Seeking Jesuit Direction

I am also seeking direction with a Jesuit Priest, I am not sure if it will work but I am going to see him for a few sessions and see how it works out.

He loaned me a book called, “When the Well Runs Dry” and for the small amount of time I had to read it – I really like it. After speaking with him, I realize that just because I feel like I am walking in a desert; it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a bad thing.

Jesus often retreated to the desert for days and days to pray and fast. The Jesuit said that the spiritual desert is where God purifies our souls, often providing us with an oasis here and there. In retrospect, I agree with that statement, this past few months have been like that for me, really dry but then at the most unsuspecting moments a glimmer of consolation and peace.

Link (here) to the full post entitled Week One from the blog entitled The Grace of Temperance. The blogs author is Kellie Ann

Simply Living

One thing that has surprised me is how Catholic everything is. I know that I joined the Jesuit volunteer Corps, but I guess I didn't realize what that meant.

Read the new blog (here) by a Jesuit Volunteer Corp. member, Cool-E.

Serving

It was my privilege yesterday to be asked by the Maryland Province to be the driver for Fr. Michael Thanaraj, SJ, the provincial of the Jameshedpur Province, as he visited Philadelphia before he departed for a meeting with the New York Province Jesuits. Unbelievably he took more pictures in Philly than I did in India. So good to see Fr. Raj again! Safe trip home. The situation in Orissa is still bad... and the Indian government is doing little to help ease the pain of those burned out of their homes for the simple reason of their Catholic faith

This a short piece (here) from 44 blog on the violence against Catholics in Orissa, India and the Jesuits that serve the Church there. Lots of pictures in from India.

Adventures In Nepal

As a Jesuit Volunteer, I have been placed in the village of Godavari to teach at the St. Xavier School. Over the next two years, I will attempt to speak Nepali, to immerse in a Hindu society, to understand social justice in a new culture, to live simply in community with others, and to hopefully teach young students just a fraction of what I am sure to learn.

Link (here) to Emily Roches blog entitled, A Nepali Education.

Blogger On Her Depression And Her Jesuit

A few weeks ago I emailed you to let you know how watching your youtube videos gave me the courage to confront my own anxiety and depression. Well, I planned to go to get help, but I was afraid. I told my spiritual director, a 75 year old Jesuit, who said to me, "Come on, I'll go with you." And he did, to the outpatient clinic at St. Vincent's in Manahttan. Gotta love those Jesuits!
Link (here)

Catholic Lay Woman "Unleashed"

Mary Ann Kreitzer writes at her blog entitled, Les Femmes - The Truth.

..And now, as Lent begins, we have three more examples of Jesuit lust and perversion exploiting students. Georgetown, Loyola of Chicago, and Seattle University have given the penitential season new meaning.

Instead of the traditional time of repentance, these campuses will fill the weeks of Lent with talks by porn writers and directors,

a "Color of Queer Film Series," and gender-bending activities including interpreting Biblical heroes and heroines as transgendered. Read more...

It's all so relentlessly predictable and evil. But will we hear anything from the local prelates whose dioceses are polluted by these so-called institutions of higher learning?

Link (here) to Mary Ann's full post, X-Rated Catholic Campuses -- Run by Jesuits (No Surprise)

The Second Founder Of Gonzaga University

Harry F. Magnuson's civic passion was Gonzaga University. When in the 1960s the Jesuit university found itself in dire financial straits, and banks calling in credit, Magnuson personally guaranteed the school's debts. A Gonzaga trustee for some 40 years -- and the university's first lay trustee -- Magnuson was presented with Gonzaga's highest honor, the Desmet Medal, during commencement ceremonies last year. Gonzaga President, Fr. Robert Spitzer, said of the university's benefactor that if Gonzaga had a second founder, it was Harry Magnuson. Last November, the university dedicated the Harry and Colleen Magnuson Theatre in their honor Harry Magnuson is survived by his wife, Colleen Burns Magnuson, sons James, Thomas and John, and daughters Kathleen and Mary Elizabeth. Funeral services are planned for 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Aloysius at Gonzaga University. .

Link (here)

Karen Hall On Obama Mania

Or maybe because I keep hearing from my Jesuit friends far and wide that nine and a half out of ten Jesuits are Obama fanatics? (here)

Ignacophile Blogger On Celibacy

I found a new blog entitled, we all, with unveiled faces it is written by Brian a theology student at Aquinas College. Brian is from Grand Rapids Michigan. He is currently finishing his B.A. in Theology and Philosophy, and he writes for both The Saint, Aquinas College's newspaper, and StayGreat.com, a spirituality source created and maintained by Mark Link S.J..

An excerpt from his post.

The statistics show that from 1970 to 2007 the number of diocesan priests fell from 36,005 to 27,971. Including religious priest the numbers fall from 59,000 in 1975 to about 41,500 last year. Listed as causes for the drop are: trends of smaller family sizes; a sexualized culture where celibacy seems like an impossibility; negative views of the priestly ministry following the sexual abuse scandal; a culture that overvalues wealth; the audacity of a lifelong commitment to a single occupation. The one, however, most considered is celibacy.

Link (here) to Brian's post entitled, Answers and Equations

Photo is from a Korean Ordination in 2006 courtesy of joongangdaily.joins.com/
Find the original picture (here)

The Beggars Fraternity

Beggars Fraternity was founded in 1923 after it received permission from the Pope to become the first social fraternity to be established on a Jesuit campus. The fraternity’s name pays tribute to the founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius Loyola. As Ignatius left the shrine of the Madonna and Child at Montserrat, he gave his expensive clothes to a beggar, put on the beggar’s rags, and became a pilgrim for Jesus. He begged his journey to the Holy Land, as a way of self denial and sacrifice.

An important part of the mission of the Beggars Fraternity is to promote and assist Loyola University. The Beggars are recognized for the founding of numerous organizations, including the Student Government Association, The Maroon student newspaper, and The Wolf annual yearbook. The Beggars have also presented Loyola with the flagpole in front of Biever Hall, the tile mosaic of the Madonna and Child on the Monroe Library, a stained glass window in Marquette Hall, the Fr. Goodspeed-Beggars Professorship in Communications, and is currently raising funds to endow the Peter J. Cangelosi – Beggars Professorship in History.

Link (here)

Beggars in the news (here)

Not Saint Elswhere, But Vows! By Karen Hall

"Vows" Update
As noted yesterday, I have turned in my last Brotherhood script. I still have a week left at the job, which has been a joy from beginning to end. (JOY! Did everyone hear that???)

The season starts shooting in mid July and I'll give you fair warning when my episodes are going to air. I have been on a job interview for a show that may be the next thing I add to the sidebar. I hope it works out, but these days, nothing is predictable.

Stay tuned. Now I'm about to spend the weekend finishing my "Vows" polish. It's going to be a tough one. Not in terms of the amount of work, but it's the draft where I really have to open a vein.

I don't know how to explain that to non-writers. What we say in writer lingo is that it will cost me something to write this. I don't know how to explain that, either. It's when you write the stuff you don't even want to think about. It's kind of like making a roux.

You have to have the guts to keep watching it get blacker and blacker ... and you know that if it gets too black, it's ruined ... but if you're a wimp and pull it off the heat too fast, there's no fixing the gumbo after that. Sometime next week, I'll turn the draft in, and I'll be at the part I've dreaded from the first day I sold it. The part where I have to wait to hear whether my baby will live or die. It is safe to say that I have not reached Ignatian indifference on the verdict. And my spiritual director just left for his 30 day retreat, so I don't see it happening short of something I'm not anticipating. But if anyone wants to say a prayer or light a candle, I would be very grateful, to say the least.

Link (here)