Jean Marc Laporte, SJ

Jean-Marc Laporte, SJ lives in Montreal where he is the socius to the novice director for the Canadian Jesuits.


36 posts

    16 Dec

    During Advent we are often invited to prepare for the three comings of Christ. Two of the comings are very easily detected in the liturgical texts of this season. Many texts invite us to reenact the long journey of the chosen people as they waited for the coming of the one who would save them. How often we have savoured the beautiful prophecies the Church proposes for us, especially those from Isaiah. They point to the Saviour's coming in majesty and to God's decisive intervention to set things right....

    12 Nov

    In late July a meeting of Canadian Jesuits and their non-Jesuit partners took place in Pickering. The purpose was to continue a process of apostolic discernment meant to answer the question: What priorities does God want us to adopt for our apostolic action? With our limited resources, what should we be doing? In our conversations we used the Ignatian tools of communal apostolic discernment. In this form of discernment the group is often invited to give itself a name, a name which helps it express its identity. In our meeting this invitation bore much fruit, because we went beyond names to images....

    21 Sep

    In May, igNation launched a series exploring the Jesuit identity as it is expressed in works of fiction: "Keyword: Jesuit, Genre: Fiction". This was followed by the series "Keyword: Jesuit, Genre: Biography". In both components of this series we hear what others think about what it means to be a Jesuit – in fiction and in biography. This new series will be about Jesuit life - presented by Jesuits, rather than through the observations and interpretations of others.Today's posting is by Jean-Marc Laporte SJ...

    08 Jan

    Dragons' Den is a CBC TV show that extols entrepreneurship and capitalism. Five eminently successful entrepreneurs (the "dragons") hear pitches from budding entrepreneurs who are looking for financial support to develop their business plan, and in most cases they fail to make their case and leave empty-handed. The show of November 13 offered junior entrepreneurs a chance to make their pitch, and the last segment featured a group of youngsters from our neighbourhood in Halifax. They wanted a loan of $10,000 to further develop their business of growing vegetables and herbs to make salad dressings, the profits going to scholarships for disadvantaged youngsters in the area....

    21 Apr

    Often we have been congratulated at the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality here in Halifax because the new Pope, Jorge Bergoglio who is now Pope Francis, is a Jesuit. Of course we are delighted that he is a Jesuit. But membership in the Society was of no consequence in his choice and is no motive for congratulations. One point that certainly stood out for the cardinal electors was his lifelong dedication to the basic values of apostolic religious life as lived in the Society, and this was strong enough to counter arguments that he was too old....

    23 Mar

    One of the unique ecumenical features of our neighborhood in Halifax is the donkey parade on Palm Sunday. The donkey is an animal named Tabitha who comes from a farm near Enfield (our Fr. Paul Granville was pastor there for many years). She is used to this parade, but one must keep one's distance, especially from her hind legs which can powerfully kick backward. There are other disadvantages as well. No one has been found ready to attempt sitting on her....

    21 Feb

    We were all initially surprised to hear about Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign, something not done by a pope since 1415. But then one looks back at the record of his papacy and the clues were there. For Jesuits, one clue stands out. Like the Pope, the Jesuit General Superior is elected for life. When our former General, Pedro Arrupe, asked Pope John Paul II if he could resign, because he was feeling the signs of growing ill health, the answer was a decisive no. Not long afterwards in 1981, Arrupe suffered a major stroke, and died in 1991. Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach succeeded him in 1983....

Subscribe to igNation

Subscribe to receive our latest articles delivered right to your inbox!