Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Anticipating a Christmas season that looks nothing like the Normal Rockwell ideal? Jesuit Father James Martin offers some tips on getting through the festivities with your sense of humor intact:

1) Laugh about the craziness. Got a crazy family who always argues about the same thing every single time they get together? “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU BROUGHT THAT UP AGAIN!” Don’t get angry; get perspective. Unless you’re the Messiah and can work miracles, you’re probably not going to change them. So stop trying. You’re driving yourself nuts. You can be open and loving, but you can also be realistic.

2) Laugh at things that are supposed to be funny. There’s plenty of funny holiday-themed humor out there. If you’re not tickled by Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (which I am not) there’s always A Christmas Story, (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”), which airs on TV 24/7 from Thanksgiving to Christmas, so you’ve got no excuse not to smile at least once in November and December.

3) Laugh at yourself. As Jesus said to the disciples, “Get over yourself!” (Well, he should have said it.) Stop taking yourself so seriously. Your coworkers thought that your Christmas tie was ugly? Maybe it is. Someone didn’t like your “Famous Mulled Wine” or your “Christmasy Ginger-Pumpkin Nutbread” handed down from your great-grandmother? Get over it. Life’s too short to take yourself too seriously.

To read the full post on ways to survive this time of year, check out the full blog post here.

Fr. Martin is the author of the new book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life (HarperOne), which, he would like to say, makes the perfect gift for any holiday.

In November, over 1,100 students, teachers, parish members and others passionate about faith-inspired social justice gathered in Washington, DC for the 14th annual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network.

For this year’s Teach In, Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, provincial of the East African Province of the Society of Jesus, was the keynote speaker who discussed the issues facing his province today. During his time at the Teach In, National Jesuit News interviewed Fr. Orobator about the challenges that the Society of Jesus faces in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the Republics of the Sudan in the North and South.

“I think the unique mission of the Society of Jesus is that we are able to think ‘outside of the box’.” I think that is very unique to Jesuits,” says Fr. Orobator. “We can work in parishes, we can run schools, we can run communications centers, we can run many different apostolates, but we can do it in a way that is unconventional.”

The theme of this year’s event was “The Gritty Reality: Feel It, Think It, Engage It,” derived from a speech given by former Jesuit Superior General, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, in 2000 entitled, “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education.” Kolvenbach said, “students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively.”

You can watch National Jesuit News’ interview with Fr. Orobator below.

When Jesuit Father Larry Gillick joined the Jesuits in 1960, it would not have been possible for him to have become a priest. It wasn’t until 1972, after Vatican II, that changed. Because of childhood accident. Fr. Gillick is blind, and it was not until Vatican II that those with such disabilities would be able to be ordained.

Today, Gillick is a retreat master, leading retreats throughout the country. He currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska and in involved in the Jesuit community at Creighton University. He is loved by many students and is always ready to listen to them and provide counsel. At Creighton, he serves as a student mentor and presides at regular mass at Creighton’s catholic church, St. John’s.

In this video, Fr. Gillick shares the story of his vocation.

Jesuit Father Kevin FitzGerald is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology and the Dr. David P. Lauler Chair for Catholic Health Care Ethics at Georgetown University.

His research interests have included the investigation of abnormal gene regulation in cancer and ethical issues in human genetics, including the ethical and social ramifications of molecular genetics research. He is an expert on ethical issues in personalized medicine, pharmacogenomics, human cloning research, stem cell research, and genetic testing.

Fr. FitzGerald recently sat down with National Jesuit News to discuss how being a priest and a scientist go hand-in-hand, and how the Church should learn to anticipate upcoming ethical questions.

In this month’s NJN podcast, we spoke to Jesuit Father Ted Arroyo from his office in Mobile about the immigration law recently put into place in Alabama that is considered one of the strictest in the U.S.

Fr. Arroyo currently serves as the Alabama Associate for the Jesuit Social Research Institute. Based out of New Orleans, the Jesuit Social Research Institute, JSRI, works throughout the Gulf South doing research, analysis, education, and advocacy on the issues of poverty, race, and migration.

You can listen to our podcast with Arroyo via the player below. You can also read his testimony in front of the Alabama’s state legislature by visiting the JSRI site here.