Jesuit Artist-in-Residence Father Robert VerEecke performing (above center). Photo by Boston College Magazine.

Jesuit Father Robert VerEecke, the longtime pastor of St. Ignatius Parish at Boston College, is also a dancer, a choreographer and the Jesuit Artist-in-Residence at Boston College, earning him the nickname “the dancing priest.”

Fr. VerEecke also founded the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble in 1980 to perform in church venues, and each Christmas the troupe produces a show. For 28 years, that show was “A Dancer’s Christmas,” a holiday tradition in Boston until 2008. For the past four years Fr. VerEecke’s ensemble has been performing “Christmas Reflections,” which includes an almost 80-member cast of professional dancers, Boston College students, alumni and others. The story reflects on the meaning of the season through Luke’s Gospel.

Fr. VerEecke was recently interviewed by the Boston Globe about his calling to the priesthood and to dance. The interview is below, along with a video of Fr. VerEecke discussing “Christmas Reflections” that shows the dancers in action.

Q. Are you a priest who happens to be a choreographer, or are the two inextricably combined?

A. They’re inextricably combined. When I think of Catholic ritual, there’s so much movement and choreography. What makes ritual work for people is a sense of flow and movement integrity. I work with young Jesuits and try to help them understand that sense of the larger picture. It’s such a passion, for me there is no separation between religious expression and movement expression. It always comes together quite spontaneously. It’s when I’m most alive.

Q. What happened when you were called to the priesthood at age 18?

A. I entered the Jesuits thinking I’d never have a chance to do anything artistically. Then in 1970, the Jesuits organized an artist institute and they had a track to study ballet, and I took that. When I started taking class, it was an epiphany. It gave me the vocabulary for choreographing, but the advantage of not having early training was that I was never set in a particular language of moving, so my choreography tends to be more from within. I feel free to use whatever comes.

Q. I know with all the “Nutcracker”s this time of year there was intense competition to get performers for “A Dancer’s Christmas.” Was that part of why you stopped the production after 2008?

A. The challenge was always mounting such a big production and trying to replace people every year without a huge budget, particularly male dancers. But the real issue is that I was very aesthetically pleased with the work that had evolved, so I said this is the last year. It had become absolutely perfect for me. It had reached its apex.

Q. But the very next year you were back with “Christmas Reflections” How did that come about?

A. There were all these children who were heartbroken that “A Dancer’s Christmas” was ending, and it got to me. We were all crying — one of my nicknames is Sobby Bobby. I just couldn’t say this is the end, so I said I’d try to think of what else we do, not on the same scale. “Christmas Reflections” is like “A Dancer’s Christmas” in miniature, like one of those little [snow] globes, very delicate and charming.

Q. “A Dancer’s Christmas” used pageantry, modern dance, ballet, and folk dance to tell the Christmas story from three historical periods. How different is the new show?

A. The pieces are shorter. It uses a lot of familiar Christmas music. The three-act format is still very similar. This first is scriptural, the second has the playfulness, the third has some of the repertory of the third act of “A Dancer’s Christmas.” One of the new pieces we added, which is a lot of fun, is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” with the dancers representing all the characters. A local championship Irish dancer, Helen O’Dwyer, a BC alum, was a dancer for a number of years in “A Dancer’s Christmas.” I asked her if she thought her school might want to participate, and now there are 30 to 40 Irish dancers. We have a guest artist, Jamaican contemporary dancer Steven Cornwall, portraying Joseph, and he’s a spectacular dancer. He brings a beauty and strength that is very powerful to watch.

Q. You’ve always maintained that “A Dancer’s Christmas” created a unique sense of family and community among the performers. Have you been able to re-create that?

A. It’s what’s kind of magical about it, because people put a lot into it, and the story draws people in. A lot of people listen or sing these songs, especially more traditional carols, but they never had a chance to dance to them, and it can be powerful for them. “Silent Night” is the final number, with children joining adults in the end, and there’s something quite moving about seeing it all unfold.

Q. At the core, what do these shows mean to you and perhaps to the others who come to them year after year? What is the takeaway message?

A. It’s about the profound sense of joy that is available to all of us in the Christmas season, no matter how we celebrate it. From a religious point of view, it’s about God loving us so much that he wants to dance with us. These days there’s so much negative about God and salvation. My image is that God is enmeshed in the flesh of Jesus. He wants to have arms and legs so he can dance with us.

The lighting of the first Advent candle marks the beginning of the penitential season, a holy time to focus on repentance and on our need  for Jesus in our World.  Yet, often in the preparations for Christmas, we can lose sight of the reason for the season. Jesuit Father Thomas Madden, retreat director at the Jesuit Spirituality Center in Grand Coteau, offered the following reflection to help us refocus our sights…

Now that Thanksgiving is past, we may turn our full attention and energy to preparing for Christmas.

The merchants already for some weeks now have been trying to capture our attention and get us to start the shopping frenzy that makes the coming month the most important time of the year for them. And there are reminders here and there to “put Christ back in Christmas,” but it is an annual campaign that seems to lose more ground every year to take hold of the popular, maybe even the Christian, imagination.

What does it mean to “put Christ back in Christmas” besides going to church on Dec. 25? How might Jesus himself answer that question about how to celebrate his birthday?

I asked myself the question and heard the answer in something that he himself once said.

St. Luke relates (14:12-14) that he told his host one time at a dinner to which he had been invited: “When you hold a lunch or dinner don’t invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your wealthy neighbors in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

This sounds very similar to Jesus’ statement about the criterion of final judgment: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt. 25:40).

Could it be that this is how Jesus wants us to put him back in the celebration of his birthday?

The needy to whom Jesus himself ministered in his temporal life and with whom he now identifies through us are the poor, whose number is scandalous in our own country; the hungry and the homeless; the aged in nursing homes; the chronically sick and disabled; the marginalized at home and abroad; all those who live a borderline existence and depend on the charity of others to survive. These are those whom Jesus calls his brothers and sisters.

How much easier and how great a time-saver to select just the right gift for such as these. And how much greater the satisfaction both for the giver and the receiver and the loved one in whose name the gift is given. And how much simpler a way to stay within one’s own limited budget. All it takes is to write a check to your favorite charity or that of your loved one and send it in his or her name with a note accordingly on your Christmas card to him or her. This is an “alternative” way of celebrating Christmas, but one much more in tune with the original Christmas, when God gave us the gift of his first-born son to save us from the desperate poverty into which our human family had fallen.

You can watch the interview with Martin here.

For this spiritual season of preparation before Christmas, the Jesuits of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus have created a series of Advent podcasts. Jesuits reflect and meditate on the intersecting themes of Advent and Ignatian spirituality over these four weekly podcasts, which National Jesuit News will publish each week leading up to Christmas. The entire podcast series can be listened to here.

Week IV – Advent Gift and Graces

For this last week of Advent,  this podcast features Jesuit Fathers Michael Boughton, director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College, and William Russell, the assistant prefect of St. Mary’s Chapel at Boston College, offering their thoughts on living in gratitude, giving gifts and caring for the poor during Advent and at Christmas.

Presenters:

Jesuit Father William Russell is the assistant prefect of St. Mary’s Chapel at Boston College,

Jesuit Father Michael Boughton is the director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College.

For this spiritual season of preparation before Christmas, the Jesuits of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus have created a series of Advent podcasts. Jesuits reflect and meditate on the intersecting themes of Advent and Ignatian spirituality over these four weekly podcasts, which National Jesuit News will publish each week leading up to Christmas. The entire podcast series can be listened to here.

Week III -Imaginative Prayer

St. Ignatius developed a method of slowly reading and praying with Scripture known as “Imaginative Prayer.” Set aside some time to join Jesuit Joseph Laramie in this guided meditation on the Incarnation and the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32).

Presenter:

Jesuit Joseph Laramie is a scholastic studying theology at the Boston College School of  Theology and Ministry.

For this spiritual season of preparation before Christmas, the Jesuits of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus have created a series of Advent podcasts. Jesuits reflect and meditate on the intersecting themes of Advent and Ignatian spirituality over these four weekly podcasts, which National Jesuit News will publish each week leading up to Christmas. The entire podcast series can be listened to here.

Week II – Using the Examen During Advent

God is at work at every moment of our lives, and calls us to respond. “The Examen” helps Jesuits to become more aware of God’s action in everyday life. Jesuit Fathers Jack Butler and Michael Boughton explain how the Examen works, and why it can be useful in Advent.

Presenters:

Jesuit Father Jack Butler is the Vice President of Mission and Ministry at Boston College.

Jesuit Father Michael Boughton is the director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College.

For this spiritual season of preparation before Christmas, the Jesuits of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus have created a series of Advent podcasts. Jesuits reflect and meditate on the intersecting themes of Advent and Ignatian spirituality over these four weekly podcasts, which National Jesuit News will publish each week leading up to Christmas. The entire podcast series can be listened to here.

Week I – Anticipating Joy

The week’s podcast features Jesuit Fathers Jack Butler, Vice President of Mission and Ministry at Boston College, Michael Boughton, director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College, and Robert Farrell, professor of English at Boston College, speaking about Ignatian Spirituality, Advent themes and practices, and “Anticipatory Joy.”

Presenters:

Jesuit Father Jack Butler is the Vice President of Mission and Ministry at Boston College.

Jesuit Father Michael Boughton is the director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Boston College.

Jesuit Father Robert Farrell is a professor of English at Boston College.