Bl. Rupert Mayer, S.J.

November 3 is the feast of St. Martin de Porres but it is also the day when many Catholics remember the Jesuit priest, Blessed Rupert Mayer.  He was born in Germany in 1876 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1900, one year after his ordination.  He served as a chaplain in the German army during World War I and was the first chaplain to be awarded the Iron Cross for bravery.  His service in the military ended when his left leg was shattered in a grenade attack and had to be amputated.

After the war Fr. Mayer went to Munich where he served the poor and started two Sunday Masses for travelers at the main railroad terminal.  When Hitler rose to power Fr. Mayer spoke out against Nazism and in 1937 was ordered by the Gestapo to stop speaking in public.  He continued preaching in church and was arrested three times.  In 1939 he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentation camp near Berlin.

As the health of the popular sixty-three year old Jesuit war hero began to deteriorate the camp officials, afraid that he would die and be declared a martyr, sent him to a Benedictine monastery.  When World War II ended he returned to Munich and his pastoral work. 

On November 1, 1945, while celebrating Mass and in the middle of his homily about how Christians are called to imitate the saints, Fr. Mayer collapsed and died.  Pope St. John Paul II beatified him in 1983.

Blessed Rupert Mayer is an example of one who lived a daily offering of himself out of love for God and his brothers and sisters.  His favorite prayer has been made into a song by the Catholic Filipino group Bukas Palad.  The lyrics are:

Lord, what You will let it be so 

Where You will there we will go
What is Your will help us to know 

Lord, when You will the time is right
In You there's joy in strife
For Your will I'll give my life

To ease Your burden brings no pain
To forego all for You is gain
As long as I in You remain

REFRAIN:
Because You will it, it is best
Because You will it, we are blest
Till in Your hands our hearts find rest
Till in Your hands our hearts find rest

A Jesuit Ordination

Last Saturday I participated in the ordination of Jesuit Fr. Vincent Strand.  It was a happy and special time for me because I had been his spiritual director when he was discerning his vocation as a student at Marquette University.  From those days to the present he has been a strong member of the Apostleship of Prayer.  Here's something he wrote when he was a Jesuit novice, In it he wrote about how making a daily offering led to him offering every day of his life as a Jesuit priest:

            "I remember well my first encounter with the Apostleship of Prayer.  I was a freshman at Marquette University and accustomed to attending daily mass in the basement chapel of Gesu Church.  Each day while en route to my pew, I would pass a table filled with popular devotional materials: endless holy cards and novenas, gaudy plastic rosaries, green and brown scapulars, and there too, the AOP leaflets with the Holy Father’s monthly intentions.  Assuming that the AOP was one more dusty devotional practice that perhaps had a place in the 50´s Catholicism of my grandparents, but certainly had no relevance for a third-millennium college student, for months I passed these leaflets without a second thought.  One day, however, perhaps simply out of curiosity, I picked up a leaflet and perused its contents, expecting to find one more antiquated novena to some obscure saint.  I was shocked by what I found.  For here was a list of intentions that was anything but outdated, a list of intentions which reflected my deepest hopes for the world, a list of intentions which was as broad and diverse as the whole of the Church’s mission. 

            "Yet something else in that small leaflet struck me as well, a small prayer that would forever change my spiritual life: the daily Morning Offering.  Father General Peter Hans Kolvenbach once wrote of the Morning Offering: “Experience shows that this act, both simple and profound, changes one's life.”  It did so for me.  As I began daily offering my life to Jesus, the question started to loom: If you give each day to him, why not your whole life?  Soon I was discerning a religious vocation.

            "The fact that the Society of Jesus has been entrusted by Christ himself with the responsibility of propagating the devotion to his Heart—a responsibility institutionalized by the AOP—played a significant role in my decision to apply to the Society of Jesus.  During my years of discernment, I thought seriously about a number of options: Married laymen? Dominican? Carmelite? Diocesan priest?  Amidst this sometimes confusing cloud of options, my spiritual director continually asked me: What is your deepest, truest desire?  As I grew more and more aware of God’s great love for me, suddenly my vocation seemed simple: to bring the love of Jesus to the world.  For me, the love of Jesus was symbolized by the love of his Heart.  I felt Christ calling me to share the love of his Heart, to be an apostle of his Heart.  This, it seemed to me, was at the core of what it means to be a Jesuit.  I knew it was to the Society of Jesus that God was calling me.

            "The importance of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the AOP has only grown during my time in the Society.  Intriguingly, I have observed the same phenomenon in the lives of many other young Jesuits.  Perhaps this was most evident for me in the days of sharing which followed the long retreat in my novitiate last year, when a number of men who previously had no formal contact with devotion to the Sacred Heart spoke of the importance of the symbol of Jesus´ Heart for them during the Spiritual Exercises.  Suddenly, they too were convinced of the need to spread this devotion—this message of love—to all the world.    

            "I am convinced that the AOP has an indispensable part to play in the future of the Catholic Church in America.  The innate spirituality of the AOP provides an answer to many trends of the contemporary world.  In an age when young Catholics desire something radical, something heroic, something whole, the spirituality of the Morning Offering requires a complete gift of self.  In a time when the faithful, especially youth, have a growing love of the Eucharist, the AOP offers a spirituality which is intrinsically Eucharistic.  In a Church which has finally come to a clearer understanding of the universal call to holiness, the AOP provides an avenue for the sanctification of one’s life in the midst of the world.  In an age when globalization continues to shrink the world and makes us aware that we are truly neighbors and in solidarity with the whole human family, the AOP places us in a fraternity of prayer with men and women in every corner of the globe, praying for intentions which are universal in scope.  In a world marked by a great yearning for peace and justice, the AOP provides us with intentions focused on the most pressing needs of social justice throughout the world.  In an age of increased secularization which has resulted in a fervor for a new evangelization, the AOP fosters a missionary spirit among its members. 

            "Perhaps these are some of the reasons why there is a renewed interest in the AOP among so many young Jesuits.  But, in truth, I think there is a deeper and simpler reason, a reason which has been articulated time and time again by Jesuit spiritual writers, by countless Father Generals, and recently by men such as Pedro Arrupe and Karl Rahner: devotion to Christ’s Heart is something essential to the Society of Jesus.  Thus as something essential, as long as there are Jesuits, there will be a zeal for spreading the message of love of the Sacred Heart. 

"While for a time it may have appeared to be on the wane, interest in the Sacred Heart among Jesuits is not disappearing.  No, to the contrary, it appears to be growing.  In one of his last and most famous letters to the Society, “Rooted and Grounded in Love,” Pedro Arrupe stated:  “I am convinced that there could be few proofs of the spiritual renewal of the Society so clear as a widespread and vigorous devotion to the Heart of Jesus.”  I pray that this saint’s words were prophetic and that interest in the Sacred Heart among young Jesuits is indicative of a greater spiritual renewal in the Society of Jesus.  For as always, the world is in great need of knowing the love of Christ’s Heart.  May Jesuits always be at the forefront of spreading this love to the whole world."   

Mary, Mother of the Society of Jesus

On this day in 1541, seven months after Pope Paul III gave official approval to the founding of a new religious order, the Society of Jesus, and two weeks after his election as its first General Superior, St. Ignatius and his first companions celebrated Mass at Mary's altar in St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome. Before receiving Holy Communion, Ignatius held the consecrated host and each of the first Jesuits pronounced his vows. Then they received. April 22 is now celebrated in the Jesuits as the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Society of Jesus.

St. Ignatius had a deep devotion to Mary. She played a critical role in his conversion. One night in mid-August, 1521, she, with the Child Jesus, appeared to him.  He writes about this, using the third person, in his Autobiography:

"One night, while he lay awake, he saw clearly the likeness of Our Lady with the Holy Child Jesus, at the sight of which he received most abundant consolation for a considerable period of time. He felt so great a disgust with his past life, especially his sins of the flesh, that he thought all such images which had formerly occupied his mind were wiped out."

On the eve of the Annunciation in 1522, St. Ignatius made an all-night vigil at the Shrine of the Madonna of Montserrat. He left behind his sword and dagger and offered himself to Mary and her Son as their knight.

I've always considered Mary to be the Mother of my Jesuit vocation. As a high school student I began praying the rosary which became a chain linking me to Mary through various tests and trials.  In the past, Jesuits took "vow names" which never replaced their actual name as happens in other religious orders but which were a simple act of devotion. When I pronounced my first vows in 1973, I took the name "Mary." Since my middle initial is "M" for Michael, this has worked out well and whenever I use that initial I think of these two patrons--Michael the Archangel and Mary, Mother of my vocation and of the Society of Jesus.

Jesuits' devotion to Mary clearly shows up in our present pope who often prays to her and visits the Church of St. Mary Major before and after every trip abroad.

Here are the prayers which I and some of my brother Jesuits used as we celebrated Mass together this morning:

Collect:  "Almighty and everlasting God, you chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of your eternal Word. Make us strong and faithful servants of that Word in the Society of Jesus, which has consecrated itself to you in the presence of Mary, our mother."

Prayer over the Gifts: "Lord God, you made the Virgin Mary a companion in the sufferings of your Son and in the glory of his resurrection. Turn our eyes toward him whom we have pierced, so that, seeking his kingdom on earth, we may enter eternal life with Mary, our mother."

Prayer after Communion: "You have raised up Mary, O Lord, because she believed in your word. By the grace of her Son, may we, who call her blessed, experience the power of her intercession."

Our Lady of the Way

While today is the feast of Mary, Help of Christians, and the feast of Our Lady of Sheshan in China, it's also a Marian feast that my community, the Jesuits, celebrate--Our Lady of the Way or Madonna della Strada.  This was the name of the church where, in 1538, St. Ignatius and his first companions began celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, and teaching children when they arrived in Rome.  The pastor of this parish, Fr. Peter Codacio, was happy for the help and in time became the first Italian to enter the newly formed Society of Jesus.  This church was then given to the Jesuits who rented a house next door and made it the center for their ministries in Rome.  After his death in 1556 St. Ignatius was buried in front of the main altar of this church. 

Because the church was tiny and old, a new one was built--The Holy Name of Jesus or the Gesu.  All that was left of the old church was the image of Our Lady of the Way which was placed in a small chapel dedicated to her and located to the left of the main altar. 

St. Ignatius always saw himself as a pilgrim and the order he founded was designed to be mobile. It makes sense that Providence would have the first Jesuit church be one that honored our Lady of the Way.  Whenever I begin a trip
 I pray a Memorare and close with these words "Our Lady of the Way, pray for us." 

Pope Francis and St. Therese

Fr. Bernard McGuckian, S.J., the Apostleship of Prayer director for Ireland, has been visiting me for the past few weeks.  In the course of various conversations he said that for the first time in his 76 years he can say that he understands the particular spirituality of the pope. The reason is that Pope Francis was formed in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as was Fr. McGuckian and every other Jesuit, including myself.  Now, as I read various homilies and talks of Pope Francis, I look for threads of the Spiritual Exercises.

Recently, another friend of mine, Maureen O'Riordan who has a marvelous website about St. Therese of Lisieux, blogged about the connection between Pope Francis and this saint who is the second patron of the Apostleship of Prayer.  When he was a cardinal visiting Rome, Pope Francis was in the habit of going to a Franciscan church where he would stop at a statue of St. Therese and pray.  You can read the rest of the story here.

As time goes by and we approach the month of the Sacred Heart I'll be eager to learn more about Pope Francis' devotion to the Heart of Jesus and his involvement with the Apostleship of Prayer which is an apostolate of the Jesuits in Argentina and throughout the world.  

Feast Day Homily

Last Friday, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I preached in my community at Marquette University.  Our celebration of the feast included the traditional renewal of the Consecration of the Society of Jesus to the Sacred Heart and also Fr. Michael Class's profession of final vows.  Here is the gist of what I said.

In our first reading (Hosea 11: 1,3-4,8-9) God, speaking through the prophet, declares his love even though his people have abandoned him.  He says: "My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred."  The translation "overwhelmed" is actually mild compared to the original Hebrew which is the same word used to describe the utter destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19.  To say "My heart is broken" is even too mild.  Perhaps it would be better to say "My heart is crushed." 

This is amazing.  It's amazing to think that the Creator, the God of the Universe, the God whom philosophers called "the Unmoved Mover" would be so moved by sin and the human misery it causes.

But this is the mystery, the nature of love.  If you love, you will suffer.  If you love, you will suffer for your beloved.  You will suffer with your beloved.  And since God is Love itself, as St. John writes in his First Letter, God suffers to the utmost.  We suffer when the ones we love suffer.  God, who loves more than we can, suffers more than we can.  God does this through his Son Jesus whose passionate love for humanity led to his passion and death on a cross. 

These are "the inscrutable riches of Christ" that St. Paul writes about in our second reading (Ephesians 3: 8-12,14-19).  It was God's plan to make creatures whom he would love, who would love him in return, and who would be united with him forever.  God created us so that we "may be filled with all the fullness of God."  How this is possible "surpasses knowledge."  It requires the knowledge and language of love.  As the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote: "The heart has reasons which reason does not know." 

We are able to "be filled with all the fullness of God" because of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, gifts from the very Heart of Jesus.  Our Gospel (John 19: 31-37) tells us that after Jesus had died on the cross a "soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out."  The Church has traditionally seen in the water the symbol of Baptism which unites us to the Body of Christ and in the blood the Eucharist which nourishes our union with him.  In Baptism we become temples of God the Holy Spirit and in the Eucharist we are "filled with all the fullness of God," the very body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ, including his Sacred Heart. 

The knowledge of this deep, personal, and passionate love of Jesus moved St. Ignatius to give all.  In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius, having reflected on the love of God revealed in various ways, responds with a prayer of total self-offering:   Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess.  You have given all to me.  To You, O Lord, I return it.  All is Yours.  Dispose of it wholly according to Your will.  Give me only Your love and Your grace.  With these I am rich enough and want for nothing more.

The knowledge of "the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" is what moved St. Ignatius to offer himself completely.  It is what moves every Jesuit who has come after him.  Vows are a return of love for love.  As Christ gave all out of love, so the one professing vows does so out of love.  So do we as we renew the Consecration of the Society of Jesus to the Sacred Heart. 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

John O'Brien is a Jesuit scholastic from Canada whom I met recently at a gathering of Jesuits who are involved in the work of the Apostleship of Prayer.  He is part of the Jesuit Mission Band that will be giving our popular "Hearts on Fire" retreats for young adults in six cities of the southern U.S. this summer.  Earlier this month he wrote a beautiful reflection on the image of the Sacred Heart for a blog that he and several other young Canadian Jesuits have begun.  It's called "Ibo et Non Redibo," which is Latin for "I shall go and I shall not return" and comes from a letter that the French Jesuit missionary and martyr St. Isaac Jogues wrote.   On this great feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus I am happy to share his reflections entitled "Heart of the World."

Pope Benedict has invited the faithful to renew their devotion to the Sacred Heart and with good reason: as a symbol – and object of meditation – it contains many dimensions of the mystery of God. Let’s reflect on a few of those.

First, the heart is visible. Jesus does not conceal his love, but makes it readily available to all. It
is offered to us. He is vulnerable in that respect. It calls us to let down our barriers.


There are thorns that encircle it. This is not a valentine, but a passionate love that has and will suffer for the beloved. Just as our own vulnerable love can sometimes suffer, so does Christ’s for us.


There’s a cross on top of the heart. John and Mary stood at the foot of the cross when others had run away. This is an invitation to us to stand with them for Jesus. However this plays out in our lives, this is love in action.


The wound. It reminds us of the blood and water that flowed when the heart was pierced by the soldier’s lance. Both elements signify the life (Eucharist and baptism) that results from his sacrifice. It is also the birth of the Church.


The fire blazing. The most dramatic element, it tells us about the fierce love that God has for his people. It offers light and warmth to all who approach, and its blaze melts the hardened parts of our hearts. This fire is also contagious, and will inflame us in going out to set the world on fire.

Jesuit Meeting in St. Louis

I just returned from a gathering in St. Louis of over 20 Jesuits who are interested in the work of the Apostleship of Prayer.  This is the fourth such meeting since 2007.  There were Jesuits, young and old, from around the country and this year's meeting included two Jesuit scholastics from Canada who are members of this summer's Jesuit Mission Band which will be giving "Hearts on Fire" retreats for young adults in six cities throughout the South.  Their schedule and more information can be found here. 

We began Monday evening with Evening Prayer and then shared about the role that devotion to the Sacred Heart has played in our lives.  Tuesday was a full day.  After Morning Prayer, I gave a presentation entitled "The Apostleship of Prayer: an Ignatian and Eucharistic Spirituality."  Then Fr. Claudio Barriga, the International Delegate for the Apostleship of Prayer in the Jesuit Curia in Rome, talked about the Apostleship of Prayer and the Eucharistic Youth Movement from an international perspective.  He also shared parts of a document designed to promote the "recreation" of the Apostleship of Prayer.  By presenting the traditional mission and practices of the Apostleship of Prayer in a new light, the document is another step in the process of its worldwide renewal so that it may play a role in the new evangelization. 

In the afternoon Fr. Phil Hurley, the Youth and Young Adult Director of the Apostleship in the U.S., and a panel of Jesuits who have worked on past "Hearts on Fire" retreats gave a presentation and talked about their experience of the first two years of these retreats.  Lastly, before celebrating Mass together, we discussed how the Apostleship of Prayer can play a greater role in the work of various Jesuit institutions-- universities, high schools and other schools, parishes, and retreat houses. 

After Morning Prayer on Wednesday, I gave another presentation.  This one was entitled "A Contemporary Approach to Sacred Heart Spirituality."  It was followed by a discussion about collaborating with various organizations and initiatives like the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement and Christian Life Communities (CLC).  We also heard from Joseph Hill, a Jesuit scholastic who has been teaching at Jesuit High in New Orleans, about the revival of the Sodality there and the Camino Retreats with which he has been involved.  These retreats, like the "Hearts on Fire" events, target young adults, 19 to 39, and lead them, over a series of four 3 day silent retreats, through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

In the afternoon I, Fr. Hurley, Fr. Chris Collins (the President of the Apostleship's Board of Directors), and Dr. Doug Leonard (the Apostleship's Director of Operations and Development) talked about the obstacles we face, the opportunities we have, and our needs, both in terms of personnel and finances.  We ended our meetings with a Holy Hour that included a personal consecration prayer to the Sacred Heart and then Mass. 

In planning this meeting I wasn't sure how much time to schedule for questions and discussion.  Based on the lively discussions that followed the presentations, it's clear that we could have used more time! 

Magis and World Youth Day

I've been in Milwaukee all week, holding down the fort at the Apostleship of Prayer national office. Fr. Phil Hurley has been in Spain. I've tried to follow the events of Magis and World Youth Day and want to share some of those experiences here.


What is "Magis?" It's Latin for "More" and it's a theme that appears in the life of St. Ignatius and the order he founded, the Jesuits. For St. Ignatius, it wasn't enough to live and work for God's glory. He wanted to give his life for God's greater glory. That's the "more," the "magis."

Magis was a pre-World Youth Day program that brought together, from around the world, people associated with Jesuit schools and apostolates. They broke into small groups and engaged in service projects and pilgrimages. Some went to the birthplace of St. Ignatius where he also experienced his conversion and some others went on the Camino, the road to Santiago Compostela, to the shrine of St. James the Apostle to which pilgrims have journeyed for centuries.


Since the Magis program did not accept pilgrims under the age of 18, some Jesuit schools, like Jesuit High in New Orleans, made their own pre-WYD pilgrimage to the Ignatian sites. I was inspired by a blog entry of one of their chaperones, a Jesuit scholastic or seminarian, Nathan O'Halloran, which can be found here. There are other photos and descriptions of their pilgrimage here. I commented on Nathan's blog that I found these to be a "virtual pilgrimage" for one who stayed home. Through these two links I not only saw the sights but also experienced some of the grace of the pilgrimage.

Fr. Phil Hurley and the Apostleship of Prayer were present at the largest English-speaking venue at WYD in Madrid, the Love and Life site. He was part of a panel that talked about prayer and he sent us the link to the video that Salt + Light TV from Canada made of the presentations. His own contribution can be found on the video from 1:36:40 to 1:47:34 at the following site:


http://www.livestream.com/wydcentral/video?clipId=pla_e759f459-dc2f-4e1d-b640-4b72744e4f6f

I commented on our Facebook page that I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting requests for Fr. Phil to sing after he displayed his musical talent in the video.

Though a rain storm spoiled some of the Saturday night vigil, I'll be blogging more about that another time....

The Magis Institute

I stayed an extra day in southern California after my recent retreat there. No. It wasn't just to avoid the cold and gray Wisconsin November in order to bask in the warmth and sun. I went to visit a Jesuit friend, Fr. Robert Spitzer, former president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA and currently running the Magis Institute located in Irvine, CA.

It was an amazing visit. Fr. Spitzer's latest book is already in its fourth printing. It's entitled "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy." As a result of this book and his response to the Physicist Stephen Hawking's claim that "the universe can come from nothing," Fr. Spitzer was invited to be on "Larry King Live." He recently traveled to Rome where, after speaking, he received invitations to 22 different countries to speak about his work. He is in the process of creating a curriculum for schools and on his Magis Center of Reason and Faith web site he has an "Ask Fr. Spitzer" column as well as other great resources.

Fr. Spitzer and I talked about ways that the Apostleship of Prayer and the other part of the Magis Institute--the Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality--might collaborate. I've already been working a bit with the Center which has an email service that sends daily reflections written by Jesuits to subscribers around the world.

I'm blessed to have such a brilliant friend who is also a holy Jesuit. In his homily at Mass on Monday morning, he talked about the story of the blind man of Jericho (Luke 18: 35-43). Jesus answered his prayer that he might see by healing him. Fr. Spitzer has made this same prayer. His eye sight is very bad and he needs the help of others to read the books he uses for his research. How much more good he could do if only he had good vision! Yet, he pointed out, that while God has not answered his prayer for healing, he has received another gift that is perhaps better. Humility. I'm reminded of what St. Ignatius wrote in "The First Principle and Foundation" of his "Spiritual Exercises": "Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created." That end? "To praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to" find salvation. Thus, "as far as we are concerned, we should not prefer health to sickness," or, in Fr. Spitzer's case, good eye sight to poor eye sight. Of course it is natural to want good eye sight and to pray for it. But in the end, when God has a better gift for us that is more helpful to our ultimate goal of salvation, we can accept even blindness as a gift. It's tough, but holiness isn't for wimps. I'm grateful to Fr. Spitzer for the reminder.

Belated Birthday Greetings

Belated Birthday Greetings to Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother!

I had hoped to make this greeting yesterday but it was a busy day in the office and in my community. So I'm a day late. September 8, nine months after the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the Feast of the Nativity of Mary.

We didn't pray the rosary in my family when I was growing up. I remember praying it at wakes and on special occasions in the Catholic grade school I attended. It certainly wasn't part of my spiritual life in high school. So when Fr. John Eagan, S.J. proposed that I and my five friends who were about to leave Milwaukee on a two week camping trip with him in the summer of 1969 pray a rosary as we drove, I rolled my eyes. The rosary wasn't cool. Seven of us were crammed into a station wagon: three in the front seat, three in the back seat, and one in the very back behind all the equipment and supplies. That was the choice spot that we all took turns getting because the one in that spot didn't have to lead one of the decades of the five decade rosary. In fact, being in the back as the car rolled down the highway, he didn't have to respond. He could nap or read or just zone out.

By the end of the trip something had happened to me. It was my turn to sit in the back of the wagon and not participate in praying the rosary. But I declined. I wanted to pray the rosary. I can't recall the reason anymore. Somehow, on a level below any conscious reasons, I felt good praying the rosary.

After my high school graduation I went off to college, commuting 35 minutes in a car my parents had bought me for that purpose. I began my commute praying the rosary. Most of the time I recited the prayers fast to get through them and then turn on the radio to the local pop station. Nevertheless, the rosary had become part of my life and I can't help thinking now that in connecting myself to Mary in this way, she somehow came to play a greater and greater role in my vocation.

After one year of college I entered the Jesuit novitiate. At night, before our common prayer at 10, I would take a walk and pray the rosary. A couple times a week, when I returned to the novitiate at night after working as an orderly at a nursing home, I walked back from the bus stop praying the rosary. And when it came time to finish the novitiate and pronounce perpetual vows as a Jesuit, I considered Mary to be the Mother of my vocation. Jesuits don't change their names when they enter the novitiate or take vows as other consecrated persons, both men and women, often do. But we do have a tradition of taking a devotional vow name. It's an option and the six of us who pronounced vows as Jesuits in St. Paul, Minnesota in August, 1973 all took a vow name. I remember one took "Jeremiah" and another took "Ignatius." I took "Mary." As the Mother of my vocation, that was only natural. Moreover, my middle initial was already "M" for "Michael," so it worked well. Now, when I sign official documents and include my middle initial, I sign "M" for "Michael" but also think of it as "M" for "Mary."

That's why I didn't want to miss the opportunity of celebrating my Mother's birthday this year.

"Take Lord, Receive"

Today is the feast day of the founder of my religious order, the Jesuits. It's the feast of St. Ignatius who was so in love with Jesus and so wanted his companions to share that same love, that he called his congregation the Company or Society of Jesus. He did not want it to be named after him. His disciples were not to be followers of Ignatius but followers of Jesus.

I'm at the Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, Minnesota and I can't think of a better place or way to be celebrating the feast. One of the great gifts that God gave to the world through St. Ignatius was his retreat manual which was based on his own spiritul experiences. It's called, simply, "The Spiritual Exercises." I'm giving those "Exercises" to a group of 56 men and in giving them I'm blessed to be experiencing as well their grace.

"The Spiritual Exercises" are the basis for what we call "the simple and profound way of life" that is the Apostleship of Prayer. It really is very simple. The "Exercises" help me to know that God loves me very much and has given me everything that I am and have. How should I respond to such love? With all my love, giving all to God in a return of love for love. The "Exercises" end with a simple prayer of offering which in Latin is known as "The Suscipe." It's one of my favorite prayers and I use it every morning along with a few others when I wake up and before I get out of bed. The version I use goes like this:

Take Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will, all that I have and hold and possess. You have given all to me; to You, O Lord, I return all it. All is Yours. Dispose of it wholly according to Your will. All that I ask is for Your love and Your grace. With these I am rich enough and want for nothing more.

This prayer is basically the culmination of the "Spiritual Exercises." It is an offering of love that can be renewed every day with the Daily or Morning Offering Prayer. Thus the daily offering spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer flows naturally from "The Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius and it should be no surprise that the Apostleship was founded by a Jesuit.

Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos

My religious order, the Society of Jesus, has a new "blessed" today. Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos, who lived from 1711 to 1735, was beatified in Spain. This young Spanish Jesuit joins an illustrious group of young Jesuit saints: St. Stanislaus Kostka who was 17 when he died, St. John Berchmans who was 22, and St. Aloysius Gonzaga who was 24. Bl. Bernardo de Hoyos was also only 24 when he died but unlike the others he was a priest. Wait a minute! Doesn't Jesuit formation take 10 to 12 years or more from the time of entrance to ordination? Yes. So did Bl. Bernardo rush through the normal course? No, not really. Why? Because he entered the Jesuits when he was only 14 and he served less than 11 months as a priest before he died of typhus.


What makes this new Jesuit blessed especially important to the Apostleship of Prayer is that he is known as the first apostle of the Sacred Heart in Spain. In a short time, Bl. Bernardo grew in holiness through his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.


In 1732 he wrote: "I see that everything in my heart is moving towards God, drawn like iron to a magnet. It desires only God, searches only for God, and longs only for God." Within a year of this he felt a deep call to promote devotion to the Heart of Jesus. He wrote: "I felt in my spirit an extraordinary motion--strong, gentle, not abrupt or impetuous. I then placed myself before the Blessed Sacrament, offering myself to His Sacred Heart in order to cooperate as much as possible ... in propagating devotion to it."


These two quotes remind me of something that Pope John Paul II wrote in his letter announcing the Year of the Eucharist, "Mane Nobiscum Domine:" "The presence of Jesus in the tabernacle must be a kind of magnetic pole attracting an ever greater number of souls enamoured of him, ready to wait patiently to hear his voice and, as it were, to sense the beating of his heart."

Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

Jesuit Father John Hardon lived from 1914 to 2000. I only met him once, briefly, and heard him give a talk at a fund-raiser for a private Catholic academy in Milwaukee. Archbishop Raymond Burke has opened up his cause for canonization and the more I learn about him the more I find myself enlisting his intercessory support for the work of the Apostleship of Prayer.

Fr. Hardon was a true apostle of the Sacred Heart. He was on fire with the same love that burns in the Heart of Jesus. He couldn't keep the fire to himself and did everything he could to spread it. He was a teacher, the author of numerous books and articles, a retreat director and the spiritual director of countless individuals, including Blessed Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity, the founder of the Institute on Religious Life and the Marian Catechists Apostolate. A Media Apostolate was founded at his request after he died.

The Fr. John Hardon, S.J. Archive and Guild is located in St. Louis. Its web site has a number of striking photos of Fr. Hardon including one in which he is visiting Blessed Mother Teresa in the hospital near the end of her life. The Institute on Religious Life has created a web site on which people who knew Fr. Hardon can share their stories.

The following is a prayer for the beatification and canonization of Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.:

Almighty God, You gave Your servant, Father John Anthony Hardon of the Society of Jesus, the grace of consecration as a religious dedicated to the apostolate and the grace of consecration as an ordained priest, after the Heart of Your Divine Son, our Good Shepherd.

Through Father Hardon, You provided Your Flock an extraordinary teacher of the faith.

You entrusted Father Hardon into the loving care of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose counsel, "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn. 2: 5) he faithfully followed and whose intercession he unceasingly invoked.

If it be Your holy will, please grant the request I now make, calling upon the help of Father Hardon, so that his herioc sanctity may be recognized in the whole Church.

I ask this through Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with You and the Holy Spirit, is one God forever and ever. Amen.

"For the Greater Glory of God"

AMDG. For the Greater Glory of God. That is the motto of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, and it was the title for the 2010 National Meeting of the Institute on Religious Life that was held this weekend in Mundelein, IL. This annual meeting is always a blessing and this year was a special one because it was held to honor a brother Jesuit--Fr. John Hardon--who died on December 30, 2000 and whose cause for canonization has been opened. The subtitle of the meeting was "The Theological, Spiritual, and Apostolic Legacy of Rev. John A. Hardon, S.J., Servant of God."

The meeting began on Friday morning with a special session for consecrated persons at Marytown, a place that has had 24 hour Eucharistic Adoration since 1928. Mother Assumpta Long, foundress and superior of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, gave a talk entitled "In Pursuit of Perfect Charity: Father Hardon's Quest for Authentic Renewal of Religous Life." She said that Fr. Hardon "loved God with his whole being, and loved those whom God loves in the same way." She was followed by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, whose talk was "Loyal Son of Ignatius: The Religious and Priestly Witness of Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., Servant of God."

Archbishop Raymond Burke presided at Mass Friday afternoon and gave the keynote address which was entited "For the Greater Glory of God: The Lasting Legacy of Fr. John A. Hardon."

On Saturday there were two main addresses in the morning. Journalist Jay McNally shared stories from the biography of Fr. Hardon which he is writing and Fr. Louis Guardiola, of the Fathers of Mercy, spoke on "The Eucharistic Spirituality of Fr. John Hardon, S.J."

In the afternoon there were various workshops available that covered a variety of topics: the canonization process; the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius; Mary as Model, Missionary, and Mother; evangelization; and the one I attended, "Preaching the Gospel to the Digital Generation."

Archbishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, IL celebrated Mass and I had the honor of preaching. I plan on posting the homily I gave in the next few days. A specially commissioned muscial composition and score in honor of Fr. Hardon was premiered at this Mass.

The day ended with a wonderful banquet at which Archbishop Burke received the annual "Pro Fidelitate et Virtute" award which is given to individuals who manifest a strong love for the Church and a zealous commitment to the consecrated life. Archbishop Burke knew Fr. Hardon and helped him in founding a group called the Marian Catechist Apostolate.

Today there was another major address by Douglas Bushman of the Institute for Pastoral Theology--"Responding to the Call to Martyrdom." All the talks are available from the Institute on Religious Life.

Fr. Hardon founded the Institute on Religious Life in 1974 and it was a deep consolation for me to be a part of this meeting in his honor. Fr. Hardon was very devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was a great promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer. I had been thinking how it was too bad that he didn't live to see the current revival of the Apostleship and how that behind the revival is the devotion of many younger Jesuits to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But then it occured to me: Fr. Hardon's intercession after he died is what's behind the current revival.

Arrivaderci Roma!

Goodbye Rome! I flew out Sunday morning and with the sun chasing me across the Atlantic I landed in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon. After a bit of a layover there, I got to Milwaukee by 10 P.M., just in time for a new snowfall.

To give an idea about the meeting of the newly formed international advisory council of the Apostleship of Prayer...

The Apostleship of Prayer exists in an official way in 61 countries. In two of those countries (Ethiopia and Kenya), the national directors are Religious Sisters; in two others (Switzerland and Belgium), they are lay people. In the rest, 57 countries, the national directors are Jesuits, half of whom are over 75 years old. Of the half who are under 75, only 17 have the Apostleship of Prayer as their full-time or primary ministry. Every diocese is supposed to have a Diocesan Director of the Apostleship of Prayer who is appointed by the Bishop, but in the U.S. there are only about 24 dioceses that have such Directors. When I go around the country giving retreats and missions it is not uncommon to meet with a Bishop who knows nothing about the Apostleship.

Thus our little group met in Rome with the International Delegate and our Director General to discuss the renewal of the Apostleship. It is not something that should die. From its beginning in 1844 it has offered to people a profoundly Eucharistic way of living. We "offer up" our entire day through the Daily Offering and in that way find meaning as well as God's will in the daily routines and sufferings of life.

Here in the U.S., I see a renewal of the Apostleship of Prayer going on. A lot of that is due to the Internet, as well as radio and other media. Where in the past people became a part of the Apostleship by enrolling through their parish, today people are finding us on the Internet and becoming part of our prayer community. I won't call it a "virtual community" because it is a very real community that is connected at the deepest level possible--at the level of the heart by means of prayer.

The Rooms of St. Ignatius

On Monday evening I celebrated Mass with the other small group of Jesuits who are here in Rome for a meeting to discuss the Apostleship of Prayer. We celebrated in a little chapel which used to be one of the rooms where St. Ignatius dwelt and where he died. Monday was the feast of St. Claude la Colombiere, who lived a little over a century after St. Ignatius, and it was appropriate that we began our meetings with Mass on his feast and in the rooms of St. Ignatius. St. Claude was the spiritual director of the great Sacred Heart visionary, St. Margaret Mary.

In my homily I spoke about the connections between St. Ignatius, St. Claude, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Apostleship of Prayer. St. Claude, formed by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, had a deep, personal love for Jesus and in particular for his humanity. Jesus loves us with a Heart that is human and divine. Knowing the love of Jesus which is symbolised by his Sacred Heart, St. Claude, following the direction of St. Ignatius, would have listened to what this Heart had to say to him in his prayer and would have responded as one friend speaks to another. He would have had a heart to Heart conversation with Jesus.

But love, as St. Ignatius taught, is expressed in more than words. In fact, it is expressed best in deeds. At the end of the Spiritual Exercises St. Ignatius invites the retreatant to ponder all the good things God has done and to ask, what would a reasonable person do? The answer is to give as one has received. Since we have received everything from God, and since God has held back nothing of himself, then we too ought to make a total offering of ourselves to God. Such an offering is best renewed each day, one day at a time.

And such an offering will ultimately involve sacrifice. It will mean surrendering our own plans, desires, and will to God. This is what happened in the life of St. Ignatius who wanted to be a priest directly serving people in pastoral ways and ended up the last decade of his life as a priest-administrator. Out of love for Jesus, he gave himself to the task of organizing the Jesuit order he founded and writing its Constitutions. He sacrificed his will for the will of God. Love inspired him to do so.

Similarly, St. Claude sacrificed his plans and desires. After serving as St. Margaret Mary's spiritual director he went to England where he was ultimately imprisoned, became ill, and was released lest his death create a political crisis with France. He died a short time later at the early age of 42.

The Daily Offering of the Apostleship of Prayer can only be made as an act of love. If it doesn't arise out of the knowledge of God's deep personal love, it is in danger of becoming a routine or a part of a business negotiation with God. That idea is one of the things we discussed yesterday and today. But more on those discussions another time....

Off to Rome

People are usually very surprised that I--57 years old, a Jesuit for 38 years and a priest for 26--have never been to Rome. It's the truth. I've been to South Korea, Guatemala and Mexico, the Philippines, Chile, the Holy Land, Spain and Portugal, and, of course Canada, but I've never been to Rome. Next week that will change. I leave tomorrow and arrive in Rome on Saturday for a week of meetings about the Apostleship of Prayer.

Fr. Claudio Barriga, S.J. is the Director General's Delegate for the Apostleship of Prayer and the Eucharistic Youth Movement. He has formed a group that he calls his International Counselors and we will meet next week with him as well as the Director General, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, the General Superior of the Jesuits. I'm arriving a bit early in order to get over jet-lag and to see some of Rome. I'm told that the Jesuit community where I'll be staying has computers with internet access for visitors and so I'm hoping to post reports during my week in Rome.

The other Counselors are: Fr. Juan Antonio Medina, S.J., the National Secretary of Uruguay and the Coordinator of the Latin American Apostleship of Prayer; Fr. Fidelis Jayabalan, S.J., the National Secretary of India; Fr. Frederic Fornos, S.J., the National Secretary of France; and Fr. Rigobert Kyungu, S.J., the National Secretary of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Coordinator of the African Apostleship of Prayer. It is a privilege for me, as the National Director or Secretary of the U.S. Apostleship of Prayer to be a part of this group and its discussions.

We begin on Tuesday and go through Saturday. The proposed schedule is as follows:

8:30 AM Work Session
12:15 PM Prayer
12:45 PM Break
1:00 PM Lunch
3:00 PM Work Session
5:45 PM Break
6:00 PM Prayer
6:30 PM Mass
7: 15 PM Supper
8:30 PM Informal Sharing

Fr. Barriga's "General Objective" for us is to "discuss ways that the Apostleship of Prayer can be renewed." I'm eager to talk about how I am seeing such a renewal in the U.S., primarily as a result of old media (radio) and new media (internet, blogs).

I'm looking forward to these meetings, to seeing Rome, and to tasting a lot of what I can honestly say is my favorite food--Italian pasta.

The Motherhood of Mary

Happy and Blessed New Year! On this first day of the calendar year we celebrate a Solemnity in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. We are celebrating her motherhood. The Responsory in the Office of Readings today says it all:

O pure and holy Virgin,
how can I find words to praise your beauty?
The highest heavens cannot contain God whom you carried in your womb.

Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
The highest heavens cannot contain God whom you carried in your womb.

Mary is the Mother of God. Because Jesus is truly God and truly human we can truthfully call Mary the Mother of God.

Mary is the Mother of Christ. She gave flesh to the Messiah, God's Anointed One.

Mary is the Mother of the Body of Christ, the Church. In Baptism each of the faithful are joined to Christ and become members of His Body. We can truthfully say that Mary is the Mother of the Church and we can say that Mary is the Mother of each member of the Church. She is, in a very real and personal way, my Mother and your Mother.

In 1969 I went on a two week camping trip that changed my life. I and five of my high school classmates and Fr. John Eagan, a Jesuit who taught and mentored us, drove around Lake Superior. From the first morning to the last, when we got into the station wagon to head out, we began the day's journey with a rosary. This was not something we were excited about. We vied for the very back of the station wagon where, behind all the knap sacks, sleeping bags, and tents we wouldn't have to participate in reciting the rosary. But by the end of the trip something had happened to me. It was my turn to be in the back and be free of the obligation to pray the rosary and I opted out. I gave my turn to a classmate and chose to sit up front in order to participate in the recitation of the rosary. I can't help thinking that in a quiet and gentle way Mary heard the reluctant prayers of this youth going into his last year of high school and claimed him as a special son.

I entered into my senior year of high school a different person with a more positive attitude toward myself and toward life. And I began to think: maybe I should do for other young people what Fr. Eagan had done for me. Maybe I should become a Jesuit. The seed of my Jesuit vocation had been planted, but I decided to go off to college first and to experience more of life. I commuted to a small Catholic college a half hour from where I lived. Every day as I drove to school I first prayed a rosary. Sometimes I prayed it very fast in order to get through it as soon as possible so that I could then turn on the radio and listen to the Top 40.

I can't help thinking that this, in a way, is what Blessed Francisco of Fatima did as well. Before Our Lady appeared to him and to his sister Jacinta and his cousin Lucia, they would pray the rosary while tending sheep. But he wanted to play and so he suggested that they shorten their prayers and instead of praying the entire Hail Mary they simply pray the words "Hail Mary." Perhaps this is why when Mary first appeared to the children Francisco could not see her and she told Lucia that he would only be able to if he prayed the rosary. Before he finished the first decade he could see her.

"Hail Mary!" the children shouted. "Hail Mary...." I recited quickly as I drove to school. And Mary answered. She appeared to the children at Fatima and somehow she nurtured the seed that had been planted in my heart. After a few months of college I decided to apply to the Jesuits and was accepted.

Mary, Mother of God. Mother of Christ. Mother of the Church. Mary, my Mother. And that's why I add another title to this little litany: Mary, Mother of my vocation.

Jesus is Everything!

Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of my religious order, the Jesuits. Every year I find myself reflecting on the life of this man and the order he founded--our history, spirit, and charism. When St. Ignatius and the first Jesuits began their work people asked them who they were. St. Ignatius was very clear: they were not to be known as the followers of Ignatius or "Ignatians." They were followers and companions of Jesus. He, not Ignatius, was to be their model. Thus came the name, which at the time was quite radical, "Company of Jesus," or, as it was translated from the Latin, "Society of Jesus." Jesus was to be the center of their lives. He was everything to them.

I thought of this today in conjunction with a story about Fr. Pedro Arrupe, the 28th General Superior of the Jesuits. In a series of autobiographical interviews early in 1981, before he was struck by a debilitating stroke, Fr. Arrupe answered the question: "For you, who is Jesus Christ?" His response would, I think, make St. Ignatius proud:

That same question was asked me, unexpectedly, during an interview which I gave on Italian television about five years ago. The question took me by surprise, and I answered it in a completely spontaneous way: "For me Jesus Christ is everything." And today I am giving you the same answer with still more strength and clarity, "For me Jesus Christ is everything." So, I would define what Jesus Christ represents in my life as "everything."

He was and is my ideal from the moment of my entrance into the Society. He was and he continues to be my way; he was and he still is my strength. I don't think it is necessary to explain very much what that means. Take Jesus Christ from my life and everything would collapse--like a human body from which someone removed the skeleton, heart, and head.

I think this is true for everyone. All are not Jesuits--companions or followers of Jesus in the Society that bears His name. But all the baptized are Christians--"other Christs," members of His Body, the Church. For every Christian, Jesus Christ is "the way and the truth and the life" (see John 14: 6). For all of us, Jesus is everything!