Loyola Press-Newsroom » Ignatian Spirituality

Fr. Barry to lead workshop at Ignatian Spirituality Conference

Loyola Press — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:51:04 +0000

Loyola Press author William A. Barry, SJ will speak at the Jesuit Collaborative Conference on Ignatian Spirituality at Fordham University in New York City, June 19-21, 2009. The conference, titled “The Principle and Foundation: Who We Are Before God”, will promote reflection, scholarship, learning and networking while coordinating the diverse ministries that derive from the Spiritual Exercises.

Fr. Barry’s workshop, entitled “The Principle and Foundation: Entering the Spiritual Exercises”, takes place Saturday, June 20 at 2 pm. More information about the conference can be found at the Jesuit Collaborative website. You can browse Fr. Barry’s books at Loyola Press’s online store.

Fr. Gary Smith, SJ, celebrates 50 years as a Jesuit

Loyola Press — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:49:43 +0000

Congratulations to Fr. Gary Smith, SJ, for being a 2009 Jubilarian. He is celebrating his fiftieth year in the Society of Jesus with 33 other Jesuits in the Oregon Province. Fr. Smith entered the Society on August 14, 1959. He was ordained in 1971 and took his final vows in 1987.

Gary Smith, SJ, is the author of They Come Back Singing and Radical Compassion. He is currently serving in South Africa through the Jesuit Refugee Service. For more information about this year’s Jubilarians, please visit the Society of Jesus Oregon Province website.

Loyola Press joins Ignatian Peace Action 2009

Loyola Press — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:07:11 +0000

This spring Loyola Press joined the Ignatian Peace Action 2009. This year’s theme is “Peace with Creation”, specifically, climate change and its impact on the poor. By participating in this year’s Peace Action, Loyola Press has joined a process that begins with prayer and moves to education, assessment, action, and advocacy. The Catholic Coalition’s website provides a resouce for advocacy and planning.

As part of the Ignatian Peace Action 2009, Loyola Press is implementing the following activities. First Loyola Press has designated April 22, Earth Day, as a day of prayer. This effort will be led by the Loyola Press Green Committee. This day of prayer includes the Ignatian Peace Action prayer and other reflection based activities. Secondly, the Loyola Press Green Committee and other Loyola Press team members will take the St. Francis Pledge. The Loyola Press Green Team also is sending weekly green tips to Loyola Press employees.

If you are impletmenting green habits into your work place, please share them at marketing@loyolapress.com.

James Martin, SJ, honored with the 2009 Writer’s Award in Spirituality

Loyola Press — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:21:32 +0000

James Martin, SJ, has been announced as the winner of the 2009 Writer’s Award in Spirituality. This award is given by the Loyola Institute for Spirituality at the Hearts on Fire Celebration. The Writer’s Award in Spirituality is awarded to a person who demonstrates excellence in furthering the spiritual teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola through his or her writings. James Martin, SJ, is the author of several Loyola Press books including My Life with the Saints and A Jesuit Off-Broadway.

The Hearts of Fire Celebration is an annual dinner and fundraiser that offers the Loyola Institute for Spirituality a chance to celebrate their ministry and honor contributors. The dinner is April 25, 2009 at the Double Tree Guest Suites at the Anaheim Resort/Convention Center. Along with Fr. Martin’s award, Bishop Gordon Bennet, SJ, will be honored with the Hearts on Fire Award and Mr. and Mrs. Eleuterio and Linda Rodriguez will be honored with the Rosita Diaz Award. For more information about the 2009 Hearts on Fire Celebration, please visit the Loyola Institute for Spirituality’s website.

Combining Age-Old Spiritual Technology with Today’s Best Practices Can Help You Find Your “Mighty Purpose” and Change the World

Loyola Press — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:51:37 +0000

With the country mired in one of the worst economic crises ever and two-thirds of Americans believing their children will have it worse than they do, it’s clear we live in discouraging times. Against this gloomy backdrop, Chris Lowney offers a bracing invitation: you were born to change the world! His new book tells how: Heroic Living: Discover Your Purpose and Change the World outlines a life strategy combining age-old spiritual wisdom with the best modern management ideas.

Heroic Living offers a timeless perspective on the eternal question of how we are to live. A how-to book for the business of being human that rejects conventional self-help thinking, it eschews simple solutions for a whole-life strategy that requires life-long practice.

The key is a spiritual technology developed by Saint Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, that for nearly five centuries has proven a powerful instrument for confronting life’s fundamental questions and figuring out one’s path in response. His classic Spiritual Exercises are an intense reflection process that inventories personal strengths and weaknesses to create self-awareness.

Lowney links this spiritual wisdom with modern ideas about strategy to show how each person, regardless of calling, career, or current situation, can discover a “mighty purpose.” The result is a practical, livable plan for mastering three vital skills:
•Articulating a purpose worth the rest of your life;
•Making wise career and relationship choices in an uncertain world;
•Making every day matter by mindful attention to your thoughts, actions and results.

Developing these life skills will help us move away from fractured, compartmentalized lives and towards wholeness and fulfillment.

A onetime Jesuit seminarian and a former Managing Director for J.P. Morgan & Co, Lowney drew from his unusual background in crafting the book. “Successful people must adapt to relentless change, make difficult choices, and juggle multiple obligations—and modern organizational practices can help us master these skills,” he says. “But we also need to find peace and fulfillment. That requires looking within ourselves and to our deepest beliefs to find a purpose worth living for, a vision worth fighting for, and values worth standing for.”

Lowney wants to recover the true meaning of heroism as something anyone can aspire to. Qualities such as strength, courage, and nobility make a hero, not fame and fortune. He tells stories of ordinary people doing heroic things to transform their worlds—whether in their family home, a Caracas slum, a Manila garbage dump, or a corporate boardroom. These heroes plumbed their deepest beliefs about the human person to frame their mighty purpose.

Their stories illustrate Lowney’s theme: “The time for the civilization of self is over,” he says. “It’s time to start building the civilization of love.”

“We are here on earth to live for some mighty purpose that uplifts and stretches us,” Lowney writes. “We are here to become visionaries who look beyond our self interest and our own lifetimes, because our hearts and spirits are greater than any job or sum of money.”

Heroic Living:
Discover Your Purpose and Change the World
Chris Lowney
Hardcover $22.95
978-0-8294-2442-3

Author Discovers Hope and Unrelenting Love Among Sudanese Refugees

Loyola Press — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:00:56 +0000

From Angelina Jolie to George Clooney to Bono, celebrities from every bent have alerted us to the critical situation of violence, poverty, starvation, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Fr. Gary Smith, a Jesuit priest from Oregon, is not of celebrity status, but that did not stop him from listening to the plight of the African people and spending six years living among and serving the Sudanese refugees.

His journey began one night in Portland, Oregon, while chatting with friends over pizza and beer. Smith started talking about how he was becoming too “comfortable” in his eight-year assignment of serving the homeless in the city. During this conversation, he realized he wanted to be with the poor in a radical way. What ensued was a life-changing experience for Smith.

They Come Back Singing, by Gary Smith, S.J., is his vivid, inspiring journal of the deep connections forged during the years he spent with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Northern Uganda/Southern Sudan refugee settlements.

Smith knew from the outset that Africa was uncharted territory for him and a risky journey. He saw first-hand the hopeless situation of the refugees and their unexpected strength and hope even in their most dire situations.

Through his account of being a missionary in Africa, Smith is both a witness to and a beneficiary of how God provides the strength to move forward in hope and with love. He was surrounded by suffering people who, despite being displaced by a brutal civil war, found the spiritual strength to let go of the many and deep sorrows of the past.

Smith is also the author of Radical Compassion: Finding God in the Heart of the Poor. A California native, he currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

They Come Back Singing:
Finding God with the Refugees
An African Journal by Gary Smith, S.J.
Loyola Press
Paperback $14.95
ISBN-13: 978-0-8294-2701-1

They Built More Than A School— They Built A Faith

Loyola Press — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:14:42 +0000

G.R. Kearney’s book, More Than a Dream, now available nationwide, chronicles the improbable story of how—and why—Cristo Rey high school opened to serve underprivileged Hispanic children.

“This was a story that needed to be told,” said Kearney, himself a former volunteer teacher for the school. “This school was—and is—unlike any other model of teaching that had previously existed. The book tells the individual success stories of young people from a poor, largely Hispanic community, who, in four years of high school, cross a divide that often takes several generations to bridge.

The model to fund the school—a corporate internship program that would generate revenue by sending a student to school four days a week and to a job one day a week—had never been tested before. Cristo Rey forged ahead and their students walked into entry-level jobs in Chicago companies and began funding 65 percent of the cost of their education.

Although the challenging beginnings of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School tested the faith of Chicago civic leaders and the resolve of the school’s Jesuit sponsors, the school has become nationally recognized as a ground-breaking financial and educational model for urban education while making a real difference in kid’s lives.

The school’s success led the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to donate $15 million to replicate the Cristo Rey model around the country. In fall of 2007, 98 percent of Cristo Rey graduates enrolled in college.

More than a Dream:
How One School’s Vision Is Changing the World
G.R. Kearney
Hardcover $22.95
978-0-8294-2576-5

New Book by Peace Activist Priest John Dear, SJ, Recounts Life of Civil Disobedience