02 Apr

In his spiritual exercise on the Resurrection of Christ our Lord, Saint Ignatius of Loyola invites us to "consider the divinity, which seemed to hide itself during the passion, now appearing and manifesting itself so miraculously in the most holy Resurrection in its true and most sacred effects." We know how fleeting our experience of Resurrection joy and consolation may be. It may take mere hours for us to forget Easter joy and return to the ordinary humdrum existence of our lives. That is especially the case if our experience of the joy of the Resurrection is kept to ourselves and not manifest in how we live....

01 Apr

Of all the stories in the Gospels relating the appearances of the resurrected Christ to His disciples, surely that of the two disciples meeting him on the way to Emmaus may well grip us the most, At heart it is a very human, simple story, packed with pathos and sadness, but too, overflowing with Eucharistic celebration and spiritual joy through faith in the risen Christ. As this story reveals to us, such joy is part of faith, but faith can also be revealed to us in sadness and troubling moments...

31 Mar

St. Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, invites us to use our imagination and place ourselves within the story that we are contemplating. In this instance, I imagined Jesus having an "out of body" experience after his physical death. He saw all that occurred in being taken down from the cross and buried; he witnessed the grief of his mother and disciples; he was a aware of Peter's sorrow for his denials and of Judas' regret and despair for his betrayal; he even had an instantaneous review of his entire physical life....

30 Mar

Benjamin Alire Sáenz ( 1954 - ) born 16 August 1954) is an award-winning American poet, novelist and writer of children's books. He was born at Old Picacho, New Mexico, the fourth of seven children. In 1972, he entered St. Thomas Seminary in. He studied Theology at the University of Louvain in Leuven, Belgium. After ordination, he was a priest for a few years in El Paso, Texas before leaving the priesthood. He continues to teach in the Creative Writing Department at the University of Texas at El Paso....

29 Mar

Rosemary Haughton, a British Roman Catholic theologian, uses a wonderful phrase to describe what is happening in the healing accounts in the Gospels. She suggests that Jesus was able to "liberate the divine energy in people." This happens because of the encounter between Jesus and the one being healed. This is an apt description of one of the effects of the resurrection. One dimension of divine energy that can be liberated in us is the gift of the imagination....

29 Mar

I am the Jesuit superior of a large community that includes René Goupil House, our Jesuit infirmary just east of Toronto. This is a home where up to 24 Jesuit priests and brothers receive nursing care, either because they are of advanced age or are infirmed. One of the practices we started here some years ago was keeping vigil with the Jesuits who are in their last days. We sit with them as they prepare for their final journey, preparing to meet God face to face....

28 Mar

His body was a bed of shale deep a three quarter mile at bottom trapped, combustible wealth. We had no way softly to get it out; it wouldn't gurgle up like water at the tap of a prophet's staff....

28 Mar

Dame Edith Sitwell, (1887 – 1964) born into the English aristocracy, attracted some controversy in the 1920s by championing innovative directions in poetry. living in England during the Blitz of World War II, she compares the Nazi bombing of London to the Crucifixion. As befits the historical context, this is a bleak poem about the sinfulness of humanity In addition to her several volumes of poems, she also wrote biographies and one novel about English figures such as Elizabeth I, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift. She converted to Catholicism in 1955....

27 Mar

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. - Ps 118:22-23 When I read this psalm I thought of my friend Michael. He and I had been members of the youth group in my parish and had been close friends for years, but then we lost touch. In the early 90s the priest who had been close to the youth group let some of us know Michael was dying of AIDS. It was a terrible shock, I had heard about AIDS, but never met anyone suffering from it....

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