The writer asks what Michael McDowell learnt in Gonzaga,<br />
<blockquote>Had he learned irony from the Jesuits, you might see this as a brilliant stroke: as a mockery of auction politics by outlining an offer of a PD paradise that nobody could refuse and nobody could match – and nobody could believe. Alas, it seems he is in deadly earnest.</blockquote>
These four poems were written by Colm Lavelle SJ. The first two are in keeping with Lent. The third is on the Eucharist (compare Phil 2, 5-11). The final poem strives to capture the experience of the tomb.
I.
Life
doubt
without
Christ Read more »
Dermot Harte, ex-Belvederian, remembers his friend Benedict Kiely with fondness. Ben Kiely, a well-known journalist and writer, spent one year as a Jesuit novice in Emo, Offaly.
The JCC website project, attempting to integrate and streamline some of the major Irish Jesuit websites, is well on its way to completion. Dermot Roantree explains.
Irish Jesuits are involved in a great number and a great variety of projects, and all of them share in a common Ignatian spirit. Our challenge was to ensure that both this diversity and this unity would be reflected on the internet. Read more »
A new departure for Religious News Network has met with an initial positive response. Lent Matters is a series of interviews in which people discuss topics such as prayer, retreat, pilgrimage and forgiveness. They can be heard or downloaded from the Sacred Space website.
David Gaffney considers how bringing a child into the world and rearing it responsibly may transform a relationship. Nature, he says, can compensate for any deficiencies in maturity in a young couple.
Brian O’Leary describes the role of the All Ireland Spiritual Guidance Association, an organisation which represents the interests of spiritual guides or directors throughout the country. Nine Jesuits were among the founders of AISGA.
The first steps that led to the setting up of AISGA were taken in October 2001. This was in response to a perceived need among spiritual guides/directors for an organisation that would represent their interests and be supportive of their work. Read more »
Paddy Dillane talks about an enlightening evening with Michael Kelly SJ.
It was a privilege to sit and listen to Michael Kelly SJ’s insightful description of life on the continent of Africa that he has called his home for the last fifty years. His focus on the joy and value of the lives of those that he works with, people who maintain dignity, friendliness, self-respect, a smiling face, peace in their hearts and an acceptance of and respect for death, was a positive view of a people which even in well-intentioned media can still be portrayed in a negative light.
Michael talked about the gruelling existence that some people have to endure as a result of poverty and AIDS. As a group we discussed the prosperity of our own country which, as Michael pointed out, at least has a health service that we can give out about. This is in stark contrast to the corruption and the lack of development which many African people experience. The continent also has further suffering to face in coming years as a result of global warming and irregularities in the once-predictable rainfall pattern which agriculture has relied on for generations. Read more »
by David Gaffney SJ
In trying to gain an understanding of the suicide issue, I’ve amassed a collection of information-snippets and comments from various sources. I offer a selection of them, simply in the hope that what surfaces from a newspaper-columnist’s scrapbook may perhaps draw forth matching jottings from, e.g., a counsellor’s scrapbook.
To start with, try these questions for size (“size” – i.e., number of suicide deaths – being the operative word): “In which industrialized country, with a population little over twice that of Britain, have a quarter of a million people (220,000) died by suicide in the last ten years ?” – In Japan. And, since this rate of tragedy dates from the faltering of the Japanese economy around 1997/8, we may presume that those dying were mostly men, many of them young. Read more »
by David Gaffney SJ
There are scenes of a troubled young man being counselled by a very believable ‘shrink’ in the film Good Will Hunting (and readers may be able to supply other examples). But, lacking such an image of a helper, many a young man who is facing the possibility of suicide may have no use for talk. And I feel that the situation with religion is somewhat the same. Unless an accessible image of God has already been planted in the psyche, I don’t think one can just parachute-in religious considerations.
Any such image is in turn going to depend on whether the young person’s experience of human relationships has been satisfactory. Perhaps the person is isolated, lacking ‘socializing’ networks. Read more »
