Kevin Burns

Ottawa-based author and editor, Kevin Burns is a frequent contributor to igNation. His latest book, Impressively Free – Henri Nouwen as a Model for a Reformed Priesthood and co-authored with Michael W. Higgins, has just been released by Paulist Press in the United States and by Novalis in Canada.


103 posts

    15 Apr

    For more than 400 years, Jesuits working in Canada have written about their daily life and mission. Originally, their letters were published as The Jesuit Relations (Relations des jésuites). This blog, igNation, continues that tradition with a new series entitled: Getting to Know the Relations.Using excerpts chosen from the first 200 hundred years of these documents, the series presents vignettes which speak to the timeless heart of Jesuit endeavour: the promotion of discernment in order to help people find God in all things.Today: Of the Residence in the Hamlet of Ossosane....

    25 Mar

    For more than 400 years, Jesuits working in Canada have written about their daily life and mission. Originally, their letters were published as The Jesuit Relations (Relations des jésuites). This blog, igNation, continues that tradition with a new series entitled: Getting to Know the Relations.Using excerpts chosen from the first 200 hundred years of these documents, the series presents vignettes which speak to the timeless heart of Jesuit endeavour: the promotion of discernment in order to help people find God in all things.Today: Reducing wait times in a busy clinic...

    04 Mar

    For more than 400 years, Jesuits working in Canada have written about their daily life and mission. Originally, their letters were published as The Jesuit Relations (Relations des jésuites). This blog, igNation, continues that tradition with a new series entitled: Getting to Know the Relations.Using excerpts chosen from the first 200 hundred years of these documents, the series presents vignettes which speak to the timeless heart of Jesuit endeavour: the promotion of discernment in order to help people find God in all things.Today: Something between a hovel and a palace...

    22 Dec

    The Huron Carol is attributed to the Jesuit missionary and martyr, Jean de Brébeuf, and was first heard at Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons in 1643. Brébeuf based the melody on a French folk song and wrote the words in Huron/Wendat. The original title is "Jesus Ahatonnia" and is translated as "Jesus, he is born."Here are the lyrics in both Wyandot and in English. After the lyrics is a video link to the carol sung by Heather Dale in Wyandot, English and French....

    23 Nov

    Today, in the last of three "summary" articles, IgNation contributor, Kevin Burns, looks through this collection of vivid autobiographical portraits to see if he can identify recurring Ignatian themes and images. This, then, is what he has learned about being a Jesuit from reading the statements of a small group of contemporary Jesuits....

    16 Nov

    In the past few months IgNation has presented three sets of Jesuit portraits. Jesuits were viewed through the lens of fiction, through the filter of biography, and through the written equivalent of "selfies" – short autobiographical reflections by contemporary Jesuits.Today, in the second of three articles, IgNation contributor, Kevin Burns, looks through this collection of biographical portraits to identify some of the recurring themes and images. This is what he learned about being a Jesuit from a somewhat random and eclectic set of biographies in a search that began at the Ottawa Public Library....

    09 Nov

    In the past few months IgNation has presented three sets of Jesuit portraits. Jesuits were viewed through the lens of fiction, through the filter of biography, and through the written equivalent of "selfies" – short autobiographical reflections by contemporary Jesuits.Today, in the first of three articles, IgNation contributor, Kevin Burns, looks through this collection of portraits to identify some of the recurring themes and images. This is what he learned about being a Jesuits from a somewhat random and eclectic set of novels....

    23 Oct

    In section 234 of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius we are encouraged to "bring to memory the benefits received" when we reflect on our experiences. In thechaos of the violent events in Ottawa on October 22, 2014, igNation contributor Kevin Burns was caught up in a flood of memories of another violent event in Canada. Today he writes about the experience of seeing one through media coverage and how this "brought to memory" another violent event that he witnessed much closer. As the chaotic events unfolded in Ottawa, memories of a day he spent in Montreal began to take over. He's titled the piece: Something Simple....

    20 Aug

    If the only Jesuit you ever met was the subject of a biography in a library collection, what would this individual tell you about Jesuit life?In this series, IgNation blogger Kevin Burns, who is not a Jesuit, takes a look at some of the works that come up in a large urban public library he entered the search term "Jesuit" and filtered it through the genre of "Biography". The books that popped up include some familiar names and some not so familiar but still very real Jesuits....

    13 Aug

    In this piece, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ, as presented in the paleontological biography: The Jesuit and the Skull – Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for the Peking Man by Amir D. Aczel, published by Riverhead (Penguin) in 2007. Proceed with caution. Two years after his death, the Holy Office announced that "the books of Father Teilhard de Chardin SJ must be withdrawn from the libraries of seminaries and religious institutes; they may not be sold in Catholic bookshops; and they may not be translated into other languages."...

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