In response to my friend A Simple Sinner (whose name I cannot and will not abbreviate), I post the following:

I have recently been made aware of two wonderful Jesuit prayer sites (I listed them wrong initially). They are

sacredspace.ie

pray-as-you-go.org

I LOVE what they're saying, but I must say they take a very different approach than I encountered in my fundamentalist upbringing. In fact, there are many people (sort of non-practicing, unitarian-esque Catholics) who, in fact, will go to church if the priest is a Jesuit.

What I have experienced on these two sites is a much more loving, healing approach to life and faith. It seems to help people have a more healthy way of looking at themselves and their sins...not to ignore them, but not to obsess with them either.

But I seem to also have in the back of my mind that some Jesuits may be a little "questionable" in what they teach? Is that true?

What do you guys think? I'd appreciate it if you'd at least read through the daily reflection on the first site (the second one is an audio podcast (about 10 minutes per day).

Look forward to the responses.

Re Jesuits: I trust them more than I trust the undereducated and uneducated priests of other ilks, especially other "communions" not to be mentioned here. :rolleyes:

My parents thought they had the answer to everything rational. For a spiritual, more mysterious explanation, we went to the Dominicans, Benedictines, etc. But if you wanted to know the reason of the mystery, you went to the Jesuits. I am biased, though. I was Jesuit educated from High School on. I even made a brief stint in the Jesuits post High-school for a few years.

I will say, that I went to see my Jesuit confessor today and was disappointed in what he had to say to me. I love him, though.

Mike,
That's good to know. I've liked what I've seen so far.

Do you know where the controversy comes from? Is it coming from the side of Protestants? I just don't remember where I got in my head that there was a problem.

David Z, Care to weigh in on this subject? Teaching at Marquette with the likes of MacGuire must indeed be a challenge to any traditional-minded Catholic. I would be curious to hear what you have to say. However, you may have to post as a pseudonym incase the other profs are reading this. :unsure:

I have a Jesuit priest as my spiritual director. Fr. William (Bill) Kurz. (He's also a rather prominent Catholic New Testament scholar, so you may have heard of him.)

Like many religious orders (and diocesan seminaries, etc.) the Society of Jesus, in my opinion, did go through rather a, um, "progressive" phase. There were some pretty kooky Jesuits who did/said some pretty kooky things. However, that began to change again for the better some years ago, and frankly, I have been impressed with some of the younger Jesuits I've met. We have some pretty good guys here at Marquette. (One of the best we had, Fr. Ray Gawronski, SJ, has left to take a spiritual direction position at the seminary in the Archdiocese of Denver. He is one of the world's FOREMOST experts on the late Hans Urs, Cardinal von Balthasar).

There is a lot I like about the Society of Jesus. Quite a lot.


BTW, did you know that the Vatican has an observatory -- and has for a couple hundred years? Guess who runs it? The Jesuits!

PS -- For some reason, Dan Maguire and I don't find much to say to one another!

Ironically, there is an ARCH conservate doctoral student at Marquette also named Dan Maguire!

oh my, :o I hope their (the Dans) phone calls and mail occassionaly mix up that could be fun!

Thanks David for your summary of the Jesuits in your experience. I also know Fr. G.

Oh,

I thought you guys were talking about Al... :D


Roy

:D :D :D

Well yeah... there have been really controversial Jesuits like the late Fr. Robert Drinan, who was a law professor, and one - time Congressman who ran as a Democrat. He did a favour by opposing the war but he faltered by being of the legal opinion that abortion was alright.

Then of course, Frs. Daniel Berrigan and John Dear, who are anti-war, peace activists. I know John Dear has actually had his passport revoked and these guys have actually gone to jail for their work.

Most Jesuits in the public eye are the ones we would consider liberals. However, there have been some rather conservative ones like Fr. John Hardon and Cardinal Paolo Dezza.

Nevertheless, for all their reputation of being liberals, I think that the ones i have come across with are not liberals. They are great and they are really "balls of steel" preachers. There was a political trial once which framed our former deputy PM once. One priest who was a lawyer once knew the frame-up and spoke about hypocrisy and the lack of integrity amongst Christians.

Of course, we knew that he was addressing it to the presiding judge of the case, who was Catholic. What we didn't know was that he was sitting in front of us. And as the priest denounced and said that a Catholic must never be in a position which conflicts with his Catholic identity, the judge just walked out of the church.

For all thats been said, I would love to recieve a Jesuit education, especially in theology.

Thanks for reminding me Collin of some of my true heroes of the faith in action. The Berrigan borthers and John Dear. There have been many others as well.

I hope you have the opportunity some day. I fyou want me to put in a good word for you at Saint Louis University, I will do so. I am sure David Z could help you out at Marquette.

Again, Happy Birthday!

The associate director of (I think!) international enrolment in Marquette is a good friend of mine. Her name is Ellen Blauw. I don't she'd remember me now though. But the good word will be appreciated.

As for SLU, there is a priest who hosted a personal website for Math and Computer Science. I visited his site for he had good Maple (Math software) tutorials. At that time when I visited his site, he was still the departmental head of Math and Computer Science. His name was Fr. Mike May.

PS: Has anyone done the Spiritual Exercises?

It's on my "list" to go on an Ignatian retreat.

I realize more and more every day I have so much to learn. Thanks for the information. The website I reference www.sacredspace.ie at the beginning of this thread has links to some of the exercises for practical day to day usage.

Actually, one of the Berrigan brothers was a Franciscan, not a Jesuit. He later left the order and the priesthood to marry. He died just last year, I believe.

The other brother was Phillip. Daniel was a Jesuit but Phillip was a Josephite Father. Josephites as I know it, serve the African - American community. Phillip left the priesthood in 1973 and died in 2002, not 2006. Daniel is still alive.

My, how time flies! You're right, of course.

Oops....I listed the Jesuit websites incorrectly. They're fixed now (no www) on my original post.

The thirty day version, twice. A simpler version several times. Try it you'll like it!

There is a priest in the Archdiocese of NY that shares my name - down to middle initial. We both are in the database at a few Catholic publishing companies, and if I phone an order in and they pull up my name, I have to make sure they have the "Mr." not the "Rev." It has saved me some headache a few times.