4 minute read
News of JHS Jesuits
Transitioning to a Promising, Thriving Future
A MESSAGE FROM FR. PATRICK COUTURE, S.J., SUPERIOR OF CANISIUS JESUIT COMMUNITY, JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL
Dear Friends,
It has been an extraordinarily busy second semester, but right now I am enjoying the warm weather with my Mom and Dad who are fully vaccinated and whom I have not seen for many months. I am feeling an increasingly growing sense of gratitude for our Jesuit community and the ways in which we have safely returned to the classrooms, courts, fields, and stage. I always love the spring and summer seasons at Jesuit because the campus comes alive with warmer weather, longer days, and the promise of sunshine. I truly missed this during our remote learning last year. I watched the clouds of COVID and quarantine begin to part as students, teachers, and staff came back to campus this past semester. A growing sense of gratitude and hope has certainly blossomed.
As for the Canisius community at Jesuit High School, we remain small yet thriving. Fr. Bill and I have found ways to weather quarantine, especially since it has had a profound impact on our ministries. In March 2020, Fr. Bill’s work in parishes came to a halt. He quickly began to find ways in which to continue his ministry remotely with the Latino and Spanish-speaking Catholics who were engaged with the missionary catechism. Fr. Bill started having meetings via Zoom, socially distanced sacraments such as reconciliation, and taught himself how to make tutorial videos for the missionary catechists. It became rather common to see a sign on Fr. Bill’s door that simply read “Recording. Do not knock.” Now, in these latter months of the pandemic when people have been able to return to Mass, Fr. Bill has begun to help out parishes in Washington County once again, celebrating Masses and the sacraments with people and loving every minute of it. As for me, I have gone from figuring out how to teach a course I have never taught remotely before, to navigating in-person hybrid learning. There have been dropped Zoom meetings, faulty WiFi, an ice storm, and a few stern words I have threatened my computer with when it was not cooperating. And yet there were moments of laughter, virtual hangouts with friends and family, a lot of golf, and eventually socially-distanced gatherings outside on the residence patio. These moments have encouraged within me the persistent desire to remain hopeful that one day we’ll be together again and able to shake hands or hug, God willing, without a mask.
Finally, we welcomed back the recently ordained Fr. Billy Biegler, S.J. In April of 2021, Fr. Biegler was temporarily missioned to Jesuit to help out two days a week. I think it is safe to say that the Jesuit High community is grateful for Fr. Biegler’s return to campus before he leaves Portland later this summer for his next mission at Loyola High School in Los Angeles.
My friends, let us continue to pray for one another and for our community with hearts that remain hopeful for a future that begins to resemble our past. Let us also remain grateful and appreciative of the things, big and small, we have longed for in these many months and will never take for granted again.
Peace,
The Society of Jesus worldwide is celebrating an Ignatian Year that began May 20, 2021, and concludes July 31, 2022, with the feast of St. Ignatius. May 20 commemorated the 500th anniversary of St. Ignatius’ injury at Pamplona when his leg was severally damaged by a cannonball.
Ignatius’ subsequent convalescence at his home in Loyola was the beginning of his conversion experience in which he chose to put behind his dreams of vainglory in order to discern the path God was calling him to follow. According to a letter from the province, “Fr. General Arturo Sosa, S.J., announced that conversion – personal, communal, and institutional – comprises the theme for the Ignatian Year. Its motto is: ‘To see all things new in Christ.’”
Along with the announcement of this Ignatian Year, the province has provided a prayer card that further explains the significance of the Ignatian Year and includes a short, simple prayer.
We would like to invite our community to unite together in prayer during this Ignatian Year, knowing, and perhaps finding comfort, that we do this as a community: people praying with and for one another. In doing so, may we be open to the grace of conversion in the ways that God calls us as individuals, as a community, and as an institution.
Jesuits West Advancement Office PO Box 68 Los Gatos, CA 95031-0068 www.jesuitswest.org
Missioning of Xavier by Kathy Sievers Chapel of the Holy Trinity at La Storta Loyola Jesuit Center, Portland, Oregon
Inflammate Omnia Ignatian Year Prayer
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Your name means to ignite, to inflame. Set our hearts on fire To know Jesus more intimately, Love Jesus more intensely, To follow more closely. May the Holy Spirit who animated your conversion guide our next steps. Help us to create all things anew in Christ Knowing that God’s love and grace are enough. Amen.
May God bless you and all of us during this Ignatian Year.
