The Jesuits in English Canada have long had a ministry to prisoners. Such a ministry is very much in fitting with the Judeo-Christian scriptures. . . It's good for all of us to reflect on prisoners and how we can help them to maintain their dignity. The Pope's Universal Prayer intention for the month of February deals with prisoners: "That prisoners, especially the young, may be able to rebuild lives of dignity."...
With the first Sunday of Advent on November 30, 2014, the universal Church began the Year of Consecrated Life. The observance will end on the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, 2016. Pope Francis issued a letter in which he underlined the aims of this special year, namely to look to the past with gratitude, to live the present with passion and to embrace the future with hope....
Father Bill Addley, SJ died in Toronto on January 21, 2012 and was buried in Guelph. Father Addley had served as Provincial Superior for the Jesuits in English Canada and at the time of his death in 2012 was the Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Toronto....
This article concludes the series of eleven articles on some basic points about praying. It is hoped that they have been of some help in the recitation of set prayer formulas as well as being a stepping-stone into the area of mental prayer. May it foster more openness to the grace of being in God's presence which is a purpose of praying....
Despite its beauty, this is a place of brokenness. So said the guide sheet handed to tourists (like me) upon entering Ely Cathedral – a massive, spectacular Anglican church that rises out of the English countryside some 80 miles north of London." This article originally appeared in The Jesuit Post (thejesuitpost.org), December 25, 2014....
You know what? The Second Law of Thermodynamics kind of sucks. It's always running us down, wearing us out. You might not know the Second Law of Thermodynamics by name, but you certainly know it by feel. Dissipation; degradation; degeneration. If you are anything like me, you've experienced it every week since you were a kid. Every Saturday morning my household obligation has been to clean my bedroom. So the week starts off tidy, uncluttered and clean. But inevitably, almost imperceptibly, things go to pot. By Monday papers have begun creeping out like caterpillars across the desk. Laundry lounges lazily in the reading chair. Books loiter around aimlessly like high school kids outside the 7-11....
The vows of religion, also termed the evangelical counsels, are central to the engagement of those who desire to follow Christ in religious institutes. The three vows are poverty, chastity and obedience; three 'ideals' that today are considered either totally antiquated or absurdly countercultural. Still, men and women of today are entering religious orders, albeit in reduced numbers, hoping to find deeper meaning in their lives and greater connection with their fellow human beings....
For Evangelization (8) : That Christians, inspired by the Word of God, may serve the poor and suffering....
The new Catechism of the Catholic Church is now the main guide to our beliefs and practices. There are four parts: the creed (37%; the sacraments (23%); the commandments (27%); and prayer (11%). In the section on prayer, the central emphasis is on the Our Father...
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....
