15
May
28 posts
06
Feb
Prayer for International Day of Awareness and Prayer against Human Trafficking – 8 February 2015
A Prayer for the International Day of Awareness and Prayer against Human Trafficking - 8 February 2015. Today is also the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita. She was a Sudanese slave who, when set free,became a Canossian Sister...
24
Jan
An Ignatian Pilgrimage: From Personal Interiority to Shared Apostolic Vision
From November 28 to December 1, 2014 Xavier Centre, the Jesuit retreat house, staged an international conference on Ignatian Spirituality at Wah Yan College in Hong Kong. Some 650 participants came from around the world – many from China representing the various traditions there. The centre has graciously put on the web the presentations of the main speakers....
10
Nov
In Flanders Field
During the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2nd May, 1915 He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae.As the brigade doctor, John McCrae was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been called away It is believed that later that evening, after the burial, John began the draft for his now famous poem "In Flanders Fields"....
22
Sep
Climate, Faith and Hope: Faith traditions together for a common future
Today's posting is a breaking news story about climate change. Building on earlier interfaith declarations over the past 5 years, the 2014 Interfaith Summit on Climate Change has adopted a strong statement directed to heads of state, international negotiators and faith communities. The statement was presented to the UN Secretary General with a view to the Summit of Heads of State on 23 September.Poetry Tuesday moves - for this week - to Thursday....
28
Jul
The Caged Skylark
From time to time, over the next few months, as part of the "Our Culture" section, igNation will post poetry written by Jesuits. Poems from Gerard Manley Hopkins and St. Robert Southwell will appear as well as poems by contemporary Jesuits. An English Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889) was not widely known as a poet until after he died; his collected poems were first published in 1918 at the instigation of his friend Robert Bridges, who was at the time the Poet Laureate of England. Hopkins was both an observant lover of natural beauty and a deeply faithful man who suffered from depression, themes that reoccur in many of his poems. As a poet, he was also an experimenter, relying on alliteration, innovative meter, and created words, as well as on traditional forms such as the sonnet....
16
Jun
From Death to Life – a poem by St. Peter Faber, SJ
St. Peter Faber, a master of the Spiritual Exercises, was the first of St. Ignatius Loyola's six companions. Peter Faber and Ignatius met in Paris, where Faber had come to study after life as a shepherd on the mountains of Savoy. Peter Faber was the first of the companions to be ordained. Faber was sent to Germany in 1541, where he found the state of the Church in such disarray that it left his heart "tormented by a steady and intolerable pain." He worked for the renewal of the Church a person at a time, leading many in the Spiritual Exercises. Princes, prelates, and priests would especially find Peter Faber a gentle source of instruction and guidance leading to renewal.Between 1544 and 1546, Peter Faber tirelessly continued his work in Portugal and Spain. Throughout all of his mission years in Germany, Spain, and Portugal, Faber traveled on foot. His final journey in 1546 was to Rome where, exhausted from his labors, he died in St. Ignatius's arms at the age of 40....
09
Jun
Fall in Love
Very Fev. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, (1907 to 1991)was the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, leading the Society in the realities of serving the Church and people in the post-Vatican II world. Arrupe was a man of great spiritual depth who was committed to justice.- See more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/20th-century-ignatian-voices/pedro-arrupe-sj/#sthash.Zk42waMV.dpuf...
17
Apr
If After All
As we wait for the joyful sounds of the Exsultet to break forth this Holy Saturday night, announcing the start of the great season of Easter, igNation presents a poem for contemplation sent by one who wishes to remain anonymous....
23
Jan
The Book of Immortality
Shortly before Marc Gervais, SJ died in 2012, his former student and later teaching assistant, Adam Leith Gollner met with him at Pickering. Gollner was doing the research for his latest book The Book of Immortality – The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever. Having been deeply influence by Gervais he wanted to see what his former teacher and mentor might have to say on the idea of a life force. The sequences with his Pickering encounters with Marc Gervais are some of the most moving sections of Leith Gollner's wide-reaching book. Here, courtesy of Doubleday Canada, are four brief excerpts....