President and Archbishop commend Jesuits and colleagues

President Mary McAleese gave a challenging and encouraging address to almost three hundred Jesuits and their colleagues at the Irish Jesuit Province Assembly on Saturday April 12, 2008 where she said, “We have reached a type of zero-hour, a moment when our next steps can radically alter the trajectory of our history”. Speaking to the conference theme “Called to the Frontiers” she continued, “It is a time for people who are not afraid of frontiers, for people who have courage to face even the most unmapped of roads, for people who have a clear set of values for the journey and an unshakeable belief in the vision that is our destination. That pretty much sums up the Jesuits.” Read more »

Francis Xavier’s head

Work is currently underway to renovate the statues on the roof of Gardiner St Church, particularly to solve the problem of the headless St Francis Xavier! Donal Neary SJ, the Parish Priest, commented that only two people during the last four years have noticed this rather strange looking statue. The shaky hand of the Sacred Heart will also be repaired, as well as strengthening the figure of St Ignatius for another century. This renovation, costing about €6500 will ensure the safety of the statues on their lofty site.

Training Galway’s new spiritual directors

Eileen Houlihan from Milltown Institute visited the Diploma in Spiritual Direction course running in Galway last weekend 12-13 April. In her capacity as external examiner, she met the Manresa organising team of Angela Higgins IBVM, John Humphreys SJ and Brendan Comerford SJ. She also met the 13 canditates, taking time to examine their verbatims, reflections and book reviews. The two-year Spiritual Direction Diploma has another intake in September 2008. Also called spiritual mentoring or spiritual accompaniment, it is understood as the ministry of guiding others in their faith lives.

Changing the inner programming

Dick McHugh SJ and Myles O’Reilly SJ are giving a number of courses on Gestalt and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in Milltown during June and July 2008. Dick, who has worked and lived in India since 1951, along with Tony DeMello SJ, developed NLP to help people with their psychological and spiritual development. Dick has been giving this course in Milltown since 1992, and in recent years with Myles as co-leader. There are three courses on offer:

1. Gestalt-living in the present, 4-9 July
2. NLP Master Practitioners Course, Part 1, 4-8 & 12-16 June
3. NLP Master Practitioners Course, Part 2, 19-23 & 26-30 June.

For more information contact: Myles O’Reilly SJ, (00353) 1 4972943 (X216), mylesforeilly@eircom.net.

Clongowes Seconds come in first

The Jesuit colleges scored another victory in the Leinster schools rugby competitions this year. Clongowes Wood college’s Junior Cup Team Seconds showed their class by beating Blackrock college 12-5. They won the Junior Seconds league cup in what was an exciting final in Donnybrook rugby grounds. The team, pictured here with the cup, had only lost one match during the entire season (ironically it was to Blackrock College!).

Taizé visit to Dublin

Among those involved in the arrangements for the Province Assembly on Saturday 12 April was Father Damian McNeice. A priest of Dublin diocese, Damian is now Archbishop Martin’s Master of Ceremonies. He is currently involved in preparations for the forthcoming visit of Brother Alois, the prior of Taizé, to Dublin on Friday 25 April 2008. “It’s the first visit of the prior of Taizé to Ireland since Brother Roger was here in 1985.” he explained. It is part of the Taizé community’s worldwide ‘Pilgrimage of Trust’ which has seen them recently visit places as diverse as Kolkata in India, Cochabamba in Bolivia, Cambodia, Geneva and Canada, inviting young people to their distinctive style of contemplative prayer.

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