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 stop in Pickering, Ontario.

It was in 1669 that Jesuits first arrived in Pickering – today a city of some 90,000 just east of Toronto. This was Aboriginal territory for thousands of years.  When Fr. M. Fenelon, SJ arrived here he began his missionary work with the Onondaga one of the Five Tribes of the Iroquois.

In 1948, The Jesuits bought an estate known as Clarendon Wood which we now know as Manresa – Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Centre. The grounds of Manresa today are home not only to the well known retreat centre but also to Rene Goupil House, the infirmary for the Jesuits in English Canada.   Fr. Bert Foliot, SJ, the Superior, writes of his day.

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My Pickering day always begins with Eucharist with members of the La Storta Jesuit Community.  I love it.  Together we hear God speaking and together we pray for the needs of the world that present themselves on that day.  Then it is a quick crossing of the parking lot to the infirmary to greet the Jesuits who are just finishing their breakfast.  One responds to my greeting, “Ok, I will try to remember to watch the Montreal Canadiens win the game tonight.  My Winnipeg Jets got knocked out last night.  Oh well, next year.”  Another asks, “For whom did the ambulance come this morning?  For me the sight of the ambulance hits a little too close to home.”  Another says, “I liked the homily at the funeral yesterday.  But funerals usually come in threes.  I hope not this time.” 

When the residents of the infirmary see death picking off their brothers one by one, the question, “When will it be my turn?” has to be a real question.  But the Jesuits in the infirmary do not seem to be too discouraged.  Each day brings health struggles, but these struggles do not defeat them.  They can no longer teach the classes, write the books, give the homilies and do the counselling they loved so much and which bore so much fruit.  But they are happy.  Daily they experience the love and kindness of the staff, and for this they are most grateful.  Moreover, they are pleased and satisfied with what Christ has accomplished in their lives and through their ministry.  And though retired, they know they still have important work to do – to pray for the world.

When I have finished that always tasty bowl of porridge, I head to downtown Toronto on the GO train to the Jesuit Development Office.  There I join the dynamic and creative team that strives to bring in the funds necessary to pay for the care of the men in the infirmary and for the education of the young Jesuits who will continue the work they began. 

I find fund-raising hard.  I get flashbacks of when I was 9 years old knocking on the neighbour's door and asking, “Would you like to buy a box of Christmas cards?”, only to hear “Not today, sonny” and feeling the rejection of the door closing in my face.  But I remember how St. Ignatius told us Jesuits that we had to beg in order to support ourselves and our works.  And besides, the begging I am asked to do is for men who taught me in school, who worked with me on parish teams, who are an inspiration to me and who just are my good friends. 

And then I think of how humbling it must be for them to have to ask me to speak louder, to repeat, to push them in their wheelchairs and to be their chauffeur to medical appointments.  I tell them they are doing me a favour by allowing me to assist them.  They are inviting me into their lives.  So, from them I can learn that by fund-raising I gift the donor.  I believe that, but I still find it difficult to do “the ask”.

Once on the GO train, I check my e-mails.  First, there is a request to replace a diocesan priest at Mass for a few days while he makes his annual retreat.  “Sure, that is the least I can do.  These guys work so hard.  I know that from my years in the parish.”  The second e-mail is from Manresa, the Jesuit Renewal Centre which looks over at the Jesuit Infirmary.  “Father, will you give a retreat to men and women next June?”  That is all I need.  I already have so much on my plate.  But the people of God are hungry.  The Jesuits who are now in the infirmary would eagerly say “yes” to this request if they could.  Surely I can carry on what they began.  Ok, I will do it, but I will need a lot of prayers from my infirmary friends.

I spend the day planning and organizing the Jesuit begging ministry.  I write to benefactors, I phone them and when I can, I go to meet them.  The hours go by quickly.  Sometimes I feel just like I felt when I was 9 years old at the neighbour's door.  At other times I am gratefully humbled by the kind generosity of the friends of the Jesuits.

A few hours later I am back on the GO train and over to the hospital to see how the Jesuit who was carted off in the ambulance is doing.  He is now out of emergency and admitted to the hospital.  But he is feeling a little better.  That is great news.  So, I can return home and watch the end of the Montreal Canadiens' playoff game.  Surprisingly, this time they don't win.  That is life, some wins and some losses.  But friendship and the Jesuit bond of friendship is victorious and lasts on into eternal life.  I sleep peacefully in Pickering awakened only by an alarm clock saying, “Get up and get ready for that lovely experience of Eucharist with your Jesuit brothers.”  And I begin again.

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For more information about Manresa, click here.

To read an article about Clarendon Wood which the Jesuits purchased in 1948 and which became Manresa, click here.