Advent Opens Door

A

dvent closes this week. Praying in Advent opens Christians to be more alert and sensitive. The global Jesuit site offers an aid to pray with the Universal Apostolic Preferences during Advent. The UAPs animate all Ignatian ministries. Colleagues of Jesuits and practitioners of Ignatian spirituality benefit from the reflection as much as Jesuits as do.

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Wiki-image AdventCandles.jpg by “Jonathunder | CC BY-SA 3.0"

Giving Voice to “Experts-by-Experience”

Often remaining unnamed and faceless refugees routinely experience the distortion of time. Refugees’ experience has much to say about time distortion inflicted on everyone by the pandemic. Dr. Anna Rowlands spoke of her fieldwork that assessed time distorted by “enforced idleness.” Dr. Rowlands reminds that physical distancing “remains a social privilege” that refugees cannot enjoy.

What does it mean to spend time well, and how might our collective experience of the current restrictions affect the way we impose them on others in future? https://t.co/ShgtgxWNuX #coronavirus

— Thinking Faith (@ThinkingFaith) April 30, 2020

Choosing Way Forward

Jesuit John Dardis invites imagining ways of returning to life after the pandemic. Fr. Dardis is the General Counsellor for Discernment and Apostolic Planning in the Society of Jesus.

Earth Day: Begin Online Retreat

On Earth Day begin (or revisit) an audio retreat. “Walking with the Risen Christ–New Creation Retreat” offers daily scripture, reflections and music with a focus on integral ecology.  Offered by the Jesuits in Britain it is 6-weeks (6-days each week) and available at Pathways to God.

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Wiki-image  August 2010 CME SDO Multi-Wavelength by “NASA/SDO/AIA - NASA Image of the Day | PD-US"

Easter Message of Jesuit General Superior

Father Arturo Sosa encouraged everyone with his Easter message. “The crisis of COVID-19…draws our gaze to what oppresses us.” Father Sosa noted that “those who have died because of COVID…are urging us to take the necessary steps to transform our lives, to renew the society that we have built on such shaky foundations, and to rescue the environment that we have treated so badly.” [Full text]

Homeless Are Not Invisible

Pope Francis said in his recent interview

the poor are hidden, because poverty is bashful. In Rome recently, in the midst of the quarantine, a policeman said to a man: “You can’t be on the street, go home.” The response was: “I have no home. I live in the street.” To discover such a large number of people who are on the margins … And we don’t see them, because poverty is bashful. They are there but we don’t see them: they have become part of the landscape; they are things.

In Detroit Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church and the University of Detroit-Mercy are not shy to see the homeless. The Church is home to the Pope Francis Center. The Center made a creative move to keep people healthy and still offer showers to those who are homeless.

The #Jesuits' @popefranciscnt has opened mobile showers in a @detmercy parking lot for the homeless to use during the pandemic. https://t.co/7eQMcuXjoy

— Midwest Jesuits (@MidwestJesuits) April 16, 2020

Happy Easter!

Our many questions and pain this Easter bring us closer to the initial experience of those who first experienced the Resurrection.

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Wiki-image Mary Magdalene Questions Angels in the Tomb by “James Tissot | PD-US"

"Discerning Leadership"

The Society of Jesus discerned four Universal Apostolic Preferences to inspire and guide its ministries for the next 10 years. One is involved with “Showing the way to God.” “We want to accompany people as they discern complex choices in the social, economic, cultural and political spheres. We will help to create environments that favour free personal processes, independent of social or ethnic pressure,” is one of its objectives. One help assists people to grow as discerning leaders.