Contemplation to Attain Love: The final meditation in the Spiritual Exercises is the contemplation to attain love. This final meditation is an invitation to let the Holy Spirit infuse our hearts so that we may envision a new way of being.
Receiving the Spirit of Racial Justice: As we enter into the last week of our Discernment Series for Racial Justice, we pray with the story of Pentecost, told to us yesterday at mass. This is the culmination of the Easter Joy we have been praying with over these weeks because it actualizes what Jesus tells us at the end of the Gospel of Luke: he will send the promise of the Father to us (Luke 24:49).
Donal Dorr’s book is also about new earth awareness as was his important earlier book about Laudato Si Option for the Poor and for the Earth. This new book, published by Orbis Press was released in 2020. It Is a very profound contemplation on faith and commitment and what they mean for a new earth awareness. Dorr speaks in his introduction about ecological spirituality and adduces Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the contribution of Barbara Ward Jackson’s work in connection with the papal synod of 1971. Dorr reminds us: “ Every creature is a gift from God and has a distinctive value and its own role in The Integral web of the Cosmos.”
Many of you know of our nearly 20-year covenantal relationship with our sister parish in Soyapango, El Salvador, Parroquia San Antonio. The bi-country ministry is called Las Vecinas, or The Neighbors, an apt name because the best connotations of being neighbors have characterized our relationship for two decades: we have become friends, we have lived one another’s joys and struggles, we help each other when and how we can, each is better for having the other in our lives.
"Were not our hearts burning?": We were invited in Monday’s newsletter to follow Saint Ignatius’ advice to return to a reflection from the past to see what God might be calling us to see anew. As we approach Pentecost, we pause to reflect on another thing Saint Ignatius invites us to do in the Exercises:
Revisiting the Good Samaritan In Light of Our Discernment Series: Throughout this Discernment Series for Racial Justice, we have examined the ways we are privileged and marginalized, prejudiced, and simultaneously committed to liberation. We have seen how racism operates not just as an individual act of prejudice, but a historical, cultural, and structural reality in the interest of White privilege and supremacy.
During the Season of Lent our Catholic tradition calls us to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Many of us have memories of eating fish-sticks with our families on Lenten-Fridays, or a big pot of tuna casserole!
As our Parish continues to grow and innovate, we're looking for a Director of Operations to play a key role in all Parish activities.The Senior Director of Parish Operations role focuses on providing greater capacity through resource management and both hands-on and strategic operational expertise in the day-to-day operations of the parish.
Founded in 1855, St. Ignatius Parish is a welcoming and inclusive Catholic community. A Jesuit parish, we are called to be companions of Jesus. We come together through Word and Sacrament to grow in our relationship with God and to find the inspiration, desire and strength to be men and women for others.
Commission to Spread the Good News of Jesus Christ: Over the past weeks of Easter, we have read accounts of the Resurrection as well as concrete examples of people acting for racial justice and antiracism. Many of these examples have been in Jesuit or Ignatian ministries across Jesuit West Province or the United States.
Colette Lafia is probably well known to members of Saint Ignatius Parish. Over the years she has done a number of excellent adult faith formation talks for the parish on topics of spirituality. She is an active spiritual director and also does talks on spirituality at Mercy Center in Burlingame. Lafia asked me if I would do a review of her recent book, The Divine Heart: Seven Ways to Live in God’s Love (Monkfish Book Publishing Company, 2021 162 pp.)
From Savior to Service, Listening to Black Activists: When something is broken, our natural tendency is to fix it. If my tire goes flat on the side of the road, I can change the tire or call someone to do it for me. For some things, in other words, there is an easy fix. When faced with a larger problem, though, quick fixes become more complicated.
This weekend we set aside some time to celebrate and honor our mothers and stepmothers, our grandmothers and our godmothers, to pray for them and give thanks to God for their presence in our lives.
In our Easter Season, we are journeying closer to the Ascension of the Lord and the Day of Pentecost. The disciples, both in the Gospel accounts and the Acts of the Apostles, described how they experienced the tremendous works of the Lord, and despite death, saw Christ resurrected and ascended into heaven.
No Longer Stranger: Accompanying Migrants and Refugees in Our Communities: Ultimately, the goal of this Discernment Series for Racial Justice has been about conforming our hearts and minds to the heart and mind of Jesus, who lovingly looked down at the world and saw our divisions and decided to enter into the world.