There’s always the temptation for religious orders to lionize their founder. To point to a single person and say, “There! That’s the way to live the Christian life! Just do what they did.” Despite the number of parishes and programs and centers named for Ignatius of Loyola, the man himself was pretty resolute on the need to have your own experience of God. His experience was exactly that: his experience. The unique way God was at work in his life. Ignatian spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises are gifts to us so that we can come to encounter God in our own way. So, we can look to Ignatius h ..read more

Often in the story of St. Ignatius of Loyola, we zero in on the “cannonball moment.” It’s the instant in Ignatius’ story when everything changes—even if the would-be saint hasn’t yet fully realized it. But even more important than that war wound is the eleven months that follow, that long, tedious period of recovery and reflection and reading. It’s then that Ignatius encounters a book on Jesus Christ, and through that book, the God of Jesus Christ, the God who had been loving him all along—and speaking to him through his desires and experiences. That’s the moment in the Ignatian tradition that ..read more

“Lodge 49,” a comedy-drama TV series that ran on the channel AMC for two seasons, is about an ex-surfer named Dud (Wyatt Russell) who’s drifting through life after the loss of his father and the closing of his family’s pool supply store. He stumbles into a rundown old fraternal lodge belonging to a group called the Order of the Lynx. (Think of the freemasons or the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.) At the Lodge, he meets a luminous knight of the order named Ernie (Brent Jennings) who’s also a plumbing salesman. Ernie welcomes the much younger Dud with open arms. And so begins host Mike ..read more

As you probably know, the global Catholic Church is in the middle of a three-year synod process on the topic of synodality. The synod has featured thousands of listening sessions with the faithful all over the world, the biggest consultation process in the history of the church. Maybe you’ve been involved in one or more of these meetings yourself. One of the key themes that has emerged again and again in the reports on these meetings is women’s leadership in the church. Here’s how the document synthesizing the synod process in the United States puts it: “…there was recognition for the centrali ..read more

Most of us probably don’t stop to reflect on our use of technology and how the devices and apps we use affect our lives and society as a whole. What is it doing to our brains and our souls that we reach for our smartphones mindlessly hundreds of times a day? What do we say on social media that I wouldn’t say in real life, and how does our behavior online make the world better – or, more likely, worse? Today’s guest, L.M. Sacasas, is an incredible thinker and writer who has devoted his career to asking big questions of our technology and what it’s doing to our communal life and individual lives ..read more

For many of you listening, the idea of spiritual reading is probably a familiar concept. You might have a book or two on your bedside that you pray with each night: something on the lives of the saints or new insights into old spiritual practices. Next to that pile of spiritual books might be a bible, and each day you read a passage, slowly, prayerfully. It's not hard to look for the Holy Spirit at work in books you find in the spirituality section of your local bookstore. But what about in the other sections: fiction, sci-fi, romance and memoir? Is the Holy Spirit at work in those books, too ..read more

Fr. Ed Dowling is a Jesuit priest you might never have heard of before. After hearing his story, you might find yourself wondering how this holy man isn’t more renowned. Thanks to a new book by Dawn Eden Goldstein, Fr. Ed is finally getting his due. Goldstein is the author of “Father Ed: The Story of Bill W’s Spiritual Sponsor,” which is the first biography of Father Edward Dowling, SJ, a Jesuit from St. Louis who became a close friend and spiritual mentor to Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Although not an alcoholic himself, Fr. Ed had a deep understanding of the twelve-st ..read more

When Susan Bigelow Reynolds was studying theology in grad school at Boston College, she saw an advertisement for free housing at St. Mary of the Angels Church in the Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. In exchange for the place to live, she’d have to provide a few hours of parish work per week. That seemed like a good deal, so she moved right in. Little did she know that her decision would come to shape her academic focus, lead to six years of ethnographic research in the parish, and bring about the publication of her incredible new book, which is titled “People Get Ready: Ritual, Solidarity, and L ..read more

There’s nothing better than the Easter Triduum – from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday through the bitter, heavy celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday to the unparalleled drama of the Easter fire and baptizing new Christians at the Vigil on Saturday night. The one big danger this time of year: We’ve heard the stories of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection so many times now that it’s easy for them to go in one ear and out the other. To paraphrase the words of T.S. Eliot, we might have the experience but miss the meaning. Sometimes, approaching a familiar story li ..read more

One of the most interesting Jesuit universities in the world is Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon. Founded in 1875, Saint Joseph is the only Jesuit university in the Arab World. On its incredibly impressive list of alumni are seven presidents of Lebanon. The former Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, earned his doctorate there and then joined the faculty. Saint Joseph has a medical and a law school and five total campuses in all in the capital city. In the middle of a religiously diverse country, it brings together 12,000 students from all backgrounds, includin ..read more