Father Ralph Huse, SJ, entered the Society of Jesus in 1963, making this his sixtieth year as a Jesuit. He currently serves as superior of the White House Jesuit Retreat community in St. Louis, where he has ministered for ten years.

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.

After four years of study at Saint Louis University, 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 at the Jesuit Novitiate in Denver, where he accompanied novices on their spiritual journeys as Jesuits. 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.

Shortly after, Fr. Huse became the rector of the Jesuit Hall community in St. Louis, where he remained until 2011.

Father Huse earned his degrees in philosophy, Latin, English, psychology and historical theology at Saint Louis University.

Father Huse’s Reflection on 60 Years as a Jesuit

After a long period of formation work with young Jesuits and a term as leader of the Saint Louis University community, I have been blessed for the last ten years to serve at White House Retreat. When I prepared my first retreat, I was struck at 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.