Friends In The Lord

A Page A Day

Last night I made an unsuccessful attempt to get home.  After many hours of waiting in Buffalo’s scenic bus terminal I lost heart and turned back to Toronto.  I gave up, and with that act came a certain sense of failure, even if it was only a bus ride.  Yet, life goes on and tomorrow comes all the same, a fact that I am reminded of every time that I enter the college atrium.  A page of the St. John’s Bible is turned every day (barring the occasional Old Testament style miracle when a page stands still and remains on display), sometimes revealing a marvelous illumination and other days showing forth the often unassuming, but life-changing, text of Scripture.  It serves as a gentle reminder to be present in, and reflect on, the situations in which we find ourselves at any given moment, even if they do consist of bus stations and border checks.

Reflections On Creation

This past week the relative summer quiet of Regis was broken by the delivery of a large box containing the Pentateuch volume of the St. John’s Bible, a gift from Gloria and George Allen to the college.  A small group of us gathered and when we turned to the beginning of Genesis here was this beautiful illumination in full-page glory.

It is Donald Jackson’s rendering of the seven days of creation.  As I looked at it, it reminded me of a Japanese screen with seven long narrow panels each depicting a day of creation:  beginning with God separating the light from darkness, day and night, and finishing with God’s rest on the seventh day.  The last few days I have been enjoying standing and admiring it each time I pass through the atrium.  (You can see it too on September 8^th, students’ orientation day, when it will be on display.)

To reflect on the beauty of creation so vibrantly portrayed is a prayer just in itself.  It leads to amazement and thanksgiving for each creature displayed:  sun and moon, water and land, forest and flowers, animals and humankind.  Reflecting upon these gifts of creation I began to think about the days and years of my own creation:  psychologists like to call these “stages of development”.   The various times of our life from childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, to old age are God’s artful work of creation, beauty mingled sometimes with plainness.  Each of these times is God’s creation, and we can grow in our prayerful relationship with God when we reflect on them.

Several weeks ago Gilles Mongeau, in his contribution to FriendsInTheLord, described the prayer of the Ignatian Examen.  Each day can be completed by this prayer of thanksgiving, awareness, resolution and petition.  It is a way of being in contact with God’s presence in our everyday.  Reflecting upon the art work of the Genesis illumination leads me to realize that our life is also a progression like that of the days of Creation.  The realization of this can be a prayer similar to the Examen.  As we review the colourful images of each stage of our life, we can carry through the same process as we would in the Examen:  an awareness of what happened in childhood, adolescence, adulthood, etc., contrition and thanksgiving for the failures and the riches of those days, a resolution to enjoy the beauty of the created life that lies ahead of us and a petition for God’s help to do so.  Each time of our life can be viewed in this manner.  In doing so we can become more responsive and receptive to the wonderful gift that God has given us.

These last days of Summertime before the busyness of Autumn lend themselves to this type of prayerful reflection.  In the spirit of the Labour Day weekend we can be thankful for how God has worked in all of creation and especially in our own.  We can look forward to growing in that creation.  Why not try it!

Missing McLuhan

The other day I realized that I missed an opportunity.  For those of us who take the back door shortcut between Regis and St. Mike’s, the strange talking window in the McLuhan Program building had become a familiar sight and sound.  However, this is no more; it has disappeared in a very Tom Hanks Big kind of way, causing me to question if it was ever there in the first place.  Each time that I passed it this summer I told myself that I would stop by and see what it was about, but never did.  Now, a strange window is in the end, only a strange window.  It occurs to me that the majority of the opportunities that God presents us with are a bit bigger than a window, yet, how often do the seasons change before we notice that the moment is gone?

Constructive Activity

As a relatively new immigrant to Canada – I became a Canadian citizen last December – I have had much to learn from my adopted country. Not least amongst the pieces of information has been an awareness of the different seasons in Toronto. “We only have two seasons here” I was informed by helpful friends, “winter and construction!” Certainly, I have learned over the years that Spring and Summer do seem to abound with construction on roads. Indeed, sometimes driving appears to be more like playing a game of chess in trying to avoid being ‘captured’ by the traffic jams.

Construction also has been a major theme in my personal life over the last few years.  At work this was apparent as we moved into the lovely Christie building and with the construction of the Atrium at Regis. Alongside this, for three years there has been constructive renovations being undertaken at Loretto College where I live and where we now have a newly configured community on the fifth floor.  Finally, both at the back of Loretto College and in front of the building beside St Basil’s Church further construction is taking place as new condo buildings are being assembled.

In reflecting on construction in the many forms in which I encounter it, I was reminded of God’s constructive activity in our lives, an activity which does not take account of seasons but is a constant feature of the divine love for each one of us. The prophet Jeremiah – whom we have heard from recently in the daily mass readings – reminds the people that the Lord says:  “I have loved you with an everlasting love, so I am constant in my affection for you. I build you once more, you shall be rebuilt.” As we look ahead to the imminently looming beginning of the new school year we might pause to reflect on the nature of God’s constructive activity in our life. What hopes and dreams is the Lord awakening within us for this new academic year? What is God drawing our attention to that might need a wee bit more constructive attention in the months that lie ahead? Where is the Spirit of the Lord reassuring us amidst our doubts and fears, anxieties and insecurities? Above all, how may we pay more attention to that everlasting love the good Lord has for each one of us and the constancy of the affection God always desires that we receive? May the blessing of God be upon all our constructive activity as Summer gives way to Fall.

Structure and Freedom in Prayer

Early in the history of the Church Origen, in his On Prayer, spoke about the things that we can do to prepare ourselves for a meaningful encounter with God.  He talked about the physical logistics of choosing a place and how to position oneself in this space.  Earlier this week, Fr. Gilles brought attention to another way in which we can order and structure our experience of prayer and the graced encounter with God.  Throughout the history of the Church there has always existed the interplay between free will and providence, and there are few areas where this becomes more evident than in prayer.  The unknown nature of the encounter clears space for an understanding of hope that contrasts with progressive or technological ideas of the concept.  It is through this type of hope that a relationship becomes possible; a true interaction that does not reduce us or God to an object.

A Prayer to Know God’s Hospitality Better

As we gear up for a new academic year and its business, we all want to remain connected with God at work in our lives. Here is a simple form of prayer which Saint Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, calls the awareness examen. Keep in mind that in total, this prayer takes no more than 20 minutes; this is not an encouragement to rush, rather it is a reminder to end the prayer after twenty minutes, even if you haven’t moved through all the “moments” of it. What God gives in 20 minutes is what God gives.

1. Take the time to come into a peaceful awareness of God’s personal presence to you: it is always there, but we need to slow down enough to become aware of it. It may be helpful to listen to your breath, or to recite a simple prayer word like “you are here”. Make sure you are comfortable and won’t fidget through the prayer time.
2. When you have a sense of peaceful connection with God, let your mind wander over the wonderful gifts God has given; these needn’t be the gifts of the past few weeks at this point (though one or two may pop up if they were particularly meaningful). You want to spend some time being truly grateful for these gifts, which might range from something as simple as breathing to something as complex as your healing process to something as immediate as the friendship offered to you by someone that day. What’s important is that you bathe in thankfulness, so that you are living concretely in your prayer the fact that God is loving you.
3. Ask for the grace of knowing and loving your life of the past few weeks as God knows and loves you. Ask for this grace until you feel you mean it.
4. Begin to slowly and peacefully journey through the past few weeks of your life. You will come to moments that seem to grab you. They might be positive or negative moments, moments with strong emotion or not. When a moment grabs your attention in this way, stay with it, pause there and contemplate it: what happened? How did you feel? What did you do? What was your motivation? Where was God? And so on. Don’t analyze so much as ponder and contemplate; ask God to show you these things.
   1. Some of these moments will be moments where God showed you hospitality: “I’m glad you’re here”; “I like you”; “let’s spend time together”; “I want to share what I have with you”; “Let’s share a meal.” Ask for a deeper appreciation and understanding of the meaning of these moments in your life.
   2. Others will be moments where God gave you the ability to serve your neighbour or to love God more deeply, or where you experienced an increase in you of trust in God, hope and/or love, or a movement beyond yourself to reach out and minister peace to another. Again, ask for a deeper appreciation and understanding of these events as the “sacrament of everyday life.”
   3. Some of the moments will be moments where God rescued you, healed you, showed you forgiveness and reconciled you. When one of these moments comes before you, ask God to understand more deeply what He wants to lovingly teach you about it in order to free you, heal you, and reconcile you to yourself, to others, and to God.
5. With this awareness of God’s hospitality, turn to tomorrow: what will be happening? Knowing what I have come to know about God’s hospitality to me in my life, what gifts will I need tomorrow to be a servant of God and neighbour?
6. Close with an Our Father, or some other appropriate prayer that helps you bring closure to the time of the examen.

Jesuits return to the Royal English College: Arrupe Month

During the month of July groups of young Jesuit students spent four weeks in prayer and reflection to prepare for their ordination to the diaconate and priesthood. Three of the students hail from our own Regis College, Jesuit Community, Toronto.  Here Fr. Andrew Cameron-Mowat SJ, professor at Heythrop College, London, UK and the Formation Director for the British Province, who supervised the groups, writes about the experience and its significance.

The “Arrupe Month”

In December of 1979 Fr. General Pedro Arrupe SJ wrote to the whole Society of Jesus asking that those in charge of formation take special care of those about to be ordained, in order to ensure that they had received sufficient immediate pastoral and spiritual preparation.  Fr. Arrupe asked that scholastics should spend time in reviewing their desire for priesthood, their personal and affective maturity, and their integration into the wider church.  He suggested that a group could spend “a quiet month” together, with “prayer, reflection, instruction on some of the central points of our spirituality and on the ministry of priesthood, spiritual direction, and an extended retreat of eight or more days individually guided.”  Since 1979 this period has taken many forms and styles, and the British and Irish Provinces of the Jesuits have more recently run joint “Arrupe Months” in Ireland and Wales.

Royal English College

The idea to bring the Arrupe month to Valladolid, Spain, came from Fr. James Hanvey SJ, who had visited the College and knows the archivist, Fr. Peter Harris.  After a week here myself around Easter 2008, I came to share Fr. Hanvey’s enthusiasm for the location.  All the scholastics studying theology in London, and some who are studying elsewhere in Europe and Canada, are now able to spend three or four weeks in a place filled with a Catholic and strongly Jesuit tradition. The portraits of the Martyrs, Jesuit and non-Jesuit, on the corridor walls and the extraordinary historical riches in the archive are a profound reminder of the foundational link that the College has with the Society of Jesus, a link that we have been delighted to continue in a new way with the presence of these younger Jesuits training for the priesthood.  Among those giving presentations have been Bishop John Arnold  and Bishop Bernard Longley, auxiliaries of Westminster, and we have also visits from the former Provincial of north-east Spain, as well as from other Spanish and British Jesuits, as we explored topics related to priesthood, pastoral ministry, issues of psychological growth, and the spirituality of the Society of Jesus.

Historical links with the Society of Jesus

The College was founded in 1589, one of a number in Europe, for the training of priests to be sent to the mission in England, by Jesuit Fr. Robert Persons, a man of extraordinary vision and determination.  Among the alumni are several Jesuit saints, blessed and other martyrs, including Thomas Garnet, Henry Walpole, Thomas Holland and Ralph Ashley.  The remains of Fr. William Weston SJ, a much revered spiritual director, are buried in the magnificent baroque chapel.  The Society supplied the rectors for the College until the expulsion of all Jesuits from Spain in 1767.  Subsequent rectors honoured the memory of the College’s founders by maintaining the historical archives and the portraits of Jesuit martyrs, most of which were painted in the 17th and 18th centuries.  From time to time Jesuits visited the College, and Fr. Gerard Marsden SJ was a Spiritual Director to the seminarians between 1991 and 1995, but the arrival of the group on their “Arrupe Month” in 2008 was probably the first time in 230 years that the College has been inhabited for Jesuits for any extended period.

We were delighted to stay here again this year, and both last year’s and this year’s group have found the facilities and the accommodation excellent. The College’s location, just a four hour coach journey from Loyola, birthplace of St. Ignatius, where we spent a wonderful weekend, is likewise ideal for quiet reflection, discussion and prayer.  The staff could not have been more helpful or gracious, even to the extent of entering into the silence that we maintained during the eight day retreat.  The scholastics this year came from as far away as Lebanon, Canada, Ireland, Slovakia, Malaysia, Guyana, India, Sri Lanka, United States and The Netherlands. It was an easy process for them to adapt quickly to the life of the College, which seems to breathe an atmosphere of prayer and tradition.  They felt close to their Jesuit predecessors, many of whom suffered martyrdom, and were profoundly confirmed in their vocation to priesthood and life as Jesuits.  We send congratulations to the College as it continues to celebrate this year Robert Person’s anniversary, and pay tribute to the generations of rectors and the members of the hierarchy, as well as the cohort of “old boys”, who have done so much to foster the ministry and tradition of this wonderful place.  We could not be more grateful to Mgr. Michael Kujacz and his magnificent staff for their wonderful hospitality and thoughtfulness, and I’m already looking forward to my return with another group next July, God willing.

Jokes and Puzzles

Someone (the reference has escaped me for several days now) has talked about the fact that when a person does not understand a joke, and it has to be explained, the effect of the joke is lost.  It ceases to be a whole and is revealed as simply a collection of parts.  This is one small reason why faith is not a joke.  The pieces do not have to come together the first time.  The puzzle can be put together, but it then takes a lifetime to penetrate into the picture that is present.  Reflecting on the mystery of faith is a bit like taking out each piece, separating it from the rest, and seeing for oneself that it does indeed fit in the place where it appeared to connect.  This slow and laborious journey also teaches us that these pieces can be ideas or concepts, but that most often they are situations and the persons that we encounter in the midst of them.

Surprised in Repetition

For many years I thought the rejuvenating power of summer vacation lay in the change of routine. For the most part, I have been a student or professor, so the summers were charted by extended recess from the classroom. First, July to August, then June to August, and finally, as I advanced in the ranks of academe, gloriously May to August brought dramatic shifts in my day to day activities and responsibilities.

Recently, though, I was struck by how repetition had crept into what have become my summer patterns. In July, I went with a group of very close friends for what must have been my fiftieth wilderness canoe trip through Algonquin Park, visiting favoured camp sites with spectacular views and sun warmed rocks upon which to be cradled as the day’s brilliance yields to the night sky, sometimes even graced with the Aurora Borealis. But my noticing of summer repetition was far from discouraging. Rather than the summer’s rejuvenation being undermined by year over year routine, I realized that my summer experiences were more like Ignatian repetitions in prayer than mind-numbing rote compulsion. Saint Ignatius understood that returning to contemplate upon familiar passages of Scripture allowed the spiritual practitioner to encounter the ongoing transformation brought about by the ever-surprising action of the Holy Spirit. Encountering God anew in the familiar because we have changed, embarking and re-embarking on spiritual odysseys.

In fact, this summer’s fiftieth canoe trip was through physical terrain so familiar that I did not consult my ready to hand, well-creased map. Still the journey was richly contoured by the memory of one of my most regular companions who had succumbed so very quickly in the past winter to a virulent cancer. My friend’s older brother joined the group this summer and became a new companion as we were salved by the beauty of creation and came to grips with our fragility before God’s inscrutable majesty. And, cradled one evening in the radiant granite of the Canadian Shield, I realized with the shock of unexpected insight, I had never travelled this way before.

Thoughts in Storage

One of my major tasks this summer, working in the library, has been to shift the books in the storage rooms around in order to make them all fit.  Some days this has been an exciting task, as I was able to see the sheer wealth of resources available at the college.  However, it has also become apparent that many of them will sit for some time before being moved, or used, again.  It can be depressing to see the toil of a life’s work slowly crumbling away from disuse (especially when many of the books are dissertations and course material!).  More often than not, this melancholy feeling has been caused by forgetfulness on my part – forgetfulness that the product is not what is important but that the process itself is the task and reward.