Philip Shano, SJ

Philip Shano, SJ has many years of rich and varied experience working with Ignatian spirituality: teaching, writing and using it in his ministry. He resides in the Jesuit community in Pickering, Ontario.


581 posts

    19 Dec

    We all have our rituals for Christmas: Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Since hearing it read as a child on the Max Ferguson Show on CBC Radio, my annual ritual is reading or listening to Dylan Thomas reading his story, A Child's Christmas in Wales. "One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six."...

    12 Dec

    On December 14, the Church celebrates St. John of the Cross, one of the greatest mystics in the history of Christianity. He lived in the sixteenth century and received part of his education from the Jesuits. He and St. Teresa of Avila founded the Discalced Carmelites. His search for the most austere and rigorous form of Carmelite life meant that he often had difficulty with superiors, so much so that he was imprisoned in a narrow, stifling cell for more than nine months. Despite his sufferings, he received tremendous consolations....

    10 Nov

    I must be getting old. I recall as a child hearing Vera Lynn on the radio every November 11th, singing popular wartime songs such as We'll Meet Again. My favourite was always The White Cliffs of Dover. "There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover, Tomorrow, just you wait and see." She sings of the people "braving those angry skies" and how tomorrow "there'll be love and laughter and peace ever after. Tomorrow when the world is free."...

    03 Nov

    Saturday was the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed. Commonly referred to as All Souls' Day, it is an invitation for us to prayerfully remember those who have passed away. One of the possible prayers for the start of today's Mass is: "O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son, having conquered death, should pass over into the realm of heaven, grant, we pray, to your departed servants, that with the mortality of this life overcome, they may gaze eternally on you, their Creator and Redeemer." We pray that the faithful departed may enter the full beatific vision of union with God, thus seeing God face to face....

    13 Oct

    I recall being struck years ago by these words about gratitude from the late Fr. Brian Massie, S.J. "You can't be grateful and be selfish or mean at the same time; there is no room in your heart. If you are truly grateful for the blessings you have received, then you are not jealous or envious, you're not petty, you're not small."...

    25 Sep

    It is impossible to look at the history of Canada without considering the life of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. Today, in Canada, we celebrate their feast (it is celebrated in the United States on October 19). These eight men from France travelled to New France in the seventeenth century and worked mostly with the Huron people (the Ouendat). The most well known are the priests Jean de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues. The other six who were canonized with them in 1930 are Fathers Gabriel Lalemant, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noël Chabanel, and two lay volunteers – René Goupil and Jean de la Lande. All eight are celebrated at Martyrs Shrine in Midland, Ontario....

    22 Sep

    Pope Francis surprised the church with his far-ranging interview with Jesuit publications. He makes many comments that were almost shocking in their candor, honesty and openness about the church and his own life. It's not a format we are used to with popes or most leaders. What stayed with me in my reading of the interview is summed up in the very Ignatian word discernment....

    01 Sep

    I suspect that most of us associate Labour Day with endings and beginnings. We see this as the unofficial end of summer, the last long weekend before there is a lasting chill in the air. Summer is winding down, so this weekend provides us with the chance for that last barefoot beach walk. It's also about beginnings. So many calendars and program schedules start after Labour Day. This is even true of most television shows and symphony orchestra seasons. This cycle is deeply imbedded in us from our childhood days of heading back to school....

    29 Jul

    Today is the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. He died on this day in 1556. Ignatius left many gifts to the Church. Today is a day to give thanks for those gifts and for the many ways in which they are evident throughout the world. It is a day to celebrate the continuing influence of his spiritual wisdom in the lives of individuals and communities....

    13 Jul

    One of the words that has been used a lot to describe Pope Francis since his election is the word humility. What is humility? It might be helpful to name some of the words we use for its opposite – pride, vainglory, self-centredness, and narcissism. I knew a man who ended a long narcissistic monologue by saying, "Well, enough about me! What do you think of my decision?" I hoped he was teasing, except everything I knew about him told me he was rooted in an obsession with himself and his self-importance. He could have benefitted from C.S. Lewis's reminder that "humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." That's actually a very good definition because another opposite of humility is having too low a view of yourself, often described as false humility....

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