Travelling the Pilgrim Road

On 3 February in Manresa, the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality,  a group of 21 people led by Brendan Comerford SJ, and accompanied by Paddy Carberry SJ, Avril O’Regan RLR and Eileen O’Brien began a  journey with other ‘fellow pilgrims’ along The Pilgrim Road – a programme of eight evenings offering participants the experience of journeying along the path of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Each session involves some short introductory input, some time for reflection on that input, and a time for sharing reflections. Ignatius wrote in the Spiritual Exercises, “It is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the person.” This course aims to help participants to experience together the graces of the Spiritual Exercises and so enrich their lives of faith and service.

Short notices

• The ‘Movies that Matter’ series in Manresa will continue this week (Wednesday 11 February at 7.30pm) with The Road Home, a Chinese film centred on the return of a city businessman to his rural home for the burial of his father. All are welcome.
• The Annual Belvedere Union Retreat will be held this year at Manresa House on March 6th and 7th and will be conducted by Fr. Michael Gallagher SJ. Full details and booking form are available on the Union website.
• David Coghlan, Edmond Grace and Michael McGuckian are planning a retreat based on the SJ Constitutions in the Manresa tertianship, 15-24 July. It will be a silent retreat, with a morning talk linking Constitutions and the Exercises, and an optional period of shared reflection in the evening. The retreatants themselves will produce the talks. If interested, contact mcmcguckian@jesuit.ie or David or Edmond.
• Latest on Fr Bill Johnston SJ: Not much change in his condition, but he is now taking food by mouth as opposed to nasal feeding. He is also benefiting from being with other Jesuits and in familiar surroundings as the home is next to the theologate where he taught for many years.

60 years after the Milltown Fire

At 5.40 a.m. on Friday, 11 February, 1949, a fire was discovered in a pantry of the Milltown Park building where the community lived. The fire brigade was summoned, and shouts went up to arouse those sleeping nearby. The fire was of the “flash-over” type: propagated by the secret spread of smoulder inside floors, stairs, partitions and lofts until a critical temperature is reached and the smoulder bursts into flames simultaneously at different points. At ten to six, with a muffled explosion, a great wave of fire and smoke rose up to the roof and flowed into the corridors of the house. The roof was in flames, the lights went out and within minutes the whole place was engulfed in thick smoke and fumes. Within two hours Fr Jimmy Johnston was burned to death, Michael Reidy was injured, and the Milltown building was a ruin. Below, Fr John Fitzgerald recalls that winter morning. Read more »

Tom Casey SJ lights a candle

At this time of crisis in Catholic-Jewish relations, precipitated by the Holocaust-denier Bishop Williamson, there was a tiny glimmer of light last Tuesday, February 3, in Jerusalem. Senior Catholic and Jewish representatives, including the Papal Nuncio to Israel Archbishop Antonio Franco, Rabbi David Rosen, chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations, (and former Chief Rabbi of Ireland), as well as many professors and students, gathered for the 9th Annual Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn Lecture at the Hebrew University. Last year the lecture was delivered by Cardinal Martini. This year it was the turn of Irish Jesuit Thomas Casey, who talked about love in Jewish and Christian thought. The title of Tom’s lecture was “Kierkegaard and Levinas on more perfect human love”. (Emmanuel Levinas is pictured here.)

At the Frontiers – Young People Find God

Milltown Park will host an interesting forum at 7.30 on Friday, 13 February. Aisling O’Rourke (student of Law), Ray Dillon (Youth 2000), Padraig Swan and Noelle Fitzpatrick (Slí Eile) will engage the audience on the theme: “At the Frontiers – Young People Find God.” The Provincials of Ireland, Britain, Netherlands and South Belgium hope to attend what promises to be an engaging discussion. You are cordially invited.

Forgiving those who trespass against us

“In 2008 Josef Fritzl was arrested in Austria for imprisoning his daughter for 24 years, raping her continuously during that period, fathering seven children by her, and keeping them imprisoned. Should we forgive Fritzl? Should his daughter forgive him?” So begins Brian Lennon SJ in his new book So you can’t forgive…?: Moving towards freedom, just published by The Columba Press. As Brian makes clear, reconciliation is often far from easy. We really have to ask ourselves tough questions about what forgiveness is, what victimhood is, and how and why victims should forgive those who have harmed them. Brian’s answers to these and other questions are both deeply spiritual and very down-to-earth. As Terry Waite says in recommending the book: “Forgiving is often the difficult option. It is, however, the road to freedom.”

The Lusaka-Dublin connection

The Jesuit parish of Matero in Lusaka, Zambia, has just received more than €5,000 euro from the Star of the Sea Parish in Sandymount Dublin. The funds raised over Christmas will, amongst other things, help in the running of a Feeding Programme for orphans and vulnerable children. The two parishes formally twinned last November as the Sandymount Matero Friendship Programme. Fr Leonard Chiti SJ, a native of Zambia who has been studying in the Manresa Centre for Spirituality in Dublin, is one of the link people in the project. The Jesuit Mission Office in Dublin has also helped to start a computer school in Matero parish where short computer courses and secretarial services are provided to local people. (School in Matero pictured here.)

Working with the Reds

Conall Ó Cuinn SJ is working on the Galway Cathedral Novena at the moment. The theme of the Novena this year is ‘A Life Worth Living: Finding the Key to Happiness’, and the Redemptorist director, Fr Michael Cusack, says he hopes these days will give people the chance “to examine the reality of their lives and find a positive context for dealing with the issues which we all face”. This is the first time that the Redemptorists have asked a Jesuit to work with them in preaching the Novena. There are six sessions a day, with large crowds attending them all. Conall preaches three sessions every second day, hears confessions, and celebrates some of the Masses. For full details of the Novena, click here.

JESUITICA

In the course of their 450 years, the Jesuits have done or experienced some curious or memorable things. Here AMDG Express is drawing from its stock of memories, and will welcome contributions from our readers.

Matteo Ricci SJ, the first Jesuit to be invited to the court of the Chinese Emperor, found a kindred spirit in K’ung-fu-tzu, the great Chinese guru who, when asked what is central to humaneness, answered “Love people”. Ricci Latinised the name of K’ung-fu-tzu into Confucius when he introduced his philosophy to Europe. The name stuck.