the phallic stage the main issue is sexual identity, at the latency stage it's skill development, and at the genital stage it's creativity and productivity.

Freud theorized that psychological problems are related to problems during one or more of these stages. For example, being too cared for or too neglected causes someone to be orally fixated, too much or too little control causes someone to be anally fixated, insufficient parental role modeling causes phallic fixation.

An orally fixated person is either irrationally dependent (expects what they want to just appear) or irrationally independent (always refuses help).

An anally fixated person is either irrationally self controlled and servile to authority or has no self control and is compulsively defiant of authority.

A phallicly fixated person is either a sexual compulsive (sexually innappropriate/promiscuous) or sexually repressed.

Freud did not classify any latent fixation but I think it is as plausible as those at the other stages. I speculate that people that like to learn and acquire knowledge without any purpose or people that are compulsively non curious represent both dysfunctional ends of the latency spectrum.

The genital stage is the final Freudian developmental stage and according to Freud people don't all succeed at this. Freud believed the ideal for human happiness is to be happy in love and work, problems in one or the other cause unhappiness.

Like any personality system, Freud's developmental levels are just a theory, so, be speculative about your results.

Update

2005-06-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

I just gave my two-week notice at work. And the relief and excitement I felt after finally broaching the topic of seminary far outweighed any anxiety beforehand.

To avoid creating discomfort in the workplace, I had kept quiet about the Jesuits after being accepted in January. As of this week, I'd been silent for exactly six months.

What am I doing?

2005-06-17T17:01:00.000-05:00

Friends often ask what I will be doing for the next two years as a Jesuit novice.

While I like to explain the Jesuit novitiate as a sort of apprenticeship period, many still do not understand how it is any different from major seminary.

What am I doing for the next two years? Perhaps the best answer is that I will spend the time praying over these words:

Almighty and eternal God, I, NAME, though altogether most unworthy in your divine sight, yet relying on your infinite goodness and mercy and moved with a desire of serving you, in the presence of the most Holy Virgin Mary and your whole heavenly court, vow to Your Divine Majesty perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience in the Society of Jesus; and I promise that I shall enter the same Society in order to lead my entire life in it, understanding all things according to its Constitutions.

Therefore I suppliantly beg Your Immense Goodness and Clemency, through the blood of Jesus Christ, to deign to receive this holocaust in an odor of sweetness; and that just as you gave me the grace to desire and offer this, so you will also bestow on me abundant grace to fulfill it.

(Formula for first vows in the Society of Jesus. These vows are simple and perpetual, not temporary.)

Irony

2005-06-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

Well, my prayer life seems to be going nicely as I prepare to decamp Florida: A little spiritual reading, silent reflection and breviary sustain me almost daily.

Work is ok too. Today I received a videotape in the mail from Rodney Rothman, a young comedy writer I interviewed for a feature story last month.

The tape contained a television interview between Rodney and ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who holds up a copy of my article at one point during the segment.

Ironically, the article was one of the more loosely-written things I've written. Such are the pieces which typically land me or my sources on radio and television talk shows.

Timing is everything. Rodney could have held up the New York Times article on the same subject, but my story happened to appear as he was making his South Florida book tour.

Anyway, our interview was fun.

A convert's lament

2005-06-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

Under my skin
in the sanctuary
You are there. Here.
Everywhere.

Indelible mark
water, smoke, beads
eternity.

Stranger among friends
no turning back
love's tyranny.
What happened?

Songs and libations
restless, used, laughing
seeking
God.

Nothing for the journey

2005-06-05T11:56:00.000-05:00

Our Jesuit entrance class recently received a four-page letter from the Master of Novices at Grand Coteau.

It offers advice on dealing with Satan and outlines what we should bring with us on Aug. 14 for the next two years of our lives, primi and secundi, at St. Charles College.

Much of the letter describes what not to bring. Here is the most important sentence:

"In general, do not bring lots of things with you."

Attached to the letter is an itemized clothing list: black socks, shoes, etc.

Sacred Heart

2005-06-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

Today was the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, a liturgical celebration that falls on the Friday after Corpus Christi.

Christ reportedly said to St. Mary Margaret: "Behold this heart which has loved men so much that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself in order to testify to them its love."

Many have been deeply attached to this image of Christ's love. Others have found it dull, saccharine and hokey. Consider it for a few moments. What does it mean to you?

Farewell to paradise

2005-06-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

My last full month on the Treasure Coast, where every day is paradise and New Yorkers still manage to complain, is underway.

I've been scheduled for my last month of parish ministries. I've had the last meeting with my West Palm Beach spiritual director.

Before long, I'll be enjoying my last trip to the beach and my last newspaper deadline.

But rather than kvetch about the loss of each relationship, lizard and palm tree, I'm just enjoying my last days in Florida.

I am grateful to store the past year in my memory.

The experience of four hurricanes should provide plenty of stories. And the professional experiences, including run-ins with the mob and bogus plastic surgeons, will only get more surreal with time.

Last and not least, I can now answer the question of where Floridians go for vacation: further south.

Jesus Christ

2005-05-27T20:07:00.000-05:00

When young men enter a religious order or seminary, it provokes a variety of responses.

As a young reporter, I always saw myself as pretty ambitious. Others saw me the same way, as few friends seem to have anticipated my decision to study for the priesthood.

One of my former D.C. co-workers learned yesterday that I'm entering the Jesuits. Here was his tongue-in-cheek reaction:

"A priest? Jesus Christ!"

Last testament of JPII

2005-05-08T13:57:00.000-05:00

Here's the last will and testament of Pope John Paul II:

The testament of 6.3.1979 (March 6, 1979)
"Totus Tuus ego sum" (Latin for "I am all Yours")
In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
"Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (cf. Matthew 24, 42) -- these words remind me of the last call, which will happen at the moment the Lord wishes. I desire to follow Him, and I desire that everything making up part of my earthly life should prepare me for this moment. I do not know when the moment will come, but like everything else, I place it too in the hands of the Mother of my Master: Totus Tuus. In the same maternal Hands I leave everything and everyone with whom my life and vocation have linked me. In these Hands I leave, above all, the Church, as well as my Nation and all humanity. I thank everyone. Of everyone I ask forgiveness. I also ask for prayer, that the Mercy of God may appear greater than my weakness and unworthiness.
During the spiritual exercises I reread the testament of the Holy Father Paul VI. That reading prompted me to write this testament.
I leave no property behind me of which it is necessary to dispose. As for the everyday objects that were of use to me, I ask they be distributed as seems appropriate. My personal notes are to be burned. I ask that this be attended to by Father Stanislaw (his personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz), whom I thank for his collaboration and help, so prolonged over the years and so understanding. As for all other thanks, I leave them in my heart before God Himself, because it is difficult to express them.
As for the funeral, I repeat the same dispositions as were given by the Holy Father Paul VI. (Here is a note in the margin: burial in the bare earth, not in a sarcophagus, 13.3.92) (March 13, 1992).
"Apud Dominum misericordia et copiosa apud Eum redemptio." (Latin for "With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption.")
John Paul pp. II
Rome, 6.III.1979 (March 6, 1979)
After my death I ask for Masses and prayers.
5.III.1990 (March 5, 1990)
------
(Undated sheet of paper)
I express my profound trust that, despite all my weakness, the Lord will grant me all the grace necessary to face according to His will any task, trial or suffering that He will ask of His servant, in the course of his life. I also trust that He will never allow me -- through some attitude of mine: words, deeds or omissions -- to betray my obligations in this holy Petrine See.
24.II-1.III.1980 (February 24 - March 1, 1980)
Also during these spiritual exercises, I have reflected on the truth of the Priesthood of Christ in the perspective of that Transit that for each of us is the moment of our own death. For us the Resurrection of Christ is an eloquent (Vatican notation: added above, decisive) sign of departing from this world -- to be born in the next, in the future world.
I have read, then, the copy of my testament from last year, also written during the spiritual exercises -- I compared it with the testament of my great predecessor and Father, Paul VI, with that sublime witness to death of a Christian and a Pope -- and I have renewed within me an awareness of the questions to which the copy of 6.III.1979 (March 6, 1979) refers, prepared by me (in a somewhat provisional way).
Today I wish to add only this: that each of us must bear in mind the prospect of death. And must be ready to present himself before the Lord and Judge -- Who is at the same time Redeemer and Father. I too continually take this into consideration, entrusting that decisive moment to the Mother of Christ and of the Church -- to the Mother of my hope.
The times in which we live are unutterably difficult and disturbed. The path of the Church has also become difficult and tense, a characteristic trial of these times -- both for the Faithful and for Pastors. In some Countries (as, for example, in those about which I read during the spiritual exercises), the Church is undergoing a period of such persecution as to be in no way lesser than that of early centuries, indeed it surpasses them in its degree of cruelty and hatred. "Sanguis martyrum -- semen christianorum" (Latin for "Blood of the martyrs -- seeds of Christians"). And apart from this -- many people die innocently even in this Country in which we are living.
Once again, I wish to entrust myself totally to the Lord's grace. He Himself will decide when and how I must end my earthly life and pastoral ministry. In life and in death, Totus Tuus in Mary Immaculate. Accepting that death, even now, I hope that Christ will give me the grace for the final passage, in other words (Vatican notation: "my") Easter. I also hope that He makes (Vatican notation: "that death") useful for this more important cause that I seek to serve: the salvation of men and women, the safeguarding of the human family and, in that, of all nations and all peoples (among them, I particularly address my earthly Homeland), and useful for the people with whom He particularly entrusted me, for the question of the Church, for the glory of God Himself.
I do not wish to add anything to what I wrote a year ago --7 only to express this readiness and, at the same time, this trust, to which the current spiritual exercises have again disposed me.
John Paul II
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Totus Tuus ego sum 5.III.1982 (March 5, 1982)
In the course of this year's spiritual exercises I have read (a number of times) the text of the testament of 6.III.1979 (March 6, 1979). Although I still consider it provisional (not definitive), I leave it in the form in which it exists. I change nothing (for now), and neither do I add anything, as concerns the dispositions contained therein.
The attempt upon my life on 13.V.1981 (May 13, 1981) in some way confirmed the accuracy of the words written during the period of the spiritual exercises of 1980 (24.II-1.III) (February 24 - March 1).
All the more deeply I now feel that I am totally in the Hands of God -- and I remain continually at the disposal of my Lord, entrusting myself to Him in His Immaculate Mother (Totus Tuus)
John Paul pp.II
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5.III.82 (March 5, 1982)
In connection with the last sentence in my testament of 6.III.1979 (March 6, 1979) ("concerning the site / that is, the site of the funeral / let the College of Cardinals and Compatriots decide") -- I will make it clear that I have in mind: the metropolitan of Krakow or the General Council of the Episcopate of Poland. In the meantime I ask the College of Cardinals to satisfy, as far as possible, any demands of the above-mentioned.
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2. 1.III.1985 (March 1, 1985) (during the spiritual exercises)
Again -- as regards the expression "College of Cardinals and Compatriots": the "College of Cardinals" has no obligation to consult "Compatriots" on this subject, however it can do so, if for some reason it feels it is right to do so.
JPII
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Spiritual exercise of the Jubilee Year 2000 (12-18.III) (March 12-18).
(Vatican notation: "for my testament")
1. When, on October 16, 1978, the conclave of cardinals chose John Paul II, the primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski told me: "The duty of the new Pope will be to introduce the Church into the Third Millennium." I don't know if I am repeating this sentence exactly, but at least this was the sense of what I heard at the time. This was said by the Man who entered history as the primate of the Millennium. A great primate. I was a witness to his mission, to his total entrustment. To his battles. To his victory. "Victory, when it comes, will be a victory through Mary" -- The primate of the Millennium used to repeat these words of his predecessor, Cardinal August Hlond.
In this way I was prepared in some manner for the duty that presented itself to me on October 16, 1978. As I write these words, the Jubilee Year 2000 is already a reality. The night of December 24, 1999, the symbolic Door of the Great Jubilee in the Basilica of St. Peter's was opened, then that of St. John Lateran, then St. Mary Major -- on New Year's, and on January 19, the Door of the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls. This last event, given its ecumenical character, has remained impressed in my memory in a special way.
2. As the Jubilee Year progressed, day by day the 20th century closes behind us and the 21st century opens. According to the plans of Divine Providence, I was allowed to live in the difficult century that is retreating into the past, and now, in the year in which my life reaches 80 years ("octogesima adveniens"), it is time to ask oneself if it is not the time to repeat with the biblical Simeone 'nunc dimittis' (Latin for "Now Master you may let your servant go.")
On May 13, 1981, the day of the attack on the Pope during the general audience in St. Peter's Square, Divine Providence saved me in a miraculous way from death. The One Who is the Only Lord of life and death Himself prolonged my life, in a certain way He gave it to me again. From that moment it belonged to Him even more. I hope He will help me to recognize up to what point I must continue this service to which I was called on October 16, 1978. I ask him to call me back when He Himself wishes. "In life and in death we belong to the Lord ... we are the Lord's." (cf. Romans 14,8). I also hope that, as long as I am called to fulfill the Petrine service in the Church, the Mercy of God will give me the necessary strength for this service.
3. As I do every year during spiritual exercises, I read my testament from 6-III-1979 (March 6, 1979). I continue to maintain the dispositions contained in this text. What then, and even during successive spiritual exercises, has been added constitutes a reflection of the difficult and tense general situation which marked the '80s. From autumn of the year 1989, this situation changed. The last decade of the century was free of the previous tensions; that does not mean that it did not bring with it new problems and difficulties. In a special way may Divine Providence be praised for this, that the period of the so-called "cold war" ended without violent nuclear conflict, the danger of which weighed on the world in the preceding period.
4. Being on the threshold of the third millennium "in medio Ecclesiae" (Latin for "inside the Church") I wish once again to express gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of Vatican Council II, to which, together with the entire Church -- and above all the entire episcopacy -- I feel indebted. I am convinced that for a long time to come the new generations will draw upon the riches that this Council of the 20th century gave us. As a bishop who participated in this conciliar event from the first to the last day, I wish to entrust this great patrimony to all those who are and who will be called in the future to realize it. For my part I thank the eternal Pastor Who allowed me to serve this very great cause during the course of all the years of my pontificate.
"In medio Ecclesiae" ... from the first years of my service as a bishop -- precisely thanks to the Council -- I was able to experience the fraternal communion of the Episcopacy. As a priest of the Archdiocese of Krakow, I experienced the fraternal communion among priests -- and the Council opened a new dimension to this experience.
5. How many people should I list! Probably the Lord God has called to Himself the majority of them -- as to those who are still on this side, may the words of this testament recall them, everyone and everywhere, wherever they are.
During the more than 20 years that I am fulfilling the Petrine service "in medio Ecclesiae" I have experienced the benevolence and even more the fecund collaboration of so many cardinals, archbishops and bishops, so many priests, so many consecrated persons -- brothers and sisters -- and, lastly, so very, very many lay persons, within the Curia, in the vicariate of the diocese of Rome, as well as outside these milieux.
How can I not embrace with grateful memory all the bishops of the world whom I have met in "ad limina Apostolorum" (a reference to required, periodic visits)! How can I not recall so many non-Catholic Christian brothers! And the rabbi of Rome and so many representatives of non-Christian religions! And how many representatives of the world of culture, science, politics, and of the means of social communication!
6. As the end of my life approaches I return with my memory to the beginning, to my parents, to my brother, to the sister (I never knew because she died before my birth), to the parish in Wadowice, where I was baptized, to that city I love, to my peers, friends from elementary school, high school and the university, up to the time of the occupation when I was a worker, and then in the parish of Niegowic, then St. Florian's in Krakow, to the pastoral ministry of academics, to the milieu of ... to all milieux ... to Krakow and to Rome ... to the people who were entrusted to me in a special way by the Lord.
To all I want to say just one thing: "May God reward you."
"In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum." (Latin for "In your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.")
A.D. 17.III.2000 (March 17, 2000)
JOHN PAUL II: TESTAMENT

Prayer

2005-04-24T14:55:00.000-05:00

Prayer is the most important aspect of my relationship with Christ.

In my prayer life, it sometimes helps to recall something St. Francis de Sales said:

"Each Christian needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy ... then we need an hour."

Jesuit feast day

2005-04-22T09:06:00.000-05:00

Today is the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Society of Jesus.

April 22 was the day St. Ignatius and his companions pronounced their first vows as Jesuits.

Jesuits honor Mary today because Ignatius placed himself and the Society under her protection at every step of his spiritual life.

As a young Spanish nobleman, he had been a worldly soldier, largely unconcerned with religion.

That changed in autumn 1521, when he was recovering from a wound at the battle of Pamplona.

Ignatius could find nothing to read at Loyola Castle but a book on the life of Christ and a book on the lives of the saints.

The adventurous lives of the saints so appealed to his competitive nature that he decided he too could be another St. Dominic or St. Francis of Assisi.

It was in this setting that Ignatius had a vision of Mary.

Although he did not leave behind many details of the vision, Ignatius tells us it happened on the night of his conversion.

In speaking about the event many years later, in 1555, he notes that he "clearly saw the likeness of our Lady with the holy Child Jesus, and because of this vision he enjoyed an excess of consolation for a remarkably long time. He felt so great a loathsomeness for all his past life, especially for the deeds of the flesh, that it seemed to him that all the images that had been previously imprinted on his mind were now erased."

Upon recovering from his wound, Ignatius laid his sword at the altar of Our Lady of Monserrat and started walking to Jerusalem. The rest is history.

Meditation on joy

2005-04-21T17:45:00.000-05:00

For every sorrow, there is a joy

For every Judas, there is Peter

For every anxiety, a finding in the temple

In darkness, there is light

In silence, a song

In crucifixion, resurrection

Satan is defeated

Faith rebukes doubt and charity confounds pride

Hope lives in fear

God alone is in all things

(Prayer journal, 2/1/05)

Jesuit prayer for Benedict XVI

2005-04-20T09:03:00.000-05:00

[The Jesuits of Creighton University are offering this prayer for newly elected Pope Benedict XVI through their Online Ministry]

Let us pray.

Father, eternal shepherd, we thank you for your fidelity to your Church, your pilgrim People of God.

We hold up to you our new Pope, Benedict XVI. Through the work of your Holy Spirit, he has been chosen to shepherd your people, in your own heart, ensured by the promise of Jesus, that he would never leave us orphaned, and that the gates of hell would never prevail against us.

Guide Pope Benedict with the continuing presence of your Spirit in these days ahead. Let him be the "simple, humble worker in your vineyard."

Give him all the graces he will need to serve your people and unite us in our work of building your Kingdom on earth.

Be gracious to us, O Lord, in the days ahead. Heal our divisions and give us your own joy and peace. Grace us to place our trust in you and to serve one another in faith and in hope. With Pope Benedict as our pastor, may we follow the spirit of John Paul II in proclaiming your Word, in the defense of human dignity, and uniting our brothers and sisters of every faith tradition in the path of peace and justice in our world.

For those who have any fears, within the Catholic community or around the world, we ask the deepest blessing of your tender care and confident trust in you.

We ask this with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in union with your Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/benedict-xvi.html

Habemus papam

2005-04-19T16:26:00.000-05:00

It's an exciting day. We have our first new pope in 26 years, Benedict XVI, and tomorrow is my 25th birthday!

After hearing Ratzinger speak at John Paul's funeral, I'd say our new pontiff is a man of prayer and reasonably humble.

As Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said prior to the conclave, that's probably the best we can expect from a successor to John Paul II.

Here are some things about the papacy that give me hope for the future:

1. They say the job of pope changes the man, not vice versa. Nobody expected Pope John XXIII to launch the modernizing Second Vatican Council.

2. Ratzinger was not only an architect of Vatican II, but was also John Paul's point man for implementing its reforms.

3. Catholics believe the Holy Spirit guides our pope and church. All else is secondary.

I'll segue from that last point into a personal anecdote.

I was in Indianapolis last weekend for a Wabash College alumni reception.

As was daily the case during my life at all-male Wabash, the scene seemed lifted directly from the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel.

Wabash is the type of liberal arts environment where the sheepskin degrees are in Latin and students deliver lectures on Dostoevsky while vomiting into trash cans. One is trained there to be ready for anything.

So while we were mingling and smoking cigars, it did not surprise me that people of all persuasions (personal and intellectual) wanted to talk religion with me.

Sometimes they were confrontational. One former classmate told me he was barely hanging on to Catholicism.

He had a litany of tensions and torments. His parents are no longer Catholic. He feels pressured for being the last one in his family to still attend Mass, and this only monthly. He feels tormented by a perceived call to be both married and a priest.

This guy wanted my feedback.

I said I thought all of the things he expressed were very important, but perhaps secondary to a more important issue: his relationship with Christ.

While it is good to be passionate about our tensions with the church, I think our opinions on such matters can serve to distract us from more important realities of Catholic life.

One can appreciate that some Catholics disagree with certain teachings and also appreciate that those teachings will probably not change.

The real question is how we live with those tensions within the Roman Catholic framework.

Do we ignore them, retreating into the comfort zone of our active imaginations and intimate social circles? Or do we sincerely seek a Christ-centered way of addressing them each day that allows us to live peacefully and generously?

Ignatian ideal

2005-04-15T11:59:00.000-05:00

Here's the Ignatian spiritual ideal as conceptualized by Fr. Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991), a former General of the Jesuit order:

"There are two fundamental laws of all spiritual life which St. Ignatius makes his own, putting them at the center of the spiritual exercises: the law of charity, of a charity that knows no bounds, and the law of spiritual discernment, a product of prayer and intimacy with God, which helps us to discover where and in what manner, in the concrete circumstances of life, our charity should be manifested: by a love which attests its vigor in making it capable precisely of 'discerning.'"

("The Social Commitment of the Society of Jesus" from Pedro Arrupe: Essential Writings, Orbis 2004)

Spiritual direction

2005-04-13T19:57:00.000-05:00

After work tonight, I drove from Boca to West Palm for a monthly meeting with my spiritual director.

A "spiritual director" is a priest, monk, nun or someone likewise experienced who listens to another person talk informally about his prayer life. The purpose of the process, as I understand it, is to deepen one's spiritual life.

Catholics often meet with spiritual directors during weekend retreats, or when they are trying to figure out ("discern") God's calling in their lives.

Even a non-Catholic, if so inclined, could call up his local diocese and ask to meet with a spiritual director.

Since February 2004, I've had two "full-time" spiritual directors. When I enter the Society of Jesus this August, I'll begin meeting with my first Jesuit one. Regular spiritual direction will continue throughout my Jesuit formation.

As always, my director tonight challenged me to be more radically open to God's will and more deeply mindful of how God's spirit might be moving me in prayer.

Praying with the pope

2005-04-11T19:40:00.000-05:00

The Jesuits have always had a special loyalty to the pope, who has returned the favor by entrusting his prayer intentions to the order since 1844.

As part of that ministry, "The Apostleship of Prayer," the Jesuits ask all Christians to pray with the pope for a different intention each month.

This month's intention is "Keep the Lord's Day Holy." The full ministry is available online: www.apostlesofprayer.org

In December, John Paul II met with Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the General of the Jesuit Order, to unveil his monthly intentions for 2005.

Shortly after the pope's recent death, every Jesuit in the world received a letter from the Father General touching upon that meeting. Here is the major part of it:

When in the last days of 2004 the Holy Father received me for thirty minutes in his library, nothing indicated to me that the end of his intensely pastoral life was near. His voice was doubtless guttural, but nevertheless understandable.
As in past years, he wanted to personally entrust to me the intentions of the Apostleship of Prayer for the new year. Expressing his gratitude to the Society for this service that benefits at least fifty million faithful, the Holy Father reiterated his marvel at seeing a religious family that assumes an apostolic activity so important for the Church, called to promote the prayer of the faithful for the intentions of the universal Pastor. It is a characteristic mission of those who believe in their vocation of being contemplatives in apostolic action.
As the Holy Father himself asked, I renewed the promise of prayerful accompaniment in his sufferings and his offering of courage and love until the end of his life, for the Church. Let us thank the Lord for the gift of his 'Vicar on earth' for the Church, for the Society, and for the world in a time as important, anguished and complex as this period of its history.
Fraternally yours in the Lord,
Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ
Superior General

Nunc Dimittis

2005-04-10T12:40:00.000-05:00

There has been much dispute over the legacy of Pope John Paul II, whom some American observers suggest was "too liberal" or "too conservative."

Catholic leaders say "JPII" (as his young followers called him) was neither of these things, but "faithful to the gospel."

By the word "gospel," they mean God's public revelation of truth as Rome has shaped and disseminated it over the past 2,000 years.

Some in the non-Catholic world seem confused, repulsed, or downright fatigued by the worldwide attention heaped on the late pontiff last week.

It seems to me John Paul II does not have to answer at this point to Christopher Hitchens, Bill O'Reilly, George Weigel, John Allen or any of us. He's gone to meet God's mercy.

As for the attention the pope received last week, I think the explanation should be obvious even to his detractors: He touched billions of lives personally and politically.

For Catholic and even non-Catholic religious believers, it felt like the pope was a member of our families. He was a brother, a father, a grandfather.

For world leaders, the pope was a shrewd political player on the world stage. He exploited mass communications in a way no previous pope could have imagined, and this at least merited a nod of respect.

For John Paul II, the pope was "the servant of the servants of God," completely in the hands of divine providence just like any other soul.

In his last will and testament, the pope left the world to God, as if all creation was both his possession and possessor.

And he repeated the Biblical words of Simeon as the third millenium dawned. "Nunc dimittis." In other words: "I have seen Christ and now I can die."

The Christian gospel says God promised Simeon, a devout prophet in the Jewish temple, that he would see the Messiah before he died.

So when Joseph and Mary brought the child Jesus to the temple for a customary blessing, the elderly Simeon took the child into his arms and said, "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation."

Greetings

2005-04-07T17:13:00.000-05:00

As I enter the Jesuits, a Roman Catholic religious order, I've been asked to create a website so people close to me can follow my spiritual journey.

This site is an answer to that request. I'm hoping to post occasional reflections from my prayer life here.

When appropriate, the reflections will be lifted from my prayer journal, the notebook where I jot down feelings and thoughts drawn from what I believe to be my experience of Jesus Christ in prayer.

My reflections are not necessarily representative of Christian life or Catholic religious life.

In other words, readers should not take my writings too seriously, and should feel free to discard them.

I believe it's an objective reality that God speaks to us as individuals, but I believe he does so in vastly different ways. There is no cookie-cutter spiritual blueprint that works equally for everyone.

All reflections posted here will be those that I find helpful or important in my spiritual life. But not all will be edifying to particular people.

So as you read this website, please disregard the useless, heartless and ignorant. Feel free to comment and question. And please pray for me.