Offering Up His Thoughts

There is a great tradition of letter writing in the Jesuits. We’ve been putting our thoughts down on paper from day one. Of course, today’s paper is the web and letters aren’t what they used to be.

Since ACTS was launched back in March of 2008, Fr. Jack Bentz, SJ has been offering his thoughts and prayers on the state of religious vocations and the spiritual life in our contemporary context.

Here’s a few excerpts from his column (or jump right to the articles in this category):

Love

“Very few of us fall in love based upon calculated motives of profit. Unless we imagine we’re a character in a Victorian romance novel or we’re caught in an old-world system of arranged marriage, we fall in love because our heart responds to something in another person. The person we love is probably imperfect, and yet we love them despite these imperfections. He or she might be poor, and yet we choose to be poor together. They might even be unpopular or misunderstood by our parents and friends but if we’re in love then nothing else seems to matter. We try to explain the reasons behind our feelings but we fail because we’re are using limited words to describe the limitless experience of love.”  - Feb. 20, 2009

Life

“Jesuits almost always live with other Jesuits. We don’t live in monasteries, priories, convents or hermitages; we live in Jesuit communities. By calling these collections of men ‘communities’ we can make explicit that which is implicit in the way most people live. Families are communities, as are groups of friends, roommates, housemates and members of communes. Jesuit communities are not families and this word- “community” reminds that we are not bound by blood but also, we are not just a group of individuals living alone together. We have not chosen to live with a particular community but rather, God has given us our brothers for reasons known only to God.” - Jan. 23, 2009

Help

“In our fumbling attempts of find God we are prone to taking all manner of wrong turns. We can find ourselves following what we thought was a star but is instead a low flying plane, leading us not to Christ but to a busy airport on the outskirts of town. We feel the call but are not sure how to go about answering it. Our life can seem a jumble and even though we visit religious websites, read spiritual books and pray the best we know how, the Way seems obscure. Perhaps a little help is needed.” – Sept. 19, 2008

Contact Fr. Jack at info@nwjesuits.info