by Tim O'Brien, SJ | Feb 20, 2012 | Uncategorized ~ Approx. 1min
For the past couple of weeks the poetic world has been mourning the death of Wisława Szymborska, the Polish poet and Nobel Laureate in Literature. She passed away at the age of 88. Though an accomplished poet, it is a work of her prose that has embedded itself in my...
by Michael Rossmann, SJ | Feb 20, 2012 | Uncategorized ~ Approx. 7 mins
This has gone too far. I have decided to take serious action. The other day it finally dawned on me that I’ve been going to ESPN.com for the sole reason of checking the most updated player efficiency ratings (PER) to see whether LeBron James’s numbers have slipped...
by The Jesuit Post | Feb 20, 2012 | Week in Review ~ Approx. 1min
Last week, two of our contributors made a point of knocking some conventional objects of piety down a peg or two — James Martin, returning to TJP’s pages again, confessed that watching Downton Abbey makes him feel a bit guilty, and Jayme Stayer, in his debut...
by Brendan Busse, SJ | Feb 17, 2012 | Blogs ~ Approx. 3 mins
During the first week of my long retreat I was having disturbingly vivid dreams about wounded children. Every morning I’d awake having dreamt of kids in hospital beds, kids with swollen limbs, kids with gaping wounds that covered their bodies. Terrible. At the...
by Matt Spotts, SJ | Feb 15, 2012 | Blogs ~ Approx. 2 mins
Late last fall, I gave my first public singing performance. I had picked up voice lessons for the first time in my life just previously, and was totally shocked by how much I enjoyed it. I appreciated the music I was learning. I liked my teacher, and, while I am not...
by Jayme Stayer, SJ | Feb 15, 2012 | Uncategorized ~ Approx. 11 mins
Most contemporary Christian poetry is revolting. For all I know, there may be piles of finger-lickin’-good poems written for Muslim and Jewish consumption, but I can say with certainty that I would rather be crushed under a load of bricks than read another saccharine...
by Perry Petrich, SJ | Feb 15, 2012 | Uncategorized ~ Approx. 1 min
Have you ever wanted to teach middle school? I thought not. It’s no easy task to get sixth graders to sit still, must less get knowledge in their heads. You can imagine my astonishment when I saw a room full of twelve-year olds, silent and still. My Chicago Jesuit...
by Eric Sundrup, SJ | Feb 14, 2012 | Uncategorized ~ Approx. 1min
I was sitting in Mass Saturday morning and got lost in the Gospel… In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said… My imagination, as it is wont to do, took over. And yet again I heard the roaring of...
by Joe Simmons, SJ | Feb 14, 2012 | Blogs ~ Approx. 4 mins
My mind has forgotten, or blissfully blocked, the sarcastic comment that prompted her words. I may never recall what I said to her, but I sure remember my sister’s response. It cut like a knife: “And you’re studying to be a priest?” *** All Jesuit novices undergo a...
by Tim O'Brien, SJ | Feb 13, 2012 | Uncategorized ~ Approx. 2min
“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” though I don’t know why this bit of wisdom would be restricted to men only. But I do know that an article in last Wednesday’s New York Times left me wondering if one way to God’s heart might pass through our stomachs....
