The Three Calls
1. Called to go all out
 to put all your energy or enthusiasm into what you are doing,: perform a task as well as possible; bet the farm, bet the ranch, exert oneself, go for broke, pull out all the stops, shoot the works, use every muscle.
The Bible exhorts, “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ” (Col 3:23-24).  This was actually spoken to slaves in regard to their work for their masters.  Yes, you can be enthusiastic for the Lord, and glorify him in your job!
In fact, the word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek “en theos” which means “God in us.” All human beings are created in the image of God.  But as Jesuits we have a special spark of the divine nature.  If there is any group of people in the world that ought to be positive, progressive and enthusiastic, it should be Jesuits!

2. Called to proceed scripturally
We must remain strong in the Word and stayed consistently involved in a solid Bible study. Jesus, in the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke, works to open the minds of His Disciples to the meaning of the Scriptures. He had tried to do it so many times before, but now the experience of the Resurrection gave His words a new light and taste. We shoudl realize the importance of continual scriptural education. We should know now the importance of Jesuit scriptual education.  We must take up the shield of Faith, the helmet of Salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That is the only way we can arm ourselves against the disunity and dissent and all the other tools of Satan in this world.  It is an invaluable effort toward His Will.

3. Called to proceed humbly
We must, then, proceed humbly on God’s promise and assurance rather than relying on our self-confidence. St. Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians in this way: ‘Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.  Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence from God…’”  Those who pray humbly can proceed boldly. Those who do not pray  humbly have a hard time proceeding boldly. It gets hard. There’s opposition, life, ministry gets difficult. And all of a sudden you’re like, “Am I doing the right thing? Should I have even started this? Should I have volunteered for this ministry? Should I be pursuing this life course? I don’t know, maybe I made a mistake.” Crisis ensues. Several key biblical texts and themes for teaching, select doctrines of the church that inform teaching as a ministry, and features of teaching in the Jesuit tradition and its current practice can be employed. This is but one area of work and endeavor that can be explored. We can address these matters with deep commitment to our shared Jesuit tradition, yet also with profound respect for what the Holy Spirit has done across the centuries in other traditions of the Church.

Prayer Life

We don't wonder that our prayer life falls so short of God. We often don't pay the least bit of attention to what we are praying about.So often we consider our prayer as just a job we have to do,  a duty to be performed. We "get it out of the way" and then relax, glad to leave it behind us. When we are at prayer, we are on duty, instead of being with God.
We find it hard to be sorry for praying so poorly. How can we hope to speak with God? God is so distant and so mysterious. When we pray, it's as if our words have disappeared down some deep, dark well, from which no echo ever comes back to reassure us that we have struck the ground of God's heart. God's silence when we pray is really a discourse filled with infinite promise, unimaginably more meaningful than any audible word that God could speak to the limited understanding of our narrow hearts, a word that itself would have to become as small and as poor as we are.
It was Father Walter’s prayer life that held his spiritual journey together, even when he was most persecuted and betrayed, and Lubianka prison was in many respects a school of prayer. As with any spiritual journey concerned with growth in prayer, there is always a purification process. As described in his memoir, “He Leadeth Me,” Walter Ciszek experienced the “sinking feeling of helplessness and powerlessness” after his arrest in Russia in 1941. He felt completely cut off from everything and everyone who might conceivably help him. Considered a Vatican spy, he was transferred to Lubianka prison where men were betrayed and reportedly broken “in body and spirit.” As he had done in every crisis in the past when there was no one to turn to, Walter “turned to God in prayer.”
Our prayer need not be enthusiastic and ecstatic to succeed in placing us so much in God's power and at God's disposal that nothing is held back from God. Prayer can be real prayer, even when it is not filled with bliss and jubilation or the shining brilliance of a carefree surrender of self.  Prayer can be like a slow interior bleeding, in which grief and sorrow make the heart's blood of the inner person trickle away silently into our own unfathomed depths.
We must stand every ready and waiting, so that when God opens the door to the decisive moment of our lives -- and maybe God will do it very quietly and inconspicuously -- we shall not be so taken up with the affairs of this world that we miss the one great opportunity to enter into ourselves and into God.

The Four Graces of Lent
I compare them to the four cookie jars on the stainless steel table next to the refrigerator.
1.The grace of ambiguity
Is it a pretzel rod or a pretzel stick?
At an early juncture in my life as a Jesuit, I learned the grace of ambiguity.
Young missionary to Peru NY.
It is easy to forget that the most important aspect of comedy, after all, its great saving grace, is its ambiguity. You can simultaneously laugh at a situation, and take it seriously.  There are so many different ways lives work out, so many stories, and every one of them is precious: full of joy and heartbreak, and a fair amount of situation comedy.
2. The grace of anonimity
Are they Pecan sandies or are they soft Walmart Soft Oatmeal Cookies?
n my mind
Worlds collide
Something inside me is gone
Still I keep goin’ on

In my mind
Oceans divide
I don’t know where I belong
But still I keep holding on and on

I get by in a world with no conscience
By shouting it out and being anonymous
And the problem is
You’re just like me
We get by in a world with no conscience
By shouting it out and being anonymous
(Hello hello hello)

In my mind
Worlds collide
Something inside me is gone
Still I keep goin’ on

In my mind
Oceans divide
I don’t know where I belong
But still I keep holding on and on

I get by in a world with no conscience
By shouting it out and being anonymous
And the problem is
You’re just like me
We get by in a world with no conscience
By shouting it out and being anonymous
Anonymous (Hello hello hello)
Is there anybody out there?
(Hello hello hello hello)

I get by in a world with no conscience
I try and I try but I am anonymous
And the problem is
You’re just like me
Just like me

I get by in a world with no conscience
By shouting it out and being anonymous
And the problem is
You’re just like me (just like me)
We get by in a world with no conscience
By shouting it out and being anonymous (Hello hello hello)
I feel so anonymous (Hello hello hello)
We feel so anonymous (Hello hello hello)  

3. The grace of art:
Caravaggio's crowning with thorns
the light and the dark
like the Oreo cookies 


4. The grace of aria Fig Newton

Frondi tenere e belle
del mio platano amato
per voi risplenda il fato.
Tuoni, lampi, e procelle
non v'oltraggino mai la cara pace,
né giunga a profanarvi austro rapace.

Ombra mai fu
di vegetabile,
cara ed amabile,
soave più.

Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never disturb your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.

Never was a shade
of any plant
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.

The Beauty of Cow Creation

The holy cow believed that any cow who prayerfully considers the basic truth that cows are created out of love by a transcendent God of holiness will grow in a sense of reverence. Cows will have a deepened sense of the sacredness of all things if they think of everything as continually being called and sustained by God. Cows will stand in awe not just before sunsets and mountains, flowers and trees,and delicious green grass but also, and especially, before every cow they meet. Reverence is a disposition of heart that allows cows  to live before the beauty and goodness of every cow and the God who made them. In cow terminology, reverence will enable us to find God in all things.

A lady from the city and her traveling companion were riding the train through Vermont when she noticed some cows. "What a cute bunch of cows!" she remarked. "Not a bunch, herd", her friend replied. "Heard of what?" "Herd of cows." "Of course I've heard of cows." "No, a cow herd." "What do I care what a cow heard. I have no secrets to keep from a cow!"