Sunday is the anniversary of the death of Pedro Arrupe, SJ, superior general of the Jesuits from 1965-83.  He was a charismatic man who led the Jesuits through a difficult time of transition.  After he suffered a debilitating stroke he wrote this wonderful prayer:

More than ever I find myself in the hands of God. This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now there is a difference; the initiative is entirely with God. It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.

You can read about Arrupe here.  This video is the first in a series produced by Georgetown University.  The first couple of minutes show his very poignant farewell in 1983. (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Late last year, Xavier University in Cincinnati unveiled a new statue of its patron, St. Francis Xavier.  The sculptor, Tom Tsuchiya, worked on it for a year.  In this video he talks about how he worked and where he got inspiration from.   To watch the video on YouTube, click here.

“In Spite of Darkness” is an award-winning documentary about an interfaith retreat at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland, where more than 1 million people, nearly all of them European Jews, were exterminated by the Nazis.  It was produced by Loyola Productions Munich and directed by Christof Wolf, SJ.  You can watch it at this link on the film’s site.  This is the trailer.  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

The actor Mark Wahlberg plays tough guys in movies like The Departed, The Fighter, and Contraband. He’s a tough guy in real life too.  In his teens, he was a cocaine user and spent time in prison for assault.  But he’s also a devout Catholic who goes to church every day.  In this interview he tells Piers Morgan that “I pray to be a good servant to God, a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a brother and uncle, a good neighbor, a good leader to those who look up to me and a good follower to those that are serving God and doing the right thing.”  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Loyola Productions in Los Angeles has launched a YouTube channel called Ignatian News Network that will feature videos about Jesuit work and mission.  Some of the early videos look at a lobbying in Los Angeles, retreats for homeless people, and sustainable gardening.  You can subscribe to INN here.

One INN video is about Loyola Press’s award-winning Voyages in English curriculum.  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

I love Handel’s “Messiah,” and this is one of my favorite choruses, sung here by the choir of Kings College, Cambridge. The text is Malachi 3:2: “And He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” It’s one of the prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Merry Christmas. (Click here to watch the video on YouTube.)

In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius Loyola often urges us to “pray for what you want.” Here’s a short talk from a TED conference about doing that. The speaker talks about praise, gratitude, and saying “thank you.” (Click here if you can’t see the video.)

Larry Gillick, SJ is a special Jesuit.  Blind since childhood, he has been a Jesuit for 50 years and has had a varied and fruitful career.  Among other accomplishments, he is one of the authors of Retreat in the Real World, a popular adaptation of the Spiritual Exercises.  He does retreat work all over the US, and lives in the Jesuit community at Creighton University.

In this video, he talks about how God called him to be a priest.  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Anyone interested in the Spiritual Exercises should read Fr. Kevin O’Brien’s book The Ignatian Adventure. He talks about why he wrote the book in this short interview with Vinita Hampton Wright.  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)

Here’s a fine overview of the Examen by Canadian Jesuit Artur Suski.  (Click here to watch it on YouTube.)