Fourth Sunday of Lent: Are we truly open to God’s offer of friendship?
By Gretchen Crowder I have always labeled God’s love for me as agape, but the more time I spend immersed in Ignatian Spirituality, the more I am open to considering that the best representation of God’s love for me might just be philia instead. If you are not familiar with the four Greek words for […]
Follow Jesus into the Desert
By Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time […]
Second Sunday of Lent: Can we see ourselves as God sees us?
By Gretchen Crowder I want my mountaintop experience, don’t you? I want Jesus in all his tangible humanity and intangible divinity to come right up to me, grab my hand in his, and walk me up a mountain. Then, I want to see his clothes become dazzling white with my human eyes and hear “This […]
The First Sunday of Lent: Are we really free?
By Gretchen Crowder A couple weeks ago, I was introducing my senior students to Henri Nouwen by showing them a video of one of his sermons. I warned them before we began: “Just so you know, in the 90s, we really liked ferns. I think it’s what we called “creating an atmosphere” back then.” When […]
Leaning into Our Belovedness: A Reflection for Lent
By Gretchen Crowder I really feel for kids everywhere this year. I remember what a big deal Valentine’s Day was when I was a child — it always meant coming home with a big pile of candy and an even bigger smile on my face. I also remember what Lent felt like as a kid, […]
Accompanying Young People
By William Manaker, SJ Each day at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis the whole school pauses for five minutes before the last class period to make a brief Examen. One day recently, as I sat with a class of freshmen, I began to look around the room at the young men seated […]
Caring for our Common Home
By Jorge Roque, SJ The Society of Jesus continued to show its fidelity to the Holy Father, an essential part of its tradition, when naming “Care for our Common Home” as one of the Universal Apostolic Preferences. Ever since the publication of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis has called on Catholics to undergo an “ecological conversion” […]
Accompanying Young People
By William Manaker, SJ Each day at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis the whole school pauses for five minutes before the last class period to make a brief Examen. One day recently, as I sat with a class of freshmen, I began to look around the room at the young men seated […]
Walking with the Marginalized
By Daniel Finucane, SJ The Anima Christi is a nearly 700-year-old prayer that St. Ignatius includes in the Spiritual Exercises. It is a prayer about asking for union with Christ through his body, his blood, the water from his side. It is a prayer that I have grown to love as a Jesuit. There is […]
Showing the Way to God
By David Kiblinger, SJ Feb. 2022 – The Ignatian family has been given a mission to show the way to God. But how is one supposed to “show the way”? There are several methods for indicating a path to someone else. One is giving spoken or written instructions about how to move from one place […]
Praying through Lent with the Universal Apostolic Preferences
February, 2022 – This Lent, the Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern Province invite you to deepen your prayer through the lens of the Society of Jesus’ four Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs). Four Jesuits in formation in this province have each written a brief reflection on one of the four UAPs, providing both information […]
