News - July 2024

St. Ignatius Parish is thrilled to announce the launch of its monthly gatherings for junior high and high school students, beginning with a delightful Youth Ministry Ice Cream Sundae Social. This kickoff event will take place on Sunday, August 25th, immediately following the 5 PM Mass. We invite all junior high (6-8th grade), high school (9-12th grade) students, and those who have been recently confirmed at St. Ignatius Parish to join us for an evening of sweet treats and engaging conversations. For more information, reach out to Tom Fregoso at the Youth Ministry ([email protected]). Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to kick off the school year with a fun, meaningful, and of course delicious event. We look forward to seeing you there!

A new partnership! The new Youth Ministry Social Justice Club and the Simple Needs Sunday program are partnering to help deliver essential and everyday items to our homeless and struggling neighbors. For example, this summer Wiley (age 13) and Ella (age 11) delivered items donated by St. Ignatius parishioners to St. Anthony's Women's and Children's Services. We invite your family to join us in our efforts! Each month there will be a different agency that we are supporting, but the process will be the same. Contact Tom Fregoso at the Youth Ministry ([email protected]) or Liz O'Brien Wilkes at Simple Needs ([email protected]) to learn more.

Nearly every year since I first entered the Society of Jesus, I spend part of the month of July re-reading the Autobiography of St. Ignatius, in preparation for his feast day on 31 July. It is, for me, one of the foundational books of my Jesuit life; the story that reminds me, both in its form and substance, of what my vocation to the Jesuits entails, while challenging me to avoid settling for anything less. At times touched with self-deprecating humor and alive with a mature humility, this story of his years of pilgrimage and discovery—of the ways the young Iñigo was gradually and lovingly led to surrender all he was to God—consoles me in the twists and turns of my own journey. I can appreciate the false starts and the failed attempts of the Pilgrim whom Ignatius describes. And though, as a young man, I was stunned (like many modern readers) by the excessive acts of mortification and penance in which Iñigo engages, yet I recognize today the desire of youth, and I am moved by the journey he makes from mere external penances to the deeper mortification that comes from mission. The older I get—and I am older now than Ignatius was when he dictated the text—the more I see the pattern in the story, a pattern that incarnates the Spiritual Exercises in the life of the Pilgrim, and that ends just as the Pilgrim becomes a part of something greater than himself, just as the Lord takes and receives all he is and puts it at the service of the Church. For Ignatius, the Exercises as prayed or studied was only the beginning: it was the Exercises as lived which mattered—that journey from narcissism to humility, from vainglory to surrender, from the illusional happiness of self-determination to the real joy of love and the giving of oneself to others.

St. Ignatius Parish youth, families, and friends of the parish (all are welcome!), get ready for a night unlike any other, celebrating San Francisco legend Jerry Garcia in style with a tribute game that promises to be an immersive experience. Everyone is welcome! The tribute game, held at Oracle Park on August 12 will feature a live performance before the show (6:15 pm) by the band Moonalice. Come to the SF Giant's youth and family outing (vs Atlanta)!

On Holy Thursday of 1993, at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, I sat beside the Director of Liturgy at St. Perpetua Parish in Lafayette, California, where I ministered as a recently ordained deacon. Together we had processed up the aisle, together we had refilled pitchers and changed basins during the ritual of foot washing, and together we had set and decorated the table of celebration—all according to the careful plans composed by this gifted liturgist. Yet, as the altar was set and the gifts were placed upon it, my partner in ministry returned to the pew where we had been sitting together for much of the Mass, while I was called forward to stand beside the presider and help prepare the gifts. Pouring the water into the chalice, I spoke the words of the prayer—“Through the mingling of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity”—and then handed the chalice to the priest, who raised it as he recited, quietly beneath the offertory hymn, the word of the berakah—“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation. . .” A few moments later, at the conclusion of the Eucharistic prayer, I raised the chalice, while the doxology was sung by the presider. In all these ways, I assisted at the table of the Eucharist in a manner my companion could not, simply because the liturgist with whom I ministered that night was a woman.

Are you, or anyone you know, interested in becoming a Catholic? Or if you are already baptized, would you like to complete the sacraments of initiation by receiving the Eucharist and being confirmed in the Catholic Church? Adults (18+) are invited to join our upcoming Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults program here at St. Ignatius Parish with classes starting Sunday, Sept. 8, and extending through Sunday, June 1, 2025. All participants will receive the sacraments at the Easter Vigil on April 19, 2025.