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er blog so here goes 1 lord save me st peter 2 the anima christi soul of christ sanctify me body of christ save me blood of christ inebriate me water from the side of christ wash me passion of christ strengthen me o good jesus hear me within thy wounds hide me suffer me not to be separated from thee from the malignant enemy defend me in the hour of my death call me and bid me come to thee that with thy saints i may praise thee forever and ever amen 3 jeremiah s lament you duped me o lord and i let myself be duped you were too strong for me and you triumphed all the day i am an object of laughter everyone mocks me whenever i speak i must cry out violence and outrage is my message the word of the lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day i say to myself i will not mention him i will speak in his name no more but then it becomes like fire burning in my heart imprisoned in my bones i grow weary holding it in i cannot endure it but the lord is with me like a mighty champion sing to the lord praise the lord for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked jeremiah 20 7 13 amen posted by mark mossa sj at 12 51 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday august 10 2010 on retreat i m off today for my annual 8 day silent retreat giving thanks for the wonderful young adult retreat we had this past weekend in atlanta prayers appreciated peace fr mark posted by mark mossa sj at 11 04 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday august 3 2010 not quite michael clayton this year in addition to the various other things i was doing i gave a bit of my time to help in the work of njcir the national jesuit committee on investment responsibility the njcir invests in different corporations and then as stockholders meets with leaders of those corporations to discuss social justice concerns i wasn t sure what to expect when i agreed to do the job but it involved attending a couple of meetings with a corporation in white plains ny together with some njcir regulars and some representatives of partner organizations we sat down at a table and made our concerns known i wrote a short reflection on my experience for the njcir annual report here s some of what i had to say as we sat down to our meeting with the agribusiness company bunge corporation there were visions of the film michael clayton dancing through my head yet thankfully the only coincidence was the type of corporation we were dealing with tilda swinton s ruthless corporate villain was not sitting at the table with us instead there was a rather amiable cast of characters each willing to listen to our concerns i always thought that if i were advocating for such things i d be living beside the poor in a third world country not sitting at a corporate conference table in white plains ny our corporate responsibility efforts are certainly less visible and less romantic than advocating for refugees on the borders of africa but no less important but in the midst of doctoral studies and teaching at fordham university it is nice to know that 90 minutes of my time and a train ride to white plains can make a contribution to human rights and environmental justice in other parts of the world you can find out more about the njcir and read the entirety of my reflection in its annual report which can be found here posted by mark mossa sj at 4 22 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday july 31 2010 happy feast of saint ignatius today is the feast of saint ignatius of loyola founder of the jesuits it is a day when jesuits around the world gather for a special celebration in new orleans where my jesuit province is based we honor today the men who are celebrating various jubilees as jesuits and priests this includes men who are celebrating 25 to 70 years of ministry as jesuits we thank god for their dedicated and continuing service to the people of god you can learn more about our jubilarians here i will not be able to join them today but part of being a worldwide society means that we often gather with the local community wherever we find ourselves on this day today another jesuit from my province and myself will be joining our brothers in belgium to celebrate the founder s feast a while back i wrote a series of reflections on ignatius life the first one talks about the scene depicted in the left hand panel of the above photo of the sanctuary of ignatius loyola church in manhattan it s the battle in pamplona during which ignatius is injured it proved to be an injury that would change his life and eventually the lives of countless others a recent article describes ignatius loyola church the curved apse presents three main events in the life of st ignatius these huge murals of colorful venetian glass mosaics resemble renaissance paintings and are by the same company that crafted the stations of the cross the scenes show ignatius wounded in the battle that prompted his conversion kneeling before pope paul iii in 1540 to get approval for his new order and receiving acclamation in heaven at his canonization read t he rest of the article here happy feast posted by mark mossa sj at 2 36 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday july 26 2010 the comment box is open the blog has been going for about two years without comments i do get some feedback when the posts feed to facebook but i do miss some of the back and forth of my old blogging days but not the meanness so i ve set the new posts to be open for moderated comments comments are also open at the companion blog for already there spoiler alert where i will be posting as well i look forward to reading what you have to say posted by mark mossa sj at 4 19 pm 4 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday july 25 2010 saint ignatius advice for e mailers bloggers well not exactly i ve been reading saint ignatius letters for a project i m working on and it struck me today that his guidelines for jesuits writing letters back and forth and making distinctions between what should be public and what private are well applicable to electronic correspondence today once again ignatius seems a bit ahead of his time he writes to pierre favre a k a peter faber i will describe what i myself do and i trust in the lord will continue doing in this regard so as to avoid mistakes when writing to members of the society of jesus i make a first draft of the main letter reporting things that will be edifying then after reading it over and correcting it keeping in mind that it is going to be read by everybody i write or have someone write it out a second time for we must give even more thought to what we write than to what we say writing is permanent and gives lasting witness we cannot mend or reinterpret it as easily as we can our speech and even with all this i am sure i make many mistakes and fear doing so in the future i leave for the separate pages other details that are inappropriate for the main letter or lacking in edification these pages each one can write hastily out of the overflow of the heart with or without careful organization but this may not be tolerated in the main letter it must be composed carefully and edifyingly so that it can be shown around and give edification saint ignatius was the most prolific letter writer of his time so he knew a thing or two about writing letters and his advice is well taken for those of us too whose writing gives permanent and lasting witness posted by mark mossa sj at 8 37 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday july 23 2010 vocation crises i m as concerned about increasing vocations to the priesthood and the religious life as much as the next person i try to do my part to encourage those who are discerning such a life and get involved in the jesuit efforts at inviting others to share our life as much as possible i want people to have the joy of living the life that i have the privilege of having been invited to i also know that this life isn t for everybody but i am convinced that there is a life that is for everybody a life lived in relationship with god so when i think of a vocation crisis these days and i think i have even a greater awareness of it when i m in europe as i am now i think more of the fact that it seems that fewer young people are even making a choice to live a life that involves god i meet lots of young people who are dedicated to a sort of humanism for lack of a better word but whom are indifferent to the question of god s presence or influence in their lives yet how can you fault many of them who are doing generous and even heroic work for others in need and how can you can convince them that they need god when many of them are living much better and more virtuous lives than many who do claim a relationship with god or jesus if we believe our theology the desire for god is written in the human heart it seems that we could appeal to some sense that they have that they are missing something but what if they don t christians as committed as dietrich bonhoeffer who died for his faith in god have questioned whether we really do have this innate desire for god of course he did it in the context of profound evil yet there are many today who are working to help others in similar situations of evil in may different parts of the world many of them are not motivated by god or any religious impulse or are they and they just don t know it in the context of today s greater social and cultural awareness this appears a very arrogant thing to say i want to believe it is true but like bonhoeffer i am starting to have some doubts given these realities i m starting to think about how we as christians might address what seems the real vocation crisis that lies at the heart of all the others how do we convince people that having a relationship with god is important when they seem to be getting along well enough without it often at times of crisis people seem to be more aware of this need but does that mean that we have to wait until we can be crisis counselors that doesn t seem to be the right answer and while we could set about manufacturing a crisis for somebody i m uncomfortable with the moral implications of this strategy in my own case i hope that people would see that my relationship with god is the thing that drives my life but often enough this doesn t seem to register with those for whom god is not on their radar screen even the natural or even skeptical questions i might expect and welcome are never asked yet there has to be some way to break through this all i have friends who consider themselves non religious yet they have spiritual inclinations that help me see god seeping into some of their cracks but it s a slow process but maybe there is also something of an answer in it it may be that for many it just takes a long time for god to break through but i m going to keep thinking about how i might be able to help posted by mark mossa sj at 8 45 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday july 16 2010 summer spirituality free samples looking for a new spiritual reading this summer saint anthony messenger press is offering free samples of several new books including my own here posted by mark mossa sj at 2 50 pm email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday july 13 2010 my books are trapped in new york send photos ok since y all will be seeing my book before i do let s make this fun at least send me your most creative photo of you with a copy of my book in hand feet on head etc i also wouldn t mind seeing a shot of the back cover my favorite photo submission gets a prize to be negotiated send to markmossasj yahoo com i ll collect the photos and add a link to them on the book s webpage if you d rather your photo not be included there just let me know thanks posted by mark mossa sj at 6 00 pm email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday july 11 2010 spiritual but not religious is it really so wrong it s become pretty commonplace these days to criticize those who claim to be spiritual but not religious invoking saint ignatius and soren kierkegaard in this excerpt from my just released book already there i suggest that maybe we shouldn t be so quick to judge it might not be the whole deal but might we consider they may be onto something saint ignatius is not the only one to have such experiences all of us can fall into the temptation of doing religious things instead of finding out what god wants us to do with our lives people that claim to be spiritual but not religious then are onto something but it s not that the spiritual life is a replacement for religion rather it s that religious practice absent reflection on one s gifts and talents one s interior life and relationship with god one s past present and future in light of god s love and god s will is hollow no matter how sincere it s far easier to go through the motions of religious practices than it is to do the hard work of looking at your life and discovering in it what god is inviting you to do with that life and indeed it is hard because many of us can t imagine that god would be so concerned with our individual lives the famous christian philosopher søren kierkegaard once described our relationship with god as follows t his human being exists before god may speak with god anytime he wants to assured of being heard by him in short this person is invited to live on the most intimate terms with god furthermore for this person s sake also for this very person s sake god comes to the world allows himself to be born to suffer to die and this suffering god he almost implores and beseeches this person to accept the help that is offered to him truly if there is anything to lose one s mind over this is it tell me what you think here comments are open posted by mark mossa sj at 6 51 pm email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday july 9 2010 on being at home part 2 the reason i m a southern jesuit south carolina is the answer to the question i m often asked how did i guy from massachusetts end up a jesuit in the new orleans province the summer after i graduated college i worked at a summer camp in western massachusetts where i worked with several young women from south carolina i think they were the first people from there i d ever met there was something about them and how they spoke about the place that fascinated me so later that year when i was applying to graduate schools the rather strange possibility of applying to the university of south carolina seemed a little less strange i know it might seem funny but my decision to apply to usc was influenced by what might otherwise have been an overlooked personal touch i was applying to grad sc...