In our culture, “we don’t like waiting, we like instantaneous gratification,” Fr. Gillick says. So he offers several tips in the video below on how we can have an Advent that will make Christmas special.

One suggestion Fr. Gillick has is to wait to decorate the tree. “Put the Christmas tree up during Advent but don’t decorate it, indicating that there’s going to be life coming. It’s coming, but it’s not here yet,” he says.

According to Fr. Gillick, “All the scriptures of Advent are not about having, but about wanting and longing, hungering and thirsting.”

He suggests using symbols of “emptiness” such as a putting out an empty bowl or waiting to place Jesus in the Nativity scene.

“If you enjoy not having, then you’ll know what Advent is and you’ll have a full Christmas that will last longer than Christmas day,” Fr. Gillick says.

Fr. Doll, a renowned photographer whose work was featured in National Geographic magazine in 1984 and 1990, has traveled the globe “to tell the stories of people who have no voice.” His ministry began on the plains of South Dakota in the early 1960s while working with the Lakota people on the Rosebud Reservation. He had joined the Jesuit order after graduating from high school in 1955.

“The first week I was there they said, ‘Would you like to learn photography?’

“I said, ‘Sounds like fun.’”

After two years of training and experience in photography, he questioned that choice.

“I went for a walk on the prairie (wondering) ‘What the heck am I going to do as a Jesuit?” the 75-year-old priest reminisced. “I’m not brilliant like some of these guys.”

Feeling he hadn’t taken “a single decent picture after two-and-a-half years,” he suddenly heard a voice inside him say: ‘Stay with the photography, it’s the first thing you love doing, don’t worry if it takes 10 years.’

“It did!” he added with a laugh.

“I see how the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the depths of our hearts and I trust that,” he said. “I don’t hear voices a lot (but) when I have a hunch, I really trust that’s how the Holy Spirit speaks to me. It’s true of every project I’ve taken on.”

Since 1969, Father Doll has worked at Creighton University in Omaha, where he is a professor of journalism. For the last 20 years, he has documented the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service in some 50 countries including India, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Sudan and Rwanda. These assignments, he said, working with “the poorest of the poor” have been close to his heart.

“Jesuits have a mission: Faith doing justice,” he shared, quoting his personal artist statement. “I photograph to tell the stories of people who have no voice. Hopefully, I can help others understand and work to change unjust social structures.”

He often finds himself praying that he can look at people and photograph them “with something of the empathy and understanding that God has for them.”

“Often I’m asked if being a priest affects my photography,” he shared, reflecting on nearly 44 years in the priesthood. “My answer is always: ‘Yes, it has everything to do with it.’”

“For me, it’s hard to separate the creative process of ‘seeing’ from prayer. Both can be contemplative acts.”

To commemorate a half-century in photography, Fr. Doll is working on a book and considering an art exhibit to be on display at the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. For more about Father Doll and to view his work, visit magis.creighton.edu. You can read more about him in this Denver Catholic Register, the newspaper of the Denver diocese, article.

In this video piece below, O’Connor discusses his own vocation path and how music has become instrumental in his life as a Jesuit.

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.

Matt Miller/The World-Herald

Jesuit Father Timothy Lannon, who began his first official day as the 24^th president of Creighton University on August 1, is the university’s first alumnus to serve as president. He is happy to return to his roots.

“I have a sense of this place,” said Fr. Lannon, who credits previous president Jesuit Father John Schlegel with being instrumental in his decision to become a Jesuit priest. “It’s been a long time since I was here. But one thing that has not changed is that students’ lives are changed here,” he said.

Lannon said he plans to take the next few months to “listen and learn” before announcing any changes or plans for the university.

“I want to get a better feel and build upon those dreams for the university,” he said.

One plan Lannon does have is to try to encourage more young men to join the Jesuit priesthood, something he actively pursued in his previous position as president of Saint Joseph’s University.

Lannon said that as a kid, the priests at his home parish in Iowa “seemed almost too holy” while the Jesuits at Creighton appealed to him. “I am a Jesuit priest first,” he said, “and a university president second.”

Read more about Lannon in the Omaha World-Herald.

Photo Credit: James R. Burnett

Jesuit Father John Schlegel, retiring president of Creighton University, might soon find himself in the City That Never Sleeps, the economic epicenter of the world.

Either that or he’s moving to a country that more than 250,000 people fled last year to escape a violent ruler, economic turmoil and one of the world’s worst AIDS epidemics.

Those two alternatives — New York City or Zimbabwe — are as much as Schlegel is willing to say about his next Jesuit assignment after 11 years spent as Creighton’s leader.

In those 11 years Schlegel has built Creighton into the premier Midwestern private university of its kind, according to national rankings. He has grown enrollment and doubled applications to the school. He has expanded the campus by 40 acres and then transformed it with state-of-the-art buildings paid for by a historic $400 million fundraising drive that he spearheaded.

Schlegel said he is proud that Creighton’s Catholic identity has remained strong even as the number of Jesuits on campus has continued to drop. Creighton has made up for its lack of Jesuits by teaching faculty and staff about Catholic identity at annual retreats, Schlegel said.

“Without the Catholic identity we’d be just another good liberal-arts based Midwestern university,” he said.

But that identity — specifically the church’s anti-abortion stance — has caused friction with Omahans who might otherwise support the school, Schlegel said.

“Sometimes doing what we’re doing has come at a real cost,” he said. “That’s the price of doing business, I guess. … They live by their convictions, we live by ours, and that’s fine.”

Schlegel has known his successor, Lannon, since 1969, when Lannon was an undergraduate sitting in one of the first political science courses Schlegel taught at Creighton.

When Schlegel told the university’s board he was planning to step down, he put together a short list of potential replacements. Lannon, a Creighton alum and then president of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, was featured prominently on that short list, Schlegel said.

He thinks Lannon will be a good president, partly because he understands the Omaha area and already knows many Creighton alums and donors from his tenure as president of Omaha Creighton Prep. Creighton faculty who know both Jesuit priests say Lannon is gregarious while Schlegel is wry and reserved.

“The style will be different — I’ve been told that by many people,” Schlegel said. “But I think that’s good. I think change is very healthy.”

Change is exactly what Schlegel is trying to prepare for. He will drive east to Milwaukee, where he will take a six-month sabbatical and then head to either New York City or Zimbabwe for his next mission as a Jesuit priest. Schlegel said only that the mission won’t be another college presidency.

“You get up, you go to work, and a lot of times you don’t see the cumulative effect, how things are changing,” Schlegel said.

“I’ve been a little more reflective” in the past few months, he said. “I’ve been more appreciative of what’s happened here.”

[Omaha World-Herald]

Jesuit Father Greg Carlson, a professor at Creighton University, said that “Creighton is the kind of place where people talk about our Jesuit, Catholic mission a lot. And people get lots of creative ideas about how to implement it.”

Fr. Carlson’s idea was to create “All Things Ignatian,” where faculty, administration and staff could create posters presenting recent initiatives that implement the school’s Ignatian mission.

“Our idea was they could enliven each other, celebrate each other’s accomplishments and even touch off new and creative ideas in people from around the campus and maybe inspire similar efforts from them,” said Fr. Carlson.

On Feb. 3, 68 colleagues presented posters describing their initiatives. The posters are online at Creighton’s website and the video below highlights a few of the presentations.

Jesuit Father Greg Carlson, a professor at Creighton University, said that “Creighton is the kind of place where people talk about our Jesuit, Catholic mission a lot. And people get lots of creative ideas about how to implement it.”

Fr. Carlson’s idea was to create “All Things Ignatian,” where faculty, administration and staff could create posters presenting recent initiatives that implement the school’s Ignatian mission.

“Our idea was they could enliven each other, celebrate each other’s accomplishments and even touch off new and creative ideas in people from around the campus and maybe inspire similar efforts from them,” said Fr. Carlson.

On Feb. 3, 68 colleagues presented posters describing their initiatives. The posters are online at Creighton’s website and the video below highlights a few of the presentations.

Jesuit Father Tom Shanahan has served as the chaplain for the Creighton University men’s basketball team for close to 10 years, mixing counsel with a dash of team spirit. His presence on the bench provides a reminder to students, alumni, staff and visitors of the important role faith plays in all aspects of university life.

Fr. Shanahan said his prayer for the team is a cross between a prayer and a cheer — focusing on fun, joy and victory.

“Alumni have said to me ‘I’m really glad you’re there.’ And that makes me feel good that they see that as an important part of Creighton athletics,” said Shanahan.

“It’s a great experience to have Father on the bench helping us not only see the basketball side but also the faith side,” said player Taylor Stormberg.

She expected maybe 10 minutes of the university president’s time. Instead, they debated whether Creighton had strayed from its Catholic mission and the meaning of Catholic identity.

They discussed the school’s class offerings and its faculty.

An hour passed, then 90 minutes. It got so late the president’s secretary went home.

Fr. Schlegel stayed. He listened.

“It’s very easy, being in this atmosphere, to cater to the administrators, to the board,” DeMeuse said Wednesday. “He sees his mission as being here for the students. … We’re definitely going to miss him.”

Schlegel, the longtime Creighton president, announced Wednesday that he planned to retire in July 2011. You can read more about Schlegel’s legacy at Creighton in this article from the Omaha World-Herald.