A comment about the early Jesuits There was, however, one “doctrine” that was fundamental for them, one that gave orientation to all their ministries and to the way they wanted to lead their own lives. It was the basic premise of the Exercises, even though it was buried unobtrusively in the fifteenth Preliminary Observation”: the [...]
{ 0 comments }
In a recent article in America, Adam Hincks, SJ, says that cosmologists don’t have definitive answers to the two questions most people have about the universe: when did it begin? and how big is it? Scientists don’t even know what most of the universe is made of. Hincks has a doctorate in cosmology from Princeton, [...]
{ 0 comments }
Pilgrims are now walking and biking the new Ignatian Way pilgrimage route in northern Spain, which follows the route Ignatius walked in 1522 after his conversion. (Go here to read what I wrote about it last year.) After watching this video about it, I was ready to stuff my backpack, lace up my hiking boots, [...]
{ 1 comment }
Sunday was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and it turns out that there’s a Jesuit angle to the tragic story. An Irish novice named Francis Browne was aboard the ship on the first leg of its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to Cobh, Ireland. He wanted to continue on to New [...]
{ 2 comments }
There’s little doubt that there’s a Jesuit “style.” The Jesuits themselves call it “our way of proceeding.” A recent article on MiradaGlobal.com found five elements in the Jesuit style: Pay attention to history (of a person, a society) Experience things from the “inside” Test personal experience against “reality” Put love into action Evaluate (don’t repeat [...]
{ 0 comments }
A while back, I felt deflated when I discovered that the wonderful Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”) wasn’t written by Francis at all. It was written in 1912 by a writer for a small French Catholic magazine. My disappointment wasn’t on the level of discovering the truth about [...]
{ 9 comments }
There have been rumblings about director Martin Scorsese making a film of Shusaku Endo’s magnificent historical novel Silence, about Japanese martyrs of the 17th century. Now it seems that the rumor may become a reality, according to Spero Forum. In a preface to Endo’s book, Scorsese writes perceptively about faith: How do you tell the [...]
{ 1 comment }
Church historian Pat McNamara writes about how the Jesuits at St. John’s College (later Fordham University) befriended Edgar Allen Poe in the last years of his life. The poet, grief-stricken and depressed after the death of his wife, found companionship with the Jesuits. One of them remembered Poe as a “familiar figure at the college [...]
{ 3 comments }
Luis Espinal, SJ, is a Jesuit hero I hadn’t heard about. He was a Spanish Jesuit who worked for social justice in Bolivia. He was murdered in 1980. He wrote this. Losing one’s life means working for others, even though they don’t pay us back. It means doing a favor without it being returned. Losing [...]
{ 2 comments }
In 1534, Ignatius and his companions went to the church of Sainte Pierre in the village of Montmartre north of Paris, and took vows to work together as a company. It was an important moment because this band of brothers soon became the first Jesuits. When my wife and I went to Paris a couple [...]
{ 2 comments }
Sign up for dotMagis updates in an RSS reader
Sign up for dotMagis updates by e-mail