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The Jesuits

Writer: Profiles in CatholicismProfiles in Catholicism
Dec 12, 202019 min read

Updated: Dec 15, 2020



A Message from the Editor


We have dedicated this issue to the Jesuits. You will find interviews with Jesuits globally, books by Jesuits, TV reviews by Jesuits, a Jesuit poem, and many Jesuit videos.

We ask all of our readers to pray for all those with Covid-19.


​Prayers



Good and Gracious God,

We are horrified by the testimony of a former Salvadoran army officer that the "high command" gave orders to eliminate Jesuits priests during the country's civil war in 1989. These men were the priests to the people, Lord, and ministering to their needs. As with Pontius Pilate, the Central American country's president knew of the crimes to be committed and did not intervene.


These men with their housekeeper were brutally treated, Lord, by a former colonel in the army of El Salvador, who is on trial in Spain, Inocente Orlando Montano, on the campus of the Catholic University. Lord, we beg you to help the people of El Salvador who bear the brunt of this loss, help them to continue to heal even 30 years later.

At the testimony July 8, Mendoza said his superior, Guillermo Benavides, a former colonel and then-director of the army academy, told troops the night before the crime that an order had come to move against Spanish Jesuit Father Ignacio Ellacuria, rector of Central American University in San Salvador. May Guillermo Benavides, realize how the horror and evil of this act affected the entire community. Assist all in San Salvador to heal. May the plentitude of vocations to the priesthood for the Jesuits in this region continue to flourish and make a difference. by Eileen Quinn Knight, Ph.D. Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer when I Feel Rejected


Loving God,

you made me who I am.

I praise you and I love you, for I am wonderfully made,

in your own image.

But when people make fun of me,

I feel hurt and embarrassed and even ashamed.

So please, God, help me remember my own goodness,

which lies in you.

Help me remember my dignity,

which you gave me when I was conceived.

Help me remember that I can live a life of love,

because you created my heart.

Be with me when people make me feel "less than,"

and help me to respond the way you would want me to,

with a love that respects the other, but also respects me.

Help me find friends who love me for who I am.

Help me, most of all, to be a loving person.

And, God, help me remember that Jesus loves me.

For he too was seen as an outcast.

He too was misunderstood.

He too was beaten and spat upon.

Jesus understands me and loves me with a special love,

because of the way you made me.

And when I am feeling lonely,

help me remember that Jesus welcomed everyone as a friend.

Jesus reminded everyone that God loved them.

Jesus encouraged everyone to embrace their dignity,

even when others were blind to that dignity.

Jesus loved everyone with the love that you gave him.

And he loves me too.

One more thing, God:

Help me remember that nothing is impossible with you,

that you have a way of making things better,

that you can find a way of love for me,

even if I can't see it right now.

Help me remember all these things in the heart you created,

loving God.

Amen. Submitted by Father James Martin. S.J. Profiles in Catholicism


by Father James Martin. S.J. Profiles in Catholicism




In this holy season of Advent,

we wait, Lord, for your coming.

As we stand before injustice and violence,

most recently with the attack in Vienna,

our hearts long for healing and redemption.

Continue to pour into our hearts

a steady confidence that you will come to heal us.

Intensify our willingness to be instruments of your healing.

Come and save your people. Amen by Father Louis Cameli Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for those in Nursing Homes Infected with Covid-19


Good and Gracious God,


We implore you today to take care of the elderly in nursing homes who have the dreaded COVID disease. These are men and women who have given their life for their families. They are men and women who have raised children and even grandchildren with love, affection, turmoil, and struggle. They are men and women who have remained faithful to you and your teachings. They are men and women who have offered others their time, talent, joy, and kindness to alleviate much of the stress in the eyes of those they cared for. Please be with them during this difficult time and assist them in continuing to love all the people who have journeyed with them to you. We ask you this through Jesus, our Son, in union with all the angels and saints. Amen

by Eilein Quinn Knight, Ph.D. Profiles in Catholicism


A prayer for those beheaded in Nigeria [1]


“Our Need for Help”

Dear Joseph and Mary, we appeal to your Son, Jesus Christ:

Who became flesh and entered into the flesh of human life,

Growing up in a family of faith, hope and above all love.

Your family took up the task of work and hospitality,

Gathering wood to transform in the case of craft and cooking.

Your family knew persecution, poverty and exile and you,

Lord, rejection, interrogation, abandonment, torture and execution.

Oh Holy Family of Nazareth, remember your own experience:

Draw close to the many farmers and their families who now know

Not just the difficulties of growing crops, feeding livestock,

Earning a living, mending and making equipment, finding labor,

Making enough money to pay their debts, buy food, help others –

Now they know, and have known for some time, the terrible

Uncertainty of whether or not they will live another day.

Oh Holy men and women, born of earth and guests of heaven:

Many of you left this life in equally tragic circumstances,

Bearing in your own bodies the persecution of Christ.

Many of you lost families, land, houses and all the world offers,

Whether because you actually possessed it or were promised it.

Many of you lived the real uncertainty of capture, torture and death

Awaiting every turn and sometimes betrayed by those close to you.

Dear Joseph and Jesus, Son of Mary and Son of the Most High,

Dear Holy Family of Nazareth, hidden amidst the little we know,

Dear Saints, single and married, daughters and sons,

We implore and beg you to send your angels to accompany all

Who have so violently left us that they enter into tranquillity

And intercede, with the many already there, for peace between

People’s and places, faiths and ways of life, that there may spring up

A new and lasting gift of reconciliation that all may flourish and

Inherit a blessing and a hope for all who remain;

And so we pray, finally:

Begging you to help the world to hear through the din of sounds,

Begging you to help the world to see through the glitter of images,

Begging you to help the world to be touched while in the distance

By our need for help. by Francis Etheredge Profiles in Catholicism

by Courtney Mares


A Prayer for Healthcare Workers Who Have died from Covid-19


Gracious God, in these times of corona

we sometimes wonder where you are

and if your love for us has grown cold.

Send us your Holy Spirit and make us see

that your love is active still and that you reveals yourself

in those who care for the sick and the dying.

Their commitment, tenderness, resolve and endurance

Is a tangible reminder of who your Son was for us.

We pray for all the healthcareworkers:

nurses, doctors, cleaning staff, all the supporting services.

That they may feel close to you

when they are serving their fellow men and women in need;

that your closeness may inspire strength when they are

weighed down by despair and fatigue.

God, send forth your holy Spirit, with his soft and steady light

of hope and tenderness. Amen. by Father Jos Moons, SJ Profiles in Catholicism


A Prayer for Sonia Bibi


Loving Lord

Please welcome Sonia Bibi into your loving embrace and comfort her family. by Gordon Nary Profiles in Catholicism


A Quote to Remember


“More than ever I find myself in the hands of God.

This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth.

But now there is a difference;

the initiative is entirely with God.

It is indeed a profound spiritual experience

to know and feel

myself so totally in God’s hands.”


Jesuit Poems


Gift better than Himself God doth not know, Gift better than God no man can see; This gift doth here the giver given bestow Gift to this gift let each receiver be; God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me, God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.”


Interviews

Jesuit Articles/Commentaries

General Articles/Commentaries


Featured Report

Please support one of our organizations, colleagues, and friends who need help

Book Reviews/Commentaries

Film Reviews and Commentaries

TV Reviews and Commentaries

Remembering Those Who Have Passed

Feasting with the Saints

Videos


Making the right choices, an Ignatian guide


What are the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius?

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place MV


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