For over 400 years, Jesuits and their colleagues have had a presence in Canada.  Today they work coast to coast –  from Vancouver to St.John's.  In this series igNation invites you to join us as we travel across Canada stopping at cities where there are Jesuit apostolates to read personal reflections about the city and the work being done there.  Today we continue our journey stopping at Calgary, Alberta.

 My Calgary – the Calgary where I live and minister as the only Jesuit in all Alberta –  is a multi-cultural, multi faceted and energizing venue for the work of evangelization. Which city in Canada has a 100 year old Stampede event each year? Which city has a Muslim mayor like Naheed Nenshi? And which city broke the PC party’s stronghold and opted almost entirely for  the  NDP party??!  

 But I am not limited in my ministry to Calgary. It extends to Lethbridge to the south and Edmonton to the north.  Since my arrival here 4 years ago, there has been no doubt in my mind and heart that this is the right place and right time for a Jesuit to be (and maybe other Jesuits to come!) 

    I live in the downtown area as a resident priest at St. Mary’s Cathedral.  My ministry there consists of presiding at Sunday Eucharist and 5 weekday celebrations and regular celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation.  This gives me direct contact with a diverse range of people who come to the Cathedral. From this base,  many people have expressed gratitude for having the Jesuits here in Calgary and a number of them have asked about spiritual direction and the Exercises.

My time and energies here in Calgary are primarily with the work of liaising with Christian Life Community (CLC) members in the western provinces – from Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Lethbridge and British Columbia (Vancouver and Comox). The connection of CLC ministry with the apostolate of the Spiritual Exercises – which is also a good part of my ministry here –  flows naturally.

    Working with CLC across the western provinces involves a number of Skype meetings (what a great technology and help to communication Skype is) and travel to visit the local communities in the Prairies and BC areas. We have a new regional rep in the Rockies/BC region, Leanne Salel (who had spent a short time in Vancouver initiating a CLC group.

     In the area of the Spiritual Exercises apostolate,  I work with a group begun over 25 years ago by Bob Chase, SJ and Joe McArdle, SJ – the Calgary Association of the Spiritual Exercises Apostolate   (CASEA). This group, all who have made the Exercises meet once a month for faith-sharing, enrichment and deepening on aspects of the Spiritual Exercises and an outreach program, namely, using films to explore the connections with our journey of faith and the Spiritual Exercises in today’s world. This group also has put me in liaison with the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) Renewal Centre which offers different formats of Ignatian spirituality. I have done a number of sessions at this centre. 

    In the ecumenical area, I have given made contact with and given a yearly 5 day directed Ignatian retreat at the Kingsfold Retreat and Renewal Centre  north of Calgary. Some of its members have made the 19th annotation form of the Exercises and approached me to lead a yearly directed retreat, directing with one of their members. This has been a rich and unexpected opening in promoting the Spiritual Exercises. This has also opened up encounters and spiritual accompaniment with a number of Christians of different traditions.

     One of the surprises (doesn’t Pope Francis keep saying: our God is God of surprises?) since coming to Calgary has been re-connecting with former Jesuits. They had been meeting for a number of years before I arrived and they invited me to join them. It has turned out to be a kind of Jesuit community for me, since we share deeply about Ignatian values.

      Another group that I have come to know in Calgary is the Darjeeling group who had supported Fr. Murray Abraham’s work, because of his sister (John Perry SJ’s mother) and continue to support this work.  Jenny Cafiso, our CJI director  called on me to be part of this group and to organize public talks with Jesuit visitors,  Fr. Fratern (now Assistant to Fr. General for Africa) and most recently  Fr. Kinley Tshering SJ, Provincial of Darjeeling. These gatherings have helped to make known our Jesuit international work.

I could go on about new inroads in Edmonton with weekend directed retreats and formation of an Ignatian community of alumni/ae from Jesuit institutions  but I hope you have gotten a sense of the new possibilities that have opened up for Jesuit apostolates here in the western provinces. I have been in the West for 9 years now and feel like a “westerner”, even if my roots are in eastern Canada. This new “frontier” has been a grace for me.  Every week, at least,  there is a new surprise that confirms the decision of Jim Webb, SJ, former Provincial to send me here.  I am grateful for these years.

    Lastly, I could mention the beautiful Albertan landscape,  the foothills of the Rockies and the Rockies themselves that never cease to fill my heart with wonder and gratitude. I try to enjoy this part of God’s creation on my days off.   

     Come and visit beautiful Alberta!

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Unlss otherwise noted, the Source for all photographs is Charles Pottie–Pâté, SJ