50 Years a Priest
Father Ralph Huse, SJ, who served in pastoral ministry in Jesuit institutions for decades, celebrates the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination this year. Father Huse entered the Jesuit novitiate of the former Missouri Province in 1963 and was ordained a priest in 1975. He professed final vows in the Society of Jesus in 1979.
Father Huse began his Jesuit ministry as a teacher of religion at Kapaun High School in Wichita, Kansas, and then at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri. He completed his studies at Saint Louis University, where he earned degrees in classical philosophy and historical theology.
For his first pastoral assignment, he served as the associate pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Pueblo, Colorado, from 1976 to 1978. He served for one year as retreat director at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House, returning to St. Joseph Parish shortly after to serve as its pastor for five more years.
From 1985 to 1994, Fr. Huse was the rector and director of the Jesuit novitiate in Denver, where he accompanied novices in the first stage of their Jesuit formation. In 1995, he began an assignment as the faculty chaplain for both De Smet Jesuit High School and St. Louis University High School in St. Louis, serving until 2004. He served as rector at the Bellarmine House of Studies in St. Louis from 1996 to 2004, and then as rector of the Jesuit Hall Community at Saint Louis University from 2005 to 2011.
Father Huse spent more than a decade at White House Jesuit Retreat Center in St. Louis, serving as a retreat and spiritual director as well as the community’s superior. In 2025 he was missioned to a ministry of prayer for the Church and the Society of Jesus at St. Ignatius Hall in Florissant, Missouri.
Father Huse’s Reflection on 50 Years as a Priest
After a long period of formation work with young Jesuits and a term as leader of the Saint Louis University community, I was blessed to serve at White House Retreat from 2012 until earlier this year. When I prepared my first retreat, I was struck by how the Lord has used my various experiences in ministry over the years. He has gifted me with His love and mercy and continues to call me to a deepening relationship. In my retreats I share a combination of the Spiritual Exercises and the Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as the pathway to peace;
taking as He did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it,
trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.Amen.
