For those of you interested in things Jesuit and Ignatian, here are some updates.
First off, the Ignatian Pro-Life Network, a union of pro-life groups from Jesuit high schools, colleges, universities and parishes across the U.S., invites participants to the annual Mass for Life & Rally on Jan. 24, 2011 in Washington, D.C. Marchers are encouraged to attend the Mass for Life at 9:30 a.m. at St. Aloysius Church along with the Rally for Life following the Mass, to hear speakers and student reports from schools before heading out for the March for Life. (This is a work of the Society and the Apostleship of Prayer.)
Second, as the election for secession in Southern Sudan draws nearer, the Jesuit Refugee Service invites you to pray with them for peace. They write: "When Jesuit Refugee Service went to Southern Sudan in the late 1990s, the staff shared the terror of internally displaced people caught up in the prolonged civil war. As 2011 dawns, JRS is still in Southern Sudan, accompanying the people in peacetime as we did during the war. Much progress has been made in providing for the needs of the people of Southern Sudan. Sudan is preparing this month to hold a referendum on independence for the South, as mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the war. Sudan is at a crossroads of a series of choices that could be the inauguration of a foundation of a hopeful future. We hope the seeds we have sown will continue to bear fruit." Their invitation for prayer, along with a moving video of the work in Southern Sudan, is here.
Finally, Jesuit Voices, out of the Curia in Rome, has a wonderful interview with František Hylmar, S.J., the “last underground Jesuit” who entered the Society of Jesus in former Czechoslovakia some months before the collapse of the communist regime in 1989. Fr. Hylmar, who is currently provincial of Bohemia, talks about his work as geodesist and cartographer before entering the Society, about being provincial of a small province (that used to have more than 1000 members 250 years ago) and about his joy seeing God at work in today’s church and society, You can hear his podcast here.
James Martin, SJ
I also hope readers will listen to the podcast and learn a bit about Bohemia. I find that it is an unfamiliar country for many people. Maybe that is because I live in the Southwest where even MN is thought to be foreign! My forbears immigrated to America in the late 80s from rural Bohemia to an area in MN that looks just like the area they left behind. Devoutly Catholic, but of a different flavor than the Irish. (Fr. Martin, is that because of the Jansenist influence in Ireland?) An excellent story about Bohemians in America and the great difficulties they faced with "Yankees" is Willa Cather's "My Antonia".
In 1988 I visited Prague and rural Bohemia. It was too difficult then to track down relatives but I have always wanted to return to do that. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and the Bohemian countryside is lovely. I would make a good trravel agent!
At one point in the interview, Fr. Hylemar says that "life is both a cross and a grace".
A nice bit of wisdom.
Thank you, Fr. Martin and Fr. Hylemar
It would be a good idea (in my opinion!) for America to do more regular interviews along these lines.
Old Jesuits and the like who could weave their autobiography and spiritual experience into the interview format. Less along clerical or ecclesiastical lines but more on human terms.
I prefer transcripts to podcasts as I can focus better on what they are saying. These interviews could follow on from Fr Martin's words of hardlearned wisdom piece
recently. Anecdotes that illustrate the nooks and crannies of the Christian path. This would work best if there were some standard questions. Favourite Saint? etc.
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